Date Posted and Effective Date: December 31, 2019
Last Modified: July 6, 2022
The Professionals Group (“Pro Group”) is organized and sponsored (in part) by Workiva Inc. (“Workiva”) (the Pro Group and Workiva are collectively referred to as, “we,” “us,” or “our”). This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) only applies to information collected through https://www.progroups.org, https://soxprofessionalsgroup.org/, and https://secprofessionals.org/ (“Site”).
We want you to feel comfortable using the Site, so we have created this Privacy Policy to inform you of the information we may collect from or about you in connection with the Site and how we may use and disclose that information. It also describes your choices regarding use, access, deletion, and correction of your personal information.
IF YOU ARE A CALIFORNIA RESIDENT, this Privacy Policy also informs you about the personal information we collect from or about you in other contexts, including personal information collected online or offline in connection with our products and services (“Services”) and your interactions with our employees and representatives. California residents can learn more about the personal information we collect from or about you, including how we may use and share it, as well as your rights under California law, in the Privacy Policy’s Supplemental Notice for California Residents found here (which is incorporated in and a part of this Privacy Policy).
Please take a moment to review the terms of this Privacy Policy. By using the Site or our Services, you agree to accept the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Site or Services.
PLEASE NOTE: BECAUSE THE PRO GROUP IS ORGANIZED AND SPONSORED (IN PART) BY WORKIVA, BOTH THE PRO GROUP AND WORKIVA COLLECT AND RECEIVE INFORMATION COLLECTED FROM OR ABOUT YOU (ONLINE OR OFFLINE) IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND SERVICES. WORKIVA AND THE PRO GROUP WILL ONLY USE AND DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION IN COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY.
I. Personal Information
A. Active Collection and Use:
In order to access the Site, services and the information available on the Site, or to use the Services, you are required to register with the Site (or via an alternate method made available to you) and provide some personal information, such as your name and email address or other contact information. You may edit your information at any time by logging onto the Site and updating your profile. You may also be provided an option to choose to subscribe to an email list. If you subscribe to our electronic mailing list and later decide to opt-out, simply follow the instructions that are included in each email. If you provide us with personal information, we will retain and may use that information to contact or respond to you. We also may retain or use your personal information for the period of time needed to pursue legitimate business interests. Legitimate business interests may include customizing the services or other content we provide to you and to otherwise ensure compliance with our policies and applicable laws. Our Site and Services collect, store and process this personal information on servers in the United States of America.
When you provide us with personal information about your contacts, we will only use this information for the specific reason for which it is provided. If you believe that one of your contacts has provided us with your personal information and you would like to request that it be removed from our database, please contact us at info@soxprofessionalsgroup.org.
B. Aggregate Information and Passive Information Collection:
From time to time, we may collect general, non-personal, statistical information about the use of the Site, such as how many visitors visit a specific page on the Site, how long they stay on that page, and which hyperlinks, if any, they “click” on. We collect this information through the use of technologies such as “cookies” and “IP addresses,” which are discussed in greater detail below. Our system may also automatically collect operational information about the technology you use, such as your browser, type of computer, operating systems, internet service providers and the domain name of the site from which you linked to our Site. We collect this information in order to determine which areas of the Site are most popular and to enhance the Site for visitors. We may also use this information for security purposes, to detect and to block security breaches and to provide you with a safe online environment.
C. IP Addresses:
An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the web. Web servers, the computers that “serve up” web pages, automatically identify your computer by its IP address. We collect IP addresses for purposes of system administration, to report aggregate information to third parties and to track the use of the Site. When visitors request pages from the Site, our servers log the visitors' IP addresses. It is not our practice to link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a visitor's session will be logged. However, we reserve the right to use IP addresses to identify a visitor when we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with the Site's policies or to protect the Site, us, other sponsors, Site visitors, or others.
D. Cookies, Beacons and Successor Technologies:
We may use, and permit our service providers and analytics providers to use, session cookies, persistent cookies, and flash cookies and web beacons, as well as other comparable or future technologies, to track information based on use of the Site.
Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to an individual's hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Cookies make web surfing easier for you by saving your preferences while you're at the Site. The use of cookies is an industry standard -- you'll find them at most websites. By showing how and when visitors use the Site, cookies help us see which areas are popular and which are not. Information such as the total number of visitors and pages viewed is most easily tracked with cookies. We may use the information from cookies to make improvements and updates to the Site and to tailor our Services to our visitors' needs. For example, the Site allows visitors to increase the font size of the text contained on the Site to make it easier to read. Cookies enable the Site to automatically use your preferred font size the next time you visit the Site. You have the option of disabling cookies using your browser preferences. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, please be aware that some features of the Site may not function properly or may be slower if you refuse cookies.
