APA Privacy Policy

LAST UPDATED: MARCH 2024

The Privacy Statement (PDF, 245KB) is available for printing.

The American Psychological Association (“APA”) believes that the protection and privacy of your personal data is paramount and we value your right to privacy. Personal data (“Personal Data”) means any information that is linked or reasonably linkable to you, but does not include publicly available data or data that can no longer reasonably be linked to you. APA strives to protect the Personal Data that we collect through your interaction with the APA family of websites, APA applications, APA social media tools, APA Forums (including, but not limited to APA Community on the Hivebrite platform), and other digital and non-digital spaces where APA may collect Personal Data (collectively, “APA Digital Assets”).

Personal Data you provide to us through your use of APA Digital Assets helps to inform the APA about how best to provide you with a fulfilling user experience as it relates to our mission. Our goal is to ensure that your Personal Data is secure, and that APA only uses your Personal Data subject to this Policy and our Terms of Use.

APA is committed to working with you to obtain a fair and rapid resolution of any queries, complaints, or disputes about privacy. If you have any questions or comments about our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy or our information collection and data protection practices, please contact privacy@apa.org or 1-800-374-2721 or 202-336-5500 from anywhere.

BY USING APA DIGITAL ASSETS, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND APA’S INFORMATION PRACTICES.

You may provide Personal Data when you create an account or transact business with us. We also collect Personal Data from all visitors or users of APA Digital Assets in order to interact with you. The following are examples of the types of Personal Data we collect and how that Personal Data is collected:

Cookies, third party collection, and service providers

Other companies may collect data automatically through cookies on our websites. Please see our Cookie Policy to find out more about how we use cookies and similar technologies.

De-identified data

This data, which can no longer be used to make inferences about you or otherwise be linked to you, may be used by APA or disclosed to third parties. We may combine these kinds of data with other similar data from other sources. We don’t try to reidentify it unless the law allows or requires it. We also may share aggregated data with third parties like telling our advertisers the number of visitors to our Sites. This sharing excludes text messaging originator opt-in data and consent. That data is not shared with any third parties.

WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA TO CONTACT YOU, PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR YOUR MEMBERSHIP, CONDUCT SURVEYS, AND PERSONALIZE OUR SERVICES TO YOU.

Except to the extent necessary to fulfill our business obligations as described in this Privacy Policy, we do not sell, transfer, or otherwise disclose to third parties any of the Personal Data that we collect directly from or about you.

We use Personal Data that is collected on APA Digital Assets in the following ways:

• To provide member related services;
• To deliver services, such as educational programs, information or newsletters you request or purchase;
• To alert you to special offers, updated information and other new services from APA, other third parties, or to forward promotional materials;
• To process your order and, if necessary, to contact you regarding the status of your order;
• To fulfill the terms of a promotion;
• To ensure the APA Digital Assets are relevant to your needs;
• To help us create and publish content most relevant to you;
• To request your feedback about your experience with APA;
• To improve and develop new APA Digital Assets;
• To protect APA Digital Assets, our network, and business operations, and to stop activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal;
• To comply with legal processes like warrants or court orders, and to comply with relevant laws;
• To notify you about a material change to this Privacy Policy, if necessary; and
• To allow you access to limited-entry areas of APA Digital Assets.
• For other business purposes that help optimize your experience as you interact with APA Digital Assets.

The APA member and affiliate directories are available only to members and affiliates in a members-only section of the site. All members’ and affiliates’ names are listed in the directory, but members have the option to suppress all other information. Personal Data collected as a function of the APA Digital Assets will not be released to third parties except to further the purpose for which you provided the Personal Data and in the following instances:

