INTRODUCTION
The British-American Business Council is concerned about the protection of
your online privacy, whether you are a member, chapter representative, or
general visitor to our web site. As a result, the British-American Business
Council has made the commitment not to disclose any of your personal
information to third parties without your consent. For your protection, we
have also established the following privacy statement that is meant to
inform you how we collect information and how we use it. Since this policy
may change from time to time, we recommend that you refer to it regularly.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should
first contact the BABC by email -
webmaster@babinc.org. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry
or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then
contact the BABC secretariat in New York.
WHO WE ARE
The British-American Business Council (BABC) is the largest transatlantic
business network, with more than 30 chapters and 3,500 member companies
based in major regions throughout North America and the United Kingdom. The
website http://www.babc.org is wholly
owned and maintained by the British-American Business Council for
communicating with members and the world. All BABC operations are
funded by membership dues, donations, and sponsorships.
HOW TO REACH US
Our general mailing address is:
BABC Secretariat
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10017
You'll find more information on how to reach BABC on our
Contact page. For further
information or clarification on this statement contact the British American
Business Council Secretariat, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, 20th Floor, New York, NY
10017 Telephone 1-212-661-5660 or by email at
webmaster@babinc.org.
WHAT INFORMATION WE KNOW ABOUT YOU AND HOW WE USE IT
Although we may collect certain information from you as discussed below,
please be reassured in knowing the following:
- We do not use any information about where you personally go on our Site,
nor do we give such information out to third parties;
- We do not give out your name, telephone number, or other personal
information, unless you (or, if you are a child under the age of 13, your
parent) authorize us to do so;
- Information gathered by our website via some form of electronic
submission, except where noted below, is not held for any period of time
beyond that which is needed and is never disclosed to third parties outside
the district;
- British-American Business Council limits the use of cookies to those
that do not gather personal information about the users of BABC.org or other
British-American Business Council hosted sites;
- Unless you are an adult and you personally divulge personal information,
we will not give out information (or, if you are a child under the age of
13, your parent's) prior consent; and
- We will always give you (or your parent) the opportunity to access and
correct your personal contact information at any time if for some reason we
are in possession of this information for specific reasons as detailed
below.
PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT YOU GIVE US
There are various areas on our Site where we either require or permit you
to transfer personal information voluntarily. We use this personal
information only for the specific purpose specified at the time you input
such information. In addition, we never divulge such information to third
parties without your consent. These areas include:
Membership Inquiry. British-American Business Council accepts
membership inquiries online. These inquiries require that users provide
private and personal information as part of the inquiry process for
membership within British-American Business Council. This information is
never disclosed outside British-American Business Council and our associated
organizations or chapters.
Members Area. Members registered with BABC.org have the ability to
receive enhanced services and functionality on our site, specifically in the
Members Area of the BABC.org website. In order to become a registrant of the
Members Area, we use information derived from our own internal membership
records.
Membership Database. Available to members exclusively is an
online database. This database discloses information about our
membership, some of which may be considered private. Disclosure of
this information is not made to third parties without prior consent, and
every effort is made to ensure that the information is held securely and in
a manner that limits the threat of disclosure to parties beyond our
control.
Members are allowed to search and use the information contained within the
online membership database in a professional manner as part of their
membership as long as it meets the terms expressed during the joining
process. Members are urged to report disclosure or use of this
information in an inappropriate manner by members or outside parties
immediately to the employees of British-American Business Council. Due to
technology limits, British-American Business Council notifies all members
through this policy that it is not a certainty that information contained
within the online membership database will be kept from disclosure to
outside parties and thus British-American Business Council limits itself
from liability from disclosure of information from this database that falls
outside of reasonable control.
Information contained within the database is updated on as needed and
on-demand basis. If you find an inaccuracy, please report it to an
employee of British-American Business Council so that corrections can be
made to your satisfaction. If you wish that certain information
contained within the online membership database not be made available to
other members please contact a British-American Business Council employee
and request the information be removed.
INFORMATION THAT WE INDEPENDENTLY DERIVE FROM
YOUR USE OF OUR SITE
Aside from any information you may actively disclose to us, there is other,
less obvious, information that we might gain from you. Generally, we use
such information for internal purposes such as to improve the content of our
Web pages and/or refine the layout of our pages. This is generalized
information that does not compromise your privacy; no information of a
personal nature is gathered in this process.
Computer Information. We automatically query your computer for
information about your computer system -- such as the speed of your modem,
error messages you may have received, or operating system type -- to help us
fit our services to your individual needs and to help us diagnose problems
you may be having with the use of our system. This information is never
disclosed to third parties.
Aggregate Information. Our system also automatically gathers
information about the areas visitors to our site utilize and view --
commonly referred to as traffic analysis. We use this navigational
information in the aggregate to understand how our visitors as a group use
the site(s) so that we can make our sites better. We do not share any of
this information outside of British-American Business Council if it in
anyway contains information of a private or personal nature -- on average
the information gathered is anonymous in nature.
Cookies. Cookies are pieces of information that our Web Site
transfers to your computer's hard drive in order to make your experience on
our Site more efficient. While other sites may use them to gather
information that may be considered private, the few cookies in use by the
BABC.org website do not gather information of a private nature. Cookies used
only serve to automate certain functions like Polls and Message Bards, and
are limited to storing information for a set period of time after which they
are discarded. Cookies built and uploaded to your computer by BABC.org do
not contain code that compromise your privacy, and they are not retrieved
and read by British-American Business Council except when needed to verify
use of services.
IP Addresses. An IP address is a number that is automatically
assigned to your computer whenever you begin service with an Internet
Service Provider. British-American Business Council collects IP addresses
for the purposes of system administration and to audit the use of our Site.
