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This notice discloses the privacy practices for the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). Any questions regarding this policy and our privacy practices should be sent to [email protected].
This privacy policy will notify you of the following:
Personal Information We Collect and Use:
We make sure that our use of your personal information falls under one or more lawful grounds, including for the performance of a contract, to meet legal obligations, for legitimate business interests or in some instances, with your prior consent.
We collect information when you are:
Creating an account or updating your online profile on the ASA website.
We ask that you register on the ASA website:
ASA websites and third-party websites used by ASA make use of use Single Sign On (SSO) wherever possible. SSO allows you to have only one login to access many ASA services. Your username and password are stored in one system with a hashed and salted one-way encryption algorithm and are not shared with any third-party, even in the execution of SSO. After login to a third-party website, your contact information may be shared with the third-party system so that we don’t ask you to re-enter information that you have provided already.
Becoming a member of ASA
We collect information from you necessary to:
We may ask for sensitive personal information such as gender, race or ethnicity. These will always be optional data and you will not be required to provide that information to become a member of ASA. This information helps us understand the diversity of our membership and the profession and is important for us to advance the profession of Anesthesiology.
We also collect membership and payment information on behalf of your selected state component society. We will share that information, along with your contact information, with your selected state component society so that they can provide the goods and services included with your membership in that society.
Registering for or attending an ASA event
We will collect information such as who to contact during an emergency while you are on site at the event, or how to accommodate dietary restrictions and other information regarding your housing and other travel logistics to help us plan and execute our event. We will also ask whether you require assistance with auditory, visual or mobility needs in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
We may ask for information about your professional affiliation, fields of study and/or practice and your place of work. This information, in the aggregate, helps us to plan future events and help us demonstrate value to exhibitors.
We may also provide technology for your use to help us understand traffic patterns at the event to help us plan future events, to help us ensure that there is appropriate seating and overflow accommodations at the event and to make it easier for you to claim credits for any qualifying educational sessions you may have attended. We may share anonymized data from these technologies to exhibitors to help them understand traffic patterns and aggregate demographic data about attendees who came to their exhibit booth.
Obtaining online education from ASA
We may ask you for information regarding your membership in other organizations providing certification to enable you to claim credit with the certifying body, e.g. the American Board of Anesthesiology. We may also share that information as well as information about the course(s) completed with the certifying organization to help you receive credit for your education activities.
Ordering or purchasing products or services from ASA
We will collect contact payment information necessary to process the order. Credit card information is encrypted as it passes from you, through our systems and to the payment processor. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for "https" at the beginning of the address of the Web page. Credit card information is not stored in our systems at any time.
Contact and notification forms
When using a form to contact ASA or requesting to be notified by ASA when certain conditions have been met, e.g. when the registration for the ASA annual meeting is open to the public, we will ask for your name and email so that we can respond to you regarding the reason you contacted us.
Notifying ASA of potential conflicts of interest
When participating in ASA activities covered under ASA’s Statement on Conflict of Interest, we will ask you to disclose information of certain activities or financial interests that you or a family member have in and outside of ASA. This information is necessary to ensure that members serving in these capacities can meet their obligations to avoid conflicts, or apparent conflicts between their duties to the Society and personal interests or duties with other organizations.
Volunteering to participate in the ASA governance process and/or committee program initiatives
When you are nominated, or when self nominating to serve as a volunteer on an ASA committee or other ASA governance body or a committee program initiative, we will ask you for information about your professional and leadership experience. This information will be shared with appropriate ASA member leaders and ASA staff to facilitate the selection process. We may also ask for sensitive personal information such as gender, race or ethnicity. This will always be optional data and you will not be required to provide this information to become a member of ASA, or to serve on an ASA committee or otherwise participate in any ASA governance activity.
Submitting content for an ASA publication or event
When submitting a proposal to present at a live ASA meeting, we may ask for your level of training, considerations we should be aware of that could impact scheduling along with general demographic information. This information may be shared with appropriate ASA member leaders and ASA staff to facilitate the selection process.
When submitting content for publication in an Anesthesiology
Anesthesiology collects personal information including your contact information and academic resume submitted by yourself or those with whom you may have co-authored a paper. This information is used during the peer review process from initial submission to final publication. This information may be shared with journal editors and reviewers during the peer review process.
