2. General
The websites offered by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants ("Association"), American Institute of CPAs ("AICPA"), and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants ("CIMA") ("the Sites") are provided for your personal information, education and communication. Your access to and use of the Sites is subject to the following terms and conditions ("Terms and Conditions") and all applicable laws. As a user, it is required that you review and accept the Terms and Conditions. You also should review our Privacy Policy. By accessing and using the Sites, you accept, without limitation or qualification, the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, and agree to be bound by them. If you do not accept and agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, refrain from accessing our Sites.
With our Sites and services constantly evolving, the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy may also change. Whenever there are changes, the modified Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy will be posted on the Sites and will be effective at that time. With each change, a new version number will be displayed at the top of the page. Consequently, each time you access or use the Sites, you accept and agree to the most current set of Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. It is your responsibility to be aware of any such changes.
2.1 Disclaimer regarding content
We do not supply legal, investment, professional or career advice. Nothing on the Sites or within the documents available through the Sites constitutes legal, investment, career or other professional advice. You should not rely on any information posted on the Sites as if it were legal, investment, career or other professional advice. The documents provided on the Sites are for general guidance only and do not contain definitive advice. We cannot and do not guarantee or warrant that any of the information that you may receive through the Sites, or links to third party websites is accurate, up-to-date or complete and we do not accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions, or for any damage or loss you may suffer.
3. Rights
3.1 The software that runs the Sites is owned by us and/or our licensors. Except to the extent expressly permitted by applicable laws, you must not copy, modify, download, distribute or de-compile that software without our consent.
3.2 You may download material displayed on the Sites for non-commercial, personal use provided you also retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained on the materials. You may not distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, repost or use the content of the Sites for public or commercial purposes, including the text and images, without written permission. For information on how to obtain permission, scroll down to "Copyright Permission."
3.3 Except as expressly permitted by applicable law and by clause 3.2 (above), you may not copy (except to the extent required in order to use the Sites in accordance with these Terms), store in any medium (including in any other websites), distribute, transmit, re-transmit, broadcast, modify, or show in public any part of the Sites or systematically extract material from the Sites or any document available through the Sites or in any other way exploit commercially all or any part of the Sites or any document available through the Sites without our prior written permission.
3.4 Unauthorized access to or use of the Sites is prohibited. You must not attempt to circumvent security, tamper with, hack into, or otherwise disrupt the Sites or any computer system, server, router or any other internet-connected device associated with the Sites.
3.5 Images of people or places displayed on the Sites are either the property of, or used with permission by, the administrator(s) of the Sites and may not be used except as provided in these Terms and Conditions without written permission. For information on how to obtain permission, scroll down to "Copyright Permission". As a reminder, any unauthorized use of the images may violate copyright laws, trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity and communications regulations and statutes.
3.6 The trademarks, logos, and service marks (collectively the "Trademarks") displayed on the Sites are registered and unregistered Trademarks of the administrator(s) of the Sites and others. Nothing contained on the Sites should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use any Trademark displayed on the Sites without our written permission or the permission of such third party that may own the Trademarks displayed on the Sites. For information on how to obtain permission, scroll down to "Copyright Permission". Your misuse of the Trademarks displayed on the Sites, or any other content on the Sites, except as provided in these Terms and Conditions, is strictly prohibited. You are also advised that the administrator(s) of the Sites will enforce their intellectual property rights to the fullest extent of the law, including the seeking of criminal prosecution.
3.7 We reserve the right, in our discretion, to withdraw, suspend or modify the Sites or certain features or parts of the Sites with or without notice to you, where we have reason to do so. There may also be times when the Sites or certain features or parts of the Sites become unavailable, whether on a scheduled or unscheduled basis. You agree that we will not be liable to you or to any third party for any withdrawal, modification, unavailability, suspension or discontinuance of the Sites or any service available on or through the Sites.
3.8 Software from the Sites is further subject to United States and European Union Export Controls. Software from the Sites may not be downloaded or exported (i) into (or to a national or resident of) North Korea, Iran, Syria, or any other country to which the United States and/or the European Union has embargoed goods; or (ii) to anyone on the United States Treasury Departments list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Commerce Departments Table of Deny Orders. By downloading or using the software or purchasing products or services from the Sites, you represent that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list.
