American Trucking Associations, Transport Topics and ATA Affiliates Privacy Policy
Effective Date: 03/01/2019
Welcome! This Privacy Policy applies to you as a user and/or customer (“you”) of websites, interactive services, email programs, and any mobile device applications provided by American Trucking Associations (“ATA”), Transport Topics or ATA affiliates (collectively, "we," "us" or “our”) that include an authorized link or reference to this policy (collectively, the "Services"). If you are ordering, registering, subscribing, accessing, or otherwise interacting electronically with us or any of our Services, products, publications, events, websites, apps, etc., this Privacy Policy applies to you. Except as specified herein, this policy does not apply to personal information you may provide to us offline.
Our policies are updated periodically. Please refer back regularly to keep current on our Online Privacy Policy.
By using any of our Services, you agree that this Online Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service Agreement govern your use of our Services and any dispute concerning the Services.
Please take a few minutes to read this Online Privacy Policy and Terms of Service Agreement before using or registering to access our Services.
This Policy describes our privacy practices regarding:
- Children under 18 Information collected through our services
- Information we may obtain from other sources
- How we use the information we collect
- How we disclose the information and your related opt-out choices
- Your opt-out choices
- Sites to which we link
- How to correct or update your information Security, retention and storage of information
- Changes to our Privacy Policy
You have the right to access, change, or delete your personal information at any time online or contact our privacy team directly with requests and questions about this Privacy Policy at webmaster@trucking.org.
We are made up of several companies and conduct business under several brands, and this policy applies to all websites of these companies and provided under these brands within the group. To see a list of companies, affiliates and brands within our group, click here.
Children under 18:
We care about protecting the privacy of children. Our services are not intended for persons under the age of 18. We won't knowingly allow anyone under the age of 18 to provide us any personally identifying information. If you are under 18, please do not register for or use any of our Services or provide us with any personally identifying information (such as your name, email address or phone number).
Information Collected through Our Services:
The information we gather through our Services falls into three categories and are described in greater detail below:
- information you voluntarily supply to us when you register, order subscriptions, purchase products, or initiate other transactions, participate in promotions or surveys, submit comments or questions, or otherwise provide us in order for us to deliver the Services or products you have ordered, or otherwise communicate with us or others through the Services;
- information collected automatically as you use our Services, including without limitation, information that may be collected through any mobile application we may offer while such application(s) is in use or running in the background of your device. Third-party providers and advertisers featured on, or linked to or from, our Services may also gather information through processes that we don't control and are subject to their own separate privacy policies, which may differ from ours. Some of our Services also may participate in third-party advertising networks or similar services that collect information about your computer or device and your activity online and as a mobile user to tailor some of the advertising that you see on our Services and other third-party sites, mobile apps and marketing channels in their networks to your interests (see cookie policy below).
- information we obtain from third-parties, including vendors, affiliates and other entities with whom we have a relationship.
Cookies.
To improve your experience on our websites, we use “cookies.” Cookies are an industry standard and most major websites use them. A cookie is a small text file, i.e., a small amounts of data (often containing a unique identifier) that we, with your permission, place on your computer or device’s Internet browser as a tool to remember your preferences. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your internet browser, but if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of our websites and related services. Cookies are like tracking devices. When you visit a website, like ours, and agree to the use of cookies, the cookie is implanted into your system, so that site and its owner, and third party administrators of our site(s) and third party vendors placing ads on our site(s), can track your preferences. Cookies allow us and the third parties to better understand what you and our other users want, need and are interested in, which in turns allows us to deliver to you, and others visiting our site, the news you seek as well as information and ads about products and services of interest to you.
