North American Spine Society

Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 6 January 2021

Your privacy is important to the North American Spine Society ("NASS", "we", or " us"). We developed this Privacy Policy to describe how we collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process Personal Information about you, including through https://www.spine.org/ and any other NASS websites or applications that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Site”). If you have any questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at info@spine.org.

1. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may revise and update this Privacy Policy from time to time and will post the updated Privacy Policy to the Site. If these changes are material (i.e., changes we believe you will find important), we will provide notice of changes by e-mail or by posting notice of the changes on our Site. Where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent.

2. What is Personal Information?

“Personal Information” is information that, either alone or in combination with other information, identifies you. When we combine other information (i.e., information that does not, on its own, identify you) with Personal Information about you, we treat the combined information as Personal Information.

3. How We Collect and Use Personal Information

A. Personal Information You Provide to Us

We collect the following types of information that you provide to us:

• Contact Information

In various areas of the Site and in printed materials, we provide you the opportunity to submit a form with basic contact information, such as your name, company or organization, e-mail, phone number, or mailing address.

We use such information to inform you of new products, technical information and services, and upcoming events that may be of interest based on your participation in NASS, expressed interests, or practice area engagement. After your membership expires, we may continue to send you occasional e-mails to provide you with offers to rejoin NASS or attend NASS-related events. If you no longer wish to receive these e-mails, the opt-out process is described in Section 5 of this Privacy Policy.

In addition, if you choose, you may participate in a NASS e-mail list by subscribing on the Site or by contacting NASS staff directly. You may unsubscribe from these e-mail lists by following the unsubscribe instructions found within the e-mail.

• Member Login Information

We process your e-mail and password to enable you to securely log into the Site, and we process information regarding your NASS profile to appropriately control access to your public-facing profile. We process this Personal Information only as necessary to provide you services on the Site under our Terms of Use and to further our legitimate interests in protecting the Site and content.

• Membership Information

NASS uses the information provided through membership forms to process membership applications and related requests. For example, NASS processes information such as your name, gender, date of birth, states in which you are licensed, educational background, and professional background when provided in a membership application. We also retain information contained in a resume or curriculum vitae as part of your membership application to serve our legitimate interest in verifying your identity and your professional attainment and qualifications for various NASS activities. To provide you with the benefits of membership, we process certain membership-related information such as your membership category, purchases, member ID, date joined, last sign-on, and last disclosure. We also process membership and Personal Information in connection with a public member directory at www.knowyourback.org and through a private members-only directory on our Site. You may adjust what information is shared and to whom through your member profile. We also archive membership information for historical purposes.

• Video Library and Continuing Medical Education Certificates

When you access our video library, we collect information relating to the OnDemand courses you select and the meetings and conferences you participate in for the purpose of delivering your requested content and to further our legitimate interest in better understanding your interests in our educational subjects so we can improve our future offerings. Similarly, when you register for an event, we process Personal Information, such as special accommodations requested, in order to reserve your space at the event and to further our legitimate interest in preparing for the event. We also track your Continuing Medical Education certificates attained through our site or through a third party provider as applicable for the purpose of allowing you to maintain your credentials and meet your continuing education requirements.

• Financial Disclosures

In some cases, you may be required by NASS or the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to voluntarily disclose certain conflict-of-interest or financial-related information. For example, you may be required to make a disclosure if you serve on a NASS committee or the NASS board of directors, or if you publish or present with NASS. NASS processes Personal Information in connection with these disclosures, and in some cases, may publish the disclosure. For example, NASS may publish your name, a funding partner’s name, and funding amount received in connection with a publication or presentation. For more information, please review our Disclosure Policy .

• Payment Information

When you purchase a membership, subscription, register for an event, or buy products from us, third-party service providers acting on our behalf process payment information, including payment card details and billing and shipping addresses, to help us fulfill your orders.

• Information Collected through Various Forms

We gather information from online forms that are often similar or identical to the information we gather from traditional printed forms. When you submit information through forms, whether offline or on the Site, you voluntarily provide us with the information requested, and we will use the information in order to take the action requested, to complete a requested transaction, or for other reasons related to the purposes for which you provide the information.

