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Protecting Your Privacy: PTA Privacy Policy for Members

Updated December 2007

Policy Summary

  • National PTA does not sell or rent member information to anyone.
  • To help provide more value for PTA membership, sponsors and member benefit providers do receive limited and restricted opportunities to communicate special offers to our members.
    • All mailings are reviewed and approved by PTA and sent through a 3rd party mail house.
    • The 3rd party mail house is required to sign a confidentiality statement that the lists will be used for a one-time mailing and cannot be shared with anyone.
    • Our sponsors and member benefit providers never see the list or have direct access to it.
  • PTA does not allow sponsors or members benefits providers to solicit members under the age of 18, when designated as such.
  • PTA uses state-of-the-art technologies and processes to protect and secure any information it collects.

Information PTA Collects

Information PTA Collects
Information Sharing
Secure Transactions
Your Choices
Privacy and PTA: Questions and Answers

1. Do I have to submit any personal information in order to use www.pta.org?
2. Does www.pta.org collect non-personal information, using "cookies" or otherwise?
3. How is my information used?
4. Is any information shared with other companies or organizations?
5. How do I stop or "opt out" of receiving mailings or services?
6. Do privacy protections exist on PTA lists?
7. How does www.pta.org protect security and confidentiality?
8. Will this privacy policy ever change?
9. Who can I contact with privacy questions?

When you apply for membership, PTA asks for basic information, such as your name, street address, and e-mail address. Your participation in PTA activities and member services also is tracked to help PTA better understand member interests and evaluate the effectiveness of our offerings. PTA also collects demographic information from other sources to learn more about member characteristics and needs. As explained in the Questions and Answers below, PTA may ask for additional information when you visit www.pta.org. All of this information helps PTA better serve members and improve programs.

Information Sharing

PTA does not sell or rent member information to telemarketers, mailing list brokers, or other companies. Sponsors and member benefits providers do receive limited and restricted opportunities to communicate to our members; however, all mailings are reviewed and approved by PTA and sent through a 3rd party mail house, which is required to sign a confidentiality statement that the lists will be used for a one-time mailing and cannot be shared with anyone. Our sponsors and member benefit providers never see the list or have direct access to it. PTA does not allow sponsors to solicit members under the age of 18, when designated as such. PTA may also disclose member information when required to do so by law or when such action is necessary or appropriate to comply with legal process served on the national organization, to protect and defend the rights or property of PTA, or to protect the personal safety of users of the PTA website. PTA reserves the right to contact the appropriate authorities when visitors' activities appear to be illegal or inconsistent with PTA policies.

Finally, PTA may sometimes share aggregate statistics and non-personal information with the media, government agencies, advertisers, and other third parties. For example, PTA may publish statistics on the number of members in various states, or the number of visitors to www.pta.org. These aggregate statistics do not identify member names or other personal information.

Secure Transactions

In order to protect your personal information, PTA uses technologies and processes, such as encryption, access control procedures, network firewalls, physical security, and other safety measures. All e-commerce transactions conducted on www.pta.org are secured by the Verisign® secure site program. This program is designed to encrypt information submitted to www.pta.org during a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) session, protecting it against disclosure to third parties. SSL is a technology adopted by all vendors producing related Web software to facilitate secure transactions.

Your Choices

PTA values your membership and respects your choices. If you do not want PTA to share your information with national providers of PTA member services and benefits, tell us by following the process described below:

Online:

Send questions and comments to the PTA Information Center at info@pta.org.

Via mail, phone or fax:

PTA
National Headquarters

541 North Fairbanks Court
Suite 1300
Chicago, IL 60611-3396
Phone: (312) 670-6782
Toll-Free: (800) 307-4PTA (4782)
Fax: (312) 670-6783

Please send correspondence to the attention of the PTA Information Center.

Privacy and PTA: Questions and Answers

1.

Do I have to submit any personal information in order to use www.pta.org?
No. You do not need to give PTA any information about yourself in order to access most of www.pta.org. You can visit most web pages, read our publications, and learn about our member services on a completely anonymous basis. Certain leadership content and member benefits do require a password provided to you with your PTA membership.

If you want to take advantage of optional services available on www.pta.org, PTA may request information to identify you. For example, if you use the online form to join the national PTA organization or renew your PTA membership, certain information is required to process your application, such as your name, phone number, mailing address, e-mail address, and credit card number. PTA may also ask for personal information when you participate in other activities or services on www.pta.org, such as surveys, polls, bulletin boards, and participatory programs, such as Adopt a PTA or the Great Idea Bank.

PTA also has relationships with certain providers and vendors to offer services and benefits to you on linked websites. On any of these sites, you may be asked to enter personal information in order to take advantage of their services or programs. If you decide to purchase services on the website of a PTA national member benefits service provider, the contracted member benefits provider offering the services may ask for your name, member number, address, and e-mail address in order to deliver the services requested or contact you about the services.

These related sites may also have their own unique privacy policies that you should review.

2.

