Last Modified: August 2019
The American Finance Association (“AFA,” “we,” “us,” or “our“) respects your privacy and we are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this Privacy Policy (the “Privacy Policy” or “Policy“).
This Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit our website: https://afajof.org/ (our “Website“), our mobile application (our “App“), establish an account (the “Account“) to access our member services, subscribe to the Journal of Finance (the “Journal”), access online version of the Journal, and/or participate in the annual conference hosted by the AFA.
This Policy also describes our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information. Our Website and App contain links to other third party websites over which we have no control. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of other websites that you visit through a link on our Website or App.
From time to time, we reserve the right to modify or amend the terms of our Policy. You will be notified of such changes by notifications on our Website and/or App, by email notification informing you of such changes, or by any other reasonable means as required by applicable law. You should check this Policy frequently for any changes. Your continued use of our Website and/or our App following the posting of changes to this Policy will mean that you accept those changes.
BY ACCESSING OUR WEBSITE AND/OR BY USING OUR APP, YOU AGREE TO AND ACCEPT THE PRACTICES DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS OR USE OUR WEBSITE AND/OR APP, AND/OR CREATE AN ACCOUNT.
1. Minors and Children Under the Age of 13
Our Website and App are not for minors or children under the age of 13. Further, we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under age 13. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at: info@afajof.org.
2. Information We Collect About You and How We Process That Information
We collect several types of information from and about the users of our Website and/or App, including the following information:
(a) Membership. When you become a member of the AFA, we collect the following information about you – your name, your employer’s name, your work address (including your country location), and your email address. We may also collect your personal email address, personal mailing address, and mobile phone number. We ask our members to voluntarily provide additional information, such as information about your age, gender, nationality, race or ethnic origin, educational background, number of years in the field of finance, interests, and the like (all collectively, “Personal Information” or “Personal Data“).
Members may edit their profile at any time to change, add, or remove Personal Information.
AFA maintains an online directory of finance academics that is available only to its current members (the “AFA Finance Directory“). Data fields are customizable and you are invited to opt-in to have your information shared in the AFA Finance Directory.
We process your Personal Information for membership administration, to deliver member benefits to you, including delivering the Journal, to inform you of AFA-related events, content, and other benefits or opportunities associated with your AFA membership. The AFA may also use this information to help understand our members’ needs and interests to better service the AFA member community, including contacting you for voluntary participation in the AFA surveys conducted by the AFA or third parties.
The AFA relies on consent (and explicit consent, where applicable, per Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation, hereinafter referred to as “GDPR“)) and fulfillment of contract as the lawful basis under Article 6 of GDPR for processing Members’ Personal Information.
(b) Manuscript and Conference Paper Submission. The AFA will collect Personal Information about you when you submit your manuscript and/or conference paper via our website submission portal, which is hosted and maintained by our third party service provider. The AFA may use Personal Information provided during submission to analyze data about the submitters.
The AFA relies on consent and fulfillment of contract as the lawful basis under Article 6 of GDPR for processing this information.
(c) Annual Conference. The AFA, along with its partners, hosts an annual in-person conference and from time to time may host additional conferences (collectively, “Event“). The AFA members can register for Event via a third party website, which may be governed by its own privacy policy.
The AFA relies on a legitimate interest basis for collecting, storing, and processing this information.
(d) Job Seekers. You may apply for jobs posted on our website. The AFA does not collect any information related to your job application and that information is solely collected, processed, and transmitted by our third party service providers.
(e) Purposes for processing your data. As explained above, the AFA processes your data to provide you with the goods or services you have requested or purchased from us, including membership services and subscription to the Journal. We use this information to refine our goods and services to better tailor them to your needs and to communicate with you about other services the AFA offers that may assist you in your career. Most of the time, the AFA needs to process your Personal Information to fulfill an order for goods or services. Sometimes, the AFA relies upon your consent, in which case we will keep a record of it and honor your choices.
Other times the AFA has a legitimate interest in processing data to better understand the needs, concerns, and interests of AFA members so the AFA can operate optimally as an association, such as:
(i) for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure;
(ii) for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, or obtaining professional advice; or
(iii) for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.
(f) Payment card information. You may choose to purchase goods or services from the AFA, including purchasing or renewing membership services, using a payment card. Payment card information is provided directly by users, via the AFA website, into the PCI/DSS-compliant payment processing service to which the AFA subscribes, and the AFA does not, itself, process or store the card information.
(g) Communication. If you contact us directly, we may receive additional information about you, such as your name, email address, phone numbers, and the contents of the message.
(h) Information that we collect when you use our Website and/or App.
(i) Location Information. We collect this information from you automatically via Google Analytics as you navigate through our Website or App, through your Internet provider or wireless service provider, whichever applicable.
(ii) Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies (Google Analytics). As you navigate through and interact with our Website and/or App, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including:
- Non-personal details of your visits to our Website and/or App, including traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data, and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
- Information about your computer and Internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.
We use Google Analytics to collect such data. Terms of Service for Google Analytics are available here: https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html.
We also use cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website or App. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website or App.
