Last Updated: January 20, 2025
ANCAS® is dedicated to protecting your personal information and informing you about how we use your information. This privacy policy applies to your use of ANCAS® services including our website and services (collectively “Platform”). This Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with the Terms of Service and is integrated into the Terms of Service. All capitalized proper nouns not defined in this Agreement will have the same definitions and meanings as defined by the Terms of Service. Please review this Privacy Policy periodically as we may revise it from time to time. If you do not agree with or accept our Privacy Policy in it’s entirety, you must not access or use the Platform. If you use the Platform following a change to the terms of this Privacy Policy you agree to accept the revised policies.
At ANCAS®, we collect personally identifiable information (“PII”) and non-personally identifiable (“Non-PII”) information from you. Personally identifiable information is information that can be used to identify you personally. Non-personally identifiable information is information that must be combined with other information to identify you personally.
Personally Identifiable Information Collected
You will not be required to provide us any information when you visit our Platform. However, in order to fully use our Platform, we may collect PII such as your name, date of birth, email, telephone number, website and business information, and address. We may also collect your relevant payment or credit card information if you wish to pay for any services offered via the Platform. Please be aware that all payment information shall be stored and processed by our third party payment processors.
Non-Identifying Information
Whenever you use our website, we may collect Non-PII from you, such as your IP address, zip code, gender, browsing history, search history, and registration history, interactions with the Platform, usage information, location, referring URL, browser, operating system, data usage, data transferred, and Internet service provider. We may also collect information including but not limited to postings you make on the public areas of our website, messages you send to us, and correspondence we receive from other members or third parties about your activities or postings.
Some of your information will be visible to other users of the Platform to facilitate communication between users. We will never sell your information without your permission; however you agree that we may use your information in the following ways:
Please be aware that we me may collect and aggregate personally identifiable information from our Platform and may anonymize that information for our own research or internal purposes. Once such data has been anonymized, it cannot be traced back to you, the user.
You will be able to access any information contained in your account through our Platform. You may edit that information by removing or changing the information listed in your account. If you have any questions or wish to review, remove, change, or access any of your information collected by us, please contact us by notifying us per email (privacy@ancas.org). After you have cancelled your account please be aware that we may keep inaccessible copies of your PII and non-PII subject to our data retention policies.
If you wish to have any of your PII stored within ANCAS® Platform permanently removed, please follow our instructions as stated within the policy titled “Removal of Information”. If you have any questions regarding such removal please contact us by notifying us per email (privacy@ancas.org).
We use cookies as stated within our Cookie Policy. Cookies must be enabled in your browser in order for our Platform to function properly. Additionally, while using portions of our Platform, we may track your usage information so that we understand how you interact with our Platform. If you disable cookies from your web browser some portions of our Platform may not work.
Although you are entering into an Agreement with ANCAS® to disclose your information to us, we do use third party individuals and organizations to assist us, including contractors, web hosts, and others to allow you to access the Platform.
Throughout the course of our provision of our services to you, we may delegate our authority to collect, access, use, and disseminate your information. It is therefore necessary that you grant the third parties we may use in the course of our business the same rights that you afford us under this Privacy Policy. For this reason, you hereby agree that for every authorization which you grant to us in this Privacy Policy, you also grant to any third party that we may hire, contract, or otherwise retain the services of for the purpose of operating, maintaining, repairing, or otherwise improving or preserving our website or its underlying files or systems. You agree not to hold us liable for the actions of any of these third parties, even if we would normally be held vicariously liable for their actions, and that you must take legal action against them directly should they commit any tort or other actionable wrong against you.
You agree that we may disclose your information to authorities if compelled to by a court order. Additionally, you agree that we may disclose your information if we reasonably believe that you have violated laws, the terms of our Terms of Service or our Privacy Policy, or if we believe that a third party is at risk of bodily or economic harm. In the event that we receive a subpoena affecting your privacy, we may elect to notify you to give you an opportunity to file a motion to quash the subpoena, or we may attempt to quash it ourselves, but we are not obligated to do either. We may also proactively report you and release your information without receiving any request to third parties where we believe that it is proper to do so for legal reasons, where your actions violate any law of the United States or any other country having jurisdiction over us, our Platform, or our Terms of Service. You release us from any damages that may arise from or relate to the release of your information to a request from law enforcement agencies or private litigants. We may release your information under the conditions listed in this paragraph whether it is to individuals or entities and to any state or federal authorities, as required.
If you decide to provide us with your contact information, you agree that we may send you communications via text and emails. However, you may unsubscribe from certain communications by notifying ANCAS® that you no longer wish to receive these communications, we will endeavour to promptly remove you from our once we have received that request. We currently do not offer functionality for you to opt out through “do not track” listings. If you wish to opt out of certain communications or information collection, please contact us by notifying us per email (privacy@ancas.org).
ANCAS® or other users may post links to third party websites on Platform, which may include information that we have no control over. When accessing a third party site through our Platform, you acknowledge that you are aware that these third party websites are not screened for privacy or security issues by us, and you release us from any liability for the conduct of these third party websites.
Please be aware that this Privacy Policy, and any other policies in place, in addition to any amendments, does not create rights enforceable by third parties. ANCAS® bears no responsibility for the information collected or used by any advertiser or third party website. You must review their Terms of Service and Privacy to understand how their information collection practices work.
We make reasonable attempts to protect your information by using physical and electronic safeguards. For this reason we use SSL certificates to enhance our Platform security. However, as this is the Internet, we can make no guarantees as to the security or privacy of your information. For this reason, we recommend that you use anti-virus software, routine credit checks, firewalls, and other precautions to protect yourself from security and privacy threats.
ANCAS® permits residents of the State of California to use its Platform, and complies with the California Business and Professions Code §§ 22575-22579. If you are a California resident you may request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to any third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Various provisions throughout this Privacy Policy address requirements of the Californian privacy statutes. Although we do not disseminate your information to third parties without permission, you must presume that we collect electronic information from all visitors. You may contact us by notifying us per email (privacy@ancas.org) with any questions.
We intend to fully comply with American and international laws respecting children’s privacy including COPPA. Therefore, we do not collect or process any information for any persons under the age of 18. If you are under 18 and using our Platform, please stop immediately and do not submit any information to us. In the event that we have inadvertently collected any information from users under the age of 18 please contact us immediately.
Your information may be transferred to – and maintained on – computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer. PII and Non-PII that is submitted to ANCAS® will be collected, processed, stored, disclosed and disposed of in accordance with applicable U.S. law and this policy. If you are a non-U.S. member, you acknowledge and agree that ANCAS® may collect and use your Information and disclose it to other entities outside your resident jurisdiction. In addition, such information may be stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction. U.S. law may not provide the degree of protection for information that is available in other countries.
In the event that ANCAS® is involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction. Please be aware that once the information is transferred your privacy rights may change.
Like our Terms of Service, we may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we amend this Privacy Policy, we will modify the date listed on this Agreement or we may contact you. You must agree to the amendments as a condition of your continued use of our Platform. If you do not agree, you must immediately cease using our Platform and notify us of your refusal by notifying us per email (privacy@ancas.org).
We respect the rights of persons living within the European Economic Community (EEC) and the rights afforded to them under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the sections 18-23 are referred to as our Privacy Notice and address additional privileges that EEC users may have under our Privacy Policy. This Privacy Notice explains how we shall assist our users who live within the EEC.
Very truly yours,
American National Council of Accreditation Standards® (ANCAS®)
1400 Jefferson Dr SW
Washington D.C.
20004 United States