At the American Fern Society, we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Policy explains when and why we collect personal data about the people who visit our web sites (www.amerfernsoc.org, payments.amerfernsoc.org, and https://bioone.org/journals/american-fern-journal/issues, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.
Who are we?
The American Fern Society was established in 1893 with the objective of fostering interest in ferns and lycophytes, or pteridophytes. Today we recognize "pteridophytes" as including two distinct lineages of vascular land plants: the lycophytes, which include the quillworts (family Isoetaceae), spike mosses (family Selaginellaceae), and club mosses (family Lycopodiaceae), and the ferns, which includes the horsetails (family Equisetaceae), whisk ferns (family Psilotaceae), and the 10,000+ species traditionally considered to be ferns. With over 500 members globally, the American Fern Society is one of the largest international fern clubs in the world. We exchange information and specimens between members via our publications and spore exchange. We sponsor Fern Forays every summer, in conjunction with the annual Botany meetings, to provide opportunities to learn more about wild ferns from experts and to meet other people with a similar passion for ferns.
What type of personal data do we collect? We obtain information from you when you join and renew your membership with the Society; apply for awards; register for a scientific meeting; make a donation; volunteer to participate in our education and outreach programs; and/or submit your manuscript for publication or your abstract for presentation at a conference. The personal data we collect varies based on the services we are providing and might include your name, company name, address, email address, your areas of expertise, and other personal preferences you voluntarily provide to us to assist us in providing the right type of Society benefits and opportunities to you. If you make a payment or donation online, your card information is not held by us; it is collected by our third-party payment processors, who specialize in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions.
How do we use your personal data? We use your personal information to provide you with products you have ordered and services provided by the Society. This includes but is not limited to email newsletters; print and online journals and newsletters; email reminders about Society benefits including voting privileges, award and educational outreach opportunities, meetings and donation solicitations; email correspondence regarding our publications; and to facilitate your engagement with the broader botanical community. If you correspond with the Society for Economic Botany via e-mail, the postal service, our web forms, or other form of communication, we may retain the correspondence and the information it contains for business purposes.
We may also compile, anonymize, and/or aggregate personal data that was voluntarily given by you in order to understand our scientific community so that we can serve its legitimate interests, apply for grants to further to Society’s mission, and analyze gaps in our membership community, our publications, or our services.
AFS does not sell or trade postal or email addresses to third parties.
Disclosure of Personal Data
AFS shares your personal data with third parties that provide certain services to assist us in meeting business operation needs. These parties are authorized to process your personal data on AFS’s behalf and pursuant to AFS’s instructions, only as necessary to provide these services. Your personal data is shared with the following service providers:
Providers of payment processing and accounting, as necessary to process payment
Providers of back-office database and marketing systems
Contracted vendors for certain events, including the annual scientific conference
AFS may also disclose personal data to third parties in the following circumstances:
If you request or authorize
The information is provided to comply with the law
To respond to a government request or to lawful requests by public authorities
To address emergencies or acts of God
If AFS is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, sale or transition of service to another provider, your personal data and other information may be transferred to a successor of an affiliate as part of that transaction along with other assets.
AFS collects, stores, and processes the information in the U.S. If you are outside the U.S., your personal data and other information will be transferred to the U.S. The data privacy and data protection laws outside your country may offer less protection than the laws in your country. By using AFS services, you agree to the transfer of your personal data. If you do not agree to such cross-border transfers of your personal data, please do not submit it through the website.
How you can access and change information
AFS acknowledges that you have the right to access your personal data. On the AFS website, which requires you to use your login and password, you may access and edit some of your Personal Data directly. Personal data may also be changed by sending an email to AFS Customer Service at amerfernsoc@vt.edu. In case you request us to remove data, contact us at amerfernsoc@vt.edu and we will respond within a reasonable timeframe.
If you are an EU Data Subject, please see the “EU Data Subjects Privacy Addendum” for information on your rights in relation to the Personal Data we hold about you.
Our Security Measures to Protect Your Personal Data
We are committed to taking reasonable efforts to secure the information that you choose to provide us, and we use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect against unauthorized access to or alteration, disclosure, or destruction of personal data. We restrict access to personal data to our employees, contractors, service providers, Board of Directors and Committee leadership, who need to know the information in order to operate, develop, or improve our services.
Unfortunately, no transmission of personal data over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Accordingly, and despite our efforts, The Society for Economic Botany cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, or to or from our online products or services. The AFS has no responsibility or liability for the security of information transmitted via the Internet. If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or the security of your personal data, please contact us as indicated under the “Contact Us” section below.
We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our treatment of the information you provide us, please contact as at:
Address: amerfernsoc@vt.edu
If you have contributed to our journals by being an author, reviewer, or editor, please also see the Website Privacy Policy for our manuscript submission and peer-review system.