Privacy Policy
Validation Institute is committed to protection of your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains our online information practices. This Privacy Policy will describe our practices regarding the collection and use of your personal information which we collect and use as part of our business activities.This Privacy Policy describes who is responsible for the personal information that we collect about you, what personal information we collect, how we will use such personal information, who we may disclose it to and your rights and choices in relation to your personal information.
In this Privacy Policy, where we use the words “Personal Information”, we use these words to describe information that is about you and which identifies you. This Privacy Policy will describe the personal information that we collect in more detail below.
1. Who is Responsible for the Personal Information that we collect?
For the purpose of data protection laws, Validation Institute is the data controller in respect to the personal information that we collect and use as part of our business activities. As the data controller, we control, manage, and dictate the purpose for which your personal information is used and how we use your personal information for our business activity.
2. What Personal Information do we collect?
Some of the information collected is required for business engagement purpose, and other information is voluntarily given by the individual. The type of personal information that Validation Institute may collect include, but is not limited to the following:
- Full name
- Address
- Phone and Fax Numbers
- Email Addresses
- Other Contact Information
- Payment Information
- Company, Firm, Organization, Agency, or other entity information
- Photograph
- Biographies
- Preference Information, such as communications that you receive from us
- Dietary Preferences and Requirements
- Information that you provide to use for the purposes of attending meetings, events, webinars, and other programs
- Any other information relating to you (or other individuals) which you may provide to us
Sensitive or Special Categories of Information
Some countries consider some personal information particularly sensitive or special. Validation Institute only collects this data when voluntarily given by the individual, such as processing accreditation for professional licensing or obtaining educational credits. Validation Institute does not share this information with third parties for direct marketing purposes. Such information may include the following:
- Date of Birth
- Type of Professional License
- Jurisdiction in which you are licensed
- Ethnicity, Nationality, Gender, and other demographic information
We collect information when you provide it to us, such as when you email us information, connect with us on social media, use the “contact us” feature, use the subscription feature located on our website, or when you engage in any other communication, recorded or otherwise communicated.
Validation Institute collects certain information automatically when you use the website, such as the IP addresses and domain names of visitors, browser type, history of pages viewed and other usage information about your use of the website. We collect this information for site administration purposes, such as to analyze this data for trends and statistics. We may share statistical or aggregated non-personal information about our users with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, or other third parties. This data is used to customize our website content and advertising to deliver a better experience to our users. Please see the section below on cookies for information.
3. How do we Obtain your Personal Information
As noted above, we collect information from you in the course of your use of the Validation Institute website, products, and services. For example, we collect information from you when you subscribe to our mailing list. We collect information from you when you contact or communicate with us (including through the website, by email, or otherwise). We collect your personal information while monitoring the Validation Institute website, products, and services. We gather information about you when you provide it to us, or interact with us directly, for instance engaging with staff or registering for an event. We may also in certain cases collect or receive information about you from other sources, such as third party companies.
4. How do we use the Personal Information that we Collect
Validation Institute collects personal information for the following principal purposes. The list below will state the purpose and the reason for the purpose of collecting your personal information.
- To provide the Validation Institute website to you
- To enroll you in our mailing list
- To register individuals for events, online educational courses, webinars, conferences, summits, congresses, and other services
- To provide you with information about our products and services
- To communicate with you and to respond to your questions, inquiries, or concerns
- To administer and improve the Validation Institute website
- To process your payment for Validation Institute services, events, and products
- To prevent and detect fraud
- To protect and enforce our legal rights
5. Who do we share your Personal Information with?
Validation Institute reserves the right to disclose and/or transfer personal information to a third party, if Validation Institute has reason to believe that disclosing personal information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with our rights or property, other website users, or anyone else who could be harmed by such activities. Additionally, Validation Institute may disclose personal information in response to a subpoena, warrant, or other court order, or when we believe in good faith that a law, regulation, subpoena, warrant or other court order requires or authorizes us to do so, or it is required to respond to an emergency situation.
Validation Institute reserves the right to disclose and/or transfer personal information to a third party in the event of a proposed actual purchase, sale (including liquidation, realization, foreclosure, or repossession), lease, merger, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposal, transfer, conveyance or financing of all or any portion of World Congress, or of any of the business of Validation Institute’s affiliated entities, in order for you to continue to receive the same products and services from the third party.
We may share information with a Validation Institute affiliated entity, such as a parent company or subsidiary. See more information regarding such transfers under the section entitled “Transfer of Personal Information Across Borders”.
We may share your information with personal advisors, such as accountants and lawyers, who assist us in carrying out our business activities.
Validation Institute may share personal information with third parties engaged to assist Validation Institute in providing services to you or to carry out one or more of the purposes described above. These service providers are prohibited from using your personal information for any purpose other than to provide this assistance and are contractually required to protect personal information disclosed by Validation Institute and to comply with the general privacy principles described in this Privacy Policy. For example, we share your information with service providers, contractors and sub-contractors to help us provide the website, products, events, and services. For example, we may use a service provider to process payment information or provide analytics. When we use service providers, we provide limited access to your information so that such service provider can perform the tasks on our behalf.
