Privacy Policy
The Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) respects the personal information of its membership and visitors to both the picpa.org and picpa.com websites. 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 such information and use it responsibly and appropriately.
Online Privacy Policy Only
This privacy policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website and the information shared and/or collected there. This policy does not apply to any information collected
offline or via channels other than this website.
Consent
By using our website, you hereby consent to our privacy policy and agree to its terms.
Information Collection
From Visitors: The PICPA does not collect any personally identifiable information from general visitors to our websites. Like many other websites, www.picpa.org makes
use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, date/time stamp, and referring/exit pages. This information is used to analyze trends, administer the site, track users' movement
around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.
From Members or Customers: 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 to process the request can include contact information (name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, and membership number), and the online purchase of products or services entailing 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 to analyze trends so we can continue to improve upon the content and services we offer on our websites.
Nonmember Customers: All information collected from nonmember customers is used to process certain voluntary requests made from such nonmember 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 to process the request can include contact information (name, address, phone number, fax number, and email address); for the online purchase of products or services that entail financial information, credit card numbers and expiration dates may be collected. 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 to delete this information from the website, please use 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. Access to certain documents require submission of forms. This information is used solely to personalize users web and email experience.
PICPA Members: 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 to process the request can include contact information (name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, and membership number); for the online purchase of products or services that entail financial information, credit card numbers and expiration dates may be collected. 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 that 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 PICPA membership.
- To facilitate networking among 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 websites. These areas include the Online Membership Directories, Officer & Committee Directory, past participant list (on CPE history report), and others. Members can opt out of the directories by visiting 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 preferred mailing address that the PICPA has stored in our database. Email addresses and telephone numbers are not included. Members have the ability to be excluded from third-party mailings and to change their preferred mailing address by visiting the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy.
Links to Other Websites and Online Advertisements
PICPA websites picpa.org and picpa.com contain links and/or advertisements that link to other sites that have been provided for your ease of use.
Some of our partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. These partners include:
While each of these advertising partners has its own privacy policy for its site, an updated and hyperlinked resource is maintained here: Privacy Policies.
You may consult this listing to find the privacy policy for each of the advertising partners of
www.picpa.org.
These third-party servers or ad networks use technology in their respective advertisements, content, and links that appear on www.picpa.org and which are sent directly to your browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web beacons) may also be used by our site's third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns and/or to personalize the advertising content that you see on the site.
PICPA’s www.picpa.org has no access to, or control over, cookies used by third-party advertisers.
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 the PICPA. Your use of any third-party website 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 websites picpa.org and picpa.com.
Cookies
What is a cookie?
PICPA’s www.picpa.org uses cookies to store information about visitors' preferences, to record user-specific information on which pages the site visitor accesses or visits, and to personalize or customize web page content based upon visitors' browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.
DoubleClick DART Cookie
Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on www.picpa.org.
Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our site's visitors based upon their visit to
www.picpa.org and other sites on the internet.
Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy here: http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.
Why do we need cookies? Cookies on the PICPA sites 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 each 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 the cookies on our sites are known as persistent cookies. This type of cookie will remain on the user’s machine for 90 days. If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers website.
Email Discussion Groups
As an added member benefit, PICPA offers a collection of email discussion groups to facilitate general communication, sharing of ideas, and networking. When members post a message to any of the discussion groups, the system will automatically attach the member name and email to the message. This is done 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 PICPA staff periodically reviews the content posted to the discussion groups, the PICPA accepts no responsibility for the opinions and information posted on the sites by others. If a member posts 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 website pages. Access to these pages is restricted by means of a user name and password that the PICPA disseminates to the appropriate individuals.
PICPA members and users of the website are responsible for keeping his or her login information secure, and should never share this information with any other individual.
Order Processing: All personally identifiable financial information that is voluntarily collected on our website is done using the industry standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 2048-bit encryption, and supports the highest-level protocol by modern browsers (TLS 1.2). 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 an order online, please visit the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy for other options regarding order processing or other services we offer on our website.
Children's Information
We believe it is important to provide added protection for children online. We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children to observe, participate in, monitor, and guide their online
activity. PICPA’s www.picpa.org does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If a parent or guardian believes that www.picpa.org has in its database the personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 13, please contact us using the PICPA Contact Address immediately
and we will use our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.
If you have any questions regarding the security of our sites, please contact us by using the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy.
How to Access & Control Your Personal Data
You have the following data protection rights:
- You can request access, correction, updates, or deletion of your personal information.
- You can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information, or request portability of your personal information.
- If we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
- You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information. Contact details for data protection authorities in the EEA, Switzerland, and certain non-European countries (including the U.S. and Canada) are available here.)
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@picpa.org or 1801 Market Street, Suite 2400, Philadelphia, PA 19103, Attention: Privacy. We will respond to your request to change, correct, or delete your information within a reasonable timeframe, and will notify you of the action we have taken.
To Unsubscribe from Our Communications
You may unsubscribe from our marketing communications by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link located on the bottom of our emails, updating your communication preferences, or by emailing info@picpa.org or sending postal mail to 1801 Market Street, Suite 2400, Philadelphia, PA 19103, Attention: Privacy. Customers cannot opt out of receiving transactional emails related to their account with us.
Policy Changes
As our website changes and the types of services we offer continue to expand, we will update our privacy policy. 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 using the PICPA Contact Address section in this privacy policy.
PICPA Contact Address
Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Two Commerce Square
2001 Market Street, Ste. 950
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: (215) 496-9272
Fax: (215) 496-9212
Email: info@picpa.org
