Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions

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.

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 (below), please refrain from providing your personal data to us, accessing our websites, and/or utilizing our 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.

Collection of Personal Data

In order to provide our 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, 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, ethnicity, 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 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.

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 analyze the demographics of our membership body and the accounting profession as a whole. This includes internal research related to diversity and may include the use of your demographic information such as your age, gender, ethnicity and/or geographic location. Please note that the collection of special categories of Personal Data, including ethnicity and gender, is voluntary and based on your explicit consent.
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 determine eligibility for membership, credentials, designations and volunteer opportunities
To communicate with you regarding your 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 scheduling, administration and registration purposes
To publish a membership and credential holder directory for the purposes of membership verification and networking. If you do not wish to be included in these public directories, you may choose to opt out by contacting us using the contact information listed at the bottom of this Privacy Policy.
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).

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.
Your explicit consent, when collecting and processing special categories of Personal Data such as your ethnicity, gender or confidential medical information.
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.
We do not share phone numbers or SMS messages to third parties.
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 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.

Hosting providers for the secure storage and transmission of your data
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
Technology providers who assist in the development and management of our systems and web properties
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. The following types of cookies may be used on our websites:

Necessary 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 enable our websites to provide enhanced functionality and personalization by storing your preferences (such as your preferred language or the region that you are in), allowing us to provide enhanced features on our sites such as videos, and allowing us serve you with advertisements for our products and services that may be of interest to you. 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. If you do not allow these cookies we will not receive data related to your visits to our sites.
Third-Party Advertising 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.

You can view a complete list of the cookies and their purposes used on our website and manage your preferences at any time by clicking on the cookie icon at the bottom left-hand corner of the page.

Additionally, 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.