4. Your warranties
4.1 You warrant that:
4.1.1 you will only use the Sites in accordance with these Terms and only for lawful purposes and in a lawful manner;
4.1.2 all emails, comments, discussion posts, blogs, news postings, information, document, file or any other material that you intend to post to the Sites or provide to us via the Sites (Contributions) does not contravene any applicable local, national or international laws or regulations or contravene any person's legal rights, is not offensive or defamatory, is true, accurate, current and complete in all respects and that you will notify us immediately of any changes to that information, document or file;
4.1.3 you will not transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam) via the Sites;
4.1.4 you will not knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware; and
4.1.5 you will not collect information about users, including email addresses, without their prior consent.
5. Contributions
5.1 You are solely responsible for your Contributions and you shall ensure that your Contributions do not:
5.1.1 contain any material which is defamatory of any person;
5.1.2 contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
5.1.3 promote sexually explicit material;
5.1.4 promote violence;
5.1.5 promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
5.1.6 infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
5.1.7 be likely to deceive any person;
5.1.8 be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
5.1.9 promote any illegal activity;
5.1.10 be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
5.1.11 be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
5.1.12 be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person;
5.1.13 give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case; or
5.1.14 advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
5.2 You retain the ownership rights in your Contributions and grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable right to exercise the copyright, publicity, trademarks, database rights and intellectual property rights you have in the Contributions, in any media known now or in the future. In addition, you waive all moral rights you have in the Contributions to the fullest extent permitted by law. You represent and warrant that you are entitled to grant such a license to us.
5.3 You agree to indemnify us for any cost, expenses, damages or liabilities we incur due to your use of the Sites or otherwise relating to any of your Contributions. We reserve the right to remove or edit any Contributions as we see fit, without warning and without being required to provide reasons, and/or to make such information available to regulatory bodies or law enforcement authorities. Our decision on this shall be final. Further, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate, or bar access to, all or part of the Sites.
5.4 We shall not be liable to you for any loss you may incur as a result of us taking any of the actions described in clause 5.3 nor for the actions or inactions of other users, including anything contained in your or any third party's Contributions.
5.5 In the course of using the Sites, you may submit your personal data and/or the personal data of others. It is your responsibility to ensure this information is accurate and up-to-date.
5.6 You agree that you are responsible for the personal data that you submit to the Sites, including the personal data of others. If you submit the personal data of others to the Sites, you must ensure that you have all the rights and permissions needed to use that personal data in connection with the Sites and any services offered through the Sites. We are not responsible for any actions you take with regards to submitting the personal data of others to the Sites. Please do not add the personal data of others to the Sites unless you have first obtained consent to do so.
6. Online Privacy
6.1 We respect your privacy and will only process information about you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. By using the Sites, you agree to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
7. Linking
7.1 From the Sites you may be able to obtain access to websites operated by others. The content of such third-party websites to which you may navigate, by means of hypertext links, from the Sites is beyond our control. You proceed entirely at your own risk. We do not accept any responsibility for any damage or loss you may suffer arising out of access to those websites, including, but not limited to, damage or loss arising from your use of documents or other information found on those websites. These links are not monitored or maintained by us nor are we responsible for the content of any third-party websites. Please read all copyright and legal notices on each Sites prior to downloading or printing items to ensure that such actions are permitted under the third-party's copyright notices, legal notices and or terms of use.
7.2 Any links to such third-party websites are for your convenience and the inclusion of the links on our Sites does not imply any endorsement, guarantee, warranty or representation by us of the quality or accuracy of the information, products or services provided to you on those third-party websites.
8. Restricted access
8.1 Access to parts of the Sites are restricted to authorized persons. If you believe you have been granted access to any document or file by mistake, please exit the restricted section immediately and contact us as soon as possible.
8.2 You may be required to enter your username and password to enter restricted areas of the Sites. You must not allow any other person to use your password. If you believe someone else knows your password, you must change it immediately.
