Privacy Policy

Overview

Our mission is to drive a dynamic accounting profession globally and, when you register with us, you gain access to a wide range of tools and services to stay ahead. To seamlessly deliver these resources and benefits, we at times need to share your information across our teams and offices – always with a focus on keeping your data secure.

This Privacy Policy describes the ways in which your personal data is collected and used by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association), the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) (collectively referred to herein as “the controllers”, “we”, “us”, “our”). By providing your personal data to any of the controllers, you acknowledge and agree that your data may be shared between and/or processed by any of the three controllers.

It is your responsibility to review and understand this Privacy Policy prior to providing your personal data to us. You also should review our Terms and Conditions. If you do not accept and agree to the Privacy Policy and/or Terms and Conditions, please refrain from providing your personal data to us, accessing our websites, and/or utilizing our products and services.

With our websites and services constantly evolving, our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions may also change from time to time. Whenever there are changes, the modified policies will be posted on our websites and will be effective at that time. Each time they change, the version number displayed at the top of the page also will change. Consequently, each time you access or use our websites or otherwise engage with us, you accept and agree to the most current Privacy Policy and set of Terms and Conditions. It is your responsibility to be aware of any such changes.

Notice

Our websites contain links to other websites which are managed by third parties (including their use of cookies). As a user of links, it is your responsibility to understand those third parties’ privacy policies. Once you leave our websites using links, we have no control over information that is submitted to or collected by any third parties and are not responsible for other websites.

Collection of Personal Data

In order to provide our products, services and websites and for the other purposes set out in Use of Information below, we collect and process personal data from our members, students, customers, and other users of our websites, products and services. We may collect information from you such as, but not limited to, your name, email address, mailing address, phone/fax numbers, date of birth, gender, payment information, education history, employment information, information related to your professional qualifications, designations and memberships and information about your use of our and third-party websites, products and services (“Personal Data”). You are not required to provide us with all of the Personal Data listed above, but if you do not do so, we may not be able to effectively provide you with our products, services and information. In certain circumstances, you will need to provide us with specific categories of Personal Data (including name, email address and payment information) in order to enter into a contract with us and for us to perform that contract.

From time to time and as permitted by applicable law(s), we may collect Personal Data about you and update any existing Personal Data that we currently hold from other third-party sources, including publicly available data sources, publicly available social networking sites such as LinkedIn, your employer or university/school, State CPA Societies, our credential and designation examination providers, course providers or data brokers such as Acxiom.

See “Use of Information” section below for details regarding the ways that we use and process your personal data.

Use of Information

Your Personal Data may be used in the following ways:

To provide our products and services to you.
To enhance and improve our products and services, for example, by performing internal research, analyzing user trends and measuring demographics and interests.
To process payments from you (including, but not limited to, membership dues and subscriptions, registration fees, voluntary contributions, examination fees, credential and designation fees, or payments for any products or services that you choose to purchase from us).
To process payments to you (including, but not limited to, refunds or reimbursements).
Internal purposes, such as website and system administration or internal audits and reviews.
To provide access to restricted parts of our websites.
To determine eligibility for membership, credentials, designations and volunteer opportunities.
To communicate with you regarding your membership and products/services that may be of interest to you.
To respond to your requests and inquiries.
To serve relevant advertisements to you when you visit our sites or other third-party sites (including social media platforms).
To request your participation in surveys, focus groups, or other initiatives which help us to gather information used to develop and enhance our products and services.
To evaluate your performance on continued learning courses and assist you in the tracking of your progress.
For examination scheduling, administration and registration purposes.
To comply with applicable law(s) (for example, to comply with a search warrant, subpoena or court order) or to carry out professional ethics/conduct investigations.
From time to time we may provide statistics about the usage levels of the Site and other related information to reputable third parties, but these statistics will not include information which will allow you to be identified.
We may use the information you provide to us and which we obtain from other sources to better understand your interests so we can try to predict what other products, services and information you might be most interested in. This practice is called “profiling”, which involves making automated decisions about you based on this information in order to better enable us to tailor our interactions with you to make them more relevant and interesting. You may object to such profiling at any time by contacting us (see Contact Information/User Rights below).

Processing of Information

We will process your Personal Data for the purposes identified above on the following bases:

Our legitimate interests, which include processing such Personal Data for the purposes of providing and enhancing the provision of our products, services and information, as well as advertising further products, credentials, designations, services and information to you;
Where such processing is necessary to perform our contract with you or to take steps before entering into our contract with you; and
As necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our contractual agreements.
Where such processing is necessary to comply with our obligations to protect members of the public and the public interest, including but not limited to, the maintenance of a member and student directory, regulatory activities and disciplinary actions.
Unless a longer retention period is required by applicable law, we will retain your information for as long as your account is active, as well as for a short additional period afterwards to cover any outstanding issues or queries that may arise in relation to your account (for example, outstanding payments). This period of retention is subject to our review and alteration.

