Privacy Policy
The Gerontological Society of America
Privacy Policy
The purposes of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) shall be to advance the scientific and
scholarly study of aging and to promote human welfare by the encouragement of gerontology in
all its areas. Therefore, the Society's objectives shall be:
- to promote the study of aging in all scientific and scholarly disciplines;
- to stimulate communications among scholarly disciplines, and among professionals including researchers, teachers, administrators, and others;
- to disseminate research findings by means of its publications;
- to expand education in aging, including the promotion of educational programs in gerontology;
- to foster application of research in the development of public policy;
- to develop the qualifications of gerontologists by setting high standards of professional ethics, conduct education, and achievement.
GSA may collect personally identifying information about individuals from forms filled out on our site. That information may be used for membership, marketing and educational purposes, as well as provide relevant content to the user. Information is also collected in aggregate and may be used for internal reviews of what parts of the site user’s access or visit. This information is used to improve our website and to monitor overall traffic patterns.
Please be aware that websites that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information. The information practices of those links are not covered by this privacy policy. Users should also be aware that when they voluntarily disclose personal information (such as user name or email address), that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other parties.
In addition, cookies may be placed in the browser files of a user's computer. These cookies are optional and may be refused any time using your web browser software; however, doing so will make some parts of the site inaccessible. Please contact our data protection officer at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have questions.
Commitment to GDPR Compliance
The Gerontological Society of America is committed to our members, customers, and partners to comply with and inform them regarding the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the comprehensive EU data privacy law, effective May 25, 2018.
GSA works diligently to have our products and services and contractual commitments into compliance. GSA will continue to monitor the guidance around GDPR compliance from privacy-related regulatory bodies and will adjust our plans accordingly to follow any changes or interpretations to the regulation.
Consent to Use Personal Information
For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), GSA or its agents must store, host and otherwise process the information (including personal data) supplied by the User when using GSA’s website. GSA may send such data outside the European Economic Area for processing. By providing information through this website, you consent to the personal information you have provided being transferred and stored in countries outside of the EU, including the United States of America. If you wish to view or change consent you must update my account privacy settings.
GSA values the privacy and integrity of our members, customers and partners; we will obtain your consent, i.e. you are opting in to receive offers from GSA vetted third parties. If you ever have concerns about the validity of an offer you receive, please contact GSA member services at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or +1.202.842.1275.
Customer Data
GSA may access and use customer data as reasonably necessary and in accordance with customer’s instructions to (a) provide, maintain and improve the services; (b) to prevent or address service, security, technical issues or at a customer’s request regarding customer support matters; (c) as required by law and (d) as set forth in our agreement with the customer or as expressly permitted in writing by the customer.
We use customer data to provide services to GSA members and to understand and improve our services by analyzing trends to better understand how users are using our benefits/services. GSA will use customer data to communicate by:
- Sending emails and GSA messages. We may send you member service and administrative emails and messages. We may also contact you to inform you about changes in our membership services, our membership offerings, and important related notices, such as security and fraud notices. These emails and messages are considered part of your membership and you may not opt-out of them. In addition, we sometimes send emails about new programs and products or other news about GSA. You may opt out of these at any time.
- Billing and account management. We use account data to administer accounts and keep track of billing and payments. We often need to contact you for invoicing, account management and similar reasons.
- Communicating with you and marketing. We may also use your contact information for our own marketing purposes. You can opt out of these at any time.
- Investigating and preventing security breaches. We work hard to keep our sites secure and to prevent abuse and fraud. Responding to your requests. If you contact our member service team with a problem or question, we will use your information to respond.
Credit Card Information
GSA does not store/disclose credit card account information provided by its members and customers. When members and customers choose to pay using their credit cards, GSA submits the information needed to obtain payment to the appropriate clearinghouse. GSA website is authentic and all transactions are secured by SSL encryption.
URL and IP Address Data
GSA may collect information about users’ IP addresses, including users’ utilization of our sites, to help us design better customer experiences. We use information about your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, analyze trends, and gather information that assists us in identifying visitor preferences. We also may use your IP address to enhance our security and investigate an actual or potential security incident. Any use of your information is necessary for our legitimate interests in understanding how sites are being used by you, to improve your customer experience and to ensure network and information security.
Aggregated Data
GSA compiles, anonymizes and/or aggregates personal data and other information collected about online visitors to our sites, as described in this Privacy Policy, and uses such anonymized and/or aggregated data for our own legitimate business purposes, including research, advertising, marketing and promotional purposes. This aggregate information does not identify you, and this policy is not intended to place any limits on what we do with data that is aggregated and/or de-identified so it is no longer associated with an identifiable member or customer of any GSA services.
Cookies
A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a website's computers and is automatically stored on your computer. You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. (Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser for cookie settings.) Note that setting your browser to reject all cookies will make some parts of the GSA site inaccessible.
How is GSA using cookies?
Some cookies are associated with your account and personal information in order to remember that you are logged in and which sites you are logged into. Other cookies are not tied to your account but are unique and allow us to carry out analytics and customizations.
Cookies can be used to recognize you when you visit the GSA website or use our services, remember your preferences, and give you a personalized experience that’s consistent with your settings. Cookies also make your interactions faster and more secure.
Categories of GSA cookies:
- Authentication. If you're signed in to our services, cookies help us show you the right information and personalize your experience.
- Preferences, features and services. Cookies can help you fill out forms on our sites more easily. They also provide you with features, insights, and customized content.
- Security. We use cookies to enable and support some of our security features, and to help us detect malicious activity.
- Performance, Analytics and Research. Cookies help us learn how well our sites and services perform. We also use cookies to understand, improve, and research products, features, and services, including to create logs and record when you access our sites and services from different devices.
Information Security
We are committed to protect and secure the information of GSA and our members 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 encrypt many of our services using SSL and we review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to our systems. We restrict access to personal information to GSA employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us, and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.
Disclosures to Third Parties
The Gerontological Society of America also makes member contact information available through the GSA online only Membership Directory to other members using its website.
We provide personal information to our affiliates or other trusted businesses or persons to process it for GSA, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. Users may request GSA to refrain from disclosing the data it collects to third parties going to the website and login to my account privacy settings.
Legal Purposes
We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of The Gerontological Society of America if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to: meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request; enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations; detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of GSA, our users or the public as required or permitted by law.
Application
Our Privacy Policy applies to all of the services offered by The Gerontological Society of America, but excludes services that have separate privacy policies that do not incorporate this Privacy Policy.
Our Privacy Policy does not apply to services offered by other companies or individuals, including products or sites that may be displayed to you in search results. Our Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices of other companies and organizations who advertise through our services, and who may use cookies, pixel tags and other technologies to serve and offer relevant ads. We do not collect or store data on children.
Enforcement
We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Policy. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that we cannot resolve with our users directly.
Changes
Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will post any privacy policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of privacy policy changes).
Effective May 22, 2018