We strive to provide you with choices regarding the information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:
- Tracking Technologies. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this Website may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
- Do Not Track. Do Not Track is a privacy preference that can be set in a web browser. Our Website recognizes do not track browser setting or signals. For information about do not track, please visit https://allaboutdnt.com/.
The information we collect automatically is statistical data and does not include Personal Information, but we may maintain it or associate it with Personal Information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Website and App and to deliver a better and more personalized service. We use automatic data collection to (a) understand and save your preferences for future visits; (b) compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future.
3. Disclosure of Your Information
We do not otherwise reveal your Personal Information to third parties unless any of the following apply:
(a) To our employees or other AFA personnel on a need to know basis;
(b) To contractors, service providers and other third parties, such as our payment processing partners or third party survey conductors, we use to support our business and to provide you service, and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep Personal Information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. A list of our third party service providers is available here.
(c) For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information;
(d) To comply with any court order, law or legal process, including respond to any government or regulatory request;
(e) To enforce or apply our terms of service, and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes;
(f) If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of AFA, our members or others; or
(g) With your consent.
4. Third Party Links On Our Website
Our Website and/or App may contain links to other third party websites for your convenience. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other third parties and any information you submit to a third party is subject to their privacy policy. Once you leave our Website and/or App, or are redirected to a third party website, application, or other online service, we encourage you to read the privacy policy applicable to that third party.
5. AFA Communications
You may opt-out of receiving promotional email communication from us by sending us an email at info@afajof.org. You will not be able to opt-out of transactional email communication, such as communication related to your Account, billing/payment, etc.
6. Your California Privacy Rights
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside third parties your Personal Information for direct marketing purposes. California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request certain information regarding disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to info@afajof.org.
Transferring Personal Information (Personal Data) from the EU to the US
The AFA is established and headquartered in the United States. Information we collect from you will be processed in the United States. The United States has not sought nor received a finding of “adequacy” from the European Union under Article 45 of GDPR. The AFA relies on derogations for specific situations as set forth in Article 49 of the GDPR. In particular, the AFA collects and transfers to the U.S. Personal Information (or otherwise referred to as Personal Data, see above) only: with your consent; to perform a contract with you; or to fulfill a compelling legitimate interest of the AFA in a manner that does not outweigh your rights and freedoms. The AFA endeavors to apply suitable safeguards to protect the privacy and security of your personal data and to use it only consistent with your relationship with the AFA and the practices described in this Privacy Policy. The AFA also enters into data processing agreements and model clauses with its vendors whenever feasible and appropriate.
7. Data Subject Rights
GDPR and other countries’ privacy laws provide certain rights for data subjects. A good explanation of them (in English) is available on the website of the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office.
This Privacy Policy is intended to provide you with information about what Personal Information (also referred to as Personal Data, see above) the AFA collects about you and how it is used. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@afajof.org.
If you wish to confirm that the AFA is processing your Personal Data, or to have access to the Personal Data the AFA may have about you, please contact us at info@afajof.org. Under this Privacy Policy, you may:
(a) Request information about the following:
(i) the purpose of the processing;
(ii) the categories of Personal Data concerned;
(iii) who else outside the AFA might have received the data from the AFA;
(iv) what the source of the information was (if you didn’t provide it directly to the AFA); and
(v) how long it will be stored.
(b) Correct (rectify) the record of your Personal Data maintained by the AFA, if it is inaccurate.
(c) Request that the AFA erase that data or cease processing it, subject to certain exceptions.
(d) Request that the AFA cease using your data for direct marketing purposes, if applicable.
(e) Lodge a complaint with the appropriate data protection authority, as applicable, if you have concerns about how the AFA processes your Personal Data.
(f) Request AFA to provide your Personal Data to you or transmit it directly to another controller.
Reasonable access to your Personal Data will be provided at no cost to you upon request made to the AFA at info@afajof.org. If access cannot be provided within a reasonable time frame, the AFA will provide you with a date when the information will be provided. If for some reason access is denied, the AFA will provide an explanation as to why access has been denied.
8. Data Processing and Security
We have implemented measures designed to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers behind firewalls.
The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Website or App, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your Personal Information, by encrypting data in transit, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information transmitted to our Website or App. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website or App.
9. Data Storage and Retention
Your Personal Information is stored by the AFA on the servers of the cloud-based database management services the AFA engages, located in the United States. The AFA retains data for the duration of the member’s business relationship with the AFA and for a period of time thereafter to allow members to recover accounts if they decide to renew, to analyze the data for AFA’s own operations, and for historical and archiving purposes associated with AFA’s history as a membership association. For more information on where and how long your Personal Information is stored, and for more information on your rights of erasure and portability, please contact the AFA at info@afajof.org.
10. Changes to Our Privacy Policy
It is our policy to post any changes we make to our Privacy Policy on our Website, App, by sending you an email notification, or any other method prescribed under applicable law. The date the Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring that we have your up-to-date active and deliverable email address, and for periodically visiting our Website, our App, and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.
11. Contact Information
To ask questions or comment about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, contact us at:
Attn: Privacy
American Finance Association
The University of Utah
1655 E Campus Center Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
info@afajof.org