Privacy Policy

The Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (“Association,” “we,” “us,” and “our”) respects individual privacy and values the confidence of our members, event and program participants, constituents, and our community. This Privacy Policy sets out the privacy principles that we follow with respect to the collection, use, and disclosure of information that you may provide through the Association’s website, aawconline.org (referred to as the “website”), as well as through other channels.

Please read this entire Privacy Policy before using Association’s website or submitting information to Association through the website or other submission channels.

Contact Details

Association has designated a Data Privacy Manager to answer any questions or concerns you may have regarding our Privacy Policy and our practices regarding information you provide to us. Please contact:

Association for the Advancement of Wound Care
1818 Parmenter Street, Suite 300
Middleton, WI 53562
Attn: Data Privacy Manager

Email: [email protected]

Association’s Mission Purpose; Legitimate Interests

The Association’s mission is to advance the care of people with and at risk for wounds.  As such, any information we collect serves to further our mission, including but not limited to the following:

• Provide relevant information to our prospective members, active members, constituents, and the public
• Respond to inquiries relating to the Association
• Promote Association events, programs, and activities
• Perform our contractual obligations with members in good standing, registered attendees at our events, and subscribers of our publications and other products/services.
• Administer and manage our certification exams/programs

Information We Collect About You; Purposes

You can access some areas of the website without submitting any information to us. However, if you wish to access additional content available on this website or participate in some of Association’s activities, we may ask that you provide us personally identifiable information/personal data for the following purposes:

1. Join the Association as a member or renew membership
2. Register for an Association event
3. Purchase items through Association’s online store
4. Subscribe to the Association’s newsletter/publication
5. Create a website account
6. Donate to the Association
7. Contact Association

You will be entering into a contract with us by participating in any of the activities listed above, and it will be necessary for Association to collect your personal data in order to perform Association’s contractual obligation to you.

 Association only collects personal data you voluntarily submit to Association. Association collects the following types of personal data:

• Your name;
• Your business affiliation and contact information;
• Your telephone number;
• Your email address;
• Your postal address; 
• Your credit card information.

It is Association’s general policy to keep your personal data for a period of three (3) years following your last contact with us, or your last business transaction with Association. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Association may keep your personal data for a longer period as required by law or as needed in legal proceedings.

No Collection of Special Data 

It is Association’s policy not to collect any special categories of personal data such as personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, genetic data, etc. Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

Automated Information

When you visit the website, we collect and store certain other information automatically that does not identify you personally:

• Internet Protocol (IP) address. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer you are using whenever you access the Internet.
• Type of browser and operating system used to access our website
• Date and time you access our website
• The pages on our website that you access

We use the foregoing information in the form of summary statistics to help us make our website more useful to our visitors, such as assessing what information is of most and least interest.

How We Use Information

We will use the information you provide to us in order to carry out Association’s mission purpose and relevant programs and activities, to fulfill our contractual obligations, and for internal use such as performing marketing studies, research projects, and program development in support of Association’s mission purposes.

There may be times when we share de-identified, aggregate information—such as the number of hits per page—with our partners and with advertisers, sponsors, and other third parties in an effort to customize or enhance the content and advertising on the website for our users.

How We Share and Disclose Information

We do not share, sell, or rent information to any third party processors for their promotional use or for marketing purposes except in the following circumstances:

• Association Agents: your personal information may be used within Association or by a company acting as an agent of Association for operational support purposes, including but not limited to event registration, system maintenance, printing, and mailing.

• Association Conference/Meeting Attendee list: at AAWC’s discretion, the list of Association conference and meeting registrants may be provided for one-time use to authorized exhibitors for that one conference/meeting. Attendees may opt-out of being included on the foregoing list at the time of registration.  

When you terminate your membership or cancel the website account access, Association may continue to share information about you according to our legal and regulatory requirements.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, Association may disclose your personal information as required by law or as needed in legal proceedings when Association believes in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request.

In addition, in the event of a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale or transfer of some or all of our assets to a third party, we may also disclose your personal information to the third parties concerned or their professional advisors. In the event of such a transaction, the personal information held by Association will be among the assets subject to the transaction.

Credit Card Information

Association does not disclose credit card information provided by its members and customers. When members and customers choose to pay using their credit cards, Association submits the information needed to the appropriate clearinghouse through secure sites to conduct the transactions.

Communications From Association/How to Update Preferences

Except for transactional emails necessary to perform Association’s contractual obligations, we will not send you promotional information without your consent, and you can withdraw consent at any time or update your preference by following the instructions included in each communication, by logging in your website (membership) account and utilize the Contact Preference setting at My Profile, or by contacting us at [email protected].

Your Right to Access, Correct, [Restrict], Delete Information; Notice to All Users

You may access, correct, restrict processing, or delete your personal information by logging in your website (membership) account and utilize the setting function at My Profile, or by contacting us at [email protected].  In addition, you may request a copy of the information Association holds about you so you can correct or amend information that may be inaccurate or incomplete by contacting us at [email protected]. We may ask you to provide sufficient evidence of your identity for your own protection so we can ensure that information is being released to the correct person. We will respond to your request to access your information within 30 days.

In some cases, our business requirements and legal obligations may prevent us from being able to delete your information. If we are unable to delete your information, we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.

If you reside in the European Economic Area (EEA) and believe that Association has not complied with its obligations under this Privacy Policy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.

Children’s Information

The website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. Association does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. If Association discovers that a child under the age of 13 has provided us with personal data, we will delete the child’s personal data unless a parent or guardian provides verifiable consent to Association.

Security Measures

The website has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under Association’s control. When you enter sensitive information (such as a credit card number) as part of the purchase process, we encrypt the transmission of that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).

When you submit information to Association through our website, you should be aware that your information is transmitted across the Internet and that no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. Although we take reasonable security measures to protect your information when we receive it, you also need to ensure you take appropriate steps to protect your information.

International Website Access and Cross-Border Data Transfers

Our principle place of business is in the United States. If you are visiting the website from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and Association is based. In addition, information that Association collects may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which Association operates to enable the use of the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You agree to such cross-border transfers of personal information.

Cookie Policy

Some cookies are automatically deleted when you close your browser (so-called session cookies), while others can be stored longer on your computer, sometimes until you delete them manually (so-called permanent cookies). Association uses Cookies for functional purposes to keep the content of our website up-to-date and running. Association also uses Cookies for analytical purposes to quantify the visits (traffic) on the website. We use this information only to improve the content of our website or as a basis for a new campaign by determining certain topics of great interest.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. However, if the user declines the attachment of any cookie, the user may not have access to the full benefits of the website.

Privacy Issues and Links to Other Sites

The website may contain links to other third party websites that are not affiliated with Association. Association has no control over and is not responsible for the privacy policies or content of such sites. 

Social Media Widgets

The website includes social media features, such as the Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn buttons, that run on our website. These features may collect your Internet Protocol address and which page you are visiting on our website, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Amendments and Updates

Association will occasionally update this Privacy Policy. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will be posted here so that users will know what information we gather, how we might use that information, and whether we will disclose it to anyone. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices and this Privacy Policy.