Privacy Policy
Thank you for visiting Toastmasters International’s official website and shopping at our online store. We are committed to respecting and protecting the privacy rights of our members. This policy describes the types of information that Toastmasters may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit www.toastmasters.org and our practices for collecting, using, protecting and disclosing that information. By visiting any website in the www.toastmasters.org domain, you are accepting the practices described in this policy.
In simplified form (greater detail is below), our policy can be summarized as follows:
- We may collect some information about you, as described in this policy, but you can control how much you share about yourself.
- We do not knowingly collect information from children under 18 years of age.
- We will not sell your personal information but may share such information with third-party service providers in order to streamline functions on our behalf. If we use a third-party, they will be vetted to ensure they protect your information.
- We may collect, use and share aggregate, anonymous information about our users.
- In certain legal situations, we may be compelled to disclose your personal information.
- If you are outside the United States, you understand and agree that we store your information in the United States.
What personal information do we collect?
When you apply to become a member, we will collect personal data as necessary to register the membership. Typical information required may be your name, postal address, telephone number and email address in order to establish the membership.
We may ask you to provide us with additional information including:
- Information that you provide by filling in forms on our website. This includes information provided to donate to The Smedley Fund, subscribe to services available on our website, registration for online events, submit a Trademark Use Request, post material or request further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our website.
- Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
- Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
- Details of transactions you carry out through our website and of the fulfillment of your orders. You may be required to provide financial information before placing an order through our website. (Credit card information is always immediately disposed of after the purchase is complete).
- Your search queries on our website.
- There may be features that are developed in the future that may result in the collection of additional new information.
For example, you provide information when you search for a product; place an order through our store; provide information to our Member Engagement and Support department; provide information in your personal profile (or profiles, if you have more than one); communicate with us by phone, email, or otherwise; complete a questionnaire; or use other Toastmasters features. As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such information as your name (or another person's), address, and phone numbers; credit card information; people to whom purchases have been shipped, including addresses and phone number; content of emails to us; personal information (your name and any Toastmasters International honors or awards you’ve received); and financial information.
You can choose not to provide certain information or to have it deleted, by accessing your profile or by contacting our Member Services department, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our features. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing your future visits to the Toastmasters website and shopping, improving our website, and communicating with you.
Any information we collect automatically is statistical data, and does not identify any individual. It helps us to improve our website and to deliver a better and more personalized service by enabling us to:
- Estimate our audience size, browser statistics, and popularity of content and usage patterns.
- Speed up your searches.
- Recognize you when you return to our website.
A number of companies offer utilities designed to help you visit websites anonymously. Although we will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience at www.toastmasters.org if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these tools exist. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission provides useful information about online privacy on its own website, http://www.privacy.ca.gov/.
Information from Other Sources:
Third party advertisers may appear on our website from time to time. They may be able to detect that visitors to their website arrived via www.toastmasters.org. However, we do not receive any information from these or other outside websites regarding your page views, purchases or any other information.
Why do we retain personal data?
We retain personal data to fulfill any legal or regulatory obligations and for legitimate business purposes. We may save personal data for longer periods than required by law if it is in our legitimate business interests and not prohibited by law. If you do not renew your membership, we may take steps to mask personal data, but we reserve our ability to retain and access the data for so long as required to comply with applicable laws. We will continue to use and disclose such personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
How does Toastmasters use collected information?
We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:
- To provide you with information, products or services as part of your membership.
- To offer and fulfill our legitimate business purposes.
- To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
- To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
- To notify you about changes to our website or any products or services we offer or provide.
- To allow you to participate in interactive features on our website.
- To store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our website according to your individual interests.
- In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
- For any other purpose with your consent.
What about cookies?
Cookies are tiny bits of information that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and to provide features such as your personalized profile.
The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, leaving cookies on will allow you to take full advantage of some of Toastmasters most entertaining and helpful features.
Does Toastmasters share the information it receives?
Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and we are not in the business of selling it to others. However, we may share your information for the following purposes:
Toastmasters International:
This includes the organization’s World Headquarters, which manages www.toastmasters.org, as well as Toastmasters districts, divisions, areas and individual Toastmasters clubs. In keeping with our regular offline business practices, Toastmasters International will provide information about Toastmasters members to these internal associates for communication purposes only.
