Privacy Policy

AMERICAN BOARD FOR CERTIFICATION IN ORTHOTICS, PROSTHETICS & PEDORTHICS, INC.

DATA PRIVACY STATEMENT

 

Privacy is important to ABC. ABC developed this Privacy Statement, so individuals and facilities know how their personal information is collected, used, shared, and stored.

This Privacy Statement applies to ABC’s website( https://www.abcop.org ), iinformation we have received from third parties and other information we receive from communications with individuals and facilities. 

INFORMATION WE COLLECT, WHY WE COLLECT IT, AND HOW WE USE IT

“Personal Information” is information that, either alone or in combination with other information collected, identifies an individual. When we combine other information (i.e., information that does not, on its own, identify an individual) with Personal Information, we treat the combined information as Personal Information. Personal Information includes name, mailing address, phone number, e-mail address, employer and job function. 

Contact and Mailing Information

When an individual applies for certification and/or accreditation, signs up for an account or purchases our products and services, we request contact and mailing information including their name, mailing address, email address and telephone number. We use this information to process the order and provide them with the services or products they request. This information is necessary for us to provide individuals with the following:

• The certification/accreditation services and products requested
• Exam registration
• Account registration on our website
• Other services we may offer from time to time.

This information is also necessary for us to communicate about their certification or accreditation, account or transactions with us, giving them important information about our products or services, sending notices about material changes to this Privacy Statement and providing updates on the status of a certification, exam test-dates and schedules, and other information related to the process of certification or accreditation and maintaining certification or accreditation.

Personal Information Needed for Certification & Accreditation Applications

When individuals apply for certification or accreditation, or register to take exams, we may request additional personal information as part of the certification process. This personal information may include employment history, date of birth, social security number, training, certification, education, criminal history and other information directly relevant to eligibility for certification. We need this information to verify identity, process applications and register the individual for exams and certification activities.

Payment Information

When an individual asks to purchase a product, service or exam registration, we request certain payment information necessary for us to fulfill the order. This information may include a billing address, payment card information and other bank information.

We do not view or store the payment card information provided to us on our website. A third party, Vantiv, processes customer payment information when our customers use a payment card to make a purchase on our website.

If a payment is provided to us by mail, email or telephone, we will collect Personal Information from the individual including name, mailing address, telephone number and payment information to process the payments for the products and services requested.

 

Communicating with Us

When an individual interacts with us by email, telephone or in person, we may collect Personal Information such as name, mailing address, phone number, email address and contact preferences, as well as information about certification/accreditation and services receives. We keep a record of correspondence or comments, including Personal Information, in a file specific to the individual. We may use this information to help us provide them with better service in the event that they contact us again.

Browsing, Searching, and Website Activity

We collect certain Personal Information when an individual visits our website or clicks on the various links for products and services. We collect this information to help run our website more efficiently, to gather broad demographic information and to monitor the level of activity on the site.

Once an individual registers and signs in using an account on our website, they are not anonymous to us. The personally identifiable data we collect when they visit the website may include the Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) of the website that they came from before visiting our website, which pages they visit on our website, which URL they next go to, which browser they used to come to our website, their platform, their user name, their Internet Protocol (“IP”) address and any search terms entered on our website. We use industry-accepted standards and technology (including 'cookies') to collect this data and take reasonable and up-to-date measures to maintain the security and integrity of collected data.

Consent

If we request additional Personal Information for different reasons or in a situation that requires an individual’s explicit consent, we will notify them of the reasons and request their explicit consent to the collection accordingly.

SOURCE OF DATA

We primarily collect Personal Information directly from the individual. In some cases, however, we may receive Personal Information, such as Contact and Mailing Information, from third parties. When we receive Personal Information, we will notify the individual within a reasonable time.

SHARING YOUR INFORMATION

ABC may rent in the form of a mailing list the Personal Information we collect online or otherwise. Requests for mailing lists will be accepted only for purposes appropriate to topics related to the orthotic, prosthetic and pedorthic profession and shall not be in conflict with ABC's mission, goals and activities. Lists only include names and work mailing addresses and DO NOT include email, phone or fax numbers. An individual may opt out of these mailing lists by emailing us at  info@abcop.org.

We use third party service providers to help us administer certain activities on our behalf, such as managing certification data, processing certification and accreditation applications, administering certification exams, providing digital badges to our certified members, processing payments, providing accounting services and hosting our website. We may share Personal Information about an individual with such third party service providers to the extent necessary for the sole purpose of enabling them to perform services on our behalf. Where we engage third parties to perform services on our behalf, we will require them to observe the intent of this Privacy Statement.

Other Disclosures

We may disclose Personal Information about an individual to others if we have their consent to do so in such form of consent as may be required under applicable law.

We may also disclose Personal Information about an individual to others as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law or regulation, including laws or regulations outside their country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public authorities and law enforcement officials, including officials outside their country of residence; (d) to assist or support theft investigations involving our products or property; (e) to enforce any of our terms and conditions or policies; (f) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates and subsidiaries; (g) to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of ABC, its affiliates and subsidiaries, the individual or others; or (h) to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

We may also transfer Personal Information to an affiliate, a subsidiary or a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business or assets, including, without limitation, in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceeding.

 

RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

 

We will retain the individual’s Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes for which the Personal Information has been collected as outlined in this Privacy Statement unless a longer retention period is required by law.

We will store certification information for certified individuals for an indefinite period, so that we can confirm the certification status to third parties upon request. 

 

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

ABC is based in the United States, where our servers, data processors and offices are located. Any information sent to us by telephone, email, mail or our website will be received in the United States. The United States may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which an individual initially provided the information.

HOW TO REVIEW, CORRECT, UPDATE, AND DELETE PERSONAL INFORMATION

 

We take reasonable steps to help ensure that the Personal Information we collect from individuals is accurate, complete and current. An individual may request access to their Personal Information and request that erroneous or inaccurate Personal Information be corrected. An individual may request that their Personal Information (including certification information) and their website account be deleted. An individual may also request a copy of their Personal Information in our files. An individual can object to the processing of their data and, if they provided consent to allow us to process their data, they can withdraw their consent. We will respond promptly to requests in accordance with applicable law.

For the individual’s protection, we may only implement requests with respect to the Personal Information associated with the particular email address that they use to send us their request, and we may need to verify their identity before implementing their request. We may decline to process requests that jeopardize the privacy of others, are extremely impractical or would cause us to take any action that is not permissible under applicable laws. Additionally, as permitted by applicable laws, we may need to retain certain Personal Information for a longer period for recordkeeping purposes, such as retaining records relating to purchases for warranty or accounting purposes.

If an individual requests that their Personal Information and certification information be deleted, we will no longer be able to verify their certification status to third parties.

Access, correction or deletion requests can be sent to us by email or postal mail as follows:

Name: ABC
Email: info@abcop.org
Mail: 330 John Carlyle St, Ste. 210, Alexandria, VA 22314

Individuals in the European Union (“EU”) may also want to contact their supervisory authority to lodge a complaint regarding any issues they have with how we process their data.