In other words, cookies are accessed and recorded by the websites you visit, and by the companies that deliver the advertisements you see on our services, so they can recognize you (your internet browser) as you search and navigate online. You can set your browser to accept or reject most cookies, or to notify you when a cookie is set. (Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.) It is up to you to decide whether to allow us or third parties to set cookies, but if you block cookies, you may not be able to view or access some of the features of our Services. Please be aware that certain browsers cannot block or delete so-called "Flash" cookies, which use a feature of the Adobe Flash video player to store information on your computer. For information about how to delete Flash cookies, please visit the Adobe website.
Our websites use Google Analytics, a service which transmits website traffic data to Google services in the United States. Google Analytics uses cookies to track and gather traffic data and then provide us with reports to better understand website traffic and webpage use. When you accept our use of cookies, you are accepting Google Analytics use of cookies. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. In addition, we also use Google Analytics’ remarketing feature that allows us to create and show you ads of products you have viewed on our website, when you are online. You can opt-out of Google Analytics cookies altogether by linking to Google Analytics Opt-Out Ad-on (click here). To learn more about Google Analytics and how your data will be used, click here.
Web Beacons and Other Tracking Technologies.
We or any third-party contractors we engage may collect certain information automatically when you use our Services, including but not limited to:
Web beacons (sometimes called "transparent GIFs," "clear GIFs," or "pixel tags") are small strings of code that embed a small graphic image (usually invisible) on a web page or in an email or advertisement. When your browser downloads a graphic or advertisement with an embedded web beacon, then the server sending that image or advertisement to your browser is able to recognize and store certain types of information, such as cookies previously set, the time and date that you viewed the page embedded with the beacon and a description of that page.
Mobile Device IDs and Location-Based Information.
Like most website and mobile application operators, we, our service providers and/or other third parties acting on our behalf or with our permission, use embedded scripts, "cookies," web beacons, device identifiers and other tracking technologies to operate, analyze, improve and protect the security of our Services and tailor content and advertising to user interests. Third-party companies, like Google Analytics, that provide some of the tools and features accessible through our Services as well as advertisers and other companies that are delivering the advertisements you see on our Services and other websites also may use tracking technologies to collect information about your use of our Services.
Mobile Device IDs and Location-Based Information.
Certain mobile devices, including smart phones and tablet devices, contain unique device IDs that can be used to identify their physical location. Some mobile device IDs are persistent, while others may be resettable by accessing the device’s privacy settings. Mobile devices also typically transmit caller ID data (which may include a phone number) when used to transmit a telephone call or text message. When you use mobile devices to access our Services, we may collect and transmit unique device IDs and collect caller ID data, as well as other information about your device, including without limitation, your wireless carrier, the make, model, operating system, capacity and settings of your device, the names, package IDs and versions of other software you have downloaded to your device and information about how you interact with and navigate within our Service. With your consent, we or our authorized service providers and partners also may use precise geolocation technology such as GPS or Wi-Fi triangulation or mobile Bluetooth beacon technology to collect information about the exact location of your mobile device. Precise location information may be collected both while you are using one of our mobile applications and continuously over time while our apps are not in use but are running in the background of your device. This information may be used for the purposes described below in “How We Use the Information We Collect” including to tailor special offers and advertising to your interests, both in our Services and in third-party marketing channels. You can withdraw your consent to the further collection and use of your precise device location data through any of our mobile apps by accessing your device’s privacy settings as further explained below. For information about how to reset your advertising identifier and your other opt-out choices relating to interest-based advertising in mobile applications, see “Opt-out Choices: Mobile App Advertising and Tracking” below.
Social Network Posting Tools and “Share” Features.
You can access various social network posting and sharing tools through our Services that are operated by third parties, including a “share” button that allows you to post links to content and features that you believe will be of interest to others on your social network pages. When you visit a page that includes one of these sharing tools, the third-party company that operates the tool may be collecting information about your browser, device and online activity through its own tracking technologies and subject to its own separate privacy policy, which may differ from ours.
Third-Party Ad Engagement Measurement.
