Legal Information

PRIVACY STATEMENT

Business Association Italy America ("BAIA") recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of all information provided by our members, visitors of our web site and services, subscribers to magazines, registrants for our events, recipients of our e-mail newsletters and all of our users (collectively, "Users"). This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for all products and services owned and/or provided by BAIA.

INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE

BAIA collects information from our Users. In this section of our privacy policy, we will describe the type of information we collect and how we use it to provide better services to our Users.

Registration and Ordering

When attending our on-line or off-line events or trade shows, participating in our webcasts, using our website and signing up for certain selected services, Users must first register. During registration, Users are required to give their contact information (such as name, e-mail address, mailing address and phone number). We also may collect demographic information (such as job title and purchasing responsibilities, company information and professional certification). For internal purposes, we use this information to communicate with Users and provide requested services, and, for our website visitors, to provide a more personalized experience on our sites. We use aggregate demographic information about our audience to improve our service, for marketing purposes and/or industry reporting purposes.

Many of our products and services are free to subscribers who meet certain demographic criteria. Independent auditors may need to certify the eligibility of these subscribers. In order to do that, we may collect unique identifiers (such as mother’s maiden name) that we disclose to the auditors strictly for industry reporting and audit verification purposes.

For our services that require payment (such as certain events, products and subscriptions), we also collect credit card or similar information (such as account name, number and expiration date), which is used for billing purposes only, and is not otherwise shared.

E-mail Newsletters

If Users wish to subscribe to our e-mail newsletters, we ask for contact information (such as name, e-mail address and, occasionally, demographic information). We use this information in the same manner as we use contact information in the registration and ordering process described above. Recipients of our newsletters can unsubscribe using the instructions listed at the end of the e-mail newsletter.

Surveys and Contests

From time to time we invite Users to provide information via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether to disclose requested contact information (such as name and mailing address) and demographic information (such as zip code or job title). In addition to other uses set forth in this policy, contact information collected in connection with surveys and contests is used to notify the winners and award prizes, to monitor or improve the use and satisfaction of the site, and may be shared with sponsors of such surveys or contests.

Interactive Features

We may offer interactive and community features such as discussion boards, webcasts and user profiles. Note that all personal information sent or posted via such features becomes public information for which we are not responsible.

User Referrals

If Users elect to use our referral service for informing a friend about BAIA and our services, we may ask them for the friend's name, job title and e-mail address. BAIA will store and use this information to send the friend an invitation. This information may also be used to provide information about our company and related products and services. The friend may contact us as specified in the User referral message to request that no further communications be sent.

Communications with Us

We have features where Users can submit information to us (such as our feedback forms). Letters to the editor and similar submissions may be made public. Requests for service, support or information may be forwarded as needed to best respond to a specific request. We may retain e-mails and other information sent to us for our internal administrative purposes, and to help us to serve Users better.

Communications from Us: Service Updates, Special Offers

In order to best serve our Users, we may send updates that contain important information about our sites and services. For example, we send new members a welcoming message, and verify password and username for our password-protected sites. We may also communicate with a user to provide requested services and for account-related issues via e-mail, phone or regular mail.

We offer our Users the option to receive information about BAIA, related products, services and special deals. Users can choose not to receive these communications, as set forth in our Permission section below.

Automatic Data Collection

Our web sites have features that automatically collect information from Users, to deliver content specific to Users' interests and to honor their preferences. This information assists us in creating services that will serve the needs of our Users.

We use "cookies," a piece of data stored on the user's hard drive containing information about the user. Cookies benefit the user by requiring login only once, thereby saving time while on our site. If Users reject the cookies, they may be limited in the use of some areas of our site. For example, the user may not be able to participate in sweepstakes, contests or drawings. Additionally, we may note some of the pages the user visits on our site through the use of pixel tags (also called clear gifs). The use of cookies and pixels enable us to track and target the interests of our Users to enhance the experience on our sites.