Site pages may contain electronic images known as web beacons, also referred to as single-pixel gifs, that permit us to count users who have visited those pages and for other related website statistics (e.g., recording the popularity of certain Site content and verifying system and server integrity). Web beacons are not used to access your personal information on the Site; they are solely used to compile aggregated statistics concerning the use of the Site. Web beacons collect only a limited set of information including a cookie number, the time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides.
In addition to the foregoing, we use Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting (implemented based on Display Advertising), which will track certain personal information of yours. Information collected about you is limited to age, gender and affinity categories. If you would like to opt out of the collection of such information you may do so by CLICKING HERE. Further, Google has a browser plugin (for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera) that prevents your data from being collected and used by Google Analytics. You can download the plugin by CLICKING HERE.
For a listing of some of the types of cookies utilized for the Site and services as administered, please CLICK HERE. To manage Flash cookies, please click here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html
We partner with a third party to display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third party partner may use cookies or similar technologies in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to opt out of interest-based advertising, click here or if located in the European Union click here. Please note you will continue to receive generic ads.
E. Do Not Track Signals:
At this time we do not have the ability to comply with any setting within your web browser that would send “do not track” signals or other similar technology that would provide consumers the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personally identifiable information. Thus, we do not honor “do not track signals.”
F. User Data Supplementation
We may receive information about you from other sources, including publicly available databases or social media sites, combine this data with information we already have about you. This helps us to update, expand and analyze our records, identify new customers, and provide products and services that may be of interest to you.
Examples of the types of personal information that may be obtained from public sources or purchased from third parties and combined with information we already have about you (for the purpose of creating more tailored advertising and products), may include:
- Purchased marketing data about our customers from third parties
- Data and other information available publicly on social media sites
II. Disclosure of Information
A. Personally Identifiable Information:
Because the main purpose of joining the Site is to network with similarly situated colleagues, for as long as you are a member your information will be available, via the Site or Services, to other members of the Pro Groups. If you would not like to share your information with other members, do not join the Site or register for Services.
We may use information collected from and about you to improve the content of the Site and Services, to customize the Site and Services to your preferences, to communicate information to you (if you have requested it), for our marketing and research purposes, and for any other purpose specified. We may make full use of all information acquired through or in connection with the Site and Services that is not in personally identifiable form.
As the Site and Services develops, we may buy other businesses or their assets or sell our business assets. Customer information is generally one of the business assets involved in such transactions. Thus, in the event that the Site or Services, or Workiva, or all of its assets are acquired, or in cases of liquidation, dissolution, reorganization or other transfer of the business, customer information, including any visitor information collected in connection with the Site and Services, may be one of the transferred assets.
Finally, we reserve the right to disclose your information 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) rights or property, other visitors, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. We also reserve the right to disclose visitor information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it.
B. Sharing Information:
Except for the limited situations discussed in this Privacy Policy (including the Supplemental Notice for California Residents), we will not share your personally identifiable information with any third parties. We may share any information, including personally identifiable information, with Workiva’s affiliates (meaning entities controlled by, controlling or under common control with Workiva), the Pro Group members, Pro Group Sponsors, and our partners, including speakers and presenters, for instance, for networking purposes, or so that they can market their products or services to you. If you have questions about how we share your personal information with these parties, or you do not want us to share your personal information with these parties, contact us at info@soxprofessionalsgroup.org. We may sometimes use third parties to perform certain services for us, such as hosting the Site, sending postal mail and providing data analysis. We may provide personally identifiable information to those businesses when that information is necessary for them to respond to your requests or otherwise perform their duties. By using the Site and Services and/or providing us with your personal information, you are consenting to this sharing. We may also disclose your personal information to any other third party with your prior consent.
C. Aggregate Information:
We may group information into aggregate visitor data in order to describe the use of the Site to our existing or potential business partners or other third parties, or in response to a government request.
III. Links to Other Sites
Please be aware that when you are on the Site, you could be directed to other sites that are beyond our control. There may be links to other sites from the Site's pages that take you outside our Site. These other sites may send their own cookies to visitors, collect data, or solicit personal information. The privacy policies of these other sites may be significantly different from this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these other sites and cannot guarantee the security of any of your personal information collected there. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of such other sites to learn about such sites’ use of your data.
IV. Security
Protecting the security of your personal information is very important to us. When you transmit personal information from your PC to our servers, your information is protected by both a “firewall” (a combination of computer hardware and software that helps keep unauthorized visitors from accessing information within our computer network) and industry standard SSL (secure socket layer) encryption. Once we receive your transmission, we will take reasonable precautions to ensure its security on our systems. While we utilize all of our security and data protection preventative measures, the internet is inherently insecure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information and privacy, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you disclose or transmit to us online.
