Privacy Policy

Effective as of October 8, 2024

General Statement of Privacy

ACT | The App Association (“App Association”) respects the privacy of its members and visitors to www.actonline.org (“Site”). By accessing the Site, you consent to the information collection and use practices described in this privacy policy.

Subject to the provisions of applicable laws, any information you submit to the App Association will not be used in any manner to which you have not consented.

The terms codified in this policy cover all brands, companies, and organizations associated with or wholly-owned subsidiaries of the App Association: the Connected Health Initiative, All Things FRAND, HIPAA Check Tool, AppCon App, Innovators Network Foundation, and the Small Business Software Alliance (SSBA).

If you are a member of the App Association, we also respect that you may not want your affiliation with the App Association to be publicly disclosed. Discretion regarding affiliation is especially important given that many of our member companies have only a few staff members or a single employee, meaning information about the business is often easily associated with personally identifiable information. Accordingly, except as may be required by the European Union’s Transparency Register, we will only share your affiliation with the App Association—including your company’s name, logo, or address—in public-facing documents with your express permission. Disclosure of your affiliation with the App Association in the Transparency Register is currently mandatory as part of the App Association’s registration.

Personally Identifiable Information

Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) is defined as (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual. We collect PII from Site users through the membership registration form, e-mail newsletter registration, legislator contact, and/or other forms, including online survey and petition tools.

We collect your:

  • First name
  • Last name
  • E-mail address
  • ZIP code
  • Telephone number
  • Address
  • National origin
  • IP address
  • Operating system
  • Browser software

It is the App Association’s policy not to collect PII about you on the Site without your knowledge or action. You should be aware that if you disclose any information on an open forum hosted by the App Association, entities related to the open forum may collect that information to send you unsolicited information not related to the App Association or for other purposes.

Except when otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, the PII you provide on the Site will not be shared with entities outside of the App Association without your permission.

Use of Personally Identifiable Information

It is our general policy to not make PII available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents. We will never sell your e-mail address or other PII. The PII you provide will be used to deliver more effective customer service, improve the Site and other App Association products, and provide relevant information related to the App Association and tech policy. If the App Association contracts a third party to act on our behalf, such as a website hosting or public relations company, we will only provide them with as much information as needed to provide services and will require they comport with the restrictions of our privacy policy while within the scope of their employment with us and providing said services on our behalf. WordPress, owned by Automattic, hosts the App Association’s website. Automattic provides analytics for us through its JetPack tool to help improve the function of our site. For more information about how Automattic handles this analytics information on our behalf, please click here: https://automattic.com/privacy-notice/.

The App Association may disclose PII if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on the App Association or the Site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of the App Association; or (c) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of the App Association employees or agents, users of the App Association products or services, or members of the public.

We may use Personal Identifiable Information for the following purposes.

  • We will use the Personal Identifiable Information you give to us to:

    • carry out our obligations related to your membership, or any other contract entered into between you and us, and to provide you the information, products, and membership services that you request from us;
    • organize events that you have purchased or registered for, and to provide you with information and other materials relating to the content of the event, the speakers, sponsors, and other attendees;
    • provide our monthly newsletter and publication, if you have given consent;
    • respond to your questions and provide related membership services;
    • provide you with information about other events, products and services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased, if you have not opted-out of receiving that information;
    • provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with information about events, products or services we believe may interest you, if you have given your consent;
    • transfer your information as part of a merger or sale of the business;
    • notify you about changes to our membership service; and
    • ensure that content from our Site is presented most effectively for you and your computer.

Information we collect about you

  • We will use the Personal Identifiable Information we collect about you:
    • to administer our Site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
    • to improve our Site to ensure that content is presented most effectively for you and your computer;
    • as part of our efforts to keep our Site safe and secure; and
    • to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our Site about goods or services that may interest you or them.
  • We will use the Personal Identifiable Information we receive about you from other sources:
    • in combination with the information you give to us and information we collect about you. We will use this information and the combined Personal Data for the purposes listed above, depending on the types of information received.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information

Non-PII is all information not defined above as PII. For purposes of this notice, non-PII refers to information we automatically collect on your use and/or actions on our Site.

We use and monitor:

  • user traffic patterns;
  • anonymized page views on the Site;
  • holistic click-through rates; and
  • popular search terms that users enter to our search utility.

As a general matter, the App Association does not collect demographic information about you through regular use of the Site. However, in recognition of the sensitive nature of such information, in the event the App Association comes into possession of such information, whether through your voluntary submission of information in response to a special feature on the Site or by receiving such information from any of our business partners, such information shall, when coupled with any of your PII, be deemed PII and treated by the App Association accordingly.

Use of Non-PII

As a general matter, Non-PII helps us determine how the Site is being used, identify popular areas of the Site, and determine the effectiveness of promotional activities regarding the Site. In the course of collecting Non-PII, that information may be shared with third parties.

Use of Cookies

The Site uses cookies (i.e., small data files that our Site writes to a user’s hard drive) to help track your usage of the Site. The Site’s cookies enable us to provide you with services you may request.