• To fulfill a service to you including answering questions, completing an order or to follow through on a sweepstakes entry.
• To send you invitations for events or newsletters, or to enable you to link a social media profile.
• To affiliates, strategic partners, agents, third party marketers or other unaffiliated parties who are offering products or services that we believe may be of interest to you or who require your Personal Data for research, administrative and/or internal business purposes. These parties may use your Personal Data to contact you with an offer or advertisement related to a product or service, or they may use such Personal Data for their own research, administration or business purposes. If you do not want us to share your Personal Data in this manner, let us know.
• To unaffiliated third-party service providers, agents or independent contractors who help us maintain our APA Digital Assets and provide other administrative services to us (including, but not limited to, order processing and fulfillment, providing customer service, maintaining and analyzing data, sending customer communications on APA's behalf, and entry collection, winner selection and prize fulfillment for contests, sweepstakes and other promotions). We seek to ensure that these unaffiliated third parties will not use the Personal Data for any other purpose than to provide the administrative services for which they are responsible.
• To complete your purchase. If you choose to make a purchase on APA Digital Assets, we may collect from you your credit card number, billing address and other Personal Data related to such purchase, and we may use such collected Personal Data in order to fulfill your purchase. We may also provide such Personal Data to unaffiliated third parties as necessary to complete your purchase (for example, to process your credit card).
• To comply with the law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to conform to the requirements of law or comply with legal process served on us, protect and defend our rights or property, including the rights and property of APA and APA Digital Assets or act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of our end users.
• To third parties as part of any corporate reorganization process including, but not limited to, mergers, acquisitions, and sales of all or substantially all of our assets.
• To track and analyze de-identified and aggregate usage and volume statistical data from our users and provide such Personal Data to third parties.
• To protect against potential fraud, we may verify with third parties the Personal Data collected from APA Digital Assets. In the course of such verification, we may receive Personal Data about you from such services. In particular, if you use a credit card or debit card to purchase services with us, we may use card authorization and fraud screening services to verify that your card data and address matches the Personal Data that you supplied to us, and that the card has not been reported as lost or stolen.

To personalize our ads and marketing experiences, we work with advertising and analytics partners and social media sites. These partnerships may be considered a “sale” under Colorado law, even when no money exchanges hands. 

The Personal Data we might “sell” includes your identifiers, online activity information, and customer records. When you login to your account on a web page or interact with APA Digital Assets where cookies are present, that may be considered a “sale” of your Personal Data. If you want to opt out of this use, please contact us. 

We do not sell the personal data of children under the age of 16.

APA Digital Assets may provide you with links to other websites, although we do not necessarily advise that you are linking to another website. In the event you choose to access such websites, APA is not responsible for any actions or policies of those sites. Further, please note that the third party's Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy or security practices may differ from APA. APA neither assumes responsibility for, nor does it control, endorse or guarantee any aspect of your use of the linked site. We recommend that you check the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and other pertinent security practices of such a party before providing Personal Data to it. For information on advertising and third-party cookies, as well as links to opt-out, please see our Cookie Policy.

Please note that any Personal Data you include in a message you post to any chat room, online community, forum or other public posting area is available to others. If you don't want people to know your email address, for example, don't include it in any message you post publicly. PLEASE BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN DISCLOSING ANY PERSONAL DATA IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS, ONLINE COMMUNITIES, AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE BY OTHERS OF THE PERSONAL DATA THAT YOU DISCLOSE IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS, ONLINE COMMUNITIES, AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS.

APA Digital Assets may contain pixels which provide us and third parties with analytics regarding how website visitors interact with video content, audiovisual content, or content of a like nature. Video content is provided to enhance the user experience on the APA Digital Assets. You understand that your Personal Data, including your video viewing history, may be processed according to this Privacy Policy and our Cookie Policy.

We may offer you financial incentive programs or bona fide loyalty programs like discounts and special offers in exchange for your Personal Data. The Personal Data requested in connection with the offer, as well as other terms, will be provided at the time you sign up. We may share your Personal Data with service providers and marketing partners to provide the program. We will provide the name of any program partners at the time you sign up. In calculating these offers, we consider the expenses related to the offer and the value of your Personal Data.

You may withdraw from any of the programs at any time by following the instructions provided. Please note that if you opt out or request to delete your Personal Data, we may no longer be able to provide you with the benefits. For offers involving your e-mail, you may unsubscribe via the “unsubscribe” link in any marketing email you have received. For offers involving text messaging, you may text STOP. For all other offers, you may follow the instructions provided with the offer.

We communicate with users on a regular basis via email. For example, we will use your email address to contact you regarding membership renewal and dues payments, APA elections, to confirm a request you have made of APA, to send you notice of upcoming payments that are due, to send you information about changes to our products and services or to send notices and other disclosures as required by law. Generally, members cannot opt-out of these communications since it is necessary to keep members of informed of specific information regarding membership and actions related thereto.

