Mid-America Horticultural Trade Show (Mid Am) Privacy Policy

Mid Am is very aware of our customer's needs for security and privacy. The following document describes how we control you and your organization’s private information. In our privacy statement we will outline:

1. What personally identifiable information is collected.
2. What personally identifiable information third parties collect through the Web site.
3. What organization collects the information.
4. How Mid Am uses the information.
5. With whom Mid Am may share user information.
6. What choices are available to users regarding collection, use and distribution of the information.
7. What types of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under our control.
8. How users can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

Please read the following document carefully, and if you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact mail@MidAm.org.

1. Information Collected Mid Am is the sole owner of the information collected on Mid Am.org. We collect information from our users at several different points on our Web site.

• Registration
In order to use this Web site, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration a user is required to give contact information (such as name and email address). We use this information to contact the user about services on our site for which he has expressed interest. It is optional for the user to provide demographic and profile information, but it is encouraged so we can provide a more personalized experience on our site. This information is not sold or distributed in any other manner.

• User and Group Information
Other members may view information you provide about yourself and your organization, such as your name and email address. At any time you may opt out of allowing other users to view this information. By removing the information from the system, other users will not be able to see it. Mid Am does not store this information after you remove it; in order to enable it again you must re-enter the information. Organization pages include basic demographic information about type of institution, location, mailing address, contact phone number, and contact person. Organization can opt out of some of these pieces of information (contact phone number, contact person) by not providing the information.

• Credit Card Account Information
Mid Am does not disclose credit card account information provided by its members and customers. When members and customers choose to pay using their credit cards, Mid Am submits the information needed to obtain payment to the appropriate clearinghouse.

• Vendors Vendor
Partners are never given access to user pages, but are able to view organization pages.

2. Information Use

• Profile
We store information we collect through cookies, and log files and users to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users that details their viewing preferences. Consequently, collected information is tied to the users’ personally identifiable information to provide offers and improve the content of the site for the user. This profile is used to tailor a user's visit to our Web site. Your profile will only be shared as part of an aggregate form with no personal or identifiable information.

• Cookies
Cookies are files that contain information created by a web server that can be stored on a User's hard disk for use either during a particular session ("per-session" cookie) or for future use ("persistent" cookie). Mid Am uses cookies only to facilitate automated activity, store and track passwords, determine appropriate solicitations, and review navigation patterns. Cookies are not used to disseminate significant information about Users over the Internet or to analyze any information that Users have knowingly or unknowingly provided. When a user registers, the system will ask whether the user approves of the attachment of a cookie. Users may instruct their Internet browsers to opt out of accepting a "persistent" cookie and rather accept only a "per-session" cookie, but will need to login each time they visit the site to enjoy the full benefits. If the user declines the attachment of any cookie, the user may not have access to the full benefits of the website. Registration enables the site to better determine members' interest areas and provide the most relevant information.

3. Communications from the Site

• Vendor Mailings
While vendors are never given email addresses, they may request us to send occasional emails to our membership. You as a user have a right to opt in to receiving these emails, and may do so by updating a registration form. By selecting either “I would like to receive email from Mid Am about its events and other opportunities” or “I would like to receive email about special offers from Mid Am’s partners” will enable any further mailings. Alternately, you may send an email to mail@MidAm.org and a support representative will handle your request promptly.

• Special Offers and Updates
We send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information from Mid Am and a newsletter.

• Service Announcements
On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

• Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.

4. Sharing

• Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

• Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)
We share aggregated demographic information with our partners. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.

• Third Party Intermediaries
We use an outside shipping company to ship orders. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

• Links
This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that Mid Am is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.

5. Security
This Web site takes every precaution to protect our users' information. When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, their information is protected both online and off-line.

Should you ever need to provide sensitive information (such as a credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL.

While on a secure page, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when users are just "surfing." While we currently do not collect any of this type of information, it is possible we will provide services requiring this need in the future. While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user information off-line. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information.

Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our users' information is protected. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment. If users have any questions about the security at our Web site, users can send an email to mail@MidAm.org

6. Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users' personally identifiable information. This can usually be done on your profile or by emailing our Customer Support at mail@MidAm.org. Or, contact us via contact information listed below.

7. Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

If, however, we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our Web site notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice we will also email users, who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.

8. Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at mail@MidAm.org