You can refuse our cookies by turning them off in your browser (for more information on how to do this, please refer to your browser’s documentation). You do not need to enable cookies on your browser to use the Site; however, without cookies, certain automated functions and features of the site will not be available to you. We also use cookies to measure the click-through rate on e-mails delivered.

We use the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies
  • Analytical/performance cookies
  • Functionality cookies
  • Third-party cookies

Do Not Track

The App Association respects user choice and controls. To the extent possible, the Site responds to Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals communicated by your browser.

Third Parties

The Site may contain links to other internet websites, including co-branded or affiliated sites. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, we are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites, including such websites’ use of any information.

Security

By using the Site, you understand and agree that “perfect” security does not exist anywhere, including on the internet. Information you send to this site, including e-mail messages, may not be encrypted, but are subject to access controls that are only accessible by the App Association’s staff, employees, and agents.

Other Services

You may be able to access certain information related to third parties on the Site, or via links or click-throughs from the Site, regarding the goods or services of third parties. By using the Site, you understand and agree that your access to or use of those services is subject to the agreement between you and the associated third parties, and the App Association shall have no liability whatsoever for any such access or use.

Notice to Parents or Guardians

The App Association welcomes coders under the age of 16, but they must comport with relevant privacy laws. Parents of visitors under the age of 16 must contact the App Association via the information provided under the heading “Contact Us” to offer verifiable parental consent.

We want to help you protect your child’s privacy. We encourage you to talk to your children about safe and responsible use of their PII while using the internet. In particular, the App Association does not knowingly collect or solicit PII from anyone under the age of 16, or knowingly allow such persons to register without verifiable parental consent. If you are under 16, please do not attempt to register for the App Association or send any information about yourself to us. Persons under age 16 shall neither provide any PII to the App Association nor do the same on the Site of the App Association until the App Association has verified parental consent. In the event that we learn that we have collected PII from a child under age 16 without verification of parental consent, we will make commercially reasonable efforts to delete such information from our database as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 16, please contact us via the “Contact Us” link on the Site or information provided below. We recommend that minors 16 years of age or older ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the internet.

Opting Out

To opt out of receiving information from the App Association, please contact us in one of the following ways:

  • Use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our e-mails.
  • Send an e-mail to [email protected].
  • Send a written request to:

Customer Service
1401 K Street NW, Suite 501
Washington, DC 20005

Data Retention

You may write us at any time if you wish to cancel your account or have us remove your PII from our database. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Storage

The Personal Data that you provide to us is generally stored on servers located in the United States. If you are located in a jurisdiction outside the United States, you should be aware that once your Personal Data is submitted through our Site, it will be transferred to our servers in the United States. The United States currently does not have uniform data protection laws in place.

Data Breach Policy

The App Association will notify the relevant authority or authorities without undue delay, no later than 72 hours after becoming aware of a data breach and will adhere to the applicable laws depending upon where the breach takes place.

Governing Law

This Privacy Policy, the privacy practices of the App Association, and any dispute arising out of or relating thereto will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the District of Columbia, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the District of Columbia to resolve any legal matter arising from this Privacy Policy and the privacy practices of the App Association. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you agree that the App Association shall be allowed to apply for injunctive relief (or an equivalent type of urgent legal relief) in any jurisdiction. The App Association makes no representation that this Privacy Policy and such practices comply with the laws of any other country. Visitors who use the Site and reside outside of the United States do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws if, and to the extent, local laws are applicable.

Specific Provisions Regarding the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation

For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”), the Data Controller is the App Association registered in Brussels with a registered address at Avenue Adolphe Lacomblé, 59 B-1030 Brussels.

Our nominated representative for the purposes of the GDPR is Olivier Benoist.

Your European Rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your Personal Data for marketing purposes. The GDPR defines Personal Data as “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.” We will inform you (before collecting your Personal Data) if we intend to use your Personal Data, or disclose your information to any third party, for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking a box provided to you through various correspondence indicating the action requires your consent or by contacting the App Association using the Contact Us section on the Site.

Under European data protection law, in certain circumstances, you have the right to:

  • Request access to your Personal Data
  • Request correction of your Personal Data
  • Request erasure of your Personal Data
  • Object to processing of your Personal Data
  • Request restriction of processing your Personal Data
  • Request transfer of your Personal Data
  • Withdraw consent to the use of your Personal Data

In addition, where you believe that the App Association has not complied with its obligations under this Privacy Notice or European law, you have the right to make a complaint to an EU Data Protection Authority or any EU Supervisory Authority established by the respective EU member state that governs over the concern at issue. You can exercise any of these rights by contacting the App Association using the Contact Us section on the Site.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is available at all times to all users of ACTonline.org at http://ACTonline.org/privacy-policy. Any material changes to this privacy policy will be communicated to users through this web page. Users are responsible for making use of this resource to stay up to date on the App Association Privacy Policy

Contact Us

Please contact us in one of the following ways:

Customer Service
1401 K Street NW, Suite 501
Washington, DC 20005