Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how Appraisal Institute ("AI", "we", "us" or "our”) collects, uses and discloses information regarding your access to our website at www.appraisalinstitute.org (the "Website"), your use our services, or your communication with us in any other way (collectively, the "Services"). We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully and use it to make informed decisions.

What Types of Information we Process?

Depending on your interaction with us, we may collect two types of information from you:

• “Non-Personal Information” which is aggregated, non-personal, non-identifiable information, which may be made available or gathered via your access to and use of the Services. Such Non-Personal Data may include aggregated usage information and technical information transmitted by your device, such as browser version, operating system type and version, device settings, and software data. If we associate Non-personal Information with Personal Information, we will treat such information as Personal Information
• “Personal Information” which is information that identifies an individual or may, with reasonable effort, be used to identify an individual.
• AI processes information voluntarily provided by you through the Services or collected through the use of tracking technologies, as detailed below. The information collected includes both Non-Personal Information pertaining to you and Personal Information, including the following types of information:
• Device data. Information about the personal computer or mobile device you use to access the Services. This may include technical information transmitted by your device, including certain software and hardware information such as the browser used to access the site, the device model and operating system and language preference. We also collect unique device identifiers, such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address through which you accessed the Services.
• User Activity. We may use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect information regarding your activity on the Website, such as the time and frequency of access, the referrer page domain, pages viewed, and interactions between you and the Website.
• Contact Information. If you choose to register to our Services or contact us through any means of communications (e.g., subscribing to our newsletter or applying for a posted job or for questions or complaints), we will collect your contact information such as name, e-mail address, postal address telephone number and other contact information.

If we combine Personal Data with non-identifiable information, the combined information will be treated by us as Personal Data for as long as it remains combined.

How We Use Your Personal Information?

We may use the information for the following purposes:‎

• Providing you with our Services and fulfilling your requests. 
• Communicating with you – If you have contacted us, for any reason, we will use your information in order to further communicate with you and respond to your inquiries.
• Verifying and authenticating the information provided by you. 
• Conducting statistical and analytical purposes, intended to maintain, improve, and enhance the functionality and performance of our  Services.
• Inform you of additional products, services, or promotions (unless you have opted out of receiving such communications).  
• Comply with legal obligations, including investigating violations, enforcing our policies, and as required by any applicable law, regulation, or other governmental authority, or to comply with a subpoena or similar legal process or respond to a government request.
• Personalizing your experience by tailoring content, recommendations, and communications based on your preferences and interactions.
• Protecting the security and integrity of our systems, detecting and preventing fraud, unauthorized access, or other unlawful activity.
• Engaging trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our website, delivering our Services, communicating with you, conducting analytics, processing payments, or providing IT and security support.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

 When you visit our Website, we may store or retrieve information on your browser, primarily in the form of cookies and similar tracking technologies. These technologies are used to enable core site functionality, analyze site usage, and support our marketing efforts.

We use analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to collect information about how visitors interact with our Website. This information helps us improve site performance and user experience.

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You may choose to block or delete cookies through your browser; however, doing so may impact your ability to use certain features of the Website.

With Whom We Share the Information?

We do not rent, sell, or share your Personal Information with third parties except as described in this Privacy Policy. In order to provide the Services, we may share Personal Information with (i) affiliated organizations; (ii) our service providers, in connection with operation of the Website and the provision of our Services (e.g. cloud web services for storing information on our behalf or processing information).

We may also disclose your Personal Information if we have a good faith belief that disclosure of such information is helpful or reasonably necessary to: (i) comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; (ii) enforce our policies, including investigations of potential violations thereof; (iii) investigate, detect, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities or other wrongdoing, suspected fraud or security issues; (iv) to establish or exercise our rights to defend against legal claims; (v) prevent harm to the rights, property or safety of us, you or any third party; or (vi) for the purpose of collaborating with law enforcement agencies and/or in case we find it necessary in order to enforce intellectual property or other legal rights.

We may also share information in the event of a corporate transaction (e.g. sale of a substantial part of our business, merger, consolidation or asset sale). In the event of the above, the transferee or acquiring company or organization will assume the rights and obligations as described in this Privacy Policy.

In any case we will conclude that disclosure of Personal Information is necessary, we will only disclose that portion of the Personal Information that is required in order to satisfy the basis for disclosure.

Third-Party Collection of Information

Our Website may contain links to other websites provided by third parties not under our control. When following a link and providing information to a third-party website, please be aware that we are not responsible for the information provided to that third party.

 Our Privacy Policy only applies to information that we collect through our own Website and services. If you choose to visit or interact with third-party websites or services, for example, by clicking a link on the Website, the collection and use of your information by those third parties are governed by the third party’s own privacy policies. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third party website you visit.

You acknowledge that we are not responsible for the products, services, or descriptions of products or services that you receive from third party sites or to the content or privacy practices of those sites, and that this Privacy Policy does not apply to any such third-party products and services. You are knowingly and voluntarily assuming all risks of using third party sites to purchase products and services. You agree that we shall have no liability whatsoever with respect to such third-party sites and your usage of them.

Rights to Your Information

Users located in certain countries have certain statutory rights to their Personal Information. Subject to exemptions provided by law, and with proper identification, you may have the right to certain actions to your Personal Information such as:

• Right to verify your Personal Information
• Right to see what Personal Information about you we have
• Right to request that we erase Personal Information about you
• Right to restrict AI from processing certain Personal Information pertaining to you
• Right to export Personal Information in a portable format

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, or any other right you have under applicable law, contact us at: privacy@appraisalinstitute.org. When handling your request, we will ask for additional information to confirm your identity (which may include Personal Information). However, please note that if you choose not to allow us to process your Personal Information, we may be prevented from processing such requests.

If you request that we delete your personal information, we may be unable to provide you with certain services or functionalities that rely on that information. Some services may become unavailable if we can no longer retain the data necessary to deliver them or to meet legal or operational requirements

For How Long We Retain Your Personal Information?

AI retains your Personal Information for as long as needed to provide the Services , to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our policies unless you request the deletion of your Personal Information. In some cases, we may retain certain information about you as permitted by law or compliance.

We may rectify, replenish or remove incomplete or inaccurate information, at any time and at our own discretion.

Minors

We do not purposefully collect any Personal Information which relates to users who are under the age of 16. In the event that we become aware that an individual under the age of 16 has shared any information, we will discard such information. If you have any reason to believe that a minor has shared any information with us, it will be advisable to contact us at privacy@appraisalinstitute.

Data Transfer

Any Personal Information that we collect, may be transferred outside of your country of residence, for the purposes detailed in this Policy, including to countries that may provide different rights with respect to personal information than the rights provided in your country of residence. Where required under applicable law, we will transfer the Personal Information under appropriate safeguards‎.

We work hard to protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. We have implemented physical, technical and administrative security measures, such as minimizing the amount of data that we store on our servers and restricting access to Personal Information.

Updates or Amendments to the Privacy Policy

We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time, in our sole discretion, and the most current version will always be posted on our Website (as reflected in the “Last Updated” heading).

How to Contact Us

If you have any general questions about the Website or the information that we collect about you and how we may use it, or if you believe we have violated your privacy rights in any way, they may contact us at privacy@appraisalinstitute.org.

Our registered address is: 200 W. Madison, Suite 2000, Chicago, IL 60606