Privacy Policy
In this policy, we use the terms "NATIONAL PTA," "we,"
"our," and "us" to refer to NATIONAL PTA. We use the terms "you" and "your"
to refer to PTA members and visitors of www.pta.org like yourself.
NATIONAL PTA understands how important privacy is to our
members and our customers. We are committed to protecting your privacy and
want to make sure that you understand how your information is used, whether
you provide it to us over the phone, in person, over the Internet, or through
the mail. We also want you to be aware that you have choices about how we use
this information.
What We Collect.
When you apply for membership, we ask for basic information such as your name and address. We keep track of your participation in NATIONAL PTA activities and member services so we can understand our members' interests and evaluate the effectiveness of our offerings. We also collect demographic information from other sources to help us learn more about member characteristics and needs. As explained in the Questions and Answers below, we may ask for additional information in your visits to www.pta.org. All of this information helps us better serve our members and improve our programs.
Information Sharing.
National PTA does not sell or rent member information to telemarketers, mailing list brokers, or any other companies unless they have contracted with NATIONAL PTA for member services or benefits. We share your personal information only with companies we have officially approved and selected to provide services for PTA members or which support NATIONAL PTA operations. Some of the providers of NATIONAL PTA member services pay a fee for access to our membership list. Our contracts with these companies require them to keep the member information strictly confidential, and allow them to use the information only to offer the contracted services mutually agreed upon to NATIONAL PTA members.
NATIONAL PTA may also disclose personal information when required to do so by law or when such action is necessary or appropriate to comply with legal process served on NATIONAL PTA, to protect and defend the rights or property of NATIONAL PTA, or to protect the personal safety of users of the www.pta.org. We reserve the right to contact the appropriate authorities in our discretion when visitors' activities appear to be illegal or inconsistent with our policies.
Finally, NATIONAL PTA may sometimes share aggregate statistics and non-personal information with the media, government agencies, advertisers, and other third parties. For example, we may publish statistics on the number of members in various states, or the number of visitors to www.pta.org. These aggregate statistics do not allow anyone to identify member names or other personal information.
Secure Transactions.
In order to protect your personal information, NATIONAL PTA uses technologies and processes such as encryption, access control procedures, network firewalls, physical security, and other measures. All e-commerce transactions conducted on www.pta.org are secured by the Verisign® secure site program which is designed to encrypt information submitted to www.pta.org during an SSL session to protect it against disclosure to third parties. A Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a technology adopted by all vendors producing related Web software. It negotiates and employs the essential functions of mutual authentication, data encryption, and data integrity for secure transactions.
Your Choices.
We respect your choices. If you do not want us to share your information with providers of NATIONAL PTA member services, you can contact us as specified below.
Online:
Send questions and comments to Customer Service at info@pta.org
Via mail or phone:
National PTA
3541 North Fairbanks Court
Suite 1300
Chicago, IL 60611-3396
Phone: 312-670-6782
Toll-Free: 800-307-4PTA (4782)
Fax: 312-670-6783
Please send correspondence to the attention of the Customer Service Department.
Privacy and National PTA: Questions and Answers
In this policy, we use the terms "NATIONAL PTA," "we," "our," and "us" to refer to NATIONAL PTA. We use the terms "you" and "your" to refer to PTA members and visitors to www.pta.org like yourself.
- Do I have to submit any personal information in order to use www.pta.org?
You do not need to give us any information about yourself in order to access most of www.pta.org. You can visit our pages, read our publications, and learn about our member services on a completely anonymous basis.
If you want to take advantage of some of the optional services available on www.pta.org, however, we will sometimes request information that allows us to identify you ("personal information"). If you use the online form to join NATIONAL PTA or renew your membership, for example, we will ask for certain information to process your application (name, phone number, mailing address, e-mail address and credit card number). If you register to receive e-mail newsletters, we will ask for your name, address, member number, and e-mail address so that we can send you the newsletters. We may also ask for personal information when you participate in other activities or services on www.pta.org, such as surveys and polls.
We also have relationships with certain providers and vendors that we have selected and approved to offer services and benefits to you on linked sites. On some of these sites, you may be asked to enter personal information in order to take advantage of their services or programs. If you decide to purchase services on the website of one of our member benefits service providers, the contracted member benefit provider offering the services may ask for your name, member number, address, and e-mail address in order to deliver the services requested or contact you about the services.
These sites may also have their own unique privacy policies that you should review.
Again, regardless of whether you are visiting www.pta.org or an affiliated site, you do not have to disclose any personal information if you do not want to. You can always decide not to use the optional services that require the submission of such information. The choice is yours. We are only interested in offering you convenient online services that match your interests and needs.
- Does www.pta.org collect non-personal information, using "cookies" or otherwise?
