Privacy Policy

At PI North America, we respect your privacy. We want to ensure that you get the information, content, and experiences that matter most to you. PI North America is committed to protecting the privacy of its members, customers, volunteers, and other contacts.

Scope

This privacy policy applies to all personal data (in this privacy policy also referred to as personal information) processed by full-time and part-time employees, volunteers when acting on behalf of PI North America, contractors and partners doing business on behalf of PI North America, as well as all legal entities, all operating locations in all countries, and all business processes conducted by PI North America.

Information collected

What information do we collect?
PI North America collects the following personal data in line with the use purposes explained in a subsequent section:

• Your name and contact details, such as physical address, email address, telephone number;
• Purchasing and payment information for your purchases and your credit card information;
• Information on files downloaded from the PI North America website;
• Registration and participation in PI North America events and activities;
• Information collected by cookies;
• Location information;
• Other information you upload or provide to us.

You are not obliged to provide your personal data to us. However, in some cases it might be necessary that you provide your personal data to us to enter into a contract with us or to use some of our services

How do we use your information, and what are the legal bases?
PI North America uses (and, where specified, shares) your personal information for the following purposes and on the following legal bases:

To process transactions. PI North America uses personal information such as name, physical address, telephone number, email address, and company/institution to engage in interactions with you, including contacting you about your order, subscription, event participation, or membership. We use financial/credit card and payment information to process your order and may need to share some of this information with delivery services, credit card processors, and other third parties to complete the transaction. We process your data for these purposes to perform the contracts we have with you.

To provide support or other services. PI North America may use your personal information to provide you with support or other services that you have ordered or requested. PI North America may also use your personal information to respond directly to your requests for information, including registrations for newsletters, webinars, or other specific requests, or pass your contact information to the appropriate PI North America partners for further follow-up related to your interests. For these purposes we process your data because it is our legitimate interest to maintain our relations with our current and potential customers, partners and members.

To provide information based on your needs and respond to your requests. PI North America may use your personal information to provide you with notices of new events and service developments provided you have consented to receive such notifications.

To administer products. PI North America may contact you if you registered for events to confirm certain information about your order (for example, that you did not experience problems during the registration process). In this case we process your information to perform our contract we have with you. We may also use this information to confirm compliance with licensing and other terms of use and may share it with your company/institution which is of legitimate interest of us.

To select content, improve quality, and facilitate use of the website. PI North America uses your personal information, including the information gathered as a result of site navigation and electronic protocols and cookies (including third-party cookies), to help create and personalize website content, improve website quality, track marketing campaign responsiveness, evaluate page response rates, conduct usability testing, and facilitate your use of the website (for example, to facilitate navigation and the login process, avoid duplicate data entry, enhance security, and preserve order information between sessions). This supports our legitimate interest to strengthen our relationship with you and further develop our business.

To serve advertising to you. We don’t share your information with advertisers without your consent. We allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements, and we may use any of the non-personally-identifiable attributes we have collected to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. When you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and that your attributes meet the criteria the advertiser selected.

To communicate with you about a meeting, conference, or event. We may communicate with you about a meeting, conference, or event hosted or co-sponsored by PI North America or one of our partners. This may include information about the event’s content, event logistics, payment, updates, and additional information related to the event. Information you provide when registering for or participating in a conference managed or co-sponsored by parties, other than or in addition to PI North America, may be shared with those parties, and the treatment of such information is further subject to the privacy policies of those parties. As far as such processing of your data is not necessary to perform a contract we have with you and your consent is not legally required, the processing is for our legitimate interest to maintain our relationship with you and our other partners. PI North America and its conference co-sponsors may contact you after the event about the event, subsequent iterations of the event, and related events. In this case we process your data only with your consent. But please note that PI North America conference, meeting, or event organizers, co-sponsors, exhibitors, and other third parties may directly request your personal information at their conference booths or presentations. Providing your information to them is optional, and you should review their privacy policies to address your particular needs and concerns about how they will treat your personal information.

To include you in PI North America Member Directories. If you are a point of contact for an active member in PI North America, we include your name in the PI North America Member Directory. This is for our legitimate interest to administer our members and their representatives.

To assist in your participation in PI North America activities. PI North America will communicate with you, if you are participating in certain PI North America activities such as PI North America road shows, interoperability events, or working groups. PI North America may send you information directly related to your participation in those activities if you have consented to receive those emails.

To update you on relevant PI North America benefits, programs, and opportunities. PI North America may communicate with you regarding relevant PI North America benefits, programs, and opportunities available to you, through your membership with PI North America to perform our contract (on your membership) we have with you.

To engage with third parties. PI North America may share your personal data with third parties in connection with services that these individuals or entities perform for or with PI North America. These third parties are restricted from using this data in any way other than to provide services for PI North America or for the collaboration in which they and PI North America are contractually engaged (for example, hosting a PI North America database or engaging in data processing on PI North America’s behalf, or mailing you information that you requested). These third parties are carefully selected by PI North America and obligated to keep your data secure. When we share your data for these purposes this is for our legitimate interest to receive certain services which are useful to us.

