Privacy Policy

Effective July 15, 2024

The Illinois CPA Society, CPAs for the Public Interest, the CPA Endowment Fund, and Illinois CPAs for Political Action are collectively known as “ICPAS” for this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy describes how ICPAS collects, uses, and shares your information when you use and interact with our Services and applies to all persons who use our Services (“Users”). The Privacy Policy governs your access to and use of all ICPAS operated and controlled websites including icpas.org, community.icpas.org  and careers.icpas.org  (collectively the “Website”), all other publicly available online services controlled or provided by ICPAS (collectively, the “Services”).

The Illinois CPA Society respects your concerns about privacy.  This Privacy Notice applies to personal information we collect (i) on this website, and (ii) through the other channels described below.

The Privacy Notice describes the types of personal information we collect on this site, and in other ways discussed below, how we may use that information and with whom we may share it.  The notice also describes the measures we take to protect the security of the personal information that we collect.  We also tell you how you can reach us to ask us to (i) access, change or not use the personal information you have provided to us, (ii) withdraw any consent you previously provided to us, (iii) tell us to refrain from communicating with you about our products or services, and (iv) answer any questions you may have about our privacy practices.

Applicability & Eligibility

Applicability

This Privacy Policy applies only to the Services, and ICPAS’s collection, use, disclosure, and protection of your data. It does not apply to third party websites, applications, or services.

Before accessing, using, or interacting with the Services you should carefully review the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.

Eligibility To Use The Services

This website is not directed to children under the age of sixteen (16), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16 on the site. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personal information from an underage visitor this site, we will delete the information from our records.  You may not use this service if you are under the age of 16.

Information We Collect and Why We Collect It

The Illinois CPA Society collects information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or device ("Personal Information"). Personal information does not include information that is publicly available, de-identified, or aggregated. We may use and share information for any purpose if it is publicly available, de-identified, or aggregated with other information so that it can no longer identify you.

The Illinois CPA Society obtains the categories of Personal Information listed above from the following categories of sources:

• Directly from you. For example, from your Membership Application, participation in surveys, forms you complete, or products and services you purchase.
• Indirectly from you. For example, from observing your interactions on our Website.
  From third-party analytics and business intelligence tools. For example, from cookies, web beacons, and web analytics vendors.
• From social media services, such as Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.
• From public sources of data, such as government databases.

Our Website

As detailed above, we collect Personal Information on our website when you:

• Purchase ICPAS products on the website,
• register to create an account on our website,
• participate in surveys, sweepstakes and other promotions,
• sign up for newsletters and emails, and
• contact us, and otherwise access, interact with, and use our website.

Online Communities – ICPAS works with Higher Logic as its web hosting services provider for online communities.  Higher Logic is located in Virginia and the Website is stored by Higher Logic in Virginia.  ICPAS shares your data, including Personal Data with our website hosting Service Provider for the purposes of processing your data pursuant to your use of the services.

Information Collected by Automated Means

We obtain certain information by automated means when you visit our website, such as through cookies, web beacons, and web server logs. The information we collect in this manner includes the IP address of the device you use to connect to the Internet, unique device identifier, browser characteristics, device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, information on actions taken on our site, dates and times of website visits and the pages accessed. By collecting this information, we learn how to best tailor our website to our visitors and understand what products and services you might prefer. Both we and others (such as our service providers) may collect personal information about our visitors’ online activities over time and across third-party websites.

Public Information: ICPAS may also collect information about you from publicly available sources. Information you make publicly available in any public or open forum, such as on a social network, may be considered public information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy, and may be accessed and collected by ICPAS. Please be aware that any content or information you share with or provide to third parties using or related to your use of the Services is neither private, nor confidential. ICPAS is not responsible for any content or information you post or share with third parties. If you do not wish for certain information to be public, please do not share it.

Like many companies, we use "cookies" on this website. Cookies are bits of text that are placed on your computer's hard drive when you visit certain websites. Cookies may enhance your online experience by saving your preferences while you are visiting a particular site. We use cookies to measure activity on the site and determine which areas and features of the site are the most popular.

Most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to be notified when you receive a new cookie and how to disable existing cookies. Without cookies, however, you may not be able to take full advantage of all our site features. For example, if you turn off cookies or refuse them, you will not be able to make purchases on the site.

Certain pages on this website may contain "web beacons" (also known as Internet tags, pixel tags and clear GIFs). Web beacons are used for internal purposes, such as to obtain the IP address of the computer that downloaded the page on which the beacon appears, the URL of the page on which the beacon appears, the time the page containing the beacon was viewed, and the type of browser used to view the page. We also retain service providers who use web beacons to assess the effectiveness of our email communications and learn what pages our visitors viewed.

We may use information collected through these automated means for purposes such as (i) customizing member visits to our website, (ii) delivering content tailored to our member’s interests and the manner in which our members browse our sites, and (iii) managing our sites and other aspects of our business. To the extent required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent before collecting information using cookies or similar automated means.

