The Editorial Freelancers Association (“EFA”) is the leading national professional organization of editorial freelancers. This Privacy Statement describes the personal information (defined below) that is processed by the EFA (“we,” “us,” or “our”).

We collect certain personal information from our members, guests, instructors, contractors, users of our Job List, and other visitors to our websites. We also collect certain personal information from visitors to, speakers at, and participants in our in-person meetings and events or those of any of our chapters. The information we collect is primarily data which you provide directly to us in the course of our relationship. This information is used in connection with the EFA’s mission to provide support to an international community of professional freelancers and to connect publishers, businesses and organizations, academics, authors, and others to skilled editorial editorial professionals.

We conduct the following types of activities to carry out our mission:

• educate through conferences, webinars, and online courses;
• provide access to written resources, survey results, unique collections of materials, and documentation;
• create opportunities for members to grow professionally and to network at industry events, at our events, and through volunteering in our numerous programs and committees;
• create opportunities for guests to grow professionally and to network through our online education program and at our events;
• distribute information about the editorial freelancer community through our publications and our websites;
• provide a directory of members and a job listing service for use by those seeking professional editorial assistance; and
• conduct research through surveys and polls.

These and related activities form part of our core mission. They also are benefits we offer members of the EFA and those participating in our activities.

We must collect and process certain personal information in order to carry out our mission or to fulfill certain requests you make. We process personal information in a way that is consistent with our commitment to fair and transparent information practices and our legitimate business interests in furthering our mission.

We provide more information about our data practices at these links:

1. DEFINITIONS
2. WHEN DO WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION AND WHAT TYPE OF INFORMATION IS COLLECTED?
3. HOW DO WE USE INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU?
4. ENTITIES WITH WHOM WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
5. WHERE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS STORED INTERNATIONALLY
6. HOW WE PROTECT INFORMATION YOU GIVE US
7. CONSENT TO RECEIVE EFA COMMUNICATIONS AND MANAGEMENT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
8. WHAT CHOICES DO I HAVE REGARDING THE COLLECTION, DISCLOSURE, AND DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION?
9. CAN I HAVE MY INFORMATION UPDATED, CORRECTED, OR DELETED?
10. RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
11. COOKIES AND TRACKERS
12. OTHER WEBSITES
13. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY STATEMENT
14. HOW TO CONTACT US

1. DEFINITIONS

The terms “using” and “processing” information include, but are not limited to, collecting, storing, evaluating, modifying, deleting, combining, disclosing, and transferring information within our organization. These terms may also be used to include subjecting any information to statistical analysis.

“Personal information” is any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual and may include, but is not limited to, your name, physical address, email address, phone number, photo, resume, and account ID. Personal information can also include information that does not identify you but could be combined with other information in a way that enables you to be identified, such as gender, signature, or credit card number.

2. WHEN DO WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION AND WHAT TYPE OF INFORMATION IS COLLECTED?

We may collect personal information (see the definition above) when you:

1. apply for membership with the EFA (or someone applies on your behalf);
2. create, update, or edit a guest or member account on our website;
3. register for or subscribe to one of our courses, webinars, events, publications, or services;
4. volunteer for our activities;
5. register for our educational courses or materials;
6. pay for a membership, product, or service offered through our websites or one of our chapters;
7. contact us for information about us or our products or services;
8. seek to become an exhibitor or sponsor at our program or event;
9. interact with us on social media;
10. list a job through our website;
11. become a service provider to the organization;
12. visit a chapter meeting;
13. visit our website; or
14. otherwise provide personal information to us.

We may collect any personal information that is necessary for legitimate business purposes when such collection and use is reasonable, given your relationship with us and your reasonable expectations for how your personal information will be used. We will use this information for the purposes for which it was collected and consistent with our mission.

Please note that if you interact with the EFA on a social media platform, we may see information you have provided to that platform. You may consult your privacy settings or the privacy policies for the various social media platforms on which you interact with us for more information.

We may also collect personal information from trusted third-party sources and engage third parties to collect personal information to assist us. See below for more information under “Entities With Whom We Share Your Personal Information.”