For example, an application for membership form allows individuals to apply for certain categories of membership. We use information submitted through application for membership forms to confer membership benefits based on category selected. As another example, we post career-related forms to attract qualified candidates for various positions. We provide forms on our Site via hyperlink to a static PDF or through a dynamic form entry process.

In addition, we may check the information a user has provided via any forms against any information we have about the user in its customer database. We do this to help further our legitimate interest in maintaining the most current and accurate information about its customers.

B. Information We Automatically Collect through our Site

We collect the following types of information automatically when you use the Site:

• Log Information

When you use our Site, our servers automatically record information, including your Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”), browser type, referring URLs (e.g., the site you visited before coming to our Site), number of clicks, and how you interact with links on the Site, domain names associated with your internet service provider, pages viewed, and other such information (collectively, “ Log File Information”). We may also collect similar information from e-mails sent to you which then help us track which e-mails are opened and which links are clicked by recipients. We use Log File Information collected from our implementation of the Site to further our legitimate interests in securing the Site by identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities, and in analyzing the effectiveness of our Site to improve the Site’s function and content.

• Cookies and Similar Technology

When you use or access the Site, we use cookies, device identifiers, and similar technologies such as pixels, web beacons, and local storage to collect information about how you use the Site. We process the information, including Personal Information, collected through such technologies to further our legitimate interests in operating the Site, enhance your experience through personalization, and help us better understand the features of the Site that you and other users are most interested in.

Some of our service providers (described in Section 4, below) and third parties from which we receive content (such as Your Membership, a career services manager and provider) use cookies or other methods to gather information regarding your use of our Site. For example, we use Your Membership to allow you to easily identify career opportunities on the Site, and Your Membership uses cookies which you can opt out of, or learn more about, by reading its Privacy Policy. Such third parties may use these cookies or other tracking methods for their own purposes by relating information about your use of our Site with any of Personal Information that they may have. The use of such information by a third party depends on the privacy policy of that third party. If you would like more information, please see Section 12 for our contact information.

We and our advertisers (through the advertising network, Feathr) use cookies and similar technologies to collect information for advertising purposes, such as which advertisements were viewed, how often they were clicked, and device location information to provide you with content and advertising that might be of particular interest to you. To opt out of Feathr’s use of cookies, please visit its privacy policy here: https://privacy.feathr.co/ . For further information on how to request to opt-out of an advertiser’s use of cookies, visit the National Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising Alliance . If you opt out of such cookies, you will continue to receive advertisements, but those advertisements will no longer be personalized for you.

Most browsers provide you with the ability to block, delete, or disable cookies, and your mobile device may allow you to disable transmission of device identifiers. If you choose to reject cookies or block device identifiers, some features of the Site may not be available or some functionality may be limited or unavailable. Please review the help pages of your browser or mobile device for assistance with changing your settings.

NASS does not track Site users over time and across third-party websites to provide targeted advertising. Accordingly, we do not currently respond or take any action with respect to web browser "do not track" signals or other mechanisms that provide consumers the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of Personal Information about an individual consumer's online activities over time and across third-party web sites or online services.

4. To Whom We Disclose Personal Information

We will not disclose Personal Information about you except as set forth in this Privacy Policy or with your consent. This section describes to whom we disclose Personal Information, and for what purposes:

