AMERIPEN Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Introduction
AMERIPEN is an association representing the U.S. packaging value chain. We understand that you are aware of and care about your own personal privacy interests, and we take that seriously. This privacy policy describes our policies and practices regarding collection and use of your personal data and sets forth your privacy rights. We recognize that information privacy is an ongoing responsibility, and so we will continue to update this privacy policy as we undertake new personal data practices or adopt new privacy policies. By accessing the AMERIPEN website or availing yourself of any AMERIPEN offerings, you consent to the provisions of this Privacy Policy, including as to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information.

Applicability and Eligibility
This privacy policy applies to our collection, use, disclosure, and protection of your data. It does not apply to third party websites, applications, or services. Before accessing, using, or interacting with our services, carefully review the terms and conditions of this privacy policy. Services are not directed to children under the age of 16. You may not use our services if you are under the age of 16.

Collection and Use of Personal Information
We collect personal information about our members and other customers. This information includes, but is not limited to, first name, last name, job title, employer name, work address, work email, and work phone number. This information is used to provide members and customers with goods and services, including membership services, event notifications, webinars and more. We do not sell personal information to anyone and only share it with third parties who are facilitating the delivery of our services.

Membership
When you become a member, we collect information about you including (but not limited to) your name, your employer’s name, your work address, and your email address. We may also collect your personal email address, a personal mailing address, and a mobile phone number. Members may voluntarily provide additional information in their membership profile, such as information about their educational background, number of years in the industry, and the like. Members may edit their profile at any time to change, add, or remove personal information. We process your personal information for membership administration, to deliver member benefits, and to inform you of our events, content, and other benefits or opportunities associated with your membership. We may also use this information to help us understand our members’ needs and interests to better tailor our products and services to meet your needs.

Events and Webinars
We host events throughout the year, including our Annual Summit, webinars, and trainings (collectively “events”). If you are a member and register for one of our events, we will access the information in your member account to provide you with information and services associated with the event. If you are not a member and you register for one of our events, we will collect your name and contact information, which we will store in our database and use to provide you with information and services associated with the event. If you are a presenter at one of our events, we will collect information about you including your name, employer and contact information, and photograph, and we may also collect information provided by event attendees who evaluated your performance as a presenter. As an attendee, speaker, or sponsor/exhibitor, we will keep a record of your participation to provide you with post-event information including details on upcoming events you may be interested in.

Photography and Recording Permission
Photographs of persons participating in AMERIPEN events and offerings may be taken. These events and other offerings also may be video and audio recorded. These photographs and recordings are the property of AMERIPEN. We reserve the right to use any photograph/video/audio taken at our events, without the written permission of those included within the photograph/video/audio. We may use the photograph/video/audio for promotional purposes. They may be published in any medium, including in publications or other media material produced, used or contracted including but not limited to brochures, invitations, books, newspapers, magazines, television, websites, etc.  For privacy reasons, it is our policy not to identify persons appearing in images using full names or personal identifying information without written approval from the photographed subject.

Publications
In addition to producing original content, we also subscribe to news feeds and blogs produced by others, which we often link to from our website. This means you may find yourself on our website or reading an email where we will offer you a link to another organization’s website for additional relevant content. At these times, you will be leaving our website. We are not responsible or liable for content provided by these third-party websites or personal information they may happen to gather from you. You may wish to subscribe to some of our publications without becoming a member. To receive our mailings/newsletters by email, you will need to create a profile with us, which involves providing us with at least your first name and last name, an email address, and the country in which you live. We do not share this information with any third party other than to store the information in our database. You may manage your subscriptions by subscribing or unsubscribing at any time. If you have any difficulties managing your email or other communication preferences, please contact us.

Correspondence Information
If you correspond with us by email, the postal service, or other form of communication, we may retain such correspondence and the information contained in it and use it to respond to your inquiry; to notify you of our conferences, publications, or other services; or to keep a record of your complaint, accommodation request, etc. Users may opt-out of receiving certain communications by following the unsubscribe process described in an email communication, or by contacting our office directly.

Access to Your Information
Certain tools and settings are provided to help you access, correct, or modify your personal information, as well as to request deletion of information. We welcome you to contact us regarding the information we have collected about you, including the nature and accuracy of the data collected about you, to request an update, modification, or deletion of your information, or, as applicable, to opt-out of certain services. Please note that if your information is deleted or if you exercise an opt-out option, then certain features may no longer be available to you.

Purposes for Processing Your Data
As explained above, we process your data to provide you with the goods or services you have requested or purchased from us, including membership services, events, publications and other content, certification, and training. 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 we offer that may assist you in your career or otherwise help you to advance your career.

