Privacy Policy

Updated January 2021

Thank you for accessing the www.aaf.org websites (“Sites”) operated by the American Advertising Federation. We respect your privacy and want to protect your personal information. To learn more, please read this Privacy Policy, which applies to aaf.org and its affiliate websites: recruitmpms.org, aaftl.com, membership.aaf.org, advertisinghall.org, admericaaaf.org and americanadvertisingawards.com. 

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and (under certain conditions) disclose your personal information. This Privacy Policy also explains the steps we have taken to secure your personal information. Finally, this Privacy Policy explains your options regarding the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. By visiting the Sites directly or through another site, you accept the practices described in this Policy.

This privacy policy applies to the Sites only. This privacy policy does not necessarily apply to any offline collection of your personal information. Please see below for details. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices on any website not operated by the American Advertising Federation to which the Sites link or that links to the Sites.

By using the Sites, you agree to all parts of this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE

1. Information Collection.

We collect information from you in several different ways on the Sites, such as when you register for an event, participate in surveys and subscribe to emails and updates. One goal in collecting personal information from you is to provide an efficient, meaningful and customized experience. For example, we can use your personal information to:

  • Help make the Sites easier for you to use by not having to enter information more than once.
  • Help you quickly find information, products and services you are interested in.
  • Help us create content that is most relevant to you.
  • Alert you to new information, products and services that we offer.
(a) Registration and Ordering. Before using certain parts of the Sites or ordering products, you must create an online account (“register”). When you register, you will be prompted to provide to us certain personal information, including but not limited to: 
  • Your Name
  • Shipping and Billing Address(es)
  • Email Address
  • Credit Card Number (if placing an order). 

These kinds of personal information are used for billing purposes, to fulfill your orders, to communicate with you about your order and for internal marketing purposes. If we encounter a problem when processing your order, your personal information may be used to contact you.

(b) Email Addresses. Several locations on the Sites permit you to enter your email address for purposes including but not limited to: requests to notify you of new events, programs and special offers, or to sign up for the AAF’s newsletters. Your submission is completely voluntary, so you have a choice whether to participate and disclose information to us. 

(c) Cookies and Other Technology. To improve your experience while using the Sites, we employ cookies and web beacons (also known as clear GIF technology or “pixel tags”) to increase the speed of your navigation of the Sites, recognize you and your access privileges and track your usage on the Sites. This information is solely used to collect analytics about the use of the Sites.

(i) Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored as text files by your Internet browser on your computer’s hard drive. Most Internet browsers are initially set to accept cookies. You can set your browser to refuse cookies from websites or to remove cookies from your hard drive, but if you do, you will not be able to access or use portions of the Sites. We have to use cookies to enable you to select products, place them in an online shopping cart and continue to purchase those products. If you do this, we keep a record of your browsing activity and purchases. 

(ii) Web beacons assist in delivering cookies and help us determine whether a page on the Sites has been viewed and, if so, how many times. For example, any electronic image on the Sites, such as an ad banner, can function as a web beacon.

(iii) We may use third-party advertising companies to help tailor site content to users or to serve ads on our behalf. These companies may employ cookies and web beacons to measure advertising effectiveness (such as which web pages are visited or what products are purchased and in what amount). Any information that these third parties collect via cookies and web beacons is not linked to any personal information collected by us.

(d) Log Files. As is true of most web sites, the Sites server automatically recognizes the Internet URL from which you access the Sites. We may also log your Internet protocol (“IP”) address, Internet service provider and date/time stamp for system administration, order verification, internal marketing and system troubleshooting purposes. (An IP address may indicate the location of your computer on the Internet.)

(e) Age. We respect children’s privacy. We do not knowingly or intentionally collect personal information from children under age 13. By using the Sites, you have represented and warranted that you are either 18 years of age or are using the Sites with the supervision of a parent or guardian. If you are under the age of 13, please do not submit any personal information to us and request a parent or guardian to assist you.

(f) Social Media. Some web pages on our Sites may employ plug-ins for Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels. When accessing the Sites through social media, usage information – such as geographical location, time of day or type of browser or device – may be collected and used for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. 

