Privacy Policy

May 21, 2018

The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP)® is committed to protecting the privacy of all users of our online services. The following discloses our policy for gathering and disseminating information for this website www.raponline.org and its subdomains. This privacy notice applies to information collected by this website and its subdomains, including through our webinar and newsletter sign-up forms, and via business cards and personal contact with our staff members worldwide. In support of this commitment to protecting your privacy, we provide the following information to you:

  1. What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the above methods, how it is used, and with whom it may be shared.
  2. What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data.
  3. The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.
  4. How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

Personal information collected from you

The personal information we collect includes your name, email, phone numbers, organization/company name, position, mailing address, language preferences, and areas of interest.

How we use your personal information

We collect this information to better understand your interests and to provide you with the most relevant notifications about our work. We may use the information to better understand our target audience, and tailor our research and publications to your needs. Additionally, we use the information to notify you about new reports, webinars, special events, or other information which we think you may find interesting. RAP staff may also use the information to contact you regarding your professional opinion on policy issues.

We may also store data that you voluntarily provide during RAP’s events in order to keep you informed of other events of a similar nature. We keep a record of information we have sent to you according to your preferences.

Protection of your personal information

We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email, webinar or newsletter sign-up, or other direct contact from you. We will not sell, rent, trade, or lease any personal information collected online or offline to anyone outside our organization. All information shall be kept absolutely confidential unless given consent to by the user. We will not make personal information available to anyone other than our employees and we will never use your personal information for marketing purpose and/or share it with third parties.

Non-personally identifiable information collected by our website 

You may visit our website anonymously, and not sign up for any of our services or provide any personal information. Except as described in this privacy statement, we do not collect identification data of our visitors. Our website does collect non-personally identifiable information from users, which we use to help us make our site more useful to you.

1. Automatically collected information

We collect and store certain technical information about your visit for use in website management and security purposes. This information includes:

  • The Internet domain from which you access our website (for example, “xcompany.com” if you use a private Internet access account, or “yourschool.edu” if you connect from an educational domain);
  • The IP address (a unique number for each computer connected to the Internet) from which you access our website;
  • The type of browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Chrome) used to access our site;
  • The operating system (e.g. Windows) used to access our site;
  • The date and time you access our site;
  • The URLs of the pages you visit; and
  • If you visited this website from another website, the URL of the forwarding site.

This information is used to help us make our website more useful for you. With this data we learn about the number of visitors to our website and the types of technology our visitors use. Except for authorised law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are retained temporarily as required for security and website management purposes only.

2. Information collected for tracking and customisation (Cookies)

Our website uses cookies (small computer files that stay on your computer and let us know when and how often you visit our website) to keep and track general information about website usage. Cookies do not identify the individual user, just the computer used.

Cookies and other similar technology can make it easier for you to use the website during future visits. Cookies only record which areas of the website have been visited by the computer in question, and for how long. This information allows RAP to understand how our website is being used so we can assess how well it is working and to help us make decisions about how to improve it.

Allowing us to create a cookie does not give us access to the rest of your computer and we will not use cookies to track your online activity once you leave our website. Cookies are read only by the server that placed them, and are unable to execute any code or virus.

There are two types of cookies, session and persistent. Session cookies last only as long as your web browser is open. Once you close your browser, the cookie disappears. Persistent cookies store information on your computer for longer periods of time.

If you do not wish to have cookies stored on your computer you can easily change your web browser to refuse them, or to let you know when you get a new cookie. Please refer to your browser instructions to learn more about these functions. Refusing cookies, however, can restrict your use of our website. To enjoy the website in full we recommend you leave cookies switched on.

3. Google Analytics Information

We also collect information through Google Analytics Advertising Features, including Demographics & Interests reports. Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google. Google utilizes the data collected to track and examine the use of www.raponline.org, including its subdomains, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services. Google may use the data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

We use this information on demographic and interest area of the visitors to the site to better understand our audience and customize our website to meet the needs of our audience. There is no personally identifiable information in these reports.

You can opt out of the Google Analytics Advertising Features through Ad Settings (read this page for more information) or through Google Analytics’ browser opt-out option.

Your Access to and Control Over Information

You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. We provide users the opportunity to unsubscribe from our mailing lists through an “unsubscribe” button which is available at the bottom of every e-mail and newsletter.

In addition, you can do the following at any time by contacting us via [email protected]

  • See what data we have about you, if any.
  • Change/correct any data we have about you.
  • Have us delete any data we have about you.
  • Express any concern you have about our use of your data.

When visiting the website, you will be requested to consent to certain data processing activities. You have the right to withdraw your consent at all times. Please send your objection, by email to rha[email protected] or in writing to the Regulatory Assistance Project, 50 State Street, Suite #3, Montpelier, VT 05602. Such withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of past data processing and it can, however, impact your continued use of the website.

Throughout our web pages, we provide links to other servers and websites which may contain information of interest to our readers. We take no responsibility (and shall have no liability) for, and exercise no control over, the organisations, views, or accuracy of the information contained on other servers and/or websites.

Use of website content

The information contained on www.raponline.org and its subdomains is provided for general informational purposes only. None of this information is intended or should be construed to be legal advice or a legal opinion. Although reasonable effort is made to ensure that the information is as accurate as possible, omissions and errors may occur, and the information may not reflect the most current developments. The Regulatory Assistance Project expressly disclaims all liability to any person with respect to the consequences of any act or omission committed based upon reliance, in whole or in part, on any of the contents of the website.

Though we take industry standard measures and other efforts to preserve user privacy, RAP may need to disclose personal information (including personally identifiable information) when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process, and/or in connection with a verified request relating to criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity.

Website security notice

For site security purposes and to ensure that our website remains available to all users, this website employs software programs that monitor network traffic to identify unauthorised attempts to upload or change information. 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. Unauthorised attempts to upload or change information on our servers are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law.

Updates to our privacy policy

We will revise or update this policy if our practices change, or as we develop better ways to keep you informed about them. Please refer to this page for the latest information and the effective date of any changes. If we decide to change this policy, we will post a new policy on our website and change the date at the top. Changes to the policy shall not apply retroactively.