Payment Information
We may collect and store information related to purchases if you choose to purchase goods and services from us. You may provide certain information to complete payments, including your credit or debit card number, card expiration date, CVV code, and billing address (collectively, “Payment Information”), along with your name and billing, and shipping address, to complete payment transactions. Per PCI Compliance, we do not accept credit card information via email. Credit card information received via fax, phone, or mail is entered into a secure system and then deleted and destroyed.

Website Usage
As is true of most other websites, our website collects certain information automatically and stores it in log files. The information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system, and other usage information about the use of our website, including a history of the pages you view. We use this information to help us design our site to better suit our users’ needs. We may also use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website, analyze trends, track visitor movements, and gather broad demographic information to assist us in identifying visitor preferences. Our website also uses cookies and web beacons. We use cookies to identify the areas of our website that you have visited. We may also use cookies to identify you as an already registered user so that you can access various parts or features of our website. Finally, we may use cookies to personalize the content that you see on our website.  Our website does not track users when they cross to third party websites or provide targeted advertising to them, and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals.

Sharing Information
Information about your purchases is maintained in association with your membership or profile account. The personal information we collect from you is stored in a database hosted by a third party, GrowthZone. GrowthZone does not use or have access to your personal information for any purpose other than cloud storage and retrieval.We do not otherwise reveal your personal data to third-parties for their independent use unless: (1) you request or authorize it; (2) it’s in connection with any of our events as described above; (3) the information is provided to comply with the law (for example, to comply with a search warrant, subpoena or court order), enforce an agreement we have with you, or to protect our rights, property or safety, or the rights, property or safety of our employees or others; (4) the information is provided to our agents, vendors or service providers who perform functions on our behalf; (5) to address emergencies or acts of God; and (6) to address disputes, claims, or to persons demonstrating legal authority to act on your behalf. Our website uses interfaces with social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others. If you choose to "like" or share information from our website through these services, you should review the privacy policy of that service. If you are a member of a social media site, the interfaces may allow the social media site to connect your site visit to your personal data.

Security
We have security measures in place to protect against the unauthorized access, alteration, loss, or misuse of your personal information, though we cannot guarantee against such circumstances. We strongly urge you to protect any password you may have for our website and not share it with anyone.

Retention of Information
We may retain information we collect for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which we obtained the information and thereafter as is necessary or useful to pursue our legitimate business interests.

Site of Processing of Personal Data
Personal data of individuals collected by AMERIPEN may be stored and processed in the United States, Europe, or any other country in which AMERIPEN conducts activities or maintains facilities. AMERIPEN generally collects and processes personal data in the U.S. In the event personal data is collected in the EU and is then transferred to the U.S. or is transferred to any other country outside of the EU, AMERIPEN will do so because there is a legal reason, such as to perform a contract, or to achieve a legitimate interest of AMERIPEN.

Changes and Updates to the Privacy Policy
As our organization, membership, and benefits change from time to time, this privacy policy is expected to change as well. We reserve the right to amend the privacy policy at any time, for any reason, without notice to you, other than the posting of the amended privacy policy on our website. We may e-mail periodic reminders of our notices and terms and conditions and will e-mail members of material changes.

Questions
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us using the contact us information found on our website.

Terms of Use

By accessing, viewing, or otherwise using this website, you agree to be bound by Terms of Use. AMERIPEN may revise these Terms of Use at any time by updating this posting. If you do not wish to be bound by these Terms of Use, including any revision, do not access or view the site. If you do not agree to be bound by these Terms of Use, you may not use nor access the site.

Changes to Terms of Use
AMERIPEN reserves the right, at its discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove all or portions of these Terms of Use at any time. Your continued use of this website will indicate acceptance by you of such rules, changes, or modifications.

Copyright
The website and the entire contents of the website, including the text, graphics, images, logos, button icons, HTML code, and other material are copyrighted by AMERIPEN under the copyright laws of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Trademarks
Trademarks, service marks, and logos appearing in this website are the property of AMERIPEN or the party that provided the trademarks, service marks, and logos to AMERIPEN. AMERIPEN and any party that provided trademarks, service marks, and logos to AMERIPEN retain all rights with respect to any of their respective trademarks, service marks, and logos appearing on this site. Unauthorized use of the trademarks, service marks and logos of AMERIPEN or any third party is unlawful and will be grounds for exclusion from future use of this website.

Access to Website
AMERIPEN reserves the right to refuse any person access to this website or any of its resources, and to terminate or suspend any person’s access at any time.

Prohibited Uses of the Website
You may not use any automatic device, program, algorithm or methodology, or any similar or equivalent manual process, to access, acquire, copy or monitor any portion of the website or any content, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the website or any content, to obtain or attempt to obtain any materials, documents or information through any means not purposely made available through the website.
You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion or feature of the website, or any other systems or networks connected to the website, or to any of the services offered on or through the Site, by hacking, password "mining" or any other illegitimate means.