The EFA collects information from its websites through the use of cookies and log-files. More information about how we use cookies and how to disable them is available here.

3. HOW DO WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU?

We gather your personal information so we can carry out activities that advance our mission, including to:

1. fulfill our obligations as a member-driven association, such as alerting you to our events and member benefits; informing you of the status of your membership; and providing you with a publication or news alert;
2. process your transactions, such as registration for conferences, courses, and webinars; sponsorship of events; and payment of membership dues and fees;
3. activate your participation in our educational programs;
4. answer your questions;
5. manage committee assignments;
6. compile registration lists, badging, and security for events;
7. manage all billing processes;
8. provide member and guest account servicing;
9. provide a public member directory;
10. provide a listing of exhibitors and sponsors;
11. provide and support requested products or services;
12. analyze and monitor the use of our services, products, and websites;
13. offer you other related services and products;
14. maintain a job board;
15. communicate for marketing or other member communication or satisfaction purposes;
16. invite you to participate voluntarily in mailings or other events, which may include surveys, chapter meetings and activities, or participation in initiatives that we announce from time to time; and
17. support our legal and compliance obligations.

4. ENTITIES WITH WHOM WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may share personal information with our vendors and service providers as necessary to carry out our mission and legitimate business functions. These service providers may include: banks, payment processors, data storage and web-hosting companies, shipping services for physical material, learning management systems, and internal scheduling and workflow management applications. Our service providers are prohibited from using your personal information for any reason other than to provide the specific products or services needed to facilitate or support the EFA’s operations and provide you with products or services you have requested.

We may share your information with third parties in connection with a service you have requested or when we are requesting feedback from you. These third parties can include volunteer sign-up management providers, survey providers, online storefronts that sell our merchandise, discussion groups or forums in which you participate, and email marketing providers. We will never share your information with any third party except as described in this section. You are not required to provide any of this information and you may cease providing it at any time. Please note that there are some communications that, due to their importance or because they are required for us to fulfill our legal and business obligations to you, cannot be opted out of.

Event Attendees, Sponsors, and Exhibitors 

Should you attend one of our conferences or other events, we may share your business contact information with current or prospective attendees, sponsors, or exhibitors as part of a registration roster. Generally, we limit such information to your name and location. We may take photos and recordings of our conferences and programs and those in attendance and use the recorded media to publicize the conference or program. We may post the photos on our website, or to social media or other public forums. We consider your attendance at our events as evidencing your consent to our use of such recorded media for these purposes.

We require that these service providers protect the privacy of your personal information consistent with this Privacy Statement and agree not to use or disclose your personal information for any purpose other than to provide the products or services for which we contracted or as required by law.

Chapters and Volunteers

We may both transmit and receive personal information between the EFA’s main offices and the EFA’s regional chapters. Additionally, your personal information may be accessed by volunteer EFA members who serve in our chapters or on our committees. Volunteers and chapters are only given access to personal information that is necessary for them to perform the function they have been assigned.

5. WHERE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS STORED INTERNATIONALLY

We transmit, collect, and store your personal information in the United States, where the EFA’s main office is located. Transferring your personal information to the United States is necessary for us to provide you with access to our website and for other services the EFA may provide. If you are a member of a regional chapter located outside of the United States, your information may be transferred to the country where your chapter is located to the extent that such a transfer is necessary for your chapter membership.

6. HOW WE PROTECT INFORMATION YOU GIVE US

Within the EFA, we restrict access to your personal information to those employees and volunteers who need to know that information. We have implemented appropriate technical and administrative processes to protect personal information that are commensurate with the sensitivity of the information collected. Recognizing that technology is continually developing, we implement new procedures and technology improvements on an ongoing basis, as appropriate, to further safeguard your personal information.

7. CONSENT TO RECEIVE EFA COMMUNICATIONS AND MANAGEMENT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We would like to inform you by email, mail, or telephone about our services and events that may interest you using the contact information you provide us. We find that our members and guests expect to receive information on our range of services.

