ACP Privacy Policy

Digital Millenium Copyright Act

Purpose

To inform web site visitors of ACP's efforts to protect the privacy of information collected at College web sites. Please note that some of the links on College web sites connect to other web sites. Once you leave any ACP web site and enter another web site (whether through an advertisement, co-brand, service, or content link), be aware that any information you disclose on or through those sites is not subject to this privacy policy. ACP does not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of any third party web sites to which we may link. You acknowledge that such other web site locations are not under the control of ACP and agree that ACP shall not be responsible for any information or other links found at any linked site. ACP provides such links only as a convenience to you and has not tested any software or verified any information disclosed on or through such sites. You should always review the privacy policy for those sites to understand how they treat your personal information. Within College web sites, this privacy policy applies only to the information described below.

Policy

The American College of Physicians is committed to protecting the privacy of its members and customers. This document describes the information we collect from our web site and how we use it.

Information collected when you visit ACP web sites

When you view pages and graphics on our web sites, the following information is recorded in a log file:

• The time and date of your request
• The internet address of your computer
• The browser and operating system you are using
• The page which you are viewing
• The previous page that you visited (the referrer)

If you have logged into a password-protected part of our web site, we also record your user name.

Cookies

ACP web sites send all visitors a cookie (small computer file) that contains a unique serial number. Each time our web server receives a request for a page, it checks to see if the cookie is present-this enables us to determine how much of our traffic is from repeat visitors.

Additional cookies may be sent by College web servers to facilitate interaction between your web browser and the College's web servers. For example, the Annual Session Day Planner uses cookies to keep track of which courses you have added to your schedule. The Shopping Cart uses cookies to keep track of items to be included in your order.

You may use the College's web sites without accepting cookies. The "Help" function in your web browser explains how to manage cookies while using the Internet. Please note, however, that some services, such as the Annual Session Day Planner and the Shopping Cart, will not work if your browser will not accept cookies.

ACP Online, Annals.org and some other ACP websites use tracking tools for various purposes such as evaluating usage of the sites or to advertise on third party websites (including Google) to previous visitors of these sites. Such services can include displaying messages and links to previous visitors who haven't completed a task on our site, for example using the contact form to make an inquiry. This could be in the form of an advertisement on the Google search results page, another site in the Google Display Network, or other third-party sites. Third-party vendors use cookies to serve ads based on users' past visits to ACP Online, Annals.org and other ACP sites. Any data collected will be used in accordance with our own privacy policy and Google's privacy policy. To opt out of this feature, visit www.networkadvertising.org/choices.

Personal information

Personal information is information that can be used to identify or contact you. In the course of using College web sites, you may be asked to provide personal information in order to create a new ACP customer account, which may be necessary to access certain free online content or products, purchase a product, participate in a College activity, or otherwise interact with ACP. This information will not be shared with other organizations as the result of your use of a College web site unless the form used for collecting it explicitly states that it will be shared with another organization.

Important note for College members: ACP maintains a membership database independent of its web operations. The information in this database is drawn from membership applications, dues payment forms, product orders and other transactions between the College and its members. Using this database, the College occasionally shares member data with other organizations. You may instruct the College not to share your personal information by contacting Customer Service at 1-800-523-1546 or custserv@acponline.org. In rare instances, personal information may be disclosed for legal or other reasons; these circumstances are noted at the end of this document.

The College uses member e-mail addresses for the sole purpose of conducting College business and for communicating with College members. The College will not sell or lease your e-mail address to other persons or organizations.

How information is used

We use the information noted above to facilitate effective operation of College web sites, to improve the design and performance of our products, and to measure usage by members. We also review use of our site by individual users if a user's account is associated with 1) attempts to violate the security of ACP computer networks, 2) activity that degrades the performance of College web sites, or 3) activity that may be related to copyright violation.

Information we record is collected into reports that enable us to monitor usage and security. Usage statistics are distributed within the College. They may be shared with advertisers for the purpose of showing them how many hits their ads have received. We do not release any information that would allow identification of individual users to outside companies.

Security and e-commerce

Our secure server enables you to transmit a credit card number to us with confidence. Our secure server certificate is issued by VeriSign. We do not store your credit card number after your transaction has been processed.

