AEA Website Privacy Policy

The American Economic Association (the "Company" or "we" or "us") is committed to safeguarding the security and privacy of the information it collects on you ("Customer Information") through your use of the website at www.aeaweb.org (the "Website"). This Privacy Policy describes:

1. Who is covered by this Privacy Policy;
2. What Customer Information the Company collects from you;
3. How the Company collects that Customer Information;
4. For what purpose(s) the Company collects Customer Information (in other words, how the Company uses your Customer Information and what legal grounds it has for collecting and using your Customer Information);
5. How the Company stores and secures your Customer Information;
6. How long the Company will store your Customer Information;
7. Whether and with what categories of third parties the Company will share your Customer Information;
8. What rights you have to have your Customer Information changed, deleted, or moved, or to restrict how we may share your Customer Information; and
9. How you may file a complaint against us for violating the relevant data protection laws and regulations, or our own policy;
10. Our contact information; and
11. Our policy with respect to amendments to this Privacy Policy. 

1. WHO IS COVERED BY OUR PRIVACY POLICY?

1. This privacy policy covers all persons who visit our Website, whether or not such persons order goods or services from us.
2. The foregoing notwithstanding, we do not direct our Website to children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may provide any information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at info@aeaweb.org.

2. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT? We divide the Customer Information we collect into two categories:

1. Personally Identifiable Information: This may include your name, physical address, e-mail address, telephone number, fax number, and credit card information.
2. Automatically Collected Information: This will include your computer’s IP address, the type of browser, operating system, and information about which parts of the Website you visit and how long you spend on the Website.

3. HOW DO WE COLLECT CUSTOMER INFORMATION?

1. With respect to Personally Identifiable Information, we collect this information only with your consent, when you voluntarily provide the information to us in order to register for membership with the American Economic Association, to subscribe to receive journals from us, or to participate in services offered on the website.
2. With respect to Automatically Collected Information: we collect this information through:
   Cookies: A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. "Session" cookies are only stored during a web site visit and expire when the web browser is closed. "Persistent" cookies remain on your hard drive after a web session is over until a set expiry date, and allow a website to remember your login and preferences for your next visit.

4. HOW DO WE USE YOUR CUSTOMER INFORMATION, AND WHAT ARE OUR GROUNDS FOR PROCESSING YOUR CUSTOMER INFORMATION?

1. We use your Personally Identifiable Information to fulfill your orders for journals, and to communicate with you regarding such orders or delivery of services, or about membership if you are a member of our organization, or to respond to communication from you. Our basis for processing information for this purpose is that when you subscribe to our journals, become a member of our organization, or participate in the JOE Network, conference submission and registration, or any other online services, we have a contract with you to provide those goods, services, and information.
2. We use your Personally Identifiable Information to send you informational news and surveys related to the economics profession when you provide such information to us voluntarily and subject to your rights set forth in Section 8.
3. We use Automatically Collected Information about you to enhance your experience on the Website by allowing you to customize your preferences and allowing the Website to remember those preferences and remember your login, but only with your consent, which you provide by opting in to those services when you visit the Website, and subject to your rights set forth in Section 8.
4. We store your Customer Information to be able to communicate with you as set forth in subsections (a) and (b) above, and to keep complete records about our members,  subscribers, and participants in online services for our legitimate internal business purposes, subject to your rights set forth in Section 8.
5. We may process your Customer Information where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.
6. We may process your Customer Information where necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, or obtaining professional advice. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper protection of our business against risks.
7. In addition to the specific purposes for which we may process your personal data set out in this Section 3, we may also process your Customer Information where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

5. HOW DOES THE COMPANY STORE YOUR CUSTOMER INFORMATION AND KEEP IT SECURE?

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. We maintain appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect Customer Information against accidental or unlawful destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, misuse, and any other unlawful form of processing of the Customer Information in our possession. This includes, for example, firewalls, password protection and other access and authentication controls. We use SSL technology to encrypt data during transmission through the public internet. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. We cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or store on the Service, and you do so at your own risk. We also cannot guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. If you believe your Customer Information has been compromised, please contact us as set forth in the "How to Contact Us" section. If we learn of a security systems breach, we will inform you and the authorities of the occurrence of the breach in accordance with applicable law.

6. HOW LONG DOES THE COMPANY RETAIN YOUR CUSTOMER INFORMATION?

We retain Customer Information as long as deemed necessary in order to maintain order histories and membership records for our legitimate internal business purposes, and, subject to your rights as set forth in Section 8.

7. TO WHAT CATEGORIES OF THIRD PARTIES DO WE SHARE YOUR CUSTOMER INFORMATION?

1. We do not sell, rent or lease Customer Information for marketing purposes.
2. We will transfer your Customer Information as needed to certain vendors who require the information to provide business support services to the Company, including our Website hosting company, and our journal printers and delivery partner (“Service Vendors”). A list of our Service Vendors is available here. We will ensure that our Service Vendors are compliant with all relevant laws and regulations, and that they do not process your information in any way not set forth in this Privacy Policy without your consent.
3. We share your credit card or debit card information with Paypal and our merchant processors who are listed above as Service Vendors, to process your transactions. Your financial information is stored with Paypal or our merchant processors.
4. We may share your information with third parties such as our attorneys or law enforcement agencies in order to defend against legal claims or comply with legal obligations, or in order to protect your vital interests or the interests of another person. If we are notified that we must share your Customer Information in such a circumstance, we will notify you first if possible and provide you with information, if available, as to how you may object to our sharing your Customer Information.

8. WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR CUSTOMER INFORMATION THAT WE POSSESS?

By contacting us at info@aeaweb.org you may

1. Request a copy of the Customer Information we have about you, including the categories of third parties with whom we have shared your Confidential Information. The first copy of this information will be provided free of charge each year. Subsequent copies will be subject to a reasonable fee for delivery and for our time in preparing the copies;
2. Request that your Customer Information be corrected or completed;
3. Request that we cease processing your Customer Information in certain ways (for example, sharing your Customer Information with our Service Vendors) if you believe your Customer Information is inaccurate;
4. Request that your Customer Information be transmitted to another data controller in a reasonably acceptable format. Your Customer Information will be transmitted under this request for a reasonable fee for delivery and for our time in preparing the Customer Information for delivery in the requested format; and/or
5. Request that your Customer Information be erased.
   
   For any requests of the nature set out in subsections 8(a) through 8(d), we will comply with your request without undue delay after verifying your identity, or inform you in writing as to why we cannot comply with your request and what alternatives, if any, may be available to you.
   
   For requests of the nature set out in subsection 8(e), we will comply with your request without undue delay unless your Customer Information is still necessary for the stated purpose for which it was collected, such as that we still have contractual obligations to you, unless we are required to erase your Customer Information for a legal or regulatory reason. If we are unable to erase your Customer Information, we will inform you in writing as to why we cannot comply with your request and what alternatives, if any, may be available to you.

9. HOW CAN YOU MAKE A COMPLAINT IF WE BELIEVE WE HAVE PROCESSED YOUR CUSTOMER INFORMATION UNLAWFULLY OR IN VIOLATION OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY?

1. You may notify us at info@aeaweb.org.

10. OUR CONTACT INFORMATION:

11. AMENDMENTS TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may make amendments to our Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do so, we will notify you by e-mail and on the home page of our Website. We may require you each time we make changes to acknowledge that you have reviewed the changes. Any amendment to our Privacy Policy will only affect the processing of Customer Information which takes place after such amendment.