Each time you connect to our Site and each time you request one of our
pages, our server logs your IP address. Although we log your session with
us, we will not normally link your IP address to anything that can enable us
to identify you. However, we can and will use IP addresses to identify a
user when we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with our rules or
terms of service or to protect our service, Site, users or others.
WHEN WE MAY BE FORCED TO DISCLOSE
British-American Business Council may disclose user information in special
cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is
necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may
be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or
unintentionally) British-American Business Council's rights or property or
anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. British-American
Business Council may also disclose user information when we believe in good
faith that the law requires it.
LINKS TO OTHER SITES
Linking to other sites is an integral part of the functionality of the
Internet and therefore of the British-American Business Council website. Any
link to a page which displays a URL of a non-British-American Business
Council site in the address window of your browser, is a link to a site
outside of our service. These links may be found throughout the BABC.org
website for informational purposes. These other sites may send their
own cookies to you, collect data or solicit personal information. Although
we monitor the sites that we link to and make every attempt to ensure their
quality, we cannot guarantee and are not responsible for the content of
outside sites.
Please keep in mind that whenever you give out personal information on
other Web sites, for example via message boards or chat, that information
can be collected and used by people you don't know. While British-American
Business Council strives to protect our visitors' personal information and
privacy, we cannot guarantee the security and privacy of any information you
disclose at other Web sites and you do so at your own risk.
A WORD ON BABC CHAPTER WEBSITES
The British-American Business Council is comprised of 33 individual
chapters spread through out North America, the UK, Mexico, and Canada.
These chapters build and maintain their own websites for interaction with
general visitors as well as their individual membership. The
British-American Business Council website,
http://www.BABC.org, links to all of our chapters without bias and with
the intent to inform.
The British-American Business Council is not responsible for the content,
accuracy, and usability of the individual chapter websites. This
Privacy Policy does not extend to any chapter website under any
circumstances. Individual chapters of the BABC may disclose their own
operating and privacy policies on their independent websites on a case by
case basis.
EMAIL LINKS
We use email links located on our various "contact us" pages to allow you
to contact us directly with any questions or comments you may have.
We read every message sent in and try to reply promptly. This information
is used to respond directly to your questions or comments. We may also file
your comments to improve the site and program, or review and discard the
information. Your personal information is not shared with third parties,
except where noted for legal purposes or when legally required.
SECURITY - GENERAL
This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and
alteration of the information under our control. At no time will you be
asked to provide information of a personal nature beyond an email address,
except when making inquiry for information or membership. All information
submitted to BABC.org and British-American Business Council electronically
via our website is discarded once interaction that requires given
information is completed. No outside organization or entity will be given
access to personal information while it is in the possession of
British-American Business Council except where it is legally required.
Members Area. Certain areas of content on BABC.org are considered
member only and protected by an encrypted ID and Password system. Members
are advised the following:
- To help protect your account, please keep your password secure. We
suggest that you, during the joining process, pick a non-obvious password
and one that mixes numbers and letters. In addition, we recommend that you
do not divulge your password to anyone. British-American Business Council
will never ask you for your password in an unsolicited phone call or email.
Ultimately, you are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your
passwords and any account information.
- Remember to log out of your British-American Business Council registered
user account and close your browser window whenever you leave your computer.
This is to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and
correspondence, because your computer may be accessible to others or used in
a shared setting such as found at a library or Internet café.
- British-American Business Council's policy does not extend to anything
that is inherent in the operation of the Internet, and therefore beyond
British-American Business Council's control, and is not to be applied in any
manner contrary to applicable law or governmental regulation.
Online Polls and Voting. No personal information will be asked or
gathered without permission regarding these activities, when available, on
BABC.org.
Online Credit Card Transactions. In the future the
British-American Business Council will setup online functionality to
facilitate event registration, purchase of event tables and sponsorships,
and online functionality for membership applications and renewals.
This functionality allows site visitors and members to transact
electronically using their credit card the necessary funds and monies needed
for membership and event activities. All online financial transactions
are done through the use of commonly accepted Credit Cards in a secure
fashion while other payment options are handled through arrangement and
offline.
The online system that takes and processes credit card information online
is secure through the use of a SSL certificate. All online
transactions are handled by an external and secured web server that is
contracted by British-American Business Council for the specific purpose of
databasing and transaction processing. Secured pages will display a
closed 'padlock' at the bottom of the browser in the status bar when loaded
and information about the authenticity of the SSL certificate is available
by double clicking on the padlock icon.
This SSL certificate ensures the privacy and security of your transaction
by encrypting transmitted data and verifying the identity of the receiving
computer or server. While it is impossible to ensure all transactions
and transmissions of data over an open network such as the internet, the use
of SSL does significantly reduce the chance that your private or financial
information associated with your transaction are intercepted by a third
party. Never the less, the remote possibility that your encrypted data
may be intercepted and utilized does exist and there fore British-American
Business Council makes no specific guarantee or warranty on online financial
transactions on SSL secured pages.
Questions About Security?
If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send
an email to webmaster@babinc.org.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
We may disclose personal information when required by law or in the
good-faith belief that such action is necessary in order to conform to the
edicts of the law or comply with a legal process served on our Web site.
NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES
We will notify you via our website if there is a material change in our
privacy practices. We will also post the changes in our privacy statement 30
days prior to a change being made.
YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS
By using this Site, you signify your assent to the British-American
Business Council Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use. If you
do not agree with these policies, please refrain from using the BABC.org
website. Your continued use of the British-American Business Council
BABC.org website following a reasonable notice of changes to these terms
means you accept those changes and the policy as stated.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this Web site's privacy
statement and/or terms of use, you should contact us via phone or email.
NOTE:
This statement encompasses the "Safe Harbour" principles of
collecting and disseminating data under the Data Protection Act of
1998 in the United Kingdom (UK).
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