PRIVACY POLICY
COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
This site is owned and operated by the “Visual Effects Society, A Calif. Non-Profit Corp. [ IRS 501(c)(3) ]” (hereafter referred to as “VES”). Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At “VES”, we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.
Because we gather certain types of information about our members / users, we feel you should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.
“VES” is a professional, honorary society. We are dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences, and applications of visual effects and to improving the welfare of its members by providing professional enrichment and education, fostering community, and promoting industry recognition.
Our educational component includes developing, producing and maintaining a mentoring program to support and encourage students who are seeking careers in the visual effects field. We also host and produce seminars, workshops and forums on technique, technology and design as well.
As part of the aforementioned mission, we charge fees for the following :
Membership dues ( both individual and Partners [businesses] ); VES Awards Ceremony submissions fees, individual tickets, sponsorship, tables, and advertising; VES Festival of Visual Effects individual tickets, Master Passes, sponsorship and advertising; educational seminars, workshops and forums individual tickets; and VES-specific merchandise sold by VES.
DEFINITIONS
“VES” gathers two types of information about members / users:
- Information that members / users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions to receive our electronic newsletters, to participate in our message boards or forums, to email a friend, and from participation in polls and surveys.
- Information “VES” gathers through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows us to better tailor our content to readers’ needs and to help our advertisers and sponsors better understand the demographics of our audience. Because “VES” derives its revenue mainly from membership dues, sponsorships and advertising, providing such aggregated demographic data is essential in order to optimally serve our members and Power Circle sponsors. Under no circumstances does “VES” divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.
HOW MEMBER / USER INFORMATION IS GATHERED
1. Payment for membership dues, tickets to events, etc.
“VES” accepts credit cards (Visa, MasterCard and American Express) as acceptable payment. The credit card data, as stated below, can be provided by telephone, fax, mail, or e-mail. Also, members or other interested parties can DIRECTLY make purchases or payments via a link on our website (“electronic shopping cart”) and thereby circumvent the need to contact the VES office. Whether the cardholder contacts the VES office or uses the electronic shopping cart connected to our website, in order to process such payments, we require certain information from you such as billing address and zip code, e-mail address, etc. All credit card data is processed via a secure connection and our SSL Server Certificate was licensed from thawte, inc. which is owned and operated by VeriSign, Inc. “VES” does not save any credit card data. Under no circumstances does “VES” divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.
2. Message boards/forums
Members / users of the site’s Message Boards and Forums must register separately for these services (both are free of charge) in order to post messages, although they needn’t register to visit the site. During registration the user is required to supply a username, password, and email address.
3. “E-mail this to a friend” Service
Our site members / users can choose to electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking “e-mail this to a friend”. The user must provide their email address, as well as that of the recipient. This information is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient know who sent the email. The information is not used for any other purpose.
4. Polling
We may offer interactive polls to members / users so they can easily share their opinions with other members / users and see what our audience thinks about important issues. Opinions or other responses to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. “VES” may use a system to “tag” members / users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual members / users.
5. Surveys
“VES” may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our sponsors, advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.
SECURITY
As stated previously, all credit card payments are processed via secure server. Also, with respect to members, a required login and password is necessary to access the “VES Member Portal”. If a member wants to pay their dues directly via credit card and circumvent the VES office staff, they may do so once they have logged in, using their login and password accordingly.
REFUND POLICY
Any disputes with respect to payments or fees charged to a credit card will be promptly addressed upon receipt of the following information:
A written request from the cardholder stating the nature of the dispute, a legible copy of the credit card statement showing the amount in dispute and the method by which the cardholder would like to be contacted (i.e. telephone, e-mail, US mail, etc.)
The cardholder can provide us with the required information by e-mailing such as a PDF or other electronic attachment to info@visualeffectssociety.com. If e-mail is unavailable, the information can be faxed to (818) 981-0179 or mailed to 5805 Sepulveda Blvd. Suite 620, Sherman Oaks, CA 91411. Our telephone number is (818) 981-7861.
Upon receipt of the pertinent information, a prompt review shall be conducted. Once a determination has been made, the cardholder will be promptly contacted accordingly.
CHILDREN
Consistent with the Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.
USAGE TRACKING
“VES” tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual members / users. “VES” does break down overall usage statistics according to a user’s domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user’s browser).
“VES” sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that members / users enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual members / users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites members / users like and don’t like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual members / users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.
COOKIES
We may place a text file called a “cookie” in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can’t read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. “VES” uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above). Our advertising system delivers a one-time cookie to better track ad impressions and click rates.
You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you’ve set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in message boards, forums, polling and surveys.
USE OF INFORMATION
“VES” uses any information voluntarily given by our members / users to enhance their experience in our network of sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our members / users.
As stated above, we use information that members / users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable members / users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. “VES” never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.
When we use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites members / users like and don’t like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual members / users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you. We track search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what interests our members / users. But we don’t track which terms a particular user enters.
“VES” creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers, sponsors and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our members / users to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their needs. Because we don’t track the usage patterns of individual members / users, an advertiser or sponsor will never know that a specific user clicked their ad. We will not disclose any information about any individual user except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our members / users or the public.