1. Introduction, scope and general terms

This APSR Congress Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) sets forth the privacy practices and policies of both the Singapore Thoracic Society (STS) and the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR) in relation to the 27th Congress of the APSR (“Congress”).

This Privacy Policy relates to our use of any personal information we collect from you via the Congress website apsr2023.sg (“Website”) on your PC, tablet, smartphone or other equipment (“device”), by phone, text message, email, form, letter and other correspondence, and in person.

The website covered by this Privacy Policy is apsr2023.sg only. It does not cover APSR accounts with social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, neither does it cover any of our other websites or any other third-party website.

Where there is a hyperlink from the Website to the websites of third parties, we do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third parties, and your use of such third party websites is at your own risk. Third parties should have their own privacy policies and you are urged to study those.

This Privacy Policy discloses how we collect, protect, use and share information gathered from you through the Website, subject to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy in effect at the time of your use.

2. Information we collect

The following describes the types of personal and other information we may collect from you and the device you use, and what we do with those information.

Information collected automatically

Your device’s IP address, operating system and browser details

The web servers we use collect the IP addresses of visitors to the Website. This information may be aggregated to measure the number of visits, average time spent on the Website, pages viewed, etc. We may use this information to improve the content we offer. We may also share this information with third parties on an aggregated basis for research and development, in a way that no individual user can be identified.

IP addresses may also be used to establish the total number of visits from different countries. We do not use IP addresses to filter, control or otherwise restrict content to any country or region.

IP addresses of disruptive users can and will be blocked for the benefit of other users of the Website.

The Website collects information about how the Website is used, including the browser used, operating system and device type. The information is used to present webpages in a format appropriate for the person visiting the Website.

Cookies

Information supplied by cookies can help us to understand visitor profile and help us to provide a better service. It also helps us recognise when you logged in to access the registered user pages.

Your use of the Website will be deemed to be your consent to the placement of cookies on your device. If you prefer not to receive cookies, you can set your browser to either reject all cookies, to allow only cookies from websites you specified as “trusted”, or to accept only those cookies from those sites you are currently accessing. (For guidance in setting your browser, see the ‘help’ documentation provided by your browser, or contact your device service provider.)

If your browser is set to reject cookies, then your use of the Website may be less efficient and some parts of the Website may not work at all.

If we disclose any information collected by cookies to third parties, it will only be aggregated data and will not be used to identify you.

Cookies may also be downloaded when you access a third-party website such as Adobe to read a PDF file (click here for information) and Google Analytics (click here for information.)

Information submitted by you to the Website

When you interact with the Website in ways including but not limited to, participating in online surveys, submitting abstracts, registering for the Congress, postgraduate course/workshop and social events at the Congress, contributing to message boards, other Congress-related official activities, etc., we may receive personal information about you. This can include information such as your name, email address, postal address, telephone number, portrait photo, dietary requirements, etc.

We will only request information relevant for the service you required. Normally we will neither need nor request information about your age, race, religion, sex, financial status, etc.

We may request evidence of your age or profession in connection with registration categories, application for awards and other activities with age-restriction; after which that information will not be retained.

Although we do not request to know your gender, this may be incidentally implied through correspondence (“he”, “she”, etc). Any such information will not be used to discriminate. Similarly, any incidental information that implies your race, religion, nationality, etc., will not be used to discriminate.

Although we do not request any details of your financial status, your country of residence will have a publicly-available GNI index, which we may use to determine Congress registration fees, etc.

If you register for the Congress, postgraduate course/workshop, social events or submit abstracts during the late breaking submission period via the Website, you may be asked to provide your credit card details. You will input these details directly to a secure, third-party online payment service. The Website does have access to, retain or process your credit card information.

By providing personal information you explicitly agree to our collection and use of that information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Information submitted by you via social networking activities

The Website includes the ability for you and other users to link to SNS websites. As a result, we may receive information about you when you post or otherwise use such SNS websites.

By providing personal information via such SNS websites you explicitly agree to our collection and use of that information as described in this Privacy Policy.

3. How we use your personal information

We will use your personal information for a number of purposes including the following:

  • To provide our services, activities or online content, to provide you with information about them and to deal with your requests and enquiries.
  • To provide you with notices of events, including future congresses, that would likely be of interest to you. If you do not want to receive these notices, you can unsubscribe at any time by contacting the APSR Secretariat APSRinfo@theapsr.org
  • Please note that even if you opt out from receiving such notices, we may need to send you service-related communications and keep information we have collected about you for record-keeping, research and other purposes.

4. How long we retain your personal information

We may keep any information that you provide to us indefinitely, or delete it when we have no further need to retain it. However, you have a right to request deletion of your personal information at any time, as explained below.

5. Who we disclose information to

We do not share, rent, sell or otherwise disclose any of the personally identifiable information that we collect about you, except in any of the following situations:

  • You request or authorize the release of your personal information.
  • We may disclose information that we collect about you to our third-party contractors and payment processors, who perform services for us, or to complete or confirm a transaction or series of transactions that you conduct with us. We may also disclose information to service providers or suppliers if the disclosure will enable that party to perform business, professional or technical support for us.