8.3 We reserve the right to remove users from the authorized list of users at any time.
8.4 Parts of the Sites incorporate encryption technology but even if there is encryption technology in place we cannot guarantee that unauthorized individuals will not be able to access confidential information hosted on or downloaded from the Sites.
8.5 The documents and files hosted on restricted parts of the Sites are confidential. You must not distribute the documents and files hosted in these areas except to persons authorized to read them. If you believe that you may have been granted access to a document or file by mistake you must not download it, copy it, use it for any purpose or disclose its contents to any other person.
8.6 If you access the Sites from a shared PC, during your access to the Sites you will be responsible for all instructions received by us between the time you pass the security procedure until you exit the Sites. This includes any input errors or instructions sent by someone other than you whilst you are still logged onto the Sites.
8.7 Email communication is not secure and there is no guarantee that an email will be delivered within a reasonable time, or at all. We advise you to contact us by telephone with any information that must reach us by certain deadlines.
9. Limitation of liability
9.1 We shall not be liable to you for any communication you send to us by email which is either received late or not received at all.
9.2 We shall not be liable to you for any loss arising out of the inaccuracy or incompleteness of information, including any of your or any third party's Contributions, contained on the Sites or in the services available through the Sites.
9.3 The Sites and/or services available through the Sites are provided to you "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.
9.4 While we will endeavor to maintain the availability of the Sites, we make no warranty that the Sites will meet your requirements or will be uninterrupted, timely, or error-free, that defects will be corrected or that the Sites or the server(s) that make the Sites and/or the services available through the Sites available are free of viruses or bugs. If you are aware of any error on the Sites please contact us and we will endeavor to correct it.
9.5 We will not be responsible or liable to you for any loss of material uploaded or transmitted through the Sites.
9.6 We shall not be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages (including loss of business, profits, anticipated savings, opportunity, reputation or goodwill) however caused.
Copyright Notice
© 2017 American Institute of CPAs
© 2017 Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
© 2017 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.
ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. You may not reproduce or transmit in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, and storage in an information retrieval system, nor may you modify or create derivative works based on the text of any file, or any part thereof, except as otherwise specifically authorized by the Terms and Conditions of this Sites.
Copyright Requests
Permission requests may be sent to:
Association of International Certified Professional Accountants
Permissions Department
220 Leigh Farm Road
Durham, NC 27707
Email:
copyright@aicpa.org
Contact Information
You are encouraged to report any improvements, suggestions, or suspected breaches of privacy or security to us by contacting us at
mentoring@aicpa.org.
Privacy Policy
Effective March 1, 2018
Version 3
Overview
Our mission is to drive a dynamic accounting profession globally and, when you register with us, you gain access to a wide range of tools and services to stay ahead. To seamlessly deliver these resources and benefits, we at times need to share your information across our teams and offices – always with a focus on keeping your data secure.
This Privacy Policy describes the ways in which your personal data is collected and used by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association), the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) (collectively referred to herein as "the controllers", "we", "us", "our"). By providing your personal data to any of the controllers, you acknowledge and agree that your data may be shared between and/or processed by any of the three controllers.
It is your responsibility to review and understand this Privacy Policy prior to providing your personal data to us. You also should review our Terms and Conditions. If you do not accept and agree to the Privacy Policy and/or Terms and Conditions, please refrain from providing your personal data to us, accessing our websites, and/or utilizing our products and services.
With our websites and services constantly evolving, our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions may also change from time to time. Whenever there are changes, the modified policies will be posted on our websites and will be effective at that time. Each time they change, the version number displayed at the top of the page also will change. Consequently, each time you access or use our websites or otherwise engage with us, you accept and agree to the most current Privacy Policy and set of Terms and Conditions. It is your responsibility to be aware of any such changes.
Notice
Our websites contain links to other websites which are managed by third parties (including their use of cookies). As a user of links, it is your responsibility to understand those third parties' privacy policies. Once you leave our websites using links, we have no control over information that is submitted to or collected by any third parties and are not responsible for other websites.