If you have a question about our privacy policy, send e-mail to custserv@acponline.org.

Disclosure of personal information contained in member and customer records

Disclosure required by law or emergency circumstances -

Personal information is information that can be used to identify or contact you. ACP may release personal information to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others. In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose your personal information to a third party, we will notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order.

Disclosure in the context of mergers and acquisitions -

ACP may disclose personal information to an organization with which it merges, or which acquires ACP or substantially all of its assets. Any personal information provided to such organization will be provided subject to that organization taking reasonable steps to keep personal information private.

Disclosure to ACP operations and maintenance contractors -

ACP operations and maintenance contractors sometimes have limited access to your personal information in the course of providing products or services to ACP. Access to your personal information by these contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary in order for the contractor to perform its limited function for ACP. We also contractually require that our operations and maintenance contractors 1) protect the privacy of your personal information, and 2) not use or disclose your personal information for any purpose other than providing us with products and services.

Digital Millenium Copyright Act: Notice and Take Down Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement by ACP on ACPOnline.org

Please note that these notifications and counter-notifications are legal notices provided outside of the American College of Physicians environment. American College of Physicians may provide copies of such notices to the participants in the dispute or third parties, at our discretion and as required by law - the privacy policy for American College of Physicians does not protect information provided in these notices.

If you (“Copyright Owner”) believe copyrighted work is available on this website in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify the following designated agent of the American College of Physicians, Inc. ("Operator") in writing. While you are welcome to phone with queries, we cannot process take down requests made telephonically.

American College of Physicians, Inc.
Office of Legal Services
DMCA Agent: April Oeffler
190 N. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(p) 215-351-2791 (f) 215-351-2449 (e) aoeffler@acponline.org

Notification

Your written notification (the "Notification") to the above-referenced designated agent must include substantially all of the following:

1. Identification of the copyrighted work that is the subject of the claimed infringement or, if multiple copyrighted works are involved, a representative list of such works;
2. Identification of the allegedly infringing material, together with information reasonably sufficient to permit Operator to locate such material (for example, the URL of web page on which the material appears with optional screenshot);
3. Information reasonably sufficient to permit Operator to contact you, such as your full name, address, telephone number and email address;
4. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the copyrighted work identified in the Notification is being used in a manner that is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law;
5. A statement by you, signed under penalty of perjury, that the information contained in the Notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyrighted work that is allegedly being infringed; and
6. A physical or electronic signature of the owner of the copyrighted work or a person authorized to act on its behalf.

Upon receipt of a Notification containing substantially all of the foregoing, Operator may take the following steps:

1. Remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material;
2. Forward the Notification to the alleged infringer (the "Impacted Party"); and
3. Take reasonable steps to promptly notify the Impacted Party that Operator has removed or disabled access to the allegedly infringing material.

Counter Notification

The Impacted Party may submit a counter notification in writing to the above-referenced designated agent of Operator. The written counter notification (the "Counter Notification") must include substantially all of the following:

1. Identification of the allegedly infringing material that was removed or disabled by Operator and the location where the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled;
2. A statement under penalty of perjury that the Impacted Party has a good faith belief that the allegedly infringing material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled;
3. The Impacted Party's name, address and telephone number and a statement that the Impacted Party consents to the jurisdiction of the United States federal district court for the judicial district in which the address provided by the Impacted Party is located and will accept service of process from you. If the Impacted Party is located outside the United States, the Impacted Party must include a statement that it consents to the jurisdiction of any United States federal district court in which Operator may be found; and
4. A physical or electronic signature of the Impacted Party.

Upon receipt of a Counter Notification containing substantially all of the foregoing, Operator will take the following steps:

1. Send you a copy of the Counter Notification;
2. Inform you that it will replace the allegedly infringing material or cease disabling access to it within ten (10) business days; and
3. Replace the removed allegedly infringing material or cease disabling access to it not less than ten (10) nor more than fourteen (14) business days following receipt of the Counter Notification; provided you have not supplied the designated agent with evidence that you have filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the Impacted Party from engaging in the infringing activity that was the subject of the Notification.

Operator's policy is to terminate the online privileges of individuals who repeatedly violate the copyrights of others.