Making a donation to ASAPAC
We will ask for information about your citizenship status, your employer and your occupation. This information is required to meet reporting requirements of the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Applying to become a Fellow of the ASA (FASA)
We will ask for information required to establish that you meet the eligibility criteria. This includes, but is not limited to place of employment, NPI number, medical licenses, board certifications, education, professional work history and professional leadership experience. This information will be shared with other ASA members and ASA staff in order to evaluate your qualifications.
Using ASA websites, mobile apps and other digital platforms
In addition to activities listed elsewhere in this policy, we may collect information about how you are using ASA websites, mobile apps and other digital platforms. This may include, but is not limited to:
This information is used for website security, enables us to understand the interests of our users, understand which content areas are trending and important and helps us to enhance the experiences on our digital properties.
This information is collected with and without the use of cookies, which are pieces of data stored on your hard drive.
Use of Cookies & Other Technologies in Collecting Information
We and other service providers may use cookies and other technologies to improve your experience on our website and other websites. A cookie is a small piece of information which is sent to your browser and stays on your computer or mobile device when you visit our site. Cookies allow us to remember you when you visit the website and serve advertising to you about ASA or other relevant products and services on or after you have left our site. You can delete your cookies by “clearing” your browser’s cache. You can also set your browser to block or alert you about cookies using your device’s settings or opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies by using the Network Advertising Initiative opt out page. If you opt out of the use of cookies, you may experience limited features or functionality on certain sites.
Sharing of Personal Information:
We may pass your information to our third-party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organizations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on your behalf (for example to process applications, to process donations and send you mailings). However, when we use third-party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the applicable service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.
To advance our mission and market our benefits, ASA shares email addresses of U.S. based individuals with third-parties to help us identify others with similar professional attributes. These third-parties will not use your email address to contact you or share your email address with anyone. ASA may also share an individual’s email address and member category with their employer to assist in processing and marketing ASA membership.
ASA may share email and primary mailing address information of ASA members to non-profit organizations who wish to promote CME activities to our members. ASA may share email and primary mailing address information of ASA non-members to ASA State Component Societies to promote ASA and State Component membership. Individuals can opt-out through the unsubscribe options included at the bottom of any email sent through this program. Individuals can also opt out of this program at any time by contacting Member Services at [email protected].
ASA shares contact information of attendees of the ANESTHESIOLOGY® Annual Meeting with ASA Industry Supporters as well as with ASA Component societies. Members can opt out of this program during the registration process or at any time by contacting Member Services at [email protected].
Security and Retention of Personal Information:
Retention
We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfill our statutory obligations, e.g. ASAPAC donations. We will hold your personal information in our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, for our legitimate business purposes or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.
Security
We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information to ASA, your information is protected both online and offline. Wherever we collect sensitive information (such as username and password or credit card information), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way.
While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The website is also hosted in a secure environment.
Non-sensitive personal information may be transmitted over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100 percent secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems and when we transmit to one of our third-party providers.
Passwords
Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
Links
This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information.
Access to and Control Over Information
Updating your Information
The accuracy of your information is very important to us. You can review and change your information online by logging on to our website and going to the My Account page.
You may contact us via the email address or phone number given on the Contact Us page of our website to inquire about what data we have about you, if any, or to change any data we have about you.
Your Choices
If you do not wish to receive direct marketing communications from us, you can let us know at any time by unsubscribing via the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our marketing email communications and email newsletters.
You may also contact us via the email address or phone number given on the Contact Us page of our website to change your marketing preferences.
Right to Be Forgotten
For residents of the European Union, under the GDPR regulations, you can request to be forgotten. Due to the complex nature of the many systems that can hold your personal data, we may choose to accomplish this by anonymizing some of your personal information such as name, address and email, but retain the records of your activity. As the Data Controller, we will also pass this request along to the third-parties with which we have a Data Processing Agreement and request that they honor your right to be forgotten. We have no control over their performance of the request.
This action is permanent and cannot be undone. If you later change your mind, you would be required to create another account which could make it difficult to see a complete history of your activity, impacting your ability to receive some benefits. To be forgotten, make your request to [email protected].
As stated elsewhere in this policy, some personal data may need to be retained for legitimate interests or contractual or statutory obligations.
Right to Object
For residents of the European Union, under the GDPR regulations, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data. You may submit such requests to [email protected].
Update to our Privacy Policy
This policy may be updated from time to time. This policy was last updated 05/12/2024.
Date of last update: May 14, 2024