Some of our business affiliates use cookies on our sites in ads or promotions. However, we have no access to or control over these business affiliates' cookies; we urge Users to read their privacy policies for information.

For our internal purposes, we may gather date, time, browser type, navigation history and IP address of all visitors to our site. This information does not contain anything that can identify Users personally. We use this information for our internal security audit log, trend analysis and system administration, and to gather broad demographic information about our user base for aggregate use.

We may combine demographic information supplied by a subscriber at registration with site usage data to provide general profiles, in aggregate non-personally identifiable form, about our Users and their preferences in the content of the site and advertising. We may share this composite information with our advertisers and business affiliates to help them better understand our services.

During its events, from time to time your picture or video or phono recordings may be taken, and subsequently posted on the BAIA website or the internet. By participating to and attending a BAIA event, you consent to the taking of your picture, and to video and phono recording. You also expressly consent to the use of such photographs and recording in the BAIA website and to the transmission and use of the same by any other website, including other BAIA affiliate, and waive any rights in connection with such use.

WITH WHOM YOUR INFORMATION IS SHARED

We may share (provide and receive) personal information of Users with BAIA’s members for promotional and marketing purposes. Personal information from our members (name, business address, company affiliation, telephone, telefax, email address) may be published in a BAIA member directory, which may by publicly available online and in print. We do not share credit card information with such third parties.

In particular, please note that information collected in connection with events or services sponsored by third parties, will be shared with the sponsor of the particular event or service. These sponsors will use the information according to their own privacy policies, and we urge participants to read those policies and be aware of their privacy practices before registering.

At BAIA’s website, emails, and on-line newsletters, information may be shared with selected advertisers if a user affirmatively clicks through on a link/ad to such advertiser at those sites or in e-mails.

On occasion, we may provide targeted lists of names and offline and online contact information for marketing purposes to third parties, subject to our Permission policies. We give Users the option of not having their name or contact information disclosed to third parties, as set forth in the Permission section.

Other than as set forth above, we do not share personally identifiable information with other companies, apart from those acting as our agents in providing our product(s)/service(s), and which agree to use it only for that purpose and to keep the information secure and confidential. We will also disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena or other legal obligation, in response to a law enforcement agency's request, or in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) our rights or property. Users should also be aware that courts of equity, such as U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, might have the authority under certain circumstances to permit personal information to be shared or transferred to third parties without permission.

We may share aggregate information, which is not personally identifiable, with others. This information may include usage and demographic data, but it will not include personal information.

CORRECTION/UPDATING PERSONAL INFORMATION

If a User’s personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code), or if a User no longer desires our product(s)/service(s), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data. The User should contact User Support for the applicable product or service.

PERMISSION

Our Users are given the opportunity to choose whether to receive information from our affiliates and us not directly related to the registered services. Users also have the opportunity to choose whether to have personal information shared with third parties for marketing purposes. Instructions for how to exercise this choice are contained in e-mails sent by us, on our product websites and in each of our publications. Please note that we will endeavor to implement requests within a reasonable time, although for a time Users may continue to receive mailings, etc., transmitted based on information released prior to the implementation of the request. Users will continue to receive information directly related to their registered services, so they always are kept informed.

SECURITY

We use commercially reasonable precautions to protect our Users' personal information and to store it securely. Sensitive information that is transmitted to us online (such as credit card number) is encrypted and is transmitted to us securely. In addition, access to all of our Users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, a billing clerk or a User service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Finally, the servers on which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

LINKS

Our web sites contain links to other sites. BAIA is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other sites. We encourage our Users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each web site to which we may link that may collect personally identifiable information.

NOTIFICATION AND CHANGES

If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so our Users are aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under which circumstances, if any, we disclose it. Users should check this policy frequently to keep abreast of any changes.

For questions about this privacy statement, contact us at:

BAIA Business Association Italy America
333 Market Street
25th Floor
San Francisco, California 94105
info@baia-network.org

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