In addition to the uses and disclosure of personal information noted above, personal information of Validation Institute registrants at our events may be shared when we have obtained your consent prior to such disclosure. When you have provided such consent, we share your limited information, including personal information, as described at the time of consent, to a sponsor of one of our events or media partners. You will also have the option to opt-out of sharing this information when you register for the programs. The information provided will contain the name, title, company, and mailing address of all attendees.
If you choose not to provide Validation Institute with your personal information, you may still visit some of the Validation Institute website; however, you may be unable to access certain options, offers, and services.
6. Authoring Resources or Speaking at Programs
If you choose to author a written resource or speak at a program (both live and recorded for further broadcasting), you will be required to provide a biography of your professional experience. Validation Institute owns and maintains the copyright of the written resource, recordings of the programs, and any subsequent written materials provided with the program, including the submitted biographies. Validation Institute reserves the right to make any and all written resources and programs with associated written materials available to the public at large without permission of the authors or speakers.
7. Transfer of Personal Information Across Borders
Validation Institute is a United States organization, headquartered in the United States. While we are not a global company, we may allow your personal information to be shared with third-party service providers based both within the United States and in other countries. This may entail a transfer of your personal information from a location within the European Economic Area to outside the European Economic Area, or from outside the European Economic Area to a location with the Economic European Area. Please see the section entitled “Who do we Share your Personal Information with” for more detail on how the information be shared with Validation Institute related entities and third-party service providers.
When we provide your personal information overseas, we do so in connection with providing information or services or as required or authorized under law. It is possible the overseas entities, which we share your information with, may not be subject to foreign laws that provide the same level of protection of information with, may not be subject to foreign laws that provide the same level of protection of information as your country of residence or employment, or may not be subject to any privacy obligations. Overseas entities may be required or compelled to disclose your personal information to a third party, such as an overseas authority. Where we transfer information outside of the European Economic Areas, we will implement appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information remains protected and secure in accordance with applicable data protection laws. For example, we will implement EU standard contractual clauses (as contemplated by Article 46(2) of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation) between World Congress related entities that share and process personal data. Where our third-party service providers process personal data outside the European Economic Area in the course of providing services to us, our written agreement with them will include appropriate measures, usually standard contractual clauses. For more information about the measures in place, please contact us (see section below “Contacting Validation Institute with Questions, Concerns, or Complaints”).
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we use reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our website and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal information, we will use reasonable and appropriate procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorized access.
8. Your Rights, including Removing, Correcting or Updating Personal Information
If you change your mind on how Validation Institute discloses or uses your information, or wish to access, correct or update personal information (such as your address), we will endeavor to correct, update or remove the personal data that you give us.
THE BELOW LIST APPLIES ONLY TO INDIVIDUALS LOCATED IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA: If you are a citizen of the European Union or the European Economic Area, you have certain rights with respect to your personal information. The rights may only apply in certain circumstances and are subject to certain exemptions. Please see the list below for your rights.
- Right of Access to your Personal Information
- Right to Rectify your Personal Information
- Right to Erasure of your Personal Information
- Right to Restrict the use of your Personal Information
- Right to Data Portability
- Right to Object to the Personal use of your Information
- Right to Withdraw Consent
- Right to Complain to the Relevant Data Protection Authority
9, How Long will we Keep your Personal Information
We will keep your personal information for no longer than necessary is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed.
10. Links to Other Websites
Validation Institute may contain links to other sites such as our sponsors or media partners. These sites are not controlled by Validation Institute and Validation Institute is not responsible for any content contained on any such website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by other sites, and the privacy practices employed by such sites may not be the same as Validation Institute’s policies and practices.
11. Cookies
Validation Institute uses cookies to manage our website and email programs. A cookie is a small file placed on your computer when you visit a website. Cookies are used to store information to manage your website experience such as your type of web browser. A cookie can also store preference information to customize your website experience.
Cookies help us understand how consumers use our websites and emails so we can design better services in the future. Web browsers can be adjusted to disable cookies; however, Validation Institute may not be able to provide you with all the service or functionality you require on the Validation Institute website if you choose to disable cookies.
12. Contacting Validation Institute with Questions, Concerns, or Complaints
If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this Privacy Policy, please contact viprocess@validationinstitute.com or via mail 500 W Cummings Park #5400, Woburn, MA 01801. If you do not want to make a long-distance phone call, please email us your contact information and the best time to reach you, and we will contact you at your requested time.
You are entitled to make an anonymous complaint or inquiry in relation to this Privacy Policy or your privacy rights; however, me way require you to identify yourself if required by law or it is impracticable for us to deal with your matter otherwise.
We will acknowledge receipt of any complaint and will strive to provide you with a written response within 30 days of receipt of your complaint. There may be instances where this is not possible due to the circumstances under which the complaint was made, the content of the complaint, and the scope of the complaint. If this is the case, we will respond to your complaint in a reasonable and practical time.
13. Validation Institute Website and Communications Terms of Use
Please refer to Validation Institute’s Terms of Use on all issues related to accessing, posting, and sharing information through the World Congress website and communication services.
14. Changes to the Validation Institute Privacy Policy
Any changes to this Privacy Posted will be posted on this page. The updated Privacy Policy will take effect as soon as it has been updated.