Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the AAUP Foundation are committed to keeping any and all information collected from or about individuals that visit our websites and make use of our online facilities and services accurate, confidential, secure and private. This Privacy Policy applies only to the websites at www.aaup.org and www.aaupfoundation.org, and related interactions with those sites, and it shall govern any and all data collection and usage thereof. It does not apply to information we collect and maintain through other means.

It is highly recommended that you review the privacy policies and statements of any website you choose to use as a means to better understand the way in which websites garner, make use of, and share information collected.

SPECIAL ALERT TO NON-UNITED STATES USERS. Our servers are located in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, be aware that the information you provide us may be transferred to the United States and the law applicable to the protection of user information in the United States may be different from the laws of your jurisdiction. By using our websites or providing us with information through them, you consent to this transfer and to the collection, storage, processing and use of your information in the United States as described in the privacy policy and terms of use.

You may visit the portions of these websites that do not require registration without actively providing any personal information. However, we may collect any information provided by your web browser, including the IP address assigned to your computer when you access the Internet (including any information available through reverse-DNS lookup of that IP address, such as the domain name of your internet service provider), the address of the previous website that you visited, if you linked to one of our sites from another website, the address of the next website that you visit, if you visit it from a link on our website, as well as your browser type, browser language, type of operating system, the date and time of your query and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser. We may also collect information obtained from images embedded in HTML-format email or web pages (i.e., “web bugs” or “pixel tags”) to link email with your subsequent interactions on our website or to track your interactions among the websites we administer and those of third parties. If you view any content on these websites through an RSS feed, we may collect information obtained through your RSS reader.

These websites use cookies to identify your computer and browser, so that it can recognize that you are the same user from page to page. A cookie is a piece of data stored temporarily or persistently on your hard drive containing information we specify, which enables us to provide a consistent user experience and collect usage data about your visit, including the pages visited, items searched for and any other interactions you have with these websites. If you are logged in, we may link any such cookies (and the associated usage data) with the registration information you have provided and the other information we collect from you. We may permit third-party advertisers and content providers on these websites to set separate cookies, which shall be governed by such third parties’ privacy policies.

Portions of certain of these websites require registration, including those that involve membership application, meeting registration, and information requests. To register, you may be asked to provide a variety of information, including your name, email address and type (home or work), and address. To join or renew as a member, we also require your home address, institutional affiliation, and employment status (full-time, part-time, etc.)

We shall endeavor and shall take every precaution to maintain adequate physical, procedural and technical security with respect to our offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure or modification of the very personal information under our control.

Any of the information we collect from you as described above may be used for the following purposes:

• To provide membership or other services to you as part of our mission, including, but not limited to, the mailing of newsletters, Academe, and ballots for AAUP elections
• To track usage of these websites and to review patterns of user interaction
• To identify and resolve problems with the websites
• To investigate suspected illegal activity or improper use of our websites

We may distribute the information we collect from you to our affiliates, cooperating organizations and third-party vendors authorized by us to help us carry out our mission. We may use the information we collect from you to notify you of new services, benefits, and special offers. All users and/or visitors to our websites have the option to discontinue receiving email communications from us. You may opt out of mailings other than those related to AAUP elections. To discontinue or unsubscribe, please send an email stating that you wish to unsubscribe to communications@aaup.org.

The AAUP also discloses membership information to local leaders as part of organizing or membership drives.

These websites contain links to other sites run by outside people and organizations. Our linking to such sites is merely a reference, and does not imply any endorsement or control of those sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such sites. Check the privacy policy of any such website before you reveal any personal information.

Except for the uses outlined above, we will release information you provide without prior notice to you only if required to do so in accordance with applicable laws and/or in a good faith belief that such action is deemed necessary or is required by law.

When you make comments on articles or participate in any other community activities on these websites, your user name, your comments, and any other information you may designate will be retained and displayed to other users. To the extent that we use any third-party authentication service in connection with comments or other community content, we may retain and display to other users the user name provided by such service. Your participation by leaving comments or participating in other community features of these websites is governed by our Commenting Policy. In the event that we migrate any of our community activities to another organization or website, we may also transfer the information you have provided in connection with your participation, so that it may be displayed by the new organization or on the new website.

This privacy policy is effective immediately. By joining our organization or using these websites, you consent to the collection, use, and sharing of personal information as we have described in this privacy policy. We retain the right to amend or otherwise update this privacy policy at any time for any reason. If we amend or update this privacy policy, we will post the changes online at these websites so that you are always aware of our current practices.

This privacy notice also provides mandatory information as required under Articles 13 and 14 of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regarding the transparency of personal data processing for anyone residing or browsing in a European Union country (“EU”). As a potential EU data subject, you may have rights under the GDPR. The AAUP will always fully respect your rights regarding the processing of your personal data. These are:

• The right to be informed; this means anyone processing your personal data must make clear what they are processing, why, and who else the data may be passed to.
• The right of access; this is your right to see what data is held about you by a person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data.
• The right to rectification; the right to have your data corrected or amended if what is held is incorrect in some way.
• The right to erasure; under certain circumstances you can ask for your personal data to be deleted. This is also called ‘the Right to be Forgotten.’ This would apply if the personal data is no longer required for the purposes it was collected for, or your consent for the processing of that data has been withdrawn, or the personal data has been unlawfully processed.
• The right to restrict processing; this gives the potential EU data subject the right to ask for a temporary halt to processing of personal data, such as in the case where a dispute or legal case has to be concluded, or the data is being corrected.
• The right to data portability; a potential EU data subject has the right to ask for any data supplied directly to a person, public authority, agency or other body by him or her, to be provided in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
• The right to object; the potential EU data subject has the right to object to further processing of their data which is inconsistent with the primary purpose for which it was collected, including profiling, automation, and direct marketing.
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling; potential EU data subjects have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing.

If you have questions or concerns regarding the privacy policy related to our websites, please feel free to contact us at legal.dept@aaup.org or (202) 737-5900.

Terms of Use

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the AAUP Foundation make these websites and the information and services contained therein in furtherance of their missions. While we make every effort to present accurate and reliable information on these sites, we do not endorse, approve, or certify such information, nor do we guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, or timeliness of such information. Use of such information is voluntary, and reliance on it should be undertaken only after an independent review.

Unless otherwise indicated, the materials displayed on our sites are the property of the American Association of University Professors, the AAUP Foundation, our affiliates, our members, third-party providers, or their respective licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. Any such materials may be displayed solely for your personal, non-commercial use or redistributed for non-commercial purposes (research, teaching, private study, activism, etc.), but all materials you redistribute from one of our sites must attribute the content to that site.

If you have a good-faith belief that content available on these websites infringes one or more of your copyrights, please notify us by sending an appropriate notice pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the following address: AAUP Legal Office, 555 New Jersey Ave NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20001; legal.dept@aaup.org.

Information on these websites is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that service will be uninterrupted or error free. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you.

Information on these websites may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Information may be changed or updated without notice. We may also make improvements and/or changes in the products and/or the programs described in this information at any time without notice.

 It is your responsibility to take the necessary precautions to ensure that whatever you select for your use is free of viruses, worms, trojan horses, and other potentially destructive or intrusive items. In no event will we be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, special, or other damages resulting from the use of these websites or of any hyperlinked website, including, and without limitation, any lost profits, business interruption, loss of data or other information, or otherwise, even if we are expressly advised of the possibility of damages.