Privacy

Last Modified: May 24, 2018 (View Archived Versions) 

At the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, we respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your data. This Privacy Policy describes how CTA collects and uses your personal data, and sets forth your privacy rights.

When This Privacy Policy Applies

This Privacy Policy applies to websites and applications (“Services”) offered by CTA including CTA.TECH, CES.TECH, MECP.ORG, CTA-branded apps, CTA events, and CES® events but excludes services that have separate privacy policies that do not incorporate this Privacy Policy or to information that we collect by other means (including offline) or from other sources.

Our Services may contain features or links to websites and services provided by third parties. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to services and products offered by other companies and individuals. Any information you provide through third-party sites or services is provided directly to the operators of such services and is subject to those operators’ policies, if any, governing privacy and security, even if accessed through our Services. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites, even if you access those links from a CTA Service. We encourage you to learn about third parties’ privacy and security policies before providing them with information.

Updates to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when necessary to reflect changes in our Services, to implement changes required by applicable law, or as we may otherwise deem necessary or appropriate. If you continue to use our Services after those changes are in effect, you agree to the revised policy. If the changes are significant, we will notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes before they take effect. We encourage you to periodically review the Privacy Policy to learn how CTA is protecting your information. We will also keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy in an archive for your review.

Collection and Use of Information

You may access and use many of our Services without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. However, some Services may require you to provide us with personal information (referred to for convenience as "Submission Pages").

These Submission Pages collect information that you give us, for example, when you create an account with us; register for one of our events, such as CES or Innovate Celebrate (and these events will each have specific and additional terms and conditions that each attendee will be required to accept as part of the registration process); download one of our publications; purchase a product; complete a form on the website; or subscribe to our publications and newsletters like i3 or Tech5. The information collected includes (but is not limited to) your name, job title, employer name, address, email address, phone number, credit card or account information, photos, and information about your interests in and use of various products. In these situations, if you choose to withhold any personal data requested by us, it may not be possible for you to gain access to certain Services and for us to respond to you.

We also collect information about you when you use our Service, for example, when you visit our websites, or view and interact with our ads and content. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system, other information that is provided by the end user device and information about the use of the CTA’s services, including a history of the pages you view. We also use cookies and similar technologies, and you may view our Cookie Policy.

Additionally, we may use third-party service providers to include social media features and widgets, analytic tools, or targeted advertising in our Services. These service providers operate independently and may collect your IP address and use cookies. Interactions with these features are governed by the service providers’ own privacy policies. More information on this is outlined in our Cookie Policy. 

From time to time, CTA receives personal information about individuals from authorized third parties and sources other than through a CTA Service, such as our partners. This may happen, for example, if:

• Your employer is a member of CTA and signs you up for an event.

• Your employer is an exhibitor at a CTA event and signs you up for the event.

• You choose to participate in a CES Delegation and provide authorization to your delegate coordinator to sign you up for the event.

• You participate in an event which is co-sponsored or co-hosted by CTA.

• Instead of registering directly on our website, you choose to register with LinkedIn, which authorizes LinkedIn to share information that includes (but is not limited to) your name, your profile picture, your company name, your email address, and your LinkedIn ID number.

If you give us information about another person, you confirm that the other person has appointed you to act on their behalf and agreed that you may consent to the processing of their personal data. 

We use the information we collect in a variety of ways in providing the Services and operating our business. We process your personal information for account administration, to deliver the products and services you require, and to inform you of CTA-related events, meetings, content, initiatives and other benefits or opportunities associated with CTA and the industry. We may also use this information to help understand your needs and interests to better tailor our products and services to meet your needs. We will use your information to respond to your questions. If we get personal information from a source outside of CTA Services, we will treat the personal information in accordance with this Policy.

When Do We Disclose Your Data to Third Parties?

We do not share your personal information with others except as indicated within this Policy or when we inform you. We do not sell personal information to anyone and only share your personal data with third parties for their use in authorized and necessary instances:

You authorize the sharing of your data by registering to an event or conference where we share data with event co-sponsors. In these instances, you will be asked to review specific and additional terms and conditions as part of the registration process.