If you provide us with your contact information, we treat that as an affirmative act that evidences your consent to send you information about the EFA’s services and events and any other correspondence that a person would reasonably expect to receive from a member-based trade association and its affiliates and in accordance with the selections you set in the Profile Editor in My Account on our website. However, you may request at any time that we cease contacting you regarding any services or offerings, subject to our business needs and legal obligations. Additionally, you may request, subject to our business needs and legal obligations, that we not share your contact information with our third-party business process providers, including email marketing and communications providers. Please note this may affect our ability to provide you with services and communications that you have previously requested.

You may unsubscribe at any time from our communications by clicking the “No” buttons in the Profile Editor in My Account on our website or by clicking the unsubscribe link in any bulk email we send to you.

Additionally, you may request that we remove your name from our system or amend or update inaccurate or stale data in our system. Our ability to honor that request is subject to our legal obligations and our business needs. Also, you may at any time rescind any consent(s) you have previously provided regarding our processing of your personal information.

Any such requests can be made by any of the methods set out below in the “How To Contact Us” section.

8. WHAT CHOICES DO I HAVE REGARDING THE COLLECTION, DISCLOSURE, AND DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Statement or separate agreement, as applicable, we will only use personal information for the purposes described above or as otherwise disclosed at the time we request such information from you. We will use your personal information for any other purpose only with your consent.

9. CAN I HAVE MY INFORMATION UPDATED, CORRECTED, OR DELETED?

Members and guests with active accounts may (1) update or correct your personal information and (2) change your preferences with respect to communications and other information you receive from us, via the Profile Editor in My Account on our website.  You may request that we: delete the personal information maintained about you on our systems (subject to our data retention policies, described in the following section). Please be aware that if you request to have your information deleted, this effectively ends your membership or closes your guest account. You will not be able to access your information in the future for purposes of rejoining or referencing past membership activity. You will also no longer be able to log in to our website or have access to membership benefits and services. Such updates, corrections, changes, and deletions will have no effect on other information that we maintain, or information that we have provided to third parties in accordance with this Privacy Statement prior to such update, correction, change, or deletion.

To protect your privacy and security, we may take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you profile access or making corrections. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information at all times.

We will implement your request as soon as and to the extent reasonably and technically practicable. We may not be able to honor all requests when personal information must be retained for business purposes or to comply with applicable law.

10. RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

The EFA will retain your personal information as needed to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected. In the case of our members, we will retain your information so long as you are a member and for two years after your membership becomes inactive. Beyond these time periods, we will retain and use your personal information as necessary to comply with our business requirements and legal obligations, resolve disputes, protect our assets, and enforce our agreements. In the case of our guests, we will delete your information two years after you set up your account, unless you upgrade your account to membership status before that time, in which case the members retention policy will apply.

11. COOKIES AND TRACKERS

As with most websites, our websites may use small pieces of code called “cookies” to log certain information from each visitor to the sites. When you first visit our websites, we may send you a cookie. A cookie is a small file that can be placed on your computer’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes. In general, we use cookies to help measure traffic to different parts of our websites, improve our content, offer members-only discounts and content, and prevent malicious activity. The EFA uses a number of cookies that are necessary for site functionality, as well as cookies that are used in connection with Google Analytics. You may read this webpage or Google’s Privacy Policy for more information about how Google Analytics uses and collects data. If you would like to opt out of sharing your data with Google Analytics, you may use Google’s opt-out browser ad-on, available here.

You may delete cookies or prevent cookies from being placed by accessing the settings in your web browser. However, please note that doing so may affect your ability to access secure areas of the site or properly view other parts of the site. You can find out more at http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

At this time, the EFA does not respond to Do Not Track signals from browsers.

12. OTHER WEBSITES

Our websites may contain links to other websites, including those that produce and market EFA products such as Lulu.com and CafePress.com. Our privacy policies and this Privacy Statement only apply to our websites. When you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

13. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY STATEMENT

We will periodically review our privacy policies and update this Privacy Statement to reflect any material changes. This Privacy Statement was last updated on July 9, 2019.

14. HOW TO CONTACT US

You may contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policies or the personal information we hold about you:

Editorial Freelancers Association
266 West 37th Street, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10018
212-920-4816
info@the-efa.org