Texas Water Quality Association (TWQA)

Privacy Policy Including Terms & Conditions

Introduction

The Texas Water Quality Association (TWQA) acknowledges and respects the privacy of its members, non-members, attendees, sponsors, exhibitors and others interested in the trade association industry who visit the TWQA website. This Policy explains how the Texas Water Quality Association (TWQA) collects and processes your Personal Data in compliance with applicable U.S. Federal and State laws as well as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Canadian Anti-Spam Act (CASL).

TWQA Data Privacy Contact

For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”), the Data Controller for the TWQA, registered as an Association in the State of Texas at 2109 Luna Rd., Suite 100, Carrollton, TX 75006-6437, and doing business at the TWQA Administrative Office at 2409 SE Dixie Hwy, Stuart, FL 34996.

The TWQA Executive Director, Janet L. Jaworski, is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Notice for the purposes of the GDPR.

If you have any questions or concerns about this Notice, please contact TWQA by phone at 361-573-6707, email executivedirector@twqa.org or mail to 2109 Luna Rd., Suite 100, Carrollton, TX 75006-6437.

How TWQA uses Your Personal Data

TWQA will only process your Personal Data, including sharing it with third parties, where:

  1. You have provided your consent which can be withdrawn at any time
  2. The processing is necessary for the performance of a transaction to which you are a party
  3. TWQA is required by law
  4. Processing is required to protect your interests or those of another person, or
  5. Processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate commercial interests, except where such interests are overridden by your rights and interests.

Your Personal Data Collected by TWQA

“Personal Data” is any information that enables us to identify you, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier such as your name, identification number, location data, online identifier or one or more factors specific to your physical, physiological, or social identity.

TWQA may collect and process the following Personal Data:

  • Contact information, which you provide when corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you participate in discussion boards or other social media functions on our TWQA website and when you report a problem with our TWQA website. The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address, phone number, financial information and/or credit card information.
  • Membership information, about your membership including your name, contact details such as address, phone number and email address (business or personal), age, job title, government identification numbers (e.g. Operator License, PE License, etc.), year of admission and any other information related to your membership. Membership information may be provided by you during the registration process, or by your employer on your behalf.
  • Payment information, including financial information such as credit/debit card and account numbers used to register or renew your membership.
  • Purchase information, including purchases made by members & non-members of attendee, exhibitor, sponsorship registration and event participation, material orders, newsletter, website or advertisements either in-person or via our website. Purchase information will include financial information as well as information concerning the content and time of the purchase.
  • Disciplinary information, relating to ethics/disciplinary programs in which complaints against members are adjudicated, with the result being possible suspension/expulsion from membership. This may include extensive information about a member’s business or professional activities, including employment information, and similar information relating to other individuals involved in the investigation, though would usually not include financial information.
  • Certification information, relating to certification programs, in which members are granted certification if they meet specified educational/employment experience requirements and/or pass an exam. This may include extensive information about the experience/performance of those certified or accredited. Where the certification concerns an institution or business, this may include similar information identifying employees and other members of staff including volunteers.

Website and other Social Media Account Visit(s)

Each time you use our website, the current version of this Notice will apply. This Notice is applicable to all TWQA website visitors, registered users, and all other users of our website.

By visiting twqa.org or related social media forums (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), you acknowledge that you have read and understood the processes and policies referred to in this Notice.

With regard to each of your visits to our website, TWQA automatically collects the following:

  • Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer or device to the Internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
  • Information about your visit, including pages you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, and any phone number used to call our customer service number; and
  • Location information
    • IP addresses
    • Browser type and plug-in details
    • Device type (e.g., desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, etc.)
    • Operating system
    • Local time zone

TWQA may use non-Personal Data for various business purposes such as providing customer service, fraud prevention, market research, and improving our website. Please check your web browser if you want to learn what information your browser sends or how to change your settings.

Personal Data TWQA Collects from Others

TWQA may receive information about you from publicly available and third-party databases or services that provide information about business people that TWQA believes will help us identify and provide products and services that may be of interest to you. TWQA will obtain your consent before contacting you if required by the law of the country in which you are located.