To protect PI North America content and services. We may use your information to prevent potentially illegal activities and to enforce our terms and conditions. We also use a variety of technological systems to detect and address anomalous activity and to screen content to prevent abuse, such as spam. These efforts may, on occasion, result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users. Such processing of your data is for our legitimate interest to prevent our partners and our products and services from harm through any criminal actions.

To get feedback or input from you. In order to deliver products and services of most interest to our members, from time to time, we may ask members, volunteers, and website visitors to provide us input and feedback (for example through surveys, usability studies, or focus groups) which is for our legitimate interest to improve our products and services.

How can you control your information?
You can control the information we have about you and how we use it in several ways:

• If you are a registered user, you can contact PI North America to confirm the information have collected, and address related concerns.
• Use the unsubscribe method provided in our various communications.

For how long will we retain your personal information?
We will only keep personal information (name, email address, physical address) in an identifiable form for as long as it is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was originally collected or any additional uses you have agreed to. After that, we will either delete the information or de-identify it so that it is no longer associated with you. Personal data about minors and children
PI North America does not knowingly collect data from or about children under 16 without the permission of parent(s)/guardian(s). If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 16, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under age 16, please contact us. How will you know if the Privacy Policy is changed?
PI North America updates its Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email if you are a PI North America member, or by means of a notice on this website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

Technical and regulatory information

Logging practices
PI North America automatically records the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of visitors. The IP address is a unique number assigned to every computer on the internet. Generally, an IP address changes each time you connect to the internet (it is a “dynamic” address). Note, however, that if you have a broadband connection, depending on your individual circumstance, the IP address that we collect may contain information that could be deemed identifiable. This is because, with some broadband connections, your IP address doesn’t change (it is “static”) and could be associated with your personal computer and even dynamic IP addresses could be related to you in certain circumstances.

As well as recording the IP addresses of users, PI North America may also keep track of sites that users visited immediately prior to visiting PI North America’s website and the search terms they used to find it. We keep track of the pages visited on PI North America’s website, the amount of time spent on those pages, and the types of searches done on them. Your searches remain confidential. PI North America uses this information only for statistical purposes to find out which pages users find most useful and to improve the website.

PI North America also captures and stores information that you transmit. This includes:

• Browser/Device type/version
• Operating system used
• Media Access Control (MAC) address
• Date and time of the server request
• Volume of data transferred

External links behavior
Some pages on PI North America’s website contain links to other sites created and maintained by other public- and/or private-sector organizations. PI North America provides these links solely for your information and convenience. When you transfer to an outside website, you are leaving the PI North America domain, and PI North America’s information management policies no longer apply. PI North America encourages you to read the privacy statement of each external website that you visit before you provide any personal data. Cookies and web beacons
Cookies and web beacons are electronic placeholders that are placed on your device by websites to track your individual movements on that website over time. PI North America uses both session-based cookies (which last only for the duration of the user’s session) and persistent cookies (which remain on your device and provides information about the session you are in and waits for the next time you use that site again). You will be asked to agree to the cookie policy and consent to the use of cookies before you can use the PI North America website.

These cookies and web beacons provide useful information to PI North America, enabling us to recognize repeat users, facilitate the user’s access to and use of our site, track usage behavior, and to balance the usage of our website on all PI North America web servers.

Tracking cookies, third-party cookies, and other technologies such as web beacons may be used to process additional information, enable non-core functionalities on the PI North America website and enable third-party functions (such as an embedded video). We may also include web beacons and other similar technology in promotional email messages to determine whether the messages have been opened.

Do Not Track (DNT)
The online advertising industry has self-regulatory initiatives designed to provide consumers a choice in the types of ads they may see online and to conveniently opt-out from online behavioral ads served by some or all of the companies participating in these programs. Our website does not respond to DNT consumer browser settings. Collaboration with authorities
PI North America will investigate complaints, report data breaches and coordinate with the appropriate regulatory authorities when required. Privacy related questions, complaints or other issues can be reported via the Contact Us form. Transfer of information to other countries
As a global organization, PI North America engages in a number of international activities. In connection with the management of those activities, PI North America may transfer to, store, and process information in other countries. Such countries may have lower legal standards for protection of personal data than the country of your residence. If personal data is collected from EU residents and transferred to countries outside the EU/EEA we have implemented appropriate safeguards for these transfers to protect this data. Responses to legal requests
PI North America reserves the right to share your information to respond to duly authorized information requests of governmental authorities or where required by law.

In the event of bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction. The promises in this privacy policy will apply to your information as transferred to the new entity.

Your European Union privacy rights
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation EU 2016/679) (also known as GDPR), if you are an individual protected by the GDPR, such as an EU resident, you have certain rights as a data subject: You have the right to request access to and rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing concerning the data subject or to object to processing as well as the right to data portability. If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To request information about or avail yourself of those rights, please contact us with “GDPR Request” in the subject line. In the email please describe, with specificity, the GDPR right you are requesting assistance with. Please note additional information may be requested prior to initiation of a request and that PI North America reserves the right to charge a fee with respect to certain requests. However, generally any requests are free of charge. Upon PI North America’s completion of its review you will be notified if your request has been granted, denied, or exemptions apply.

How do I contact you if there is an issue?
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or about the use of your personal information, please feel free to contact us by completing the form on the Contact Us page.