The PICPA respects the personal information of its membership and visitors to both the picpa.org and picpa.com Web sites. We know you are concerned about the confidentiality and security of your financial and other personally identifiable information you provide to us. The PICPA makes every effort to protect and use such information responsibly and appropriately.

Information Collection

From Visitors

The PICPA does not collect any personally identifiable information from general visitors to our Web sites. We do however use server side logs and applications to track Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser types, Internet Service Providers (ISP), number of clicks per page, and other statistical information that is not linked to personally identifiable information. The PICPA does this in an effort to analyze trends so we can continue to improve upon the content and services we offer on our Web sites.

From Members or Customers

In order to process certain requests from members or customers (such as, registration for CPE programs, renewal of membership, updates to personally identifiable information, and other services) the PICPA collects only the appropriate information needed to process the request voluntarily from the user. Some of the information that may be voluntarily collected in order to process the request can include contact information (name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, and membership number) and for online purchasing of products or services financial information may include credit card number and expiration date. At no point does the PICPA collect any of this information in an involuntary manner.

Information Use

General Visitors

All information collected from general visitors to the sites is anonymous and does not contain any personally identifiable information. This information is used in an effort to analyze trends so we can continue to improve upon the content and services we offer on our Web sites.

Non-Member Customers

All information collected from Non-Member Customers is used to process certain voluntary requests made from such non-member customers (such as, registration for CPE programs, updates to personally identifiable information, and other services or products). The PICPA collects only the appropriate information needed to process the request. Some of the information that may be voluntarily collected in order to process the request can include contact information (name, address, phone number, fax number, and email address) and for online purchasing of products or services financial information may include credit card number and expiration date. The contact information is collected for billing purposes and to contact the user if a problem should arise with their purchase or service request.

For certain areas of the site a user name and password are required. We require this information to provide for automation and ease of use with the CPE registration and/or purchasing process for the customer. To change or update the information located in these areas or delete this information from the Web site please contact us by email, postal mail, or fax at the address listed in the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy. This information is kept confidential by the PICPA and is not sold to any third party.

PICPA Members

In order to process certain requests from members (such as, registration for CPE programs, renewal of membership, updates to personally identifiable information, and other services) the PICPA collects only the appropriate information needed to process the request voluntarily from the user. Some of the information that may be voluntarily collected in order to process the request can include contact information (name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, and membership number) and for online purchasing of products or services financial information may include credit card number and expiration date. At no point does the PICPA collect any of this information in an involuntary manner.

For certain areas of the site a user name and password are required. We require this information to provide for automation and ease of use with CPE registration, renewal of membership, updates to personally identifiable information, and other services that are provided on our site for PICPA member only use.

Third Party Disclosures

The PICPA does not disclose or release any personally identifiable information to any third party, with the following exceptions:

The PICPA may disclose confidential information if made in response to a valid order of a court or authorized agency of government and will work to establish a legal means to limit such disclosure and only disclose that segment of confidential information which counsel advises must be disclosed.

The PICPA may disclose personally identifiable information to authorized PICPA affiliates that have been approved by PICPA Council to provide certain programs and/or services to the PICPA membership.

In an effort to facilitate networking among the PICPA Membership, the PICPA makes member contact information, firm affiliation, committee appointments, and other types of personally identifiable information available to Members only on password secured areas on its Web sites. These areas include the Online Membership Directory, Officer & Committee Directory, Past Participant List (on CPE History Report) and others. Members have the ability to change or update the information located in these areas or completely opt out of the directories by going to the My Membership section on the Web site and submitting a request to be excluded or contacting us by Email, postal mail, or fax at the address listed in the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy.

The PICPA rents its membership mailing list in the form of peel and stick labels or an electronic excel file to third parties for a one time use per rental. The information contained in the list includes member name and the preferred member mailing address the PICPA has stored in our database. E-mail addresses and telephone numbers will not be included. Members have the ability to be excluded from third party mailings and to change their preferred mailing address by going to the Personal Profile page in the My Membership section of the Web site or by contacting us via Email, postal mail, or fax at the address listed in the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy.

Links to Other Web sites and Online Advertisements

The PICPA Web sites picpa.org and picpa.com contain links and/or advertisements that link to other sites that have been provided for your ease of use. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by PICPA. Your use of any third party Web sites is at your own risk and we encourage our users to read the terms and conditions of use and privacy policy for each site they may use. This privacy policy applies solely to the information collected and displayed on the PICPA Web sites picpa.org and picpa.com.

Cookies

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small piece of information generated by some sites you may have visited. It can contain information that can be used to track your visits to a particular site and allows for site customization on a per user basis.

Why do we need cookies?

Cookies on the PICPA site are used to enable enhanced features, such as the CPE Shopping Cart, member login process, My Membership, and others. They also allow us to customize certain areas on the site based on the user's interests.

Will cookies compromise my privacy?

We want to assure you that we are committed to protecting your confidentiality and do not store any personally identifiable or financial information in any of the cookies on our sites. All of the cookies on our sites are known as session ID cookies. This type of cookie terminates once the user closes their browser.

Email Discussion Groups

As an added member benefit the PICPA offers a collection of email discussion groups to its members in an effort to facilitate general communication, sharing of ideas, and networking opportunities between members. When you post a message to any of the discussion groups our system will automatically attach your name and email address to the message. This is done in order to facilitate communication between members if they choose to respond to the individual who posted the message rather than the whole discussion group.

Even though the PICPA staff will periodically review the content posted to the discussion groups the PICPA accepts no responsibility for the opinions and information posted on the sites by others. If you elect to post any personal information to any of the discussion groups, by nature of the service, all such information will be shared with all members of the discussion group to which the message was posted.

Security

Secured Pages

The PICPA makes certain types of information available to its membership by means of secured pages of its Web sites. Access to these pages is restricted by means of a user name and password that the PICPA disseminates to the appropriate individuals.

As a member of the PICPA you are responsible for keeping your logon information secure and should never share this information with any other individual with the exception of current PICPA staff when the need should arise.

Order Processing

All personally identifiable financial information that is voluntarily collected on our Web sites is done using the industry standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 128bit encryption. Access to this information is protected from outside intrusion and our employees are not permitted to disclose (to outside individuals or organizations) any information they have access to as a result of their work.

We offer other convenient ways for our members and customers to purchase goods or services from us. If you do not want to place your order online please contact us by Email, postal mail, or fax at the address listed in the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy for other options regarding order processing, or other services we offer on our Web sites.

If you have any questions regarding the security of our sites please contact us by Email, postal mail, or fax at the address listed in the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy.

Policy Changes

As our Web site changes and the types of services we offer continue to expand, our privacy policy will be updated and changed in an ongoing manner. We will continue to post all changes to this policy here and recommend that you frequently revisit this page to familiarize yourself with such changes.

If you have any questions regarding our current privacy policy or suspect that any of your personally identifiable information was used in a manner that does not completely comply with this privacy policy, please contact us by Email, postal mail, or fax at the address listed in the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy.