Our Privacy Policy

ASSOCIATION OF CARDIOTHORACIC SURGICAL ASSISTANTS WEB SITE: PRIVACY ISSUES

Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants is committed to protecting your privacy online and developing relationships of trust. This page explains various aspects of our privacy policy. You may also wish to refer to the information given under our Terms of Use, for example on User Submissions and copyright issues.

In the explanation below 'Personally identifiable information' is information that enables us to identify you, such as your internet protocol (IP) address, email and website addresses, name, title, and postal address. Please read this page to understand how we treat your personal information. This policy may change from time to time so please check here for the latest information.

1. Collection of personally identifiable information and 'Cookies' Like many websites, Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants may at some time use cookies to collect personally identifiable information in order to provide you with a more personalised web service. A cookie is a string of text information that we pass to your computer's hard disk through your web-browser so that our website can remember who you are. Cookies cannot be used by themselves to identify you. A cookie will usually contain the domain name from which the cookie has come, its "lifetime" and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number. For more information about cookies, see www.allaboutcookies.org.

We may use two types of cookies on our website: (a) per session cookies, which are temporary cookies that remain in the cookies file of your browser until you leave the website; and (b) persistent cookies, which remain in the cookies file of your browser for longer (depending on the lifetime of the cookie). These cookies are used to store state information between visits to a web site in order to provide certain services, e.g. so that you do not have to log-in repeatedly between visits.

If you do not wish to receive cookies you can easily modify your web browser to refuse cookies, or to notify you when you receive a new cookie, see http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/

2. Use of personally identifiable information We may use any information we collect about you to help us understand more about how our site is used, to improve our organization's communication and those of the minority communities whom we represent, and to be able to send you communications about our work that may be of interest to you.

3. Who is collecting this information? When you are on the Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants website and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants alone, unless stated otherwise. For instance, when you are using our secure online payment pages you are connecting with a payment handling partner company and it is clear on the donation page when you are accessing that site.

4. With whom does Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants shareyour information? Generally, Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information, except when we have your permission or under very special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it. When you are using our secure online payment pages you are going through to a partner company and the information you give them such as your credit card number and contact information is provided to enable the transaction.

5. Control over collection, use and distribution of personal information If you have indicated that you are interested in receiving regular information about Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants activities we may send you communications, either electronically or otherwise. Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants does not sell, rent or share user information with anyone.

6. Policy on updating, correcting, or deleting personally identifiable information The accuracy of your personal identifying information is important to Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants. If you change email address, or any of information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, or you wish to be removed please do email us with the details.

7. Protection and Security of personal identifiable information Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants is committed to taking reasonable steps to protect any identifying information that you provide to us against loss, misuse, or alteration. When you give Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants personal information that data may be stored and processed outside of the UK and we will strive to ensure that your information is treated securely. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be entirely 100% secure. As a result, while we take reasonable steps on our systems to protect your personal information, Association of Cardiothoracic Surgical Assistants cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.

You are responsible for the security of any user name and password you register with us. Make sure you keep passwords in a safe place and do not share them with others. Please remember to log out after your session ends, to ensure that others cannot access any personal information about you. You should take this precaution not only when using a public compute, such as at a library, telecentre or internet café, but even when using your private computer in your own home.

8. Children's privacy The safety of children is paramount. Children should always ask a parent for their permission before sending any personal information to anyone online.