We also may use third party web analytics services, such as Google Analytics, to measure the effectiveness of our advertising and determine how visitors use this website. These service providers’ tools, including cookies and web beacons, allow us to collect information such as the state and zip code from which our visitors come and the IP addresses of our visitors' computers. To opt out of aggregation and analysis of data collected by Google Analytics, please click here.

Interest-Based Advertising

We may collect information about your online activities on our website to provide you with advertising about products and services tailored to your individual interests. We also may obtain information for this purpose from third-party websites on which our ads are served. This section of our Privacy Notice provides details and explains how to exercise your choices.

You may see certain ads on other websites because we work with advertising companies (including advertising networks) to engage in remarketing and retargeting activities. Our advertising vendors allow us to target our messaging to users through demographic, interest-based and contextual means. These vendors track your online activities over time and across websites by collecting information through automated means, including using third-party cookies, web server logs, and web beacons. They use this information to show you advertisements that may be tailored to your individual interests. The information our advertising vendors may collect includes data about your visits to websites that participate in the relevant advertising networks, such as the pages or advertisements you view and the actions you take on the websites. This data collection takes place both on our website and on third-party websites that participate in the ad networks. This process also helps us track the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.

You may choose not to receive some interest-based advertising by submitting opt-outs. Some of the advertisers and Service Providers that perform advertising-related services for us may participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising and/or the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”). To learn more about how you can exercise certain choices regarding interest-based advertising, including use of cross-device data for serving ads, visit aboutads.info/choices/. To learn more about the NAI and your opt-out options for their members, see networkadvertising.org/choices/. Please be aware that opting out only means that those selected members should no longer deliver certain interest-based advertising to you but does not mean you will no longer receive any targeted content and/or ads (e.g., from other ad networks).

Recurring Text Message Marketing

The Illinois CPA Society offers a text message marketing program (the “SMS/MMS Marketing Program”) for users who want to receive recurring marketing messages via texts to their mobile phone or mobile device number. If you choose to participate in the SMS/MMS Marketing Program, then you may sign up through our “Welcome” pop-up or here. By signing up for and participating in the SMS/MMS Marketing Program, you accept and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy as well as these Recurring SMS/MMS Text Message Marketing Program Terms (the “SMS/MMS Marketing Terms”)

Users who opt into our SMS/MMS Marketing Program consent to receive recurring, ongoing text messages from the Illinois CPA Society. These text messages may be sent by an Automatic Telephone Dialing System (“ATDS” or “autodialer”) and may include marketing, advertising, transactional, and other similar content, messaging, and communication about promotions, sales, discounts, loyalty programs, reward certificates, and other similar opportunities or offers directed to the mobile phone or device number provided when you opt into and join the SMS/MMS Marketing Program.

When opting into the SMS/MMS Marketing Program, you acknowledge and agree that message and data rates may apply. For information about messaging and data rates, please contact your carrier.

The Illinois CPA Society and its affiliates are not responsible or liable for any delays in the receipt of any SMS or MMS messages. Delivery of SMS or MMS messages to your mobile device is subject to effective transmission from your network operator.

Text messages will not be sent to any one mobile number more than three (3) times per day. We adhere to state and federal restrictions when sending messages under the SMS/MMS Marketing Program.

Consent to participate in the SMS/MMS Marketing Program is not required for or a condition of your purchase of products from the Illinois CPA Society.

Information you provide to IPCAS through the SMS/MMS Marketing Program will be used by the Illinois CPA Society subject to our Privacy Policy. That information will not be shared with third parties to enable those third parties to market their goods or services to you.

Participate / Opt In: Our SMS/MMS Marketing Program allows users to receive SMS or MMS mobile messages to their mobile phone or mobile device by affirmatively opting into the SMS/MMS Marketing Program, through online account creation or enrollment or by texting a keyword to the short code associated with the SMS/MMS Marketing Program (the “Short Code”), and confirming your consent to receive recurring text messages from us, and completing the sign-up instructions found in the related text message received. You understand that your consent to participate in our SMS/MMS Marketing Program is not required for or a condition of purchasing products from the Illinois CPA Society.

Unsubscribe / Opt Out:  You can unsubscribe from our SMS/MMS Marketing Program at any time by texting STOP to 53909.

Customer Service: If you have questions about the SMS/MMS Marketing Program, you can contact the Illinois CPA Society. by phone at (800)993-0407, by email to [email protected] or through icpas.org/contact.