Some of our advertisers may participate in advertising measurement programs. When one of their ads appears on our Services, it may contain a web beacon that will record your exposure to the ad, read certain cookies on your browser, and forward this information to one or more operators of third-party websites or other online service on which you may have registered. If the third-party operator recognizes a cookie that identifies you as one of its registered users, it will append the impression data it receives, which may identify you as a user of our Services, with demographic information before returning the data to the ad measurement vendor and/or advertiser. For more information about ad impression collection practices and any related opt-out choices, please contact us.
Information We May Obtain from Other Sources:
We may combine any information collected through the Services with other information that we obtain about you, your computer, and/or device from other companies and sources, including third-party data suppliers and public databases. The following are examples of information we may collect from other sources:
- Name, postal address, email address and telephone number;
- Demographic data, such as age, gender, and income level;
- Your interests and purchase behavior;
- Publicly-visible data, such as your posts and submissions to blogs, video-sharing services, and other interactive forums; and
- Other navigation data, such as web sites visited and advertisements viewed or clicked on.
How We Use the Information We Collect:
Our primary goal in collecting information is to provide you with a customized experience when using our Services and to make them more valuable to you. Because our Services are supported by advertising, we also use the information we collect to help us and our advertisers efficiently reach audiences who are most likely to be interested in particular products and services. That said, we only use payment and identity verification information as necessary to complete a particular transaction, provide a requested service, enforce legal rights or comply with applicable law.
In addition, we and our authorized service providers generally use other information that we or they collect about you to:
- Customize the content you see when you use our Services and other services as you navigate online;
- Analyze, operate and improve our Services, and fulfill your requests for products, services, and information, including to send you email and electronic newsletters;
- Help recognize your browser as a previous visitor and save and remember any preferences that may have been set while your browser was visiting one of our Services;
- Enable you to participate in features such as surveys, polls, comment and message boards;
- Attribute content that you post to forums we operate on our Services;
- Recognize the same users as they access online or mobile services using multiple browsers or devices and deliver to them appropriate interest-based content and advertising;
- Provide you with special offers, promotions and information from companies within our corporate family and select third parties in accordance with applicable law;
- Control the display of advertising and develop and deliver advertising tailored to your interests, including 1) advertising that you see on our Services, 2) advertising you see on third-party websites, mobile applications and email programs, and 4) offers and advertising you may receive offline or as push-notifications from us or others;
- Measure and analyze visitor traffic and usage patterns and improve the quality and effectiveness of our content, features, advertisements, and other communications;
- Conduct market or audience analysis and related reporting;
- Understand whether our users read email messages and click on links contained within those messages;
- Prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities, comply with applicable law and enforce our Terms of Service Agreement;
- For any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent.
How We Disclose Information and Your Related Opt-out Choices:
Except as otherwise expressly noted herein or within the Services or as may be prohibited by law, we may share any information collected through our Services, including without limitation your name and postal address (and any other information we combine with that information), with our affiliated companies, our provider partners and service providers, and with carefully selected third-party organizations and marketers of products and services potentially of interest to you. The following describes some of the circumstances in which we may share information about our users:
Email.
Unless prohibited by law in your jurisdiction or you have instructed us otherwise (either by failing to opt-in or later opting out), we share our users’ email addresses with service providers that send email messages and deliver targeted advertising on our behalf. These service providers may collect data about how you interact with those messages (including information about whether and when you opened a particular message or clicked on a link within a message and the device you used to do so) and analyze it in conjunction with similar information they collect when you respond to emails they send on behalf of their other clients who are not affiliated with us. They use this email response information in combination with your email address to target and optimize the delivery of emails and email advertising they send on our behalf and for their other clients. We may also provide our service providers with lists of our user email addresses in a hashed, encrypted or anonymized form that they use to recognize our users as they navigate online or use third-party email services and enable the delivery of interest-based advertising to those users. We do not authorize our service providers to share your email address with their other clients, and require under contract that they adhere to anti-spam and privacy laws.