Does www.pta.org collect non-personal information, using "cookies" or otherwise?
Yes. PTA does collect "non-personal information" that does not identify your name, e-mail address, or other personal characteristics. Non-personal information includes the number assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet ("IP address"), and the type of browser you use. None of this non-personal information allows PTA to identify or contact you. By gathering this information, PTA learns, among other things, how many people visit www.pta.org, popular web pages, and where visitors were on other websites before arriving at www.pta.org.

PTA may also assign a "cookie" to your computer in some situations. Like an IP address, a cookie allows PTA to recognize your computer each time you visit www.pta.org.

Unless you have already provided PTA with personal information on www.pta.org or an affiliated site, cookies do not identify you by name, e-mail address, or other personal characteristics. PTA uses cookies primarily to identify return visitors and make your www.pta.org experience convenient and valuable.

PTA uses WebTrends® software to collect aggregate information about www.pta.org usage, such as the most visited pages and features.

3.

How is my information used?
PTA collects personal and non-personal information to serve members. PTA uses member information to evaluate and improve services and offerings. PTA asks for information to process your membership application, send you valuable resources and timely news and information about your membership and the organization, and provide you with discounts and other member benefits. 

PTA stores your membership information in secured computer files. PTA uses this information to service your membership account and answer your questions. PTA may also review demographic information, survey results, and statistical analyses of www.pta.org usage to help evaluate, modify, and develop services of interest to PTA members.

4.

Is any information shared with other companies or organizations?
Yes. PTA shares member information with approved companies, such as the PTA Store distributor, and national sponsors and member benefits providers under contract with PTA to provide specific services and benefits. PTA takes very seriously its responsibility to keep your personal information confidential and private. PTA does not sell or rent members' personal information to telemarketers, mailing list brokers, or any other companies. PTA does not allow sponsors to solicit members under the age of 18, when designated as such.

Additionally, PTA may also disclose personal information when required to do so by law or when such action is necessary or appropriate to comply with legal process served on the national organization, to protect and defend the rights or property of PTA, or to protect the personal safety of users of the PTA website. PTA reserves the right to contact the appropriate authorities when visitors' activities appear to be illegal or inconsistent with our policies.

Finally, PTA may sometimes share aggregate statistics and non-personal information with the media, government agencies, advertisers, and other third parties. For example, PTA may publish statistics on the number of members in various states, or the number of visitors to www.pta.org. These aggregate statistics will not allow anyone to identify member names or other personal information.

5.

How do I stop or "opt out" of receiving mailings or services?
When you join PTA, you become part of a powerful nationwide organization comprised of millions of members who help children succeed in education and life. Your PTA membership automatically and provides you with valuable resources, news, information, and valuable discounts and offers. You will receive newsletters, publications, and special e-mails sent on behalf of PTA national sponsors. PTA offers these resources to help you take full advantage of your membership. However, you do have a choice to continue subscriptions to any PTA newsletter, publication, e-mails, service or offer. You may unsubscribe or “opt out” at any time. Please use the guide below.

If you do not want to receive electronic communications or mailings from PTA:

(1) E-mail PTA at info@pta.org

(2) Call the PTA Information Center at (800) 307-4782, or

(3) Write to PTA National Headquarters, Attention Information Center, 541 North Fairbanks Court, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60611-3396.

If you do not want to receive a PTA e-newsletter or an e-mail sent on behalf of a PTA national sponsor, follow the instructions at the bottom of that particular electronic document sent to you.

Again, these notices are designed to help you take full advantage of the benefits of PTA membership, but we do not want to send them to you if you are not interested in receiving them. 

6.

Do privacy protections exist on PTA lists?
It is important to understand that the information you submit in discussion/PTA list groups, bulletin boards, and chat rooms is publicly displayed. People will see your messages and organizations not related to PTA, and may be used by these third parties to contact you. As a result, you should be very careful about the information that you include in these messages. Because these unrelated parties will also see your "User Name" on any postings that you make in the discussion groups, you may not want to use your full name. You can use your first name only, or use an assumed name, if you like.

7.

How does www.pta.org protect security and confidentiality?
In order to protect your personal information, PTA uses different technologies and processes, such as encryption, access control procedures, network firewalls, physical security, and other protection measures. These measures increase the security and privacy of information traveling to, from, and within www.pta.org. Only PTA authorized employees or agents carrying out permitted business functions are allowed to access personal information. Employees who violate PTA privacy policies may be subject to disciplinary actions, including termination when appropriate.

In order to receive some services, PTA may require you to use a password to protect your account from unauthorized access by others. If you do allow others, including family or household members, to access PTA members-only services through your personal password or to use your membership account number, understand that you are responsible for the actions of those individuals.  

8.

Will this privacy policy ever change?
Because protecting members' privacy is very important to PTA, we do not expect major changes in policy. However, PTA will announce changes on the PTA website to notify members and customers.

This privacy policy describes the types of information PTA currently collects, and the ways PTA uses and protects that information.

From time to time, PTA may collect different types of information and use that information in different ways, for example, when new features or services are added to www.pta.org. In these cases, PTA may edit this policy to explain the new practices. 

9.

Who can I contact with privacy questions?
If you have any questions or comments about your member information or this privacy policy, please send an e-mail to info@pta.org, call PTA at (800) 307-4782, or write to us at the address listed above. PTA will respond promptly to your inquiries and concerns.

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