Third-Party Service Providers:
We may share information with third-party service providers to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling orders, streamlining large emails, hosting online events, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing website data, providing website design assistance, conducting surveys, and processing credit card payments. Third parties may have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes. All third-parties have been carefully vetted, and when necessary may have signed data protection agreements.
Protection of Toastmasters.org and Others:
We may release account and other personal information when appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our Conditions of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Toastmasters International, our members, or others. This may include exchanging information with civil authorities, other companies and organizations in order to protect Toastmasters International and its members from illegal activities. However, this does not include selling, renting, sharing, or otherwise disclosing personally identifiable information from customers for commercial purposes in violation of the commitments set forth in this policy.
Do I have choices about sharing my information?
www.toastmasters.org gives you access to a broad range of information about your account and your interactions with Toastmasters International for the limited purpose of viewing and, in certain cases, updating that information. Examples of data you can access at www.toastmasters.org include your order history and personally identifiable information (including name, email, password, and your club membership history). This list will change and expand as our website evolves.
You may choose not to provide data and opt out of services and communications along the way, but certain services, may be unavailable to you as a result. Alternatives for making purchases or updating your Toastmasters International records may involve using the postal service or a courier service or calling Toastmasters International’s Member Engagement and Support Department during business hours.
You can opt out of receiving non-essential communications via email, postal mail, or telephone. Even if you opt out of getting messages, we will still send you transactional messages such as order confirmations and receipts and communications necessary to further our legitimate business interests.
How secure is my information?
Toastmasters International is committed to protecting the security of your personal information and maintains physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that meet industry standards to guard your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. For example, we store the personal information you provide on computer systems with limited access, which are located in controlled facilities. We protect your account information by placing it on the secure portion of our website, using firewalls and other security technology to protect our network and systems from external attacks, and requiring you to enter a unique username and password to access your account information online.
When we transmit highly confidential information (such as a credit card number or password) over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption. Toastmasters International uses industry-standard (SSL) technology to prevent unauthorized parties from viewing potentially sensitive information, such as your name and address, as well as critically sensitive information like your credit card number that you provide or access during a secure session (look for a padlock or key and chain icon on your browser).
The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. Certain parts of our website require a password, and you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. Passwords, registered with our website, are encrypted to ensure protection against unauthorized access to your personal information. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of our website. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of our website. It is important for you to guard against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer.
Are children allowed to visit or shop at www.toastmasters.org?
www.toastmasters.org does not sell products for purchase by children. We offer very few children's products for purchase by adults. If you are under 18, you may use www.toastmasters.org only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.
What else should you know?
Toastmasters International strongly supports our members’ right to privacy. For this reason, we urge our visitors to read about privacy issues and laws on http://www.privacy.ca.gov/. This information is presented by the State of California Office of Privacy Protection (under the California Department of Consumer Affairs), where Toastmasters is incorporated. We recommend that you read the page entitled: “How to Read a Privacy Policy,” which is useful information for viewing any website, including www.toastmasters.org.
If you choose to visit www.toastmasters.org, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this policy and our Conditions of Use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of the law of the state of California. If you have any concern about privacy at www.toastmasters.org, please contact us by email or regular mail at 9127 S. Jamaica St., Ste 400, Englewood, CO 80112 with a thorough description, and we will try to resolve it.
If you choose to use the Services from the European Union (“EU”), Switzerland or other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from the law of the United States of America (“US”), please note that you are transferring your personal information outside of those regions to the US for storage and processing. By providing any information, including personal information about you, on or to the Services, you consent to such transfer, storage, and processing.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
Our website is growing, and our Privacy Policy and the Conditions of Use will change also. We may email periodic reminders of our notices and conditions, though you should still check our website frequently to see reports on the latest changes. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.
Toastmasters International may change, add, modify or remove portions of this policy at any time, which shall become effective immediately upon posting on this page. The date the policy was last revised is identified at the bottom of the page. It is your responsibility to review this policy for any changes. By continuing to use our website, you agree to any changes in the policy.
May 21, 2018