If you use our Services to sign up for special email offers from third-party advertisers, we will also share your email address and any other information you provided with your request with the advertisers you selected. Except as described in this policy, we will not sell or rent your email address to unaffiliated third parties for their email marketing purposes without your consent.
Co-Registration Offers.
If, during or immediately following registration, you choose to access offers for goods or services that are available from selected third-party companies (“Co-Registration Vendors”), we may make certain contact and demographic information you provide (e.g., name, age, and/or email address) available to these vendors with your consent.
Provider Partners and Service Providers.
To make your experience with our Services more useful and enjoyable, we may offer some features (such as social sharing tools) in conjunction with third-party providers (“Provider Partners”) that specialize in operating such services. We share with each of these Provider Partners such information as is useful or necessary to provide you with the services we offer through that Provider Partner. Some of our Provider Partners may collect information directly from you pursuant to their own separate privacy policies which may differ from ours.
We also contract with other companies to provide specialized services to us, including but not limited to credit-card and billing processing, shipping, marketing, advertising optimization and interest-based targeting, email and text message distribution, data processing, mobile and website analytics, user authentication, security and promotions management. We reserve the right to share with these companies any information we collect about you and/or authorize them to collect information from you directly to support the services they provide to us.
Google Analytics
An example of such Service Providers, is Google Analytics. Google collects information about user activity to provide us with this Google Analytics service and processes and stores such information pursuant to its privacy policy, as previously described under Cookies above. Some of our Services integrate with Google’s reCAPTCHA widget to help us distinguish authentic human users from “bots” and to protect our sites from spam and abuse. Google Analytics Opt-Out Add-on
Aggregated and Anonymous Information.
We and our service providers may combine information about you with information that we or they collect about other users of our Services and share it in a form that does not identify you personally. We and our service providers may also anonymize information by removing any information (such as your name) that makes the information personally identifying to you. We may use aggregated information or other anonymous information and disclose it to third parties as we deem appropriate.
Information You Post to Blogs, Discussion Forums and Community or Social Networking Areas.
Keep in mind that any information that you choose to post to blogs, discussion forums, or other community or social networking services that we offer can be seen, collected and used by anyone who has access to the applicable service. We cannot be responsible for any unauthorized third-party use of such information.
Legal Compliance, Business Transfers and Other Disclosures.
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary stated herein or within our Services, we may occasionally release information about users of our Services when we deem such release appropriate to comply with law, respond to compulsory process or law enforcement requests, enforce our Terms of Service Agreement or protect the rights, property or safety of users of our Services, the public, us, or any third party. Over time, we may reorganize or transfer various assets and lines of business. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary stated herein or on our Services, we reserve the right to disclose or transfer any information we collect to third parties in connection with any proposed or actual purchase, sale, lease, merger, foreclosure, liquidation, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposal, transfer, conveyance or financing of all or any portion of us.
Your Opt-Out Choices.
In the event you have opted-in to receive promotional mailings and later decide to opt-out, you may do so by:
Postal Mail.
To remove your name and postal address from lists that we may sell or rent to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, or to opt-out of receiving marketing offers from us, please send your request to us in a letter addressed to: Attn: Webmaster-Opt-Out Postal, ATA/Transport Topics, P.O. Box 101360, Arlington, VA 22210-4360. Please note that if you choose to opt-out of our promotional mailings, you may still receive renewal notices and related offers for any product or service to which you subscribe.
Email.
You can opt-out from any of our email newsletter or commercial email lists and prevent the collection of related email response information by our email service providers by using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each message and/or by visiting the Email Preferences page on our sites and updating your preferences. If you no longer want to receive third-party email offers that you requested through our Services, simply follow the advertiser’s unsubscribe link or opt-out instructions that should be included in every commercial message you receive. If you wish to disable web beacons in our email messages, turn images “off” in your email client/provider (e.g., Outlook or Outlook Express). Please refer to the settings or options menu in your email client/provider for more information.