Information We Share

We do not sell or otherwise disclose personal information about our customers, except as described in this Privacy Notice (including our California Privacy Notice). In general, we share personal information as follows:

• With our affiliates and joint venture partners for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice.
• With our agents, vendors, consultants, and other service providers (collectively, “Service Providers”) who perform services on our behalf based on our instructions. For example, we may share your personal information to provide customer service, provide online educational courses, operate and improve our business, improve our products and customer service, help run our promotions, process payments, perform auditing and quality control, communicate with you, and otherwise operate our business. These service providers are not authorized by us to use or disclose the information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or comply with legal requirements.
• With our advertising partners, social media companies, and data aggregators for the purposes of ad targeting, remarketing, and customized advertising content.
• Lawful Requests: We may be required to disclose User information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We generally do not disclose User information unless we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. We may share your information when we believe it is necessary to comply with applicable laws, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Services or using the ICPAS name, or to protect the safety of any person. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents, or government agencies. Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit any legal defenses or objections that you may have to a third party’s, including a government’s, request to disclose your information.
• No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

Links to Other Sites

This website may contain links to other sites for your convenience and information. These sites may be operated by companies not affiliated with the Illinois CPA Society.  Linked sites may have their own privacy policies, which we strongly suggest you review if you visit any linked websites. We are not responsible for the content of any websites that are not affiliated with ICPAS, any use of those sites, or the privacy practices of those sites.

How We Protect Personal Information

We maintain appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect the personal information you provide on this website or in our Stores against accidental, unlawful or unauthorized destruction, loss, alteration, access, disclosure or use and other unlawful forms of processing. We use Secure Sockets Layer ("SSL") technology to protect the transmission over the Internet of your payment card data. You can check the security of your connection by looking at the URL line of your browser. When accessing a secure site, the first characters of the site address change from "http" to "https." If you are using a web browser or firewall that does not permit communications through secure sites, you will not be able to make purchases on our site.

Information Processed in the United States

If you are visiting our website from outside the United States, please be aware that information we obtain about you will be processed in the United States or in other jurisdictions. By using our website, you acknowledge your personal information may be transferred to and processed in jurisdictions outside your own, as described in this Privacy Policy. Please be aware that the data protection laws and regulations that apply to your personal information transferred to the United States or other countries may be different from the laws in your country of residence.

Your Choices

We offer you certain choices about how we communicate with you and what information we collect from you. You can choose not to receive marketing communications from us by clicking on the unsubscribe link in our marketing emails or contacting us at (800)993-0407.  Our website is not designed to respond to "do not track" signals received from browsers.

To opt out of aggregation and analysis of data collected by Google Analytics, please follow the instructions above in the “Information Collected by Automated Means” section.

Safely Using ICPAS’ Services

Despite ICPAS’ safety and privacy controls, we cannot guarantee the services are entirely free of illegal, offensive, pornographic, or otherwise inappropriate material, or that you will not encounter inappropriate or illegal conduct from other Users when using the Services.  You can help ICPAS by notifying us of any unwelcome contact by contacting us using the information below.

Your Rights

Relevant data protection laws provide you certain rights regarding the protection of your data, including:

• the right to access - Upon request, ICPAS will confirm any processing of your Personal Data, and provide you with a copy of that Personal Data in an acceptable machine-readable format;
• the right to rectification - You have the right to have ICPAS correct any inaccurate Personal Data or to have ICPAS complete any incomplete Personal Data;
• the right to erasure - You may ask the ICPAS to delete or remove your Personal Data and we will do so in some circumstances, such as where we no longer need it (we may not delete your data when other interests outweigh your right to deletion);
• the right to restrict processing - You have the right to ask ICPAS to suppress the processing of your Personal Data but ICPAS may still store your Personal Data;
• the right to object to processing - You have the right to object to your Personal Data used in the following manners: (a) processing based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling); (b) direct marketing (including profiling); and (c) processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics;
• the right to data portability - You have the right to obtain your Personal Data from us that you consented to give us or that is necessary to perform fulfillment of member benefits with you. We will give you your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;
• the right to complaint to a supervisory authority -   You have the right to file a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement if you consider that the processing of Personal Data relating to you infringes upon your rights; and
• the right to withdraw consent - We rely on your consent to process your Personal Data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on your prior consent

California Resident Rights

If you are a California resident, you have certain rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). California Civil Code Section 1798.83 (known as the “Shine the Light” law), ICPAS members and customers who are residents of California may request certain information about our disclosure of personal information during the prior calendar year to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.  To make such a request, please write to us at the address below, or email [email protected] with “Request for California Privacy Information on the subject line and in the body of your message.  We will comply with your request within thirty (30) days or as otherwise required by the statute.  Please be aware that not all information sharing is covered by the “Shine the Light” requirements and only information on covered sharing will be included in our response

Nevada Resident Rights

If you are a Nevada resident, then you have the right to opt out of a sale of certain personal information, called “covered information.” We do not sell covered information as defined under Nevada law. If you wish to be notified if we change our practices, you may submit a request via [email protected].

Virginia Resident Rights

If you are a Virginia resident, you have certain rights under the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA).

Updates to Our Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice may be updated periodically and without prior notice to you to reflect changes in our personal information practices or relevant laws. We will post a prominent notice on the site to notify you of any significant changes to our Privacy Policy and indicate at the top of the notice when it was updated.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please contact us as indicated below:

Illinois CPA Society
Attention:  Paul Johnston - Data Protection Contact
550 W. Jackson Blvd.  Suite 900
Chicago, IL  60661
[email protected]

If you would like us to update information, we have about you or your preferences, please contact us here: icpas.org/contact.