NAIS Legal and Privacy Information

NAIS Privacy Statement

Effective Date: 5/20/2024

At the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), we respect and are committed to protecting your privacy. In a rapidly changing and increasingly digitally connected world, NAIS is committed to transparency, privacy protection, and data security. We recognize that our primary responsibility is to meet your interests and needs as a member, affiliate, or friend of NAIS. We also want you to understand how we use your information and explain the choices you can make about the way your information may be collected and used.

The Information We Collect and Use—Account Registration

In order to use certain features of our website, a user must first complete a registration form. During registration, a user is required to give contact information, such as name, email address, school or organization, and job title. This information is used to contact the user about the resources and services on our site in which they may have expressed interest. It is optional for you to provide additional information, such as demographic information and additional personally identifiable information, so that we can provide a more personalized experience.

The Information We Collect and Use—Communications With Us

We may ask you to provide us with certain information that can be used to identify you or to communicate with you. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, postal address, email address, school name/employer, and any other information and materials you may choose to provide to us during any communications we have, including through our Contact Us, Submit a Ticket, or website chat functionalities. We collect this information for the purpose of providing services, identifying and communicating with you about your membership or our services (including events and surveys), responding to your requests/inquiries, servicing your purchase orders, improving our services, and communicating with you about your membership and our services and related discounts and promotions.

The Information We Collect and Use—Orders

Whenever you place an order via this site or register for professional development, information will be requested on an order form. The information requested includes name and shipping address and financial information, such as a credit card number and expiration date. This information is used to obtain payment from the appropriate clearinghouse and to fill customers' orders. NAIS does not process payments directly; we use a third-party vendor who focuses on making such transactions safe and efficient for both you, the user, and organizations like NAIS. NAIS does not collect or hold your credit card or other specific payment information.

The Information We Collect and Use—Cookies and Similar Technologies

Cookies are small bits of data that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer through your browser that enables the site or service provider to recognize your browser and remember certain information about you. We and our partners may use cookies and other similar technologies (such as pixel tags, ad tags, and web beacons) to collect information to help us understand your interactions with the NAIS website, such as pages you have visited, content you have viewed, search queries you have run, and information that you have seen.

NAIS uses Google Analytics (including Universal Analytics and Demographics and Interest Reporting) to improve its website. Google Analytics collects information on the NAIS website and other unrelated websites and apps over time. Third parties that support NAIS by providing non-advertising services, such as allowing you to share content or tracking aggregate usage statistics (e.g., Google Analytics tracking and Google AdWords) may also use cookies and other technologies to collect similar information. Google Analytics does not collect personally identifiable information to share with NAIS or others, and NAIS will not share your personally identifiable information with Google Analytics or its partners unless we have received specific consent from you. If you are still concerned, you can opt out of Google Analytics.

NAIS also partners with ad networks and other ad serving providers (“Advertising Providers”) that serve ads on behalf of us and others on non-affiliated websites and apps. Some of those ads may be personalized, meaning that they are intended to be relevant to you based on information Advertising Providers collect about your use of the NAIS website and other non-affiliated sites or apps over time, including information about relationships among different browsers and devices. This type of advertising is known as interest-based advertising.
 
You can visit the DAA Webchoices tool at www.aboutads.info to learn more about interest-based advertising and to opt out of this advertising on websites by companies participating in the DAA program. If you delete your cookies or use a different browser, you may need to renew your opt-out choices exercised through the DAA Webchoices tool. Note that opting out will not stop advertising from appearing in your browser. It may make the ads you see less relevant to your interests. Additionally, your browser may offer tools to limit the use of cookies or to delete cookies; however, if you use these tools, our website may not function as intended.

Third Parties and Links to Other Sites

NAIS takes care to ensure its users' privacy, but not every company has comparable policies. Other than NAIS's own sites, no site on the web is under NAIS's exclusive control, not even those sites to which we may provide links. Therefore, NAIS cannot assume any responsibility for any other site's content or practices. Providers of internet sites or services have separate data and privacy practices independent of NAIS that govern the manner in which they use the information that you provide to them. Many websites use cookies to recognize you when you return to their sites; some sites require that you provide information before they allow you to enter; some automatically gather information when you visit, such as what operating system your computer runs, what type of web browser you use, what internet access provider you use, or what other web pages you visit; and sites vary greatly (from each other and from NAIS) with regard to how they use such information and to whom they disclose it. We encourage you to exercise care each time you are asked to provide personally identifiable information at a site whose privacy policies you don't know.