APA provides you the opportunity to exercise an opt-out choice if you do not want to receive other types of communications from us, such as messages or updates from us regarding new services and products offered on APA Digital Assets or if you do not want us to share your Personal Data with third parties. For emails, you may opt-out by clicking on the "unsubscribe” link within the text of an email. We will process your request to unsubscribe as soon as possible, but please be aware that in some circumstances you may receive a few more messages until the unsubscribe is processed. 

If you have elected to receive notices to your mobile device via text message, you may opt-out by replying “STOP” to such mobile message. You may receive a confirmatory text message in response to your “STOP” request and you hereby consent to receipt of such confirmation.

We keep your Personal Data for as long as you are a member or as long as your relationship with APA Digital Assets continues and as required by law. We retain your Personal Data while your membership is active or as necessary to continue to provide services including fulfilling orders, accessing PsycNET or APA Style Central, etc. This includes Personal Data you or others provided to us and Personal Data obtained from your use of APA Digital Assets. There may be some instances where we retain your information in a deidentified or aggregated form.

You can access, change or delete your Personal Data if you have a MyAPA account by logging into your account. You can also email us at privacy@apa.org or 1-800-374-2721 or 202-336-5500 from anywhere.

We collect your Personal Data in many ways, most often where you provide it to us, and we provide you with several options for collecting, using and sharing of your Personal Data, including deleting or correcting Personal Data you have provided to us. We offer you settings to control and manage your Personal Data through your MyAPA account.

Depending on your location, you might have different rights applicable to your Personal Data. APA responds to rights requests according to local law. 

Delete Personal Data: You can ask us to erase or delete all or some of your Personal Data (for example if you resign from being a member) and we will work hard to honor all requests in a timely manner. In some instances, we may not be able to delete your Personal Data in order to comply with applicable laws (for example, it is necessary to keep the financial records of a transaction with you).

Please note that APA will not delete or restrict access to Personal Data about you where you have published in an APA journal or other APA publication including Division journals and/or newsletters. We will not delete historical Personal Data that reference your service to APA or its Divisions in governance unless required by law. We will not delete any comments or posts you have made on any of APA’s social media accounts or on any other of APA’s Digital Assets unless required by law. 

Change or correct Personal Data: You can edit some of your Personal Data through your MyAPA account. You can also ask us to change, update or fix your Personal Data in certain cases, particularly if it’s inaccurate.

Object to, or limit or restrict, use of Personal Data: You can ask us to stop using all or some of your Personal Data.

Right to access and/or take your personal data: You may have the right to see your Personal Data and take your data and we will work with you to be sure we can provide the most complete set of your Personal Data and a secure way to transfer your Personal Data.

Resignation/account closure: We will keep some of your Personal Data even after you resign your membership with APA or close your MyAPA account in order to fulfill any final service requests. Please note that we will retain your Personal Data even after you have resigned your membership or closed your MyAPA account if reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations (including law enforcement requests), meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, maintain security, prevent fraud and abuse, enforce our Terms of Use, or fulfill your request to “unsubscribe” from further messages from us. We will retain deidentified data after your account has been closed.

Colorado residents have the following additional rights:

Right to opt-out of profiling: If we base decisions solely on profiling or automated decision-making that may result in important legal or other effects, you may have the right to opt-out.

Right to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Data or use of your Personal Data for targeted advertising: You may have the right to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Data to third parties or the use of your Personal Data for targeted advertising. To exercise this right, you may submit a request by contacting us. Note that we do not sell or use for targeted advertising the Personal Data of individuals under 16 years old. 

Submitting rights requests

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us. You may under certain circumstances, authorize another individual or a business, called an authorized agent, to make requests on your behalf.

We must verify your identity before responding to your request. We do this by asking you to provide information that we can match against information we may have about you already. We may need to follow up with you to request more information to verify your identity. We will not use Personal Data we collect in connection with verifying or responding to your request for any purpose other than responding to your request.

We may have a reason under the law why we do not have to comply with your request, or why we may comply with it in a more limited way than you anticipated. If we do, we will explain that to you in our response. Residents of Colorado have the right to appeal a denial of their request by contacting us as described in the notice of denial.

California’s “Shine the Light” Law

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our visitors who are California residents to request certain information regarding the APA’s disclosure of Personal Data to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us at privacy@apa.org or 1-800-374-2721 or 202-336-5500.

Nevada residents

Residents of the State of Nevada have the right to opt out of the sale of certain pieces of their information to third parties. If you are a Nevada resident and would like more information about our data sharing practices, please contact us.