• Trusted Partners. We disclose information to trusted NASS Sites including connect.spine.org, buyersguide.spine.org, marketing.spine.org, and spine.org/advocacy to provide our members an efficient user experience when seeking certain NASS-supported products and services. Trusted Partners use your information for the limited business purpose to which NASS assigns to them.
• NASS Committees or Groups. When you apply for, or participate in, a NASS Committee group or other activity, we disclose information from your resume or curriculum vitae with other members to determine your eligibility for committee appointment. Additionally, to facilitate communication, members’ contact information is made available to other members of their committee or group. The members of the committee or group agree to use such information only for limited NASS business purposes.
• Accrediting bodies. We may share information with various certifying, licensing, accrediting and governing bodies, as needed, to fulfill Continuing Medical Education or other regulatory obligations. We share this information for the limited business purpose of supporting accreditation and licensing requirements.
• Conference Attendees. To facilitate networking among conference attendees and our exhibitors, we provide our exhibitors with the names, physical mailing addresses, and specialties of conference attendees. If, while attending a conference event, you allow exhibitors to scan your badge, you consent to the disclosure of additional contact information (such as telephone number and e-mail address) to such exhibitors.
• Contracted Hotels. We may provide a list of conference attendees' information to the hotels we contract with for meetings and events for the limited purpose of conducting audits for hotel room block attrition calculations.
• Conference or Course Partners. NASS, at times, may work in conjunction with partner societies to host a course or event. In such cases, we may share the information of those who register for such courses and/or events through NASS with the society we are working with on that particular event.
• Our Service Providers. We employ service providers to perform tasks on our behalf and to assist us in providing the Site. A listing of our third party service providers can be found here .
• Content Delivery Networks. We use content delivery networks, such as MaxCDN, that helps us deliver certain content (such as FontAwesome icons). By providing content through a third-party intermediary, we are able to offer quicker download times on our Site by leveraging content that you have cached from another website that uses the same service. Such content delivery networks collect Log File Information and may also set cookies to track users across third-party websites and over time. We do not control how content delivery networks use the information collected, including for targeted advertising purposes, and whether such information is combined with other Personal Information in their possession.
• Advertising. From time to time, we engage advertising services that target advertisements on third-party websites based on cookies or other information indicating previous interaction with our Site.
• Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics, an analytics service, to help us analyze the traffic on our Site. For more information on Google Analytics’ processing of Personal Information, please see “How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps.”
• Law Enforcement, Government Agencies, Courts, and Reporting Entities. We may disclose Personal Information at the request of law enforcement or government agencies or in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process to establish, protect, or exercise our legal or other rights or to defend against a legal claim or as otherwise required or allowed by law, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of a Customer or any other person. We may also disclose Personal Information to investigate or prevent a violation by you of any contractual or other relationship with us or your illegal or harmful activity.

5. E-Mail Opt-Out

NASS values the privacy and communication preferences of its members and customers, and maintains an e-mail communication and anti-spam policy. You may choose not to receive marketing e-mails from us and can opt out of such e-mails through your account settings or using the links at the bottom of the emails.

6. International Transfers to U.S.

If you are using the Site or otherwise communicating with NASS from outside the United States, please be aware that Personal Information about you may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States. The data protection laws of the United States might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By using the Site, you consent to your information being transferred to the United States for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

7. Your Data Subject Rights

We provide you with access to—and the ability to edit or delete—certain categories of Personal Information through the Profile page. Our opt-out features, described in Section 5, also enable you to exercise your right to object to certain processing activities.

If you would like to access, amend, erase, export (i.e., data portability), or object to or restrict the processing of Personal Information, you may submit a request to administrator@spine.org. We will promptly review all such requests in accordance with applicable laws.

Depending on where you live, you may have a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority or other regulatory agency if you believe that we have violated any of the rights concerning Personal Information about you. We encourage you to first reach out to us at administrator@spine.org, so we have an opportunity to address your concerns directly before you do so.

8. Personal Information from Children

We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children. If we learn that we have collected Personal Information from children, and if we do not have a lawful basis to process such Personal Information under applicable law, we will promptly take steps to delete such Personal Information.

9. Retention of Personal Information

We will retain Personal Information about you for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes for which Personal Information about you has been collected as outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required by law.

10. How We Protect the Confidentiality and Integrity of Personal Information About You

We have implemented security measures to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse, and alteration. Despite these efforts to store Personal Information in a secure operating environment that is not available to the public, we cannot guarantee the security of Personal Information during its transmission or its storage on our systems. Further, while we attempt to ensure the integrity and security of Personal Information, we cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent third parties such as so-called hackers from illegally obtaining access to Personal Information. We do not represent or warrant that Personal Information about you will be protected against, loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties.

11. Links to Third Party Websites

Our Site may contain links to third party websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of third party websites you choose to visit. If you provide any information directly to parties other than us, different rules may apply to the use or disclosure of that information. We encourage you to investigate and ask questions before disclosing Personal Information to third parties.

12. Contacting Us

If there are any questions regarding this Privacy Policy you may contact us using the information below:

North American Spine Society

7075 Veterans Blvd.

Burr Ridge, IL 60527, USA

Phone: (630) 230-3600

info@spine.org