Effective April 30, 2018
This is the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (“ASTS”) Internet Privacy Policy. You can write to us at 1401 S. Clark Street, Suite 1120, Arlington, VA 22202. We can be reached by email at asts@asts.org, or you can call us at 703-414-7870.
ASTS values individual privacy, and we want to give our members and other website visitors the opportunity to know what information we collect about them and how they can limit the use of personally identifiable information beyond the purposes for which they first provided it. At all times, however, ASTS reserves the right to disclose information where required by law or to comply with valid legal process (such as a search warrant, subpoena, or court order), to protect ASTS’ rights or property, including without limitation in the event of a transfer of control of ASTS or substantially all of its assets, or during emergencies when safety is at risk.
Whenever we change our policy, we will give reasonable notice by posting a notice on our home page. Since these policy change notices last only for a limited time, however, you should check this Privacy Policy regularly to see if there have been any changes. To view our Privacy Policy at any time, go to www.asts.org.
Most data ASTS collects is used only to help us better serve our members and the public. It is our general policy to collect and store only information that our members and other visitors to our website knowingly provide.
Personally Identifiable Information
All users. We collect your email address if you communicate with us by email, as well as other information that you might supply voluntarily, such as survey information. If you create an account on ASTS.org, you must provide an email address for your username; however, you have the right to forbid ASTS from using it to communicate with you by indicating whether you grant permission on your user profile. Creating an account is necessary to access the website’s e-commerce and member-only areas. In addition to creating a username and password, which is kept confidential, we ask that you provide your first and last name.
ASTS Members, meeting registrations, and other customers. Those applying for membership are asked to provide an address, educational history, and other information so that the ASTS Membership and Workforce Committee can verify your eligibility for membership. Those registering for meetings may be asked questions to help us inform our educational program or provide specific services onsite.
If you purchase a product or service at our site, we will also ask for your credit card number or other account number you wish to be charged. We do not give out your account information to third parties unless you authorize us to do so or if it is necessary to fulfill our responsibilities, including, but not limited to, delivering a product or service you order. ASTS does not disclose credit card account information other than submitting information needed to obtain payment to the appropriate clearinghouse.
We may use this information to respond to an email or other inquiry or request, to help improve our website and our services, to customize your experience at our website, or to send updates or notices about our organization and the products we offer that we think may be of interest to you. We may also combine this information with other generally or publicly available information to help us identify visitors’ preferences or interests. We may provide information that identifies you to companies that assist us in these activities, such as helping us fulfill your request for a product, service, or information.
For some emails sent in HTML, such as electronic newsletters, ASTS collects information about what the recipient does with that email, such as opening or clicking through to a website. This tracking includes the user’s email address, the date and time of the user opening or clicking, the name of the mailing list to which the message was sent, and the destination page. ASTS uses this information only to enhance its member service and refine interest groups for emails. This information is not sold or distributed in any manner.
ASTS collects information from its members (including names, addresses, business phone numbers, business fax numbers, and email addresses) for inclusion in a membership directory that is available only to ASTS members and other approved users on the ASTS website. Member addresses, including emails, are also supplied to the publisher(s) of the journal(s) provided as a member benefit. ASTS may occasionally provide, sell, or rent limited data to third parties, including companies that offer products and services for sale to ASTS members or groups conducting scientific research. Further, limited data, including names, companies/organizations and business addresses, but not including business phone numbers, business fax numbers, or email addresses, is available on the public portion of the ASTS website.
DMD Healthcare Communications Network Participation Disclosure
Effective April 10, 2023
This website is a member of the DMD Healthcare Communications Network (the “HCN”). HCN is owned and managed by DMD Marketing Corp (“DMD”) and is designed to enable DMD and HCN members to provide medically relevant business communications to authenticated health care professionals.
Your registration at this website includes registration with HCN. As a result, your contact and other professionally relevant information will be disclosed to DMD and each HCN member to provide you medically relevant content as described in the HCN privacy policy available at https://HCN.health/privacy-policy/. The HCN privacy policy provides details on how to manage your information, including opting out of participation in the HCN.
Children’s Privacy
ASTS’ website is intended for adults. ASTS does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If ASTS obtains knowledge that it has personally identifiable information about a child under 13 in retrievable form in its files, ASTS will delete that information from our existing files.