Disclaimer
AMERIPEN does not warrant, endorse, approve, or certify the information on this site, nor does it make any representation as to the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, or timeliness of such information. Use of such information is voluntary on your part. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process or service does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation or favoring by AMERIPEN. The information, products and services offered on or through the website are provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind either express or implied. To the fullest extent permissible pursuant to applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. AMERIPEN does not warrant that the website or any of its functions will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that any part of this website is free of viruses or other harmful components. AMERIPEN assumes no responsibility for consequences resulting from use of the information contained herein, or from use of the information obtained at linked sites, or in any respect for the content of such information. AMERIPEN is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims all liability for, damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, reliance on, or performance of such information, as well as for any damages or injury caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communication line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of any record. You also acknowledge that AMERIPEN is not liable for the defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of other third parties, subscribers, members or other users and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with each user.

Links to Other Websites
This website may be linked to other sites that are not maintained by, or related to, AMERIPEN. Links to such sites are provided as a service to users and are not sponsored by or affiliated with this website or AMERIPEN. These sites have not been reviewed by AMERIPEN, and AMERIPEN is not responsible for the content of those sites. Links are to be accessed at the user's own risk, and AMERIPEN makes no representations or warranties about the content, completeness or accuracy of these links or the sites linked to this website. Further, the inclusion of any link to a third-party site does not imply endorsement by AMERIPEN of that site.

Submissions
You do not have to submit anything, but if you choose to submit something (including any user-generated content, ideas, concepts, techniques and data, you must grant, and you actually grant by agreeing to these Terms of Use, a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, unlimited, assignable, sublicenseable, fully paid up, and royalty-free right to AMERIPEN to copy, prepare derivative works of, improve, distribute, publish, remove, retain, add, and use and commercialize, in any way now known or in the future discovered, anything that you submit to AMERIPEN, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or any third parties. By submitting any information to AMERIPEN, you represent and warrant that the submission is accurate to your best knowledge, not confidential, and not in violation of any contractual restrictions or other third-party rights. AMERIPEN is under no obligation to exercise control over any content you or others submit when using the site. No right of confidentiality shall apply to any inquiries or other communications made to AMERIPEN through this website, and AMERIPEN shall have no obligation to protect communications from disclosure to third parties.

Notice of Copyright Infringement
If you are a copyright owner who believes your copyrighted material has been reproduced, posted or distributed via the website in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please report the violation by sending written notice by U.S. Mail to AMERIPEN, 1350 Main Street, Suite 1100, Springfield, MA 01103-1670, or by email to info@ameripen.org.

Please include the following information in your written notice:

(1) a detailed description of the copyrighted work that is allegedly infringed;
(2) a description of the location of the allegedly infringing material on the website;
(3) your contact information, including your address, telephone number, and, if available, email address;
(4) your statement that you have a good-faith belief that the allegedly infringing use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
(5) your statement, made under penalty of perjury, affirming that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf; and
(6) an electronic or physical signature of the copyright owner or someone authorized on the owner’s behalf to assert infringement of copyright and to submit the statement.

Limitation on Liability
AMERIPEN, its employees, agents, officers, and directors will not be liable for any incidental, direct, indirect, punitive, actual, consequential, special, exemplary, or other damages, including loss of revenue or income, pain and suffering, emotional distress, or similar damages, even if any of such persons has been advised of the possibility of such damages. If you are dissatisfied with the website, any materials, products, or services on the site, or with any of the site’s terms and conditions, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the site. If, notwithstanding the foregoing, AMERIPEN is found liable in any legal proceeding, its aggregate liability shall not exceed US$1,000.00.

Indemnity
You will indemnify and hold AMERIPEN, its subsidiaries, affiliates, licensors, content providers, service providers, employees, agents, officers, directors, members, and contractors (the "Indemnified Parties") harmless from any breach of these Terms of Use by you, including any use of Content other than as expressly authorized in these Terms of Use. You agree that the Indemnified Parties will have no liability in connection with any such breach or unauthorized use, and you agree to indemnify any and all resulting loss, damages, judgments, awards, costs, expenses, and attorneys' fees of the Indemnified Parties in connection therewith. You will also indemnify and hold the Indemnified Parties harmless from and against any claims brought by third parties arising out of from your use of the website or failure to comply with these Terms of Use, including, without limitation, your submission of content that violates third party rights or applicable laws.

Controlling Law; Forum Selection
These Terms shall be construed in accordance with the laws of Michigan, without regard to conflicts principles. A court of competent jurisdiction in Michigan shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any dispute between you and AMERIPEN, and you irrevocably consent to the personal and subject matter jurisdiction, and venue, of such court.

Severability
The provisions of these Terms of Use are intended to be severable. If for any reason any provision of these Terms of Use shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severed from these Terms of Use and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Questions
If you have any questions about our Terms of Use, please contact us using the contact us information found on our website.