AIA NORTHERN VIRGINIA PRIVACY POLICY

LAST UPDATED: FEBRUARY 2024

This privacy notice describes how AIA Northern Virginia collects, uses, shares, and retains personal information that you provide to us, or that we collect, when you use the AIA Northern Virginia website located at www.aianova.org and other websites owned or controlled by AIA Northern Virginia (“Site” or “Sites”) or related mobile applications; use AIA Northern Virginia products and services and complete related forms; participate in AIA Northern Virginia events; or communicate with one of our customer service representatives (“Personal Data”).

If you disagree with anything in this Privacy Notice, you must not use the sites or mobile applications, use AIA Northern Virginia products and services or complete related forms, or provide personal information for use in connection with AIA Northern Virginia’s products or services.

Finally, purchasers of AIA Northern Virginia products or services are subject to separate terms of service.  Please refer to your product terms and conditions for those details. In the event of a conflict between this policy and the product’s terms and conditions, the latter shall govern.

HOW TO CONTACT US

AIA Northern Virginia is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. You may message us if you have any questions or concerns about AIA Northern Virginia’s policies or practices regarding Personal Data at [email protected].

AIA Northern Virginia

215 N. Payne St, Ste 310

Alexandria, VA 22314

To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity. Please do not send us sensitive information such as credit card or social security numbers via e-mail. It is possible that during transmission of your e-mail this information may be intercepted by a third party. We cannot guarantee its safety while in transit.

TYPES OF DATA WE COLLECT

If you choose to contact AIA Northern Virginia staff using an e-mail address, a discussion forum, AIA Northern Virginia blog, text message or other electronic communication method, or if you choose to complete an online form provided on the Sites you may be asked to provide your name, e-mail address or other personal information. The purpose of collecting this information is to allow staff to respond to your inquiry or to evaluate individual web services. Only authorized staff will have access to the information provided and the information will only be used for the purpose for which it was intended.

AIA Northern Virginia may also request general demographic data for analytical or survey purposes as part of our commitment to inclusive practice.

HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL DATA

Your privacy is important to the AIA Northern Virginia. We adhere to all applicable privacy laws and regulations affecting your data and strive to adopt best practices when it comes to your privacy.

Registration is required to obtain any product or service (tangible or virtual) offered by AIA Northern Virginia. For additional information on those products please refer to AIA Northern Virginia’s product listing or its terms of service. In all cases, registration requires that a valid mailing address be submitted to appropriately fulfill a product or service request. Online registration requires a valid email to be provided during the registration process.

When purchasing a product or service online, users are asked to provide a credit card number to complete their transaction. AIA Northern Virginia does not store credit card information after the transaction is complete. AIA Northern Virginia follows Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards for all online and paper sales and this practice is accepted by PCI.

HOW YOUR INFORMATION IS USED

AIA Northern Virginia may communicate with its members and customers electronically and through bulk mail advertisements. All electronic communications adhere to the CAN SPAM Act.

Your data is used according to your relationship to the AIA Northern Virginia. A description of the different relationship types is below.

NON-MEMBER CUSTOMER DATA

Non-member customer data generally obtained through online or storefront (paper) registration and sales is for internal AIA Northern Virginia purposes only and is not shared or sold to vendors for bulk mail solicitations. It is used to solicit feedback on the product or service purchased and to inform customers of new products and services available for sale. It is also used for market research within the AIA Northern Virginia, and to develop products and services to benefit the architectural profession.

MEMBER DATA

Member data is generally obtained through AIA Northern Virginia’s online registration or through paper applications submitted for membership.

Member data is used for market research within the AIA Northern Virginia, and to develop products and services to benefit the architectural profession.

COMMITMENT TO DATA SECURITY

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, AIA Northern Virginia has implemented the appropriate physical, and electronic procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online and by paper. For Site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, AIA Northern Virginia computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to appropriate law enforcement officials.

The portions of our Site requiring login or data entry by Web users are protected by industry standard security practices. All paper applications are scanned and maintained in a secure server environment.

All records in our database may be modified or removed by request. To submit a modification or removal request, please email [email protected].  You may also contact us via the information provided at www.aianova.org.  To opt out of AIA Northern Virginia’s communications, please unsubscribe from an AIA NoVA email previously received.

WEB BROWSING PRACTICES

COOKIES

Our sites use cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored; however, this may downgrade or ‘break’ certain elements of the sites’ functionality.

We use cookies for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this Site.

You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this).