• You authorize the sharing of data by allowing exhibitors to scan your attendee badge at events. Again, in these instances, the event terms and conditions will outline this as part of the registration process.

• You request a special service with us. This typically relates to conference attendees who request additional services like accessibility or transportation services.

• You are the contact person for your company that registers for an event. We will share your information with third-party service providers, agents or contractors to perform services on our behalf or to assist us with providing services to you. This relates to exhibition coordinators whose contact information is shared with companies that provide show services for services such as booth setup, transportation, electricity and similar exhibition services.

• The information is provided to third-party service providers and Data Processors who perform functions on our behalf to process your data for one of the above services. These third parties may have access to or process your personal information as part of providing those services for us. Examples include companies that provide registration services for our events and companies that help to send our marketing email messages.

• Any personally identifiable information that you elect to make publically available through our Services, will be available to others.

• If you consent to CTA sharing your personal information.

• The information is provided in good faith to: comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement or government agencies; to enforce our Terms of Service or an agreement we have with you; to take precautions against liability; and/or to protect our rights, property or safety, or the rights, property or safety of our employees or others.

When we share information with third parties, we limit the information provided to what is reasonably necessary for them to perform their functions, and our contracts require them to maintain the confidentiality of such information.

Legal Basis

As stated above, we collect different types of information from or through our Services. The legal bases for processing of personal data are primarily to enable us to provide our services to you.

Legitimate Business Interests: To provide you with information relating to our Services. To notify you about any changes to our website, such as improvements or service changes, that may affect our Services. If you are an existing member or customer, we may contact you with information about services similar to those provided to you by us in the past.

Performance of Contract: To meet our contractual commitments to you and in performance of contractual obligations to you.

User Consent: We may use your data so that you can be provided with information about services that may be of interest to you. We will follow applicable laws and regulations regarding consent to receive this information.

Your Choices and Control

Under privacy laws, data subjects have certain rights. This Privacy Policy is intended to give transparency about what personal data CTA collects and how it is used, enabling you to make meaningful choices.

Please contact us by using the details set out at the Contact Us section below if you wish to do any of the following:

• Confirm that CTA is processing your personal data, or to have access to the personal data CTA may have about you. Reasonable access to your personal data will be provided at no cost upon request.

• Correct any personal data that CTA has that is inaccurate.

• Request that CTA erase your personal data or stop processing it. Please note that in some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.

• Assert a complaint.

We provide many choices in relation to our marketing communications via an unsubscribe option on every marketing email, but you may also request that CTA stop using your data for direct marketing purposes by using our Email Opt-Out Form. If you opt-out of marketing emails, we may still send you transactional and administrative emails about the Services you use.
CTA retains personal data for the duration of the customer’s or member’s business relationship with CTA and up to five years after the relationship ends. Subsequently, the data is stored for archival uses only.

CTA’s headquarters, servers, this website and the majority of CTA Services are located and operated in the United States. If you are using the Services from outside the US, please be aware that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States unless otherwise stated. By using our Services and providing us with information, you consent to this transfer, processing and storage of your information in the United States. It is important to note that data privacy laws vary worldwide and some may not be as comprehensive as others. When personal data is transferred to the US, we will adequately protect it as described in this Privacy Policy.

Security

We are committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We have implemented appropriate physical, technical and administrative safeguards. We train our employees about the importance of confidentiality and maintaining the privacy and security of your information. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. We cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. If you believe your Personal Data has been compromised, please contact us. In the event that personal information is compromised, we will promptly notify our customers in compliance with applicable law.

Sensitive Data

We request that you do not send us any sensitive data such as social security or national identification numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health data, biometrics or genetic, criminal background or trade union membership information. If you do send us this information, then you are consenting to its processing in accordance with this Privacy Policy.  To avoid processing of sensitive data, do not submit it.

Children's Privacy

Protecting the privacy of minors is especially important. Our site is not directed towards minors and CTA does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from minors. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a minor, please contact us and we will delete that information.

Contact Us

If at any time you would like to contact us with your views about our privacy practices, or with any inquiry relating to your personal information, please send an e-mail to dataprivacy@cta.tech or write to Data Privacy – Legal, CTA, 1919 S. Eads Street, Arlington, VA 22202, United States.