Third parties to which we may disclose information about you include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Contractors – who support us in providing services for the Congress;
  2. Payment processors – to allow payment to be made;
  3. Hotels and travel agencies – to book your accommodation and/or flights;
  4. Abstract handling system provider – to manage the abstract submission and review process;
  5. Virtual platform provider – to disseminate Congress content
  6. Marketing software – to provide you with information about the Congress and our societies;
  7. Exhibitors and sponsors – to whom you specifically consent to share your data with. Or potentially share through an onsite Congress badge scanning system.
  8. Future congresses’ host societies – to allow them to share information that would likely be of interest to you, and to allow them to provide information to other third parties we deemed appropriate and necessary to organise their congresses.

When you present your Congress badge to access an event managed by exhibitors and sponsors at the Congress, you may be sharing some of your information with them.

Once your data has been shared with a third party, we have no control over how that information is used, but we require our exhibitors and sponsors to agree to follow all the local state and country privacy laws.

  • We may disclose information about you as part of a merger, acquisition or transfer of the membership or operation of the APSR. We do not guarantee that any entity receiving such information in connection with one of these transactions will comply with all terms of this Privacy Policy.
  • We may disclose information about you to comply with the law, applicable regulations, court orders or subpoenas, to enforce our Privacy Policy or other agreements, or to protect our rights, property or safety, or the rights, property or safety of our users or others (e.g., to a consumer reporting agency for fraud protection). We reserve the right to release information that we collect to law enforcement or other government officials, as we, in our sole and absolute discretion, deem necessary or appropriate.
  • We may share aggregated or anonymous information that cannot identify you with third parties. For example, we may disclose the number of visitors to the Website or the number of people who have downloaded a particular document.

6. Your rights

In accordance with the various national data protection and privacy laws of the country in which the Congress is held, as well as Japan, the USA, Europe and elsewhere, you have the following rights:

Your right to see your personal information

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and how we use that information. We reserve the right to charge an administration fee for supplying a copy. See Exercising your rights, below.

Your right to make corrections to your personal information

You have the right to request changes and corrections to personal information we hold about you. See Exercising your rights, below.

Your right to be forgotten

You have a right to ask us to erase any or all of your personal information that we hold. Requests should be made to the APSR Secretariat.

Exercising your rights

Requests for copies, changes or deletions should be made to the APSR Secretariat.

If the APSR has your email address already, you can make your request via that email address. Otherwise, two pieces of approved identification will be required. If the identification is in a language other than Japanese or English, a certified translation in Japanese or English will be required. Such identification will be retained for as long as the Secretariat deems necessary.

When making a request, please indicate how you would like to receive the copy of your information, or confirmation of changes or deletion.

Contact the APSR Secretariat for further details.

7. Security

To help protect the privacy of data you transmit through the Website including Congress registration and abstract submission, we use technology designed to encrypt the information that you input before it is sent to us. In addition, we take steps to protect the data we collect against unauthorized access.

However, you should keep in mind that the Website is run on software, hardware and networks, any component of which may, from time to time, require maintenance or experience problems or breaches of security beyond our control.

Please also be aware that despite our best intentions and measures taken, no data transmission over the internet or encryption method can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us or is transmitted from us to you, and therefore you use the Website at your own risk.

While we take steps to protect your personal information and keep it secure, you also play a role in protecting your information. You can help to maintain the security of your information by not sharing your user id and password with anyone.

If you have any concerns that your personal information held by us could have been compromised; for example, by someone discovering your user id and password, please contact the APSR Secretariat immediately.

8. Links to other websites

While we try to link only to websites that share our standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third parties or the content of linked websites. We encourage you to read the applicable privacy policies and terms and conditions of such parties or websites.

9. International transmission of personal information

Web servers used by the Website are located in the USA. Therefore, from whichever country or region you access the Website, the information we collect is transferred from your device to servers in the USA. By allowing us to collect information about you, you consent to such transfer, process and retention of your data to servers in the USA.

The information you provide to the Website may be viewed and processed by us. Therefore, from whichever country or region you access the Website, information that we collect can be transferred to servers in the country where the Congress is being held. By allowing us to collect information about you, you consent to such transfer, process and retention of your data to servers in that country.

10. Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time so you may wish to check it each time you submit personal information to the Website. The use of your information is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time of use.

The provisions contained in this Privacy Policy supersede all previous notices or policies regarding our privacy practices with respect to the Website. Please check the Last updated date at the top of this page to see when this Privacy Policy was last revised. You are encouraged to check frequently to see the current Privacy Policy to be informed of how we are committed to protecting your information.

11. Contact

If you have any questions or comments regarding our Privacy Policy or the Website, please contact APSR Secretariat at: APSRinfo@theapsr.org or by letter to:

APSR Secretariat
Asian Pacific Society of Respirology
2F, UK’s Bldg.
2-29-3 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
113-0033 Japan
Phone: +81-3-5684-3370
Fax: +81-3-5684-3382
Email: APSRinfo@theapsr.org
Office Hours: 9:30–16:30 (Monday to Friday)

This Privacy Policy may be changed at any time without notice. By using this Website, you acknowledge your acceptance of the version of the Privacy Policy in effect at the time of use.