2. Information Use and Disclosure.

(a) Internal Use. We use your personal information to process your order and provide you with customer service. We may internally use your personal information to improve the Sites’ content and layout, to improve outreach and for our own marketing efforts (including marketing our services and products to you) and to determine general marketplace information about visitors to the Sites. 

(b) Communications with You. We will use your personal information to communicate with you about the Sites and your registrations and orders. Also, we may send you a confirmation email when you register with us. We may send you a service-related announcement on the rare occasions when it is necessary. Also, you may submit your email address for various reasons, such as to requests to notify you of new events, programs and special offers, or to sign up for the AAF’s newsletters. If you submit your email address, we only use it to deliver the information to you. We always allow you to unsubscribe or opt out of future emails (see the “opt-out” section, below, for more details). 

(c) External Use. We want to provide you with excellent service and to offer you a great selection of programs and products. We do not sell, rent, trade, license or otherwise disclose your specific personal information or financial information to anyone other than to affiliates under AAF.org, except that:

(i) As do most Internet retailers, we sometimes use third parties to perform specific functions on our behalf. When we disclose information to these service providers, we disclose information to help them to perform their service. For example, in order to deliver products to you, we must share a delivery address. We use third parties (such as the U.S. Postal Service, United Parcel Service, and Federal Express) to ship products, to ensure delivery, and so that we can obtain feedback, improve the quality of our service and measure and improve the quality of the service of the third party. 

(ii) Similarly, to help you buy products and provide customer service to you, we must provide your credit card number to financial-services corporations such as credit-card processors and issuers. When you submit your credit card number for authorization, we use state-of-the-art data encryption to protect your information. (More on this below in Data Security.)

(iii) We will not sell (or trade or rent) personally identifiable information to other companies as part of our regular course of business, except in the case of our affinity partners. 

(iv) The AAF may share the personal information (mailing address, name, email address) of our members with our affinity partners in order to provide them an opportunity to offer products or services that may be of interest. This information is extracted from the AAF Engage database wherein member information is stored upon joining the AAF. All members have the ability and right to update their preferences directly from their profiles on AAF Engage so as to opt-out of receiving such communications. 

(v) We may share non-personal information (such as the number of daily visitors to a particular web page or the size of an order placed on a certain date) with third parties such as advertising partners. This information does not directly personally identify you or any user.

DATA SECURITY

The Sites incorporate physical, electronic and administrative procedures to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information, including Secure Sockets Layer (“SSL”) for all financial transactions through the Sites. We use SSL encryption to protect your personal information online, and we also take several steps to protect your personal information in our facilities. Access to your personal information is restricted. Only employees who need access to your personal information to perform a specific job are granted access to your personal information, except in the case of “Public Profile” view described below. Finally, we rely on third-party service providers for the physical security of some of our computer hardware. 

While we take reasonable precautions to safeguard your personal information, we cannot guarantee complete security. The use of the Sites is at your own risk, and we encourage you to use security measures to protect your personal information.

1. Public Profile.

Users who have created an account (member or non-member) on AAF Engage have a “Public Profile.” It is the right and responsibility of the account holder to update their public profile view settings to display (or not) certain information. Public personal information (email address, mailing address, name, etc.) will display by default and it is up to the user to update their display settings to restrict what information will display. 

OPT OUT/CORRECTIONS

Upon your request, we will (a) correct or update your personal information; (b) stop sending emails to your email address; and/or (c) disable your account to prevent any future purchases through that account. A user may update his/her preferences by logging into their account. All email marketing communications include an “opt-out” link in the footer. Please do not email your credit-card number or other sensitive information.

OFFLINE COLLECTION, USE & DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

As you might expect from us, the majority of information that we collect is obtained through the Sites, and this Privacy Policy applies only to that online collection of personal information. We also may collect information offline and treat offline collection, uses and disclosures consistently with our relevant online practices.

INTERNATIONAL USE OF THE SITES

The Sites are operated and maintained by the AAF’s National Headquarters in Washington, DC and are not subject to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than the United States. By using the Sites outside of its jurisdiction, you agree to the transfer of information to countries outside of the United States, which may have different data protection rules.

UPDATES TO THIS POLICY

Changes or updates to this Privacy Policy, will be posted on the Sites so that you will always be aware of what information we collect, use and disclose. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy from time to time so you will know if the Privacy Policy has been changed or updated.