As a membership organization, we know that maintaining your privacy and treating your personal data with respect and care is crucial to establishing a relationship built on trust. As a membership organization, we know we are contractually obligated to communicate with our members and those who want to be part of the biophysics community. To ensure that we meet those obligations, including notifying members of changes in our privacy policy, and that your information is secure and its use transparent, we describe below how we collect, use, and share your information.
BPS Privacy Policy General Information
The Biophysical Society ("BPS") is committed to maintaining your confidence and trust with respect to the information we collect from you on web site owned and operated by BPS (“this Site”). This Privacy Policy sets forth the information we collect about you, how we use this information, and the choices you have about how we use such information.
Information We Collect
The Biophysical Society collects information from you in two ways: directly from your input and automatically through technologies.
Information you provide directly:
The types of personal information that the Biophysical Society collects directly from you depends on the content and features you use and may include:
- Contact details, such as your name, email address, postal address, and telephone number;
- Educational, professional, and other background information, such as field of study, current position, practice, and interests;
- Account login credentials, such as usernames and passwords; Passwords are Hashed, which is much more secure than encryption.
- Payment information such as credit card/debit card numbers, expiry date, CVV/CID is collected from the user and sent to the payment gateway for authorization in a secure (SSL) environment but is never stored in our database. Our shopping cart solution is PCI compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), which is fully secure and by default does not save credit card information in the database. If you choose to save credit cards in the database for easy access and convenience (using our wallet feature), our software uses RSA 256 bit encryption to store your sensitive information, which is a PCI-approved and certified encryption. Our website is “Hack Proof” and has undergone rigorous testing validation for SQL injection and cross site scripting to prevent unauthorized access to the database, so your information is fully secure.
- Social network information, such as your social media handles;
- Contributions, such as comments, feedback, posts, and other content; and
- Communication preferences, such as e-alerts.
In order to access content and to make use of additional functionality and take advantage of services and program features, we ask you to register for a web account, which may request and require additional information.
The Biophysical Society also automatically collects, through our servers and the use of cookies (small test files sent to your computer), and other technologies, information that tells us how you use the Biophysical Society website and services, such as:
- Computer, device and connection information, including IP address, browser type and version, operating system, mobile platform, unique device identifier, and other technical identifiers;
- Usage data, such as click stream data, including date and time stamp and referring and exit pages, search terms you used, and pages you visited or searched for on the Biophysical Society website; and
- For location-aware services, the physical location of your device.
- We may use and disclose information that does not reveal your identity or permit direct association with any specific individual, such as browser and device information, anonymous usage data and aggregated information, for research and marketing purposes, except where we are restricted by law. If we combine non-personal information with personal information, the combined information will be treated as personal information for as long as it remains combined.
You control cookies through your browser’s settings and other tools. However, if you block certain cookies, you may not be able to register, login to myBPS, access certain parts of the Biophysical Society, or make full use of the Biophysical Society member benefits.
Use of Your Information
The Biophysical Society is committed to delivering you a relevant and useful experience. To achieve that goal, we may use your personal information to:
- Provide you with Biophysical Society services, programs, and benefits;
- Respond to your requests, inquiries, comments, or concerns;
- Provide you with technical, product, and other support and help to keep your account working safely and securely;
- Offer you customized/personalized content to make it more relevant to your interests and needs;
- Enhance, evaluate, and improve Biophysical Society membership benefits and resources, such as adding new content and features;
- Identify, analyze and evaluate usage, including for the purposes of research and audits.
- Notify you about changes or updates to the Biophysical Society products and services and provide you with special offers, promotions, surveys, and other information related to the Biophysical Society;
- Provide you with special offers, promotions, surveys, and other information about the Biophysical Society as well as products, events, and services of BPS, BPS affiliates, and non-BPS affiliates such as other scientific organizations and sponsors.
We may on occasion also match or combine the personal information that you provide with information that we obtain from other sources or that is already in our records, whether collected online or offline or by predecessor or affiliated group companies, for the purposes described above.
Disclosure of Your Information
In order to provide you with BPS services which include but not limited to information, resources, and fulfillment of member benefits and services, we may share necessary information about you with third parties to provide you with those services.
Based on your interests and communication preferences, we may also share limited but necessary information to affiliated and non-affiliated parties to deliver information and products that may be of interest to you.
The Biophysical Society may disclose non-personally identifiable information, such as anonymous usage data reports and aggregated information, for any purpose, except where we are restricted by law.
The Biophysical Society may let you post and share contributions, like personal information, comments, messages, materials, and other content. Any such contributions that you disclose publicly may be collected and used by others, may be indexable by search engines, and might not be able to be removed. Please be careful when disclosing personal information in these public areas.
Your Choices and Communications Preferences
You can manage your communications preferences and interests when you register with a myBPS account, by updating your communication preferences, by using the “opt-out” or unsubscribe mechanism or other means provided within the communications that you receive from us, or by contacting us. We reserve the right to notify you of changes or updates whenever necessary.
Access To, Accuracy, and Deletion of Your Information
myBPS account allows registered users to access their account information and make corrections or updates once logged in at any time. The accuracy of such information is solely the responsibility of the user.
You may also request access to other personal information about you that may be held with the Biophysical Society. If you request to deactivate your account or delete your personal information, we will fulfill your request but some personal information may be retained as necessary for legitimate business purposes or to comply with our legal obligations or resolve disputes.
Data Security
The Biophysical Society will take all necessary precautions to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft and misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction through the use of appropriate administrative, physical, and technical security measures.
Cross-Border Transfer of Your Information
Your personal information may be transferred to and stored in servers and facilities located in your region or another country. By using this website and any part of it, you consent to the transfer of information to countries outside of your country of residence, which may have different personal data protection rules than in your country.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
We may change this privacy policy from time to time. It is your responsibility to check for changes. Any change shall become effective once it is posted to this Privacy Policy. Your continued use of our website after any privacy policy updates are posted will be deemed to be your agreement to the changed terms.
Contact
Should you have additional questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us:
Our mailing address is:
The Biophysical Society
5515 Security Lane, Suite 1110
Rockville, MD 20852
We can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
We can be reached by telephone at 240-290-5600.