Cookies and Computer-Related Information
When you view ASTS.org, we may store some information on your computer. This information will be in the form of a "cookie" or similar file. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your hard drive, not on the ASTS.org website. Cookies do not spy on you or otherwise invade your privacy, and they cannot invade your hard drive and steal information. Rather, they help you navigate a website as easily as possible. We use cookies to deliver content specific to your interests. Cookies can allow the ASTS.org website to remember you when you return so you do not have to enter your login information at each connection. We do not collect any personally identifiable information about site visitors in this process. Users may instruct their browsers to opt out of accepting a “persistent” cookies and accept only a “per-session” cookies, but will need to supply their login information each time they visit to access site benefits. If the user declines to provide any cookies, the user may not have access to the full benefits of ASTS.org. Registration enables the website to better determine members’ interest areas and provide the most relevant information.
Our web server automatically collects information from your computer and navigation patterns when you visit our site, including your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the computer’s operating system, the type of browser you use, and the specific web pages visited during your connection. We may also track data such as the total number of visits to our website and the number of visitors to each page of our website.
We may use this information, in aggregate form, for system maintenance and to better understand how our visitors use our site and services so that we can make them better. ASTS may also share statistical or demographic information in aggregate form with third parties for marketing or research purposes. This aggregate data will not contain any information that personally identifies you.
ASTS uses information voluntarily submitted by members and other users in the following ways:
Member Services and Products. Generally, ASTS uses data collected to improve its web content, respond to visitors’ interests, needs, and preferences, and develop new products and services.
Disclosures to Third Parties. ASTS makes member contact information available only to other members through its online Member Directory. Users may opt not to have their information displayed in the directory. Limited information (name, institution, and city, state, and zip code) are publicly available through the Public Member Directory. On occasion, ASTS may also provide limited data to third parties that offer products or services or are conducting scientific research. Users may request that ASTS not provide their information to third party publishers of journals included in their member benefits or for surveys related to scientific research by choosing “No” for the email permission questions related to those areas on their user profile. They may also opt out of all member communications by choosing “no” for the email permission question related to member communications. Alternatively, they may express their email permissions by contacting asts@asts.org or 703-414-7870.
Consent to Use Personal Information. For the purposes of the Data Protection Act(s) 1984 and 1998 (as applicable), ASTS or its agents must store, host, and otherwise process information including personal data supplied by the user when registering for ASTS.org. ASTs may send such data outside the European Economic Area for processing. If you reside in the European Union, please indicate your consent that the personal information you have provided may be transferred and stored in countries outside of the EU, including the United States. This consent may be given at the time of membership application or at any time on the user profile.
We want to be sure that we keep only the most accurate and up-to-date information about you in our records. Therefore, whenever you believe that your contact information needs to be updated, you can email us at asts@asts.org or log into the website to correct or update your contact information.
Users may request that ASTS refrain from disclosing to third parties the data it collects on its membership application form or any other form on which users are providing information by contacting ASTS at asts@asts.org.
You have the right to make a written request to be informed whether or not we hold or process any of your personal information (by emailing asts.@asts.org). In your written request, you may:
Where applicable under your local laws, we will not use your personal information for marketing purposes, nor disclose your information to any third parties, unless we have your prior consent, which we will seek before collecting your personal information. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the consent forms we use when collecting your personal information. If at any point you wish to review or change your preferences you can use the "opt-out" or unsubscribe mechanism or other means provided within the communications that you receive from us or by sending an email to asts@asts.org. Note that you may still receive transactional communications from ASTS.
Other Internet sites you visit — including those linked from the ASTS website — may have their own privacy policies or no policy at all. Other websites might use personal information differently than our policy permits. We strongly encourage you to review the privacy policies of any site before providing any personal information. ASTS has no control over and is not responsible for the privacy policies or content of other websites.
We use state-of-the-art technology to keep any information you provide as secure as possible. We also have in place privacy protection control contractual obligations with our vendors designed to ensure that personal data is protected from unauthorized access or disclosure. All ASTS employees must abide by ASTS’s Privacy Policy. Only authorized employees are permitted to have access to personally-identifiable data about website visitors, and that access is limited to what is reasonably needed to perform an employee’s responsibilities, such as providing updates or notices or customer service. Employees who violate our privacy policies are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
If any user suspects ASTS has handled its personal information in a manner that does not comply with this privacy statement, please contact us by emailing asts@asts.org or calling 703-414-7870.