Collection of Personal Data
In order to provide our products, services and websites and for the other purposes set out in Use of Information below, we collect and process personal data from our members, students, customers, and other users of our websites, products and services. We may collect information from you such as, but not limited to, your name, email address, mailing address, phone/fax numbers, date of birth, gender, payment information, education history, employment information, information related to your professional qualifications, designations and memberships and information about your use of our and third-party websites, products and services ("Personal Data"). You are not required to provide us with all of the Personal Data listed above, but if you do not do so, we may not be able to effectively provide you with our products, services and information. In certain circumstances, you will need to provide us with specific categories of Personal Data (including name, email address and payment information) in order to enter into a contract with us and for us to perform that contract.
From time to time and as permitted by applicable law(s), we may collect Personal Data about you and update any existing Personal Data that we currently hold from other third-party sources, including publicly available data sources, publicly available social networking sites such as LinkedIn, your employer or university/school, State CPA Societies, our credential and designation examination providers, course providers or data brokers such as Acxiom.
See "Use of Information" section below for details regarding the ways that we use and process your personal data.
Use of Information
Your Personal Data may be used in the following ways:
- To provide our products and services to you
- To enhance and improve our products and services, for example, by performing internal research, analyzing user trends and measuring demographics and interests
- To process payments from you (including, but not limited to, membership dues and subscriptions, registration fees, voluntary contributions, examination fees, credential and designation fees, or payments for any products or services that you choose to purchase from us)
- To process payments to you (including, but not limited to, refunds or reimbursements)
- Internal purposes, such as website and system administration or internal audits and reviews
- To provide access to restricted parts of our websites.
- To determine eligibility for membership, credentials, designations and volunteer opportunities
- To communicate with you regarding your membership and products/services that may be of interest to you
- To respond to your requests and inquiries
- To serve relevant advertisements to you when you visit our sites or other third-party sites (including social media platforms)
- To request your participation in surveys, focus groups, or other initiatives which help us to gather information used to develop and enhance our products and services
- To evaluate your performance on continued learning courses and assist you in the tracking of your progress
- For examination scheduling, administration and registration purposes
- To comply with applicable law(s) (for example, to comply with a search warrant, subpoena or court order) or to carry out professional ethics/conduct investigations
- From time to time we may provide statistics about the usage levels of the Site and other related information to reputable third parties, but these statistics will not include information which will allow you to be identified
- We may use the information you provide to us and which we obtain from other sources to better understand your interests so we can try to predict what other products, services and information you might be most interested in. This practice is called "profiling", which involves making automated decisions about you based on this information in order to better enable us to tailor our interactions with you to make them more relevant and interesting. You may object to such profiling at any time by contacting us (see Contact Information/User Rights below) .
We will process your Personal Data for the purposes identified above on the following bases:
1. Our legitimate interests, which include processing such Personal Data for the purposes of providing and enhancing the provision of our products, services and information, as well as advertising further products, credentials, designations, services and information to you;
2. Where such processing is necessary to perform our contract with you or to take steps before entering into our contract with you; and
3. As necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our contractual agreements.
Unless a longer retention period is required by applicable law, we will retain your information for as long as your account is active, as well as for a short additional period afterwards to cover any outstanding issues or queries that may arise in relation to your account (for example, outstanding payments). This period of retention is subject to our review and alteration.
Sharing and Disclosure to Third Parties
We may disclose your Personal Data to third parties from time to time under the following circumstances:
1. You request or authorize the disclosure of your personal details to a third party.
2. The information is disclosed as permitted by applicable law(s) and/or in order to comply with applicable law(s) (for example, to comply with a search warrant, subpoena or court order).
3. The information is disclosed to your employer, university or tuition provider in the event they have an interest in your data (e.g. they support your exam, tuition, or membership fees).
4. The information is provided to our agents, vendors or service providers who perform functions on our behalf. See below for additional details.
It is likely that the identity and categories of such third parties will change during the life of your account but, depending on your use of the Site, it is anticipated that your Personal Data will be disclosed to the following categories of third-party service providers who perform functions on our behalf. We require that our third-party service providers only use your Personal Data as necessary to provide the requested services to us and each service provider is subject to a set of terms consistent with this Privacy Policy.