The “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) privacy preference is an option that may be made in some web browsers allowing you to opt-out of tracking by websites and online services. At this time, global standard DNT technology is not yet finalized and not all browsers support DNT. We therefore do not recognize DNT signals and do not respond to them.

APA Digital Assets, and the services APA provides to its users, are not directed to or intended for individuals under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under 16. If we become aware that a child under the age of 16 has provided us with Personal Data, we will take steps to delete such information. If you become aware that a child under the age of 16 has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us at privacy@apa.org or 1-800-374-2721 or 202-336-5500.

In the course of any direct or indirect reorganization process including, but not limited to, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, bankruptcies, and sales of all or a part of our assets, you grant us the right to share, transfer, or assign the Personal Data collected via APA Digital Assets following completion of such transaction and/or during the assessment process pending transfer.

If you are visiting APA Digital Assets from a location outside of the U.S., your connection may be through and to servers located in the U.S. Any information you provide during your visit will be processed and maintained on our server and other internal systems located within the U.S. The U.S. may not have the same data protection laws as the country you are visiting from and may not afford many of the rights conferred upon data subjects in your country. You acknowledge you understand that by providing your Personal Data to us, your Personal Data (i) will be used for the uses identified above in accordance with this Privacy Policy, and (ii) may be transferred to the U.S. as indicated above, in accordance with applicable law.

For users of this website located in the European Union (“EU”), APA follows the Google EU User Consent Policy found at this link: http://www.google.com/about/company/user-consent-policy.html. By voluntarily using this website, EU users consent to APA’s data collection, sharing, and usage as described above.

This section applies if you are an EU data subject (for these purposes, reference to the EU also includes the European Economic Area countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, the United Kingdom and, where applicable, Switzerland).

APA is the data controller for processing Personal Data provided to us through APA Digital Assets. Our registered office is 750 First Street NE, Washington D.C. 20002.

We collect and use Personal Data when we have a lawful basis to do so, as follows:

• At your direction and with your consent.
• To fulfill contracts we might have with you.
• For public interest.
• For vital interests.
• For other legitimate business purposes.
• To comply with a legal obligation.

We will only use your Personal Data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

If there is any change in the purposes for which we collect your Personal Data, we will inform you of such change. If you wish to obtain an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purposes, please contact us through the contact details provided at the top of this Privacy Policy. If we need to use your Personal Data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

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:
  • If we are relying on a legitimate interest to process your Personal Data—unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing; or
  • If we are processing your Personal Data for direct marketing.
• Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling: You have the right to be free from decisions based solely on automated processing of your Personal Data, including profiling, unless such profiling is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and us. APA does not make decisions based solely on automated processing.
• 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 anonymity: You have the right to request anonymity. This means that your Personal Data would not be collected or processed. If you choose to exercise this right, we may not be able to provide you with your requested goods or services.
• 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.

We maintain reasonable risk-based physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect against unauthorized and accidental disclosure, use, alteration, or destruction of Personal Data in our possession, and to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of our systems, data, and services. We restrict access to Personal Data to those individuals and third parties that need to know the information to accomplish the business purposes described in this Privacy Policy. We are committed to taking appropriate measures to enforce compliance with this Privacy Policy. In addition, we comply with applicable law for protecting Personal Data.

We provide reasonable security controls to protect electronic Personal Data that we receive from you against foreseeable hazards, but please note that no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. In addition, use of email to transmit Personal Data is insecure and violates APA policy. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you understand that any information that you transfer to us is done at your own risk. If we learn of a security system breach we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using the APA Digital Assets or providing information to us, you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of the APA Digital Assets. We may post a notice via our APA Digital Assets if a security breach occurs. We may also send an email to you at the email address you have provided to us in these circumstances. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing.

APA reserves the right to make changes to our Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason without prior notice. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will be posted on this page and other places we deem appropriate so that you are always aware of our policies. If we make a material change to this Privacy Policy, we will we will notify you by prominently posting the changes on our APA Digital Assets or by using the contact information you have on file with us. Additionally, we will update the “last updated” date above.

Cookie Settings

Users may contact APA’s Data Protection Officer through email at privacy@apa.org or 1-800-374-2721 or 202-336-5500 from anywhere. You may also mail us directly: American Psychological Association, 750 First Street NE, Washington D.C. 20002 Attn: Office of General Counsel.