EXTERNAL LINKS DISCLAIMER

AIA Northern Virginia provides links from our Web pages to external Web sites because they provide information that may interest our customers. This is provided as a convenience only. External links do not constitute an endorsement by AIA Northern Virginia of the opinions, products, or services presented on the external Site, or of any sites linked to it. AIA Northern Virginia is not responsible for the legality or accuracy of information on externally-linked sites, or for any costs incurred while using externally-linked sites.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AND APPLICATIONS

It is important to note that the AIA Northern Virginia also provides links to other third-party sites and applications (e.g, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, YouTube). These sites and applications may not follow the same privacy policies as AIA Northern Virginia. For instance, these sites and applications may use cookies, collect data, and use the data in ways that AIA Northern Virginia would not. AIA Northern Virginia is not responsible for the privacy practices on these other sites.

CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

Our Sites are not directed to children under the age of 13, if you are not 13 years or older, do not use our Site. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under the age of 13. If we learn that Personal Data of persons less than 13 years-of-age has been collected through our Site, we will take the appropriate steps to delete this information. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child or a minor under the age of 13 has posted, submitted or otherwise communicated Personal Data to our Site without your consent, please contact AIA Northern Virginia at [email protected] so that we may take appropriate action to remove the minor’s Personal Data from our systems.

EU DATA SUBJECTS

Scope. This section applies if you are an individual located in the European Union (“EU”) (“EU Data Subject”). For these purposes, reference to the EU also includes the European Economic Area countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway and, where applicable, Switzerland.

Data Controller. AIA Northern Virginia is the data controller for the processing of your Personal Data as described in this Policy.

Your Rights. Subject to applicable law, you have the following rights in relation to your Personal Data:

• Right of access: If you ask us, we will confirm whether we are processing your Personal Data and, if so, provide you with a copy of that Personal Data (along with certain other details).  If you require additional copies, we may need to charge a reasonable fee.
• Right to rectification: If your Personal Data is inaccurate or incomplete, you are entitled to have it rectified or completed. If we have shared your Personal Data with others, we will tell them about the rectification where possible. If you ask us, where possible and lawful to do so, we will also tell you with whom we shared your Personal Data so that you can contact them directly.
• Right to erasure: You may ask us to delete or remove your Personal Data and we will do so in some circumstances, such as where we no longer need it (we may not delete your data when other interests outweigh your right to deletion). If we have shared your data with others, we will tell them about the erasure where possible. If you ask us, where possible and lawful to do so, we will also tell you with whom we shared your Personal Data so that you can contact them directly.
• Right to restrict processing: You may ask us to restrict or ‘block’ the processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances, such as where you contest the accuracy of that Personal Data or object to us processing it. We will tell you before we lift any restriction on processing. If we have shared your Personal Data with others, we will tell them about the restriction where possible. If you ask us, where possible and lawful to do so, we will also tell you with whom we shared your Personal Data so that you can contact them directly.
• Right to data portability:  You have the right to obtain your Personal Data from us that you consented to give us or that is necessary to perform a contract with you. We will give you your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. You may reuse it elsewhere.
• Right to object: You may ask us at any time to stop processing your Personal Data, and we will do so:
• Right to withdraw consent: If we rely on your consent to process your Personal Data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on your prior consent.
• Right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority: If you have a concern about our privacy practices, including the way we have handled your Personal Data, you can report it to the data protection authority that is authorized to hear those concerns.

You may exercise your rights by contacting us at [email protected] or with the contact info provided in the footer of www.aianova.org. 

Legitimate Interest. “Legitimate interests” means the interests of AIA Northern Virginia in conducting and managing our organization. For example, we have a legitimate interest in processing your Personal Data to analyze how the Websites, Apps and our products and services are being used by you, and to ensure network and information security, as described in this Privacy Policy. When we process your Personal Data for our legitimate interests, we make sure to consider and balance any potential impact on you, and your rights under data protection laws. Our legitimate interests do not automatically override your interests. We will not use your Personal Data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you, unless we have your consent or those activities are otherwise required or permitted to by law. You have the right to object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests. For more information on your rights, please see “Your Rights” section above.

MODIFICATIONS TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

If we make any material changes to this Notice or the way we use, share or collect personal data, we will notify you by revising the “Last Updated” at the top of this Notice, prominently posting an announcement of the changes on our Site, or sending an email to the email address you most recently provided us (unless we do not have such an email address) prior to the new policy taking effect.

Any changes we make to this Notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notification sent to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to this Notice.