Users are required to sign-in to specific secured areas of the Site and services using a user ID and password. The ID and password authenticate the user and are designed to safeguard against unauthorized access and use of a user's account. The user ID and password are used on a secure web page and encrypted when transmitted over the internet.
The safety and security of your information also depend on you. Never share your password with anyone else, notify us promptly if you believe your password security has been breached, and remember to log off of the Site before you leave your computer.
Similarly, any personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data that you disclose through online forums hosted on the Site, may be collected and used by others. Although we restrict access to forums to members and other authorized users, please bear in mind that all members have access to your personally identifiable information and we cannot control how such members use your information.
V. Privacy Policy for Children
We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 16 on the Site. If you are under the age of 16, please do not provide any personal information to us. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 16, we will make commercially reasonable efforts to delete such information from our database.
VI. Changes to These Terms
The terms of this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes to this Privacy Policy by posting a notice, on the homepage of the Site for a reasonable period of time prior to the changes becoming effective, stating that this Privacy Policy has been updated, and by changing the “Last Modified” date at the top of this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to check this page periodically for any changes. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes.
VII. Access and Review of Data
When using our Site and Services, we make a good faith effort to provide you with access to your personal information and either correct this data if it is inaccurate or delete inaccurate data at your request if it is not otherwise required to be retained by law or for legitimate business purposes.
Users must identify themselves and the information requested to be accessed, corrected or removed prior to processing such requests, and we may decline to process such requests that are deemed unreasonable or inappropriate. In any case, the information access and data corrections are performed free of charge, except if doing so would require a disproportionate effort. Once your information is corrected or deleted, residual copies may take a period of time before they are deleted from our active systems and may remain in our backup systems.
You may access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information by logging into your account or contacting us at info@soxprofessionalsgroup.org. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.
IF YOU ARE A CALIFORNIA RESIDENT, you can learn more about your rights under California law, including how to exercise these rights, in the Supplemental Notice for California Residents. We may retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you Services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
VIII. International Privacy Principles
The Pro Group is a global community and Workiva is a global business. Personal information may be stored and processed in any country where we have operations or where we engage service providers. In particular, we collect and transfer to the United States personal information pursuant to the following legal bases (i) with your consent, (ii) to perform a contract with you, or (iii) to fulfill a legitimate interest of ours in a manner that does not outweigh your rights and freedoms.
We may transfer, access, or store personal information about you outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), Switzerland, United Kingdom, or another country that requires legal protections for international data transfer. Those countries (including the United States) may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country and may not have received a finding of “adequacy” from the European Union under Article 41 of the GDPR. For such transfers, we will ensure that an adequate level of protection is provided for the information by using one or more of the following approaches:
We may transfer personal information to countries that have privacy laws that have been recognized by the country from which the data are transferred as providing similar protections for the data.
We may enter into written agreements, such as standard contractual clauses, with recipients that require them to provide the same level of protection for the data.
We may rely on other transfer mechanisms approved by authorities in the country from which the data are transferred.
A. EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks:
Workiva participates in and has certified its compliance with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. We are committed to subjecting all personal data received from European Union (EU) member countries, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, respectively, to the Framework’s applicable Principles. To learn more about the Privacy Shield Frameworks, and to view our certification, visit the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Privacy Shield List: https://www.privacyshield.gov/list.
Workiva is responsible for the processing of personal data it receives, under each Privacy Shield Framework, and subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. Workiva complies with the Privacy Shield Principles for all onward transfers of personal data from the EU, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, including the onward transfer liability provisions.
With respect to personal data received or transferred pursuant to the Privacy Shield Frameworks, Workiva is subject to the regulatory enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. In certain situations, Workiva may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.
If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) by clicking here.
Under certain conditions, more fully described on the Privacy Shield website https://www.privacyshield.gov/article?id=How-to-Submit-a-Complaint, you may invoke binding arbitration when other dispute resolution procedures have been exhausted.
If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern.
IX. Questions
At any time, if you believe that we have willingly violated this Privacy Policy, please let us know by sending an email to info@soxprofessionalsgroup.org or by calling 515-663-4435. We value your trust and will take the appropriate measures to ensure that the Site and services we provide to you are secure. If we are unable to resolve your privacy concerns or disputes, we will submit the dispute to an independent mediator, or you can contact our third party dispute resolution provider above. If you would like more information on this process and/or the independent mediator, please contact us at info@soxprofessionalsgroup.org.
Any questions that you may have regarding this Privacy Policy should be directed to info@soxprofessionalsgroup.org.
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