Mobile App Advertising and Tracking
We, our authorized service providers and/or other third-party partners involved in the delivery of advertising you receive through any mobile application that we may offer, may collect information about your mobile device, including unique anonymous advertising identifiers and the names and IDs of apps you have installed, as well as information about how you use our mobile applications and other unaffiliated applications. We and our partners use this information to enable interest-based advertising you receive through our Services and within third-party apps and other marketing channels. Depending on your device and operating system, you may be able to reset your mobile device’s advertising identifier to limit this data collection or prevent the collection of usage data across unaffiliated applications for interest-based advertising purposes by accessing the privacy settings on your mobile device. Each operating system, iOS for Apple devices, Android for Android devices and Windows for Microsoft devices, provides its own instructions. Visit the privacy settings for your mobile device or contact your platform operator for more information.
Precise Device Location Tracking.
If you authorized us and/or our service providers to collect and/or share information about the precise location of your device through a mobile application we may offer, you can always withdraw your consent and prevent the further collection and sharing of your precise device location information by accessing your device’s location privacy settings. Each operating system, iOS for Apple devices, Android for Android devices and Windows for Microsoft devices, provides its own instructions on how to turn off precise location sharing. Access the privacy settings for your mobile device or contact your platform operator for more information.
Do Not Track.
We do not currently respond to browser do-not-track signals. Instead, we adhere to the standards set out in this privacy policy and offer the opt-out choices described above.
Sites to Which We Link:
We also may provide links to other websites or services, and provide access to products and services offered by third parties, whose privacy policies we don’t control.
How to Correct or Update Your Information:
We provide you with the ability to access and edit certain personally identifying information that you have provided to us through our Services. To update this information, please visit the “Customer Service” area or comparable feature of the Service you used to enter your information. If you cannot locate such a feature, send us an email at webmaster@trucking.org or by mail to: Attn: Webmaster-Opt-Out, ATA/Transport Topics, P.O. Box 101360, Arlington, VA 22210-4360.
Security, Retention and Storage of Information:
We use commercially reasonable procedures to protect the personally-identifying information that we collect. No security system is impenetrable, however. We cannot guarantee the security of our databases, nor can we guarantee that information you supply won’t be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. Please see our Terms of Service Agreement for more information related to posting materials on our Services including our use of such materials. For the purposes set out in this Online Privacy Policy, personally-identifying information may be transferred to, processed, stored and accessed by us, our affiliates and our unaffiliated service providers in the United States and in other jurisdictions where we or they operate. Courts and other authorities in these jurisdictions may, in certain circumstances, be entitled to access your personally-identifying information. By using the Services, you consent to this transfer, processing, storage and access of your personally-identifying information in and/or outside of the jurisdiction in which you reside.
Your California Privacy Rights
California residents have the right to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, a list of the third parties to whom we have disclosed certain types of personal information (if any) for their direct marketing purposes in the prior calendar year. At our option, we may respond to such requests by providing instructions about how our users can exercise their options to prevent our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. You can read these instructions above in the section of our Online Privacy Policy titled “How we disclose information and your related opt-out choices”. Or, if you are a California resident and prefer that we send you a separate response, please email your request to webmaster@trucking.org.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
We follow the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation, which addresses the use of personal identifiable data of individuals residing or working within the European Economic Area (EEA). If you are covered by the provisions of the GDPR, we will not collect, process or use your personally identifiable data without your explicit consent. Be aware that without your explicit consent to collect, process or use your personally identifiable information we may not deliver some or all of our Services to you. If you at any time receive unwanted electronic correspondence from us, please contact us immediately at webmaster@trucking.org.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy:
Digital technology is rapidly evolving. From time to time, we may make changes to this Privacy Policy and our cookie policy or Terms of Service Agreement. This may be in relation to changes in the law, best practice or changes in our services. These changes will be reflected in this statement, so you should check here from time to time.