Privacy Notice

EFFECTIVE DATE: September 5, 2023

When you interact with the ABNS Online Portal, our website, other digital platforms operated by or on behalf of ABNS and its affiliates (collectively “ABNS”) that link to this Privacy Notice, or our electronic communications (collectively, the “Services”), we may collect certain personal data about you. This Privacy Notice provides you with information about our processing of such information and the rights you may have.

1. Personal Data We Collect and How We Use It

The personal data we process is either (1) provided directly by you to ABNS or to the entity that interacts with us on your behalf (e.g., when an institution purchases a Key for you); (2) collected automatically when you access the Services; or (3) provided by third parties.

1.1. Personal Data You Provide to Us on a Voluntary Basis

You may choose to provide personal data, such as your name and contact information, when you request information from us or update your profile information. If you choose not to provide us with your personal data, you may not be able to access some of our Services and may be unable to obtain or maintain board certification, take an ABNS course online or obtain a course completion card.

Enrollment in one of our online courses: When enrolling in one of our online courses and to receive a course completion card, you will be asked to provide the ABNS with your name, contact details, professional category and specialty, and course in which you are enrolling. This personal data is processed for managing our training courses and to provide you with the appropriate training material and course completion certificate.

You may provide information in association with your certification, including but not limited to your username and password, and clinical information.

You also may submit patient information to us in connection with your seeking or maintaining board certification. The patient information or protected health information will be handled in accordance with our agreement with you and/or your institution.

1.2. Personal Data We Collect Automatically

Like many companies, ABNS collects log files regarding user interactions with the Services, and we use web cookies and similar technologies to provide the Services, to learn about how people interact with the Services, to remember your preferences, and to improve and personalize the Services.

1.3 Personal Data We May Obtain from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from patients, institutions, employers, or social media platforms.

2. Personal Data We Share

We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise disclose personal data about you, except as described in this Privacy Notice. Otherwise, we will do so only with your explicit consent.

We may share your personal data with our affiliates, Training Entities, LMS Providers, and accreditation organizations for the specific purposes described in this privacy notice. The word Training Entities means organizations, individuals, instructors, training centers or training centers that utilize ABNS courses as part of their training activities or reseller or distributors of Keys. Your personal data would only be shared with the Training Entity through which you obtained your Key or completed the lab component of any course for the purpose of administering the course and verifying course completion.

LMS Providers are third parties that operate learning management systems for the purchase and administration of Keys. We may share your personal data with the LMS Provider through which you obtained your Key for purposes of course administration and verification of course completion.

We may also share your personal data with service providers we have retained to perform various services on our behalf. These service providers are contractually required to act only on our instructions and to maintain an appropriate level of data protection and data security. Service providers are not authorized by us to use the data for their own purposes or to disclose the data to third parties except if necessary to perform services or functions for ABNS or to comply with legal requirements. For example, service providers are not authorized by ABNS to use the personal data for their own marketing purposes.

We may disclose data about you (i) if we are required to do so by law or pursuant to a Court order, (ii) in response to a legitimate request from law enforcement or other entities, or (iii) as we deem reasonably necessary to protect the rights of you, ABNS, or others. We also reserve the right to transfer any data we have about you in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will make reasonable efforts to try to require that the transferee uses personal data you have provided through this Site in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Notice. If you do not want the transferee to further process your personal data in such case, you should contact the transferee.

We disclose your name, certification status, and contact information online and make such information available upon request.

And we may disclose personal data based on your consent.

3. Your Rights and Choices

Depending upon your place of residence, you may have the right to receive information about the personal data about you that ABNS processes, to request deletion of such information, to correct such information, to object to the processing of such information for certain purposes, or to register a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To inquire about or exercise such rights, please contact ABNS via the contact information provided below in the “How to Contact Us” section.

You can, at any time, and free of charge, opt out of receiving newsletters and promotional e-mails from us by editing your registration to opt out of marketing, by clicking on the unsubscribe link included in our e-mails, or by contacting us via “How to Contact Us” Section.

If ABNS processes personal data based on your consent, you may revoke this consent at any time by using the contact information provided below in the “How to Contact Us” section here.

4. International Processing

ABNS mainly collects, processes and uses your personal data within the United States of America (the “U.S.”). However, we may from time to time transfer your personal data to countries which do not provide for an adequate level of data protection for the purposes of administration of our site, verifying continuing education credits, and for administrative purposes by the Training Center or LMS Provider.

When transferring your personal data across borders, we take steps to ensure compliance with applicable data protection laws, including, where applicable, leveraging standard contractual clauses approved by relevant authorities.

If you are based in the EU or EEA and interact with us, all the information above is applicable to you as well. In addition:

ABNS is the controller of the processing of personal data in relation to conducting our activity. We process your personal data:

• on the basis of your consent when you subscribe to our newsletters and when you request to be included among our contacts for future events.
• on the basis of necessity to enter into a contract or for the performance of a contract when you provide us information for certification or other purposes.
• on the basis of our legitimate interests to engage with relevant stakeholders to promote our operations and to secure and maintain our Services and operations.

5. Records Retention

ABNS retains personal data for as long as needed to fulfill the purposes for which they were collected, unless otherwise provided by law. When the personal data is no longer necessary to meet the purposes for which it was collected, it is deleted, blocked, or anonymized.

6. Security

We maintain administrative, personnel, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, misuse, and all other unlawful forms of processing of the personal data in our possession.

7. Updates to This Privacy Notice

We may change or update portions of this Privacy Notice at any time and without prior notice to you. Please check from time to time so you are aware of any changes or updates to the Privacy Notice.

8. How to Contact Us

The entity responsible for the collection and processing of personal data under this Privacy Notice is:

The American Board of Neurological Surgery
2766 Commerce Drive NW, Suite B
Rochester, MN 55901

If you would like to (1) know more about the personal data we process about you; (2) access, correct, block or delete the personal data we process about you; (3) withdraw any consent you may have previously given; (4) require us to stop sending newsletters or promotional material; and (5) ask any questions you may have about our privacy practices, please contact us by emailing: abns@abns.org