As a part of our Internet operations of www.pta.org, we do collect some "non-personal information." This information does not allow us to identify your name, e-mail address, or other personal characteristics. Non-personal information includes the number assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet ("IP address"), and the type of browser you use. None of this non-personal information allows us to identify or contact you. We use this information to help us evaluate how www.pta.org is being used. By gathering this information, we can learn, among other things, how many people visit www.pta.org, which www.pta.org pages are the most and least popular, and which other web sites are the most frequent referral sources for www.pta.org.
We may also assign a "cookie" to your computer in some situations. Like an IP address, a "cookie" is a kind of online identification tag that allows us to recognize your computer each time you visit www.pta.org.
Unless you have already provided us with personal information on www.pta.org or an affiliated site, cookies do not allow us to identify you by name, e-mail address, or other personal characteristics. We use cookies primarily to identify return visitors and make your www.pta.org experience more convenient.
We use Web Trends software to collect aggregate information about www.pta.org usage - such as the most visited pages and features.
- How is my information used?
Our primary purpose in collecting personal and non-personal information is to provide you with the services you request, and to evaluate and improve other services that we offer. As explained above, we ask for information so that we can process your membership application, send you the e-mail newsletters to which you have subscribed, and provide you with discounted shopping opportunities.
We store your membership information in our computer files, and use this information to service your membership account, send you publications like "Our Children" and answer any questions that you may have about membership. We may also review demographic information, survey results, and statistical analyses of www.pta.org usage in order to help us evaluate, modify, and develop services that are likely to be of interest to our members.
- Is any information shared with other companies or organizations?
NATIONAL PTA takes very seriously its responsibility to keep your personal information confidential and private. We do not sell or rent any of our members' personal information to telemarketers, mailing list brokers, or any other companies that are not offering services or benefits to National PTA members under contract. We share member information with the limited number of companies that we have approved and selected to provide NATIONAL PTA member services.
We may also disclose personal information when required to do so by law or when such action is necessary or appropriate to comply with legal process served on NATIONAL PTA, to protect and defend the rights or property of NATIONAL PTA, or to protect the personal safety of users of the www.pta.org. We reserve the right to contact the appropriate authorities in our discretion when visitors' activities appear to be illegal or inconsistent with our policies.
Finally, we may sometimes share aggregate statistics and non-personal information with the media, government agencies, advertisers, and other third parties. For example, we may publish statistics on the number of members in various states, or the number of visitors to www.pta.org. These aggregate statistics will not allow anyone to identify member names or other personal information.
- How do I stop or "opt out" of receiving mailings or services?
If you do not want to receive communications or mailings from NATIONAL PTA, you can:
- E-mail us at info@pta.org
- Call us at 1-800-307-4782 for Customer Service, or
- Write to us at NATIONAL PTA, Attention Customer Service, 3541 North Fairbanks Court, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60611-3396.
If you have subscribed to any of the www.pta.org e-mail newsletters, and would like to stop receiving them, follow the instructions at the bottom of one of the newsletters that you receive. Some affiliated sites may also send you promotional e-mails if you asked to receive them when you registered for their respective services. In addition, each issue of these e-mail newsletters or notices will always include instructions for unsubscribing.
Again, these notices are designed to describe the benefits of NATIONAL PTA membership, but we do not want to send them to you if you are not interested in receiving them.
- Do privacy protections exist on PTA lists?
It is important to understand that the information you submit in discussion/PTA list groups, bulletin boards, and chat rooms is publicly displayed. People will see your messages and organizations not related to NATIONAL PTA, and may be used by these third parties to contact you. As a result, you should be very careful about the information that you include in these messages. Because these unrelated parties will also see your "User Name" on any postings that you make in the discussion groups, you may not want to use your full name. You can use your first name only, or use an assumed name, if you like.
- How does www.pta.org protect security and confidentiality?
In order to protect your personal information, we use different technologies and processes such as encryption, access control procedures, network firewalls, physical security, and other measures. These measures increase the security and privacy of information traveling to, from, and within www.pta.org. Only our authorized employees or agents carrying out permitted business functions are allowed to access personal information. Employees who violate our privacy access policies may be subject to disciplinary actions, including termination when appropriate.
In order to receive some services, we may require you to use a password to protect your account from unauthorized access by others. If you do allow others, including family or household members, to access NATIONAL PTA members-only services through your personal password or to use your membership account number, understand that you are responsible for the actions of those individuals.
- Will this privacy policy ever change?
Because protecting members' privacy is very important to us, we do not expect major changes in policy. However, if we do make significant changes in our practices, we will include announcements on the www.pta.org home page so that you will know to review the revised policy.
This privacy policy describes the types of information we currently collect, and the ways we use and protect that information. If you are uncomfortable with our policies and practices, please do not provide any personal information to us through www.pta.org.
From time to time, we may collect different types of information and use that information in different ways - for example, when we add features or services to www.pta.org. In these cases, we may edit this policy to explain the new practices.
- Who can I contact with privacy questions?
If you have any questions or comments about your member information or this privacy policy, please send an e-mail to info@pta.org, call us at 1-800-307-4782, or write us at the address listed above. We will do our best to investigate any complaint you may have and respond promptly to your concerns.
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