American Society of Plant Taxonomists
Data Privacy and Transparency Policy
The American Society of Plant Taxonomists (hereafter, "the Society", or "ASPT") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Policy explains when and why we collect personal data about the people who visit our web sites (https://aspt.net; https://members.aspt.net/; https://www.facebook.com/asptsystbot/) how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.
Who are we?
The American Society of Plant Taxonomists is a "not-for-profit" 501 (c) (3) scientific membership society whose mission is to promote research and teaching of taxonomy, systematics and phylogeny of vascular and nonvascular plants. We foster, encourage and promote education and research in the field of plant taxonomy, to include those areas and field of study that contribute and bear upon taxonomy and herbaria. Organized in 1936, the society has a membership of over 1100. We publish two journals: Systematic Botany and Systematics Botany Monographs. We provide funding for research and travel grants, honor members of the society with major awards recognizing research, teaching and outreach excellence, and conduct a scientific meeting each summer.
What type of personal data do we collect? We obtain information from you when you join and renew your membership with the Society; apply for awards; register for a scientific meeting; make a donation; and/or submit your manuscript for publication or your abstract for presentation at a conference. The personal data we collect varies based on the services we are providing and might include your name, company or institution name, address, email address, your areas of expertise, and other personal preferences you voluntarily provide to us to assist us in providing the right type of Society benefits and opportunities. If you make a payment or donation online, your credit card information is not held by us; it is collected by our third-party payment processors, who specialize in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions.
How do we use your personal data? We use your personal information to provide you with the Society’s membership and subscription services. This includes but is not limited to email newsletters; print and online journals and newsletters; email reminders about Society benefits including voting privileges, award and educational outreach opportunities, meetings and donation solicitations; online voting services; and email correspondence regarding our publications. If you correspond with ASPT via e-mail, the postal service, our web forms, or other form of communication, we may retain the correspondence and the information it contains for business purposes.
ASPT may also compile, anonymize, and/or aggregate personal data that was voluntarily given by you in order to understand our scientific community so that we can serve its legitimate interests, apply for grants to further the Society’s mission, and analyze gaps in our membership community, our publications, or our services.
ASPT does not sell or trade postal or email addresses to third parties.
Disclosure of Personal Data
ASPT shares your personal data with third parties that provide certain services to assist us in meeting business operation needs. These parties are authorized to process your personal data on ASPT’s behalf and pursuant to ASPT’s instructions, only as necessary to provide these services. Your personal data is shared with the following service providers:
Providers of payment processing and accounting, as necessary to process payment, Providers of back-office database and marketing systems, Contracted vendors for certain events, including the annual scientific conference.
ASPT may also disclose Personal data to third parties in the following circumstances: If you request or authorize; The information is provided to comply with the law; To respond to a government request or to lawful requests by public authorities; To address emergencies or acts of God.
If ASPT is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, sale or transition of service to another provider, your personal data and other information may be transferred to a successor of an affiliate as part of that transaction along with other assets.
ASPT collects, stores, and processes the information in the U.S. If you are outside the U.S., your personal data and other information will be transferred to the U.S. The data privacy and data protection laws outside your country may offer less protection than the laws in your country. By using ASPT services, you agree to the transfer of your personal data. If you do not agree to such cross-border transfers of your personal data, please do not submit your data through the website.
How you can access and change information
ASPT acknowledges that you have the right to access your Personal data. On the ASPT website, which requires you to use your login and password, you may access and edit some of your personal data directly. Personal data may also be changed by sending an email to ASPT Business Manager Theresa Smid (businessoffice@aspt.net). In case you request us to remove data, contact us at businessoffice@aspt.net and we will respond within a reasonable timeframe.
EU Data Subjects Privacy Addendum
If you are an EU Data Subject, please see the "EU Data Subjects Privacy Addendum" for information on your rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you.
Our Security Measures to Protect Your Personal Data
We are committed to taking reasonable efforts to secure the information that you choose to provide us, and we use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect against unauthorized access to or alteration, disclosure, or destruction of personal data. We restrict access to personal data to our business office manager, ASPT Council/Officers/Committee leadership, contractors, and service providers who need to know the information in order to operate, develop, or improve our services.
Unfortunately, no transmission of personal data over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Accordingly, and despite our efforts, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, or to or from our online products or services. The ASPT has no responsibility or liability for the security of information transmitted via the Internet. If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or the security of your personal data, please contact us as indicated under the “Contact Us” section below.
We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our treatment of the information you provide us, please contact as at:
ASPT Business Office, c/o Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA. Email: businessoffice@aspt.net
If you have contributed to our journals by being an author, reviewer, or editor, please also see the Website Privacy Policy for our manuscript submission and peer-review system for Systematic Botany and Systematic Botany Monographs (https://aspt.net/sysbot).