Even on NAIS's site, many of the features and much of the content is supplied by third-party vendors (or jointly by NAIS and one or more third parties), each of which has its own privacy policies and practices. You may be asked to provide personally identifiable information when you register for certain services or promotions on our site; in such cases, the information you provide may be collected and used by a third party rather than, or in addition to, NAIS. Our policy is to require such third-party vendors to agree to contractual obligations to protect the confidentiality of the personally identifiable information we share with them and to use it only to provide specific services on our behalf.

To Share with Our Affiliates

We may share your personal information with our affiliates for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

To Protect the Rights of NAIS and Others

There may be instances when NAIS may disclose your information, including situations where NAIS has a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary in order to: (i) protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, or property of NAIS; (ii) protect the safety, privacy, and security of users of NAIS or members of the public; (iii) protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; (iv) comply with the law or legal process; or (v) respond to requests from public and government authorities.

More on How We Use and Share Information

  1. Financial—We use the financial information you provide about yourself when ordering a product or service or registering for a conference to complete the transaction. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete the transaction. NAIS does not store this data in any way that is accessible to NAIS staff.
  2. Customization—We use information on how Users utilize the NAIS site to customize the information on the site to the user's interests.
  3. Identification—We use the information you provide about yourself for the in-print and online membership directory, and for a variety of organizational purposes, including sharing with you information about NAIS products and services we think might be of interest to you. We also allow selected third parties to use postal mailing lists, which include your name, job title, affiliated school information, and school address, to send mailings that may interest you. Postal mailing lists that are sold, rented, or shared with external organizations or individuals do not include email addresses.
  4. Surveys and Studies—We use data gathered through surveys and studies for the purposes described therein. In certain circumstances, data gathered through such activities, including personally identifiable information, may be shared with research partners. Unless specifically noted otherwise, no personally identifiable information collected through the surveys and studies is disclosed in our public reports about these surveys and studies.
  5. Event Registration—We use information you provide when registering for NAIS events to facilitate the provision of professional development and educational content and provide follow-up information and resources as needed. We may also share registration information with external organizations or individuals who facilitate or co-host particular events.
  6. Deidentified or Aggregate Information—We may use deidentified or aggregated information for any lawful purpose, such as to better design our website and other NAIS services. We also may share such information with associations, organizations, and commercial enterprises to help them understand the makeup of the NAIS membership.
  7. Opting out—For information on opting out of other information gathering from Google Analytics, click here.

Public Forums

NAIS Connect and similar NAIS online forums make online communities available to NAIS’s users. As indicated above, please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personally identifiable information. NAIS online communities and other online services have separate use policies to which users must adhere.

Supplemental Information

This site supplements the information that you provide with information that is received from third parties. For example, we may include in your profile data supplied by the institution with which you are employed. As specified above, we do not share any personally identifiable information with Google Analytics or other third parties.

Our Commitment to Data Security

The security of your information is very important to us. NAIS implements a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your Personal Information. However, due to the inherent open nature of the internet, no data transmission over the internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be secure. As a result, while we take measures to protect your Personal Information, we cannot ensure or guarantee the security of any information you send to us or that we store on our servers. Your use of the NAIS websites and related services demonstrates your assumption of this risk.

Updates to Privacy Policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy periodically. Please look at the date above to see when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the NAIS site. Policy changes will apply only to information collected on and after the date of the change.

How You Can Contact NAIS

You can email [email protected] for more information about any of the topics addressed here, including your data privacy.

You can send mail to the following postal address: NAIS, Attention: Membership & Community Engagement, 2001 K Street NW, Suite 1150, Washington, DC 20006.

You can call the following telephone number: (202) 973-9700, and ask for the appropriate department.

Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies or other aspects of our user agreement, please send us an email at [email protected].