Sharing and Disclosure to Third Parties

We may disclose your Personal Data to third parties from time to time under the following circumstances:

You request or authorize the disclosure of your personal details to a third party.
The information is disclosed as permitted by applicable law(s) and/or in order to comply with applicable law(s) (for example, to comply with a search warrant, subpoena or court order).
The information is disclosed to your employer, university or tuition provider in the event they have an interest in your data (e.g. they support your exam, tuition, or membership fees).
The information is provided to our agents, vendors or service providers who perform functions on our behalf. See below for additional details.
It is likely that the identity and categories of such third parties will change during the life of your account but, depending on your use of the Site, it is anticipated that your Personal Data will be disclosed to the following categories of third-party service providers who perform functions on our behalf. We require that our third-party service providers only use your Personal Data as necessary to provide the requested services to us and each service provider is subject to a set of terms consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Here are examples of what third parties we could share your information with (not limited to these parties):

Hosting providers for the secure storage and transmission of your data.
Learning technology and online event providers for the delivery and improvement of web events and learning programs and the tracking of your progress.
Digital credential providers for the delivery of digital badges earned through your participation in learning programs.
Examination providers for the scheduling and delivery of credential and designation examinations.
Identity management providers for authentication purposes.
Database software providers for the management and tracking of your data.
Legal and compliance consultants, such as external counsel, external auditors, or tax consultants.
Advertising partners, including social media providers, for the delivery of targeted advertisements.
Marketing providers who send communications on our behalf regarding our products and services.
Payment solution providers for the secure processing of payments you provide to us.
Publishers and learning providers who develop products on our behalf.
Technology providers who assist in the development and management of our web properties.
Outbound call center providers, who may perform outreach on our behalf regarding our products and services.
Fulfillment and postal vendors for the fulfillment of our products and services.
Our volunteers or committee members who perform various functions on our behalf.
Survey and research providers who perform studies on our behalf.

Collection of Information Through Cookie Use

We may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a “cookie” file. A cookie is an element of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then be stored on your hard drive. If you do not agree, you can choose to not receive a cookie file by enabling your web browser to refuse cookies or to prompt you before you accept a cookie.

The following types of cookies may be used on our websites:

Essential Cookies: These cookies are necessary for our websites to work properly. They are usually only set in response to actions you take such as logging in or completing online forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of our sites will not function if these cookies are blocked.
Functionality Cookies: These cookies enhance the functionality of our websites by storing your preferences (such as your preferred language or the region that you are in) and allow us to provide enhanced features on our sites such as videos. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party content that we have placed within our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, some of the features on our websites may not function properly and you may not receive a personalized experience when visiting our sites.
Performance Cookies: These cookies allow us to count page visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. They help us to understand which pages are visited most frequently and how visitors interact with our sites. Any information collected by performance cookies is aggregated and therefore not identifiable. If you do not allow these cookies we will not receive data related to your visits to our sites.
Third-Party Cookies: These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners, such as Google or Adobe. They may be used by these companies to enable them to build a profile of your interests and show relevant advertisements on other sites. These cookies are based on identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience a decrease in the targeted advertisements that you see online.
If you opt in to use the “Remember me” feature on our websites, we will place a persistent cookie on your hard drive and you will not be required to log in for every session. By disabling cookies on your machine or clearing your browsing history you may deactivate the persistent cookie.

All major browsers allow you to block or delete cookies from your system. To learn more about your ability to manage your preferences related to cookies, please consult the privacy features within your browser.

Communication Preferences

We strive to provide you with relevant and useful information related to our products, services and industry news. You can update your communication preferences at any time by visiting the preference center within your online account on our website(s). Additionally, you can contact us using the information listed at the bottom of this policy to make changes to your communication preferences. Any promotional emails that we send will include a link at the bottom of the email to unsubscribe.

If you have opted in to receive text messages from us, you can opt out at any time by responding with the word STOP. You will receive a confirmation text of your choice to opt out.

Transfer of personal data internationally

By providing us with your personal data, you acknowledge and agree that we may from time to time transfer any of your personal data to any of our offices or to the offices of any of our affiliates, agents or appointed representatives located around the world. We have implemented appropriate safeguards for transfers of personal information originating from the European Economic Area (EEA) to countries located outside of the EEA. These safeguards include implementing standard data protection clauses which have been approved by the European Commission or (in relation to transfers from the European Union to the USA) transferring Personal Data to entities who have signed up to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. Please do not submit any personal data to us if you do not wish for your data to be transferred internationally.

Security and Other

We use reasonable measures to strive to safeguard and secure the personal data we collect. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. Technology, such as, but not limited to, Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secured Socket Layer (SSL), is used to enhance security and reduce risk of loss. Our security practices, processes or technology do not guarantee absolute security of your information and you should take all normal personal precautions such as, but not limited to, not sharing passwords, closing browsers, and not using public networks (e.g., internet cafes, etc.).

Parents and Children

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. Parents have the right to terminate the registration of a child under the age of 13 by contacting us using the information listed at the bottom of this policy.

Subject Access/User Rights

As a user, you are subject to the following rights:

The right to be informed of the use of your Personal Data.
The right to access and/or to require the correction or erasure of your Personal Data.
The right to block and/or object to the processing of your Personal Data.
The right to not be subject to any decision based solely on automated processing of your Personal Data.
In limited circumstances, you may have the right to receive Personal Data in a format which may be transmitted to another entity.
If you have a complaint in relation to the processing of your data carried out under this Privacy Policy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. If you are located in the European Union, you can find the details of your local supervisory authority here.