- Hosting providers for the secure storage and transmission of your data
- Learning technology and online event providers for the delivery and improvement of web events and learning programs and the tracking of your progress
- Digital credential providers for the delivery of digital badges earned through your participation in learning programs
- Examination providers for the scheduling and delivery of credential and designation examinations
- Identity management providers for authentication purposes
- Database software providers for the management and tracking of your data
- Legal and compliance consultants, such as external counsel, external auditors, or tax consultants
- Advertising partners, including social media providers, for the delivery of targeted advertisements
- Marketing providers who send communications on our behalf regarding our products and services
- Payment solution providers for the secure processing of payments you provide to us
- Publishers and learning providers who develop products on our behalf
- Technology providers who assist in the development and management of our web properties
- Outbound call center providers, who may perform outreach on our behalf regarding our products and services
- Fulfillment and postal vendors for the fulfillment of our products and services
- Our volunteers or committee members who perform various functions on our behalf
- Survey and research providers who perform studies on our behalf
Collection of Information Through Cookie Use
We may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a "cookie" file. A cookie is an element of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then be stored on your hard drive. If you do not agree, you can choose to not receive a cookie file by enabling your web browser to refuse cookies or to prompt you before you accept a cookie.
The following types of cookies may be used on our websites:
1.
Essential Cookies: These cookies are necessary for our websites to work properly. They are usually only set in response to actions you take such as logging in or completing online forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of our sites will not function if these cookies are blocked.
2.
Functionality Cookies: These cookies enhance the functionality of our websites by storing your preferences (such as your preferred language or the region that you are in) and allow us to provide enhanced features on our sites such as videos. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party content that we have placed within our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, some of the features on our websites may not function properly and you may not receive a personalized experience when visiting our sites.
3.
Performance Cookies: These cookies allow us to count page visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. They help us to understand which pages are visited most frequently and how visitors interact with our sites. Any information collected by performance cookies is aggregated and therefore not identifiable. If you do not allow these cookies we will not receive data related to your visits to our sites.
4.
Third-Party Cookies: These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners, such as Google or Adobe. They may be used by these companies to enable them to build a profile of your interests and show relevant advertisements on other sites. These cookies are based on identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience a decrease in the targeted advertisements that you see online.
If you opt in to use the "Remember me" feature on our websites, we will place a persistent cookie on your hard drive and you will not be required to log in for every session. By disabling cookies on your machine or clearing your browsing history you may deactivate the persistent cookie.
All major browsers allow you to block or delete cookies from your system. To learn more about your ability to manage your preferences related to cookies, please consult the privacy features within your browser.
Further information about cookies:
Communication Preferences
We strive to provide you with relevant and useful information related to our products, services and industry news. You can update your communication preferences at any time by visiting the preference center within your online account on our website(s). Additionally, you can contact us using the information listed at the bottom of this policy to make changes to your communication preferences. Any promotional emails that we send will include a link at the bottom of the email to unsubscribe.
If you have opted in to receive text messages from us, you can opt out at any time by responding with the word
STOP. You will receive a confirmation text of your choice to opt out.
Transfer of personal data internationallyBy providing us with your personal data, you acknowledge and agree that we may from time to time transfer any of your personal data to any of our offices or to the offices of any of our affiliates, agents or appointed representatives located around the world. We have implemented appropriate safeguards for transfers of personal information originating from the European Economic Area (EEA) to countries located outside of the EEA. These safeguards include implementing standard data protection clauses which have been approved by the European Commission or (in relation to transfers from the European Union to the USA) transferring Personal Data to entities who have signed up to the EU-U.S.
Privacy Shield. Please do not submit any personal data to us if you do not wish for your data to be transferred internationally.
Security and Other
We use reasonable measures to strive to safeguard and secure the personal data we collect. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. Technology, such as, but not limited to, Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secured Socket Layer (SSL), is used to enhance security and reduce risk of loss. Our security practices, processes or technology do not guarantee absolute security of your information and you should take all normal personal precautions such as, but not limited to, not sharing passwords, closing browsers, and not using public networks (e.g., internet cafes, etc.).