Who we are
Our website address is: https://www.sases.org/
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Contact forms / subscription information
We use the Subscription Information that we collect generally to track traffic through the Site. Additionally, we use this Subscription Information to:
Communicate with you;
Screen our traffic for potential risk or fraud;
Provide you with information or advertising relating to our services.
We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our members browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our information campaigns).
Advertising
As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted society information or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page at http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.
This information is usually congress, course or similar information.
We do not have any paid third party advertisements on the site.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select "Remember Me", your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Sharing your personal information
We share your Personal Information with third parties that provide analytical services to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. We use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site–you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
We do NOT share or sell any information to third parties for advertising or sales purposes.
Finally, we may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.
As SASES and HIG (Hernia Interest Group) are affiliated to ASSA (Association of Surgeons of South Africa), FOSAS (Federation of South African Surgeons) and share secretarial services, certain information may be available to these other societies.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Do Not Track
Please note that we do not alter our site’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser
Your rights
If you are a European resident, you have the right to access personal information we hold about you and to ask that your personal information be corrected, updated, or deleted. If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us through the contact information below.
Additionally, if you are a European resident we note that we are processing your information in order to fulfil contracts we might have with you or otherwise to pursue our legitimate society interests (not for profit society) listed above. Additionally, please note that your information will be transferred outside of Europe, including to South Africa.
Minors
The Site is not intended for individuals under the age of 18. The site does not contain offensive material but could contain images related to medical or surgical procedures.
Minors are not permitted to register as members. If a minor were to attempt to register, all their information would be deleted as soon as we become aware of this.
Changes
We may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.
Contact us
For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by e-mail at info(at)sases.org or by mail using the details provided below: http://sases.org/contact-us/