TWQA will combine this information with the information you give to us and information TWQA collects about you. TWQA will use this information and the combined Personal Data for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information TWQA receives).

Personal Data that You Give TWQA

TWQA may use Personal Data that you provide directly to us for the following purposes:

  • To carry out our obligations arising from your membership, or any other contract entered into between you and TWQA & to provide you with the information, products and membership services, or to notify you about changes to TWQA’s membership service;
  • To organize events that you have purchased or registered for, and to provide you with information, and other materials, relating to the content of the event, the speakers, sponsors and other attendees;
  • To provide our newsletter and other publications;
  • To provide you with information about other events, products and services TWQA offers that are similar to those that you have already purchased, provided you have not requested to not receive the information;
  • To provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with information about events, products or services TWQA feels may interest you;
  • To ensure that content from our website is presented most effectively for you and your computer;
  • To transfer your information as part of a merger or formation of a regional affiliate of the association.

Personal Data that TWQA Shares and Who can Access

TWQA may share your Personal Data for the purposes described in this Notice with:

  • A member, attendee, speaker, moderator, sponsor, exhibitor of TWQA;
  • Partners, suppliers and sub-contractors, for the performance of obligations arising from your membership, event registration, or any other contract TWQA enters into with them or you or to provide you with the information, products and membership services that you request from us;
  • Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimization of our website;
  • Trusted third-party companies and individuals to help us provide, analyze, and improve the TWQA website and our membership services (including but not limited to data storage, maintenance services, database management, web analytics and payment processing);
  • Your payment information is only stored on our servers while we are processing your membership dues or event registration (approximately 1-week turnaround), and then we remove it. While on our servers, both your credit card number and CVV code are encrypted and are never accessible except via SSL protected internal website administration pages;
  • TWQA uses Authorize.net, a 3rd party payment gateway service, for processing online payments. All data transmissions between Authorize.net and our websites are encrypted via SSL technology;
  • If TWQA or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case Personal Data held by it will be one of the transferred assets.

TWQA will only transfer your Personal Data to trusted third parties who provide sufficient guarantees in respect of the technical and organizational security measures governing the processing to be carried out and who can demonstrate a commitment to compliance with those measures.

Personal Data Security

Although TWQA has security measures to help protect your Personal Data against loss, misuse or unauthorized disclosure, TWQA cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted to us over the internet.

All information you provide to TWQA is stored on secure servers.

Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology.

Personal Data is Not Sold

TWQA will never sell your Personal Data to third parties.

Personal Data Retention and Storage

TWQA will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with access to our website. TWQA will store your Personal Data, in a form which permits us to identify you, for no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which the Personal Data is processed. TWQA may retain and use your Personal Data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements and rights, or if it is not technically reasonably feasible to remove it (if questions, refer within to TWQA’s Document Retention and Destruction Policy). Consistent with these requirements, TWQA will try to delete your Personal Data quickly upon request.

The Personal Data that you provide to us is generally stored on servers located in the United States. If you are located in another jurisdiction, you should be aware that once your Personal Data is submitted through our website, it will be transferred to our servers in the United States. The United States currently does not have uniform data protection laws in place. TWQA maintains one or more databases to store your Personal Data and may keep such information indefinitely.

Cookies and Do Not Track Policy

A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time an TWQA member logs in to our Members Only section. Only logged in TWQA members are assigned cookies which hold their logged in status and username. TWQA does not assign cookies to non-logged in website visitors.

Children Under 13 Privacy Policy

Our TWQA website is not directed to children under the age of 13, if you are not 13 years or older, it is recommended to not use our TWQA website. TWQA does not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under the age of 13. If TWQA learns that Personal Data of persons less than 13 years-of-age has been collected through our website, TWQA will take the appropriate steps to delete this information. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child, or a minor under the age of 13 has posted, submitted or otherwise communicated Personal Data to our website without your consent, then you may alert us at executivedirector@twqa.org so that TWQA may take appropriate action to remove the minor’s Personal Data from our systems.

Links to Third Party TWQA Websites and Services

Our TWQA website may contain links to third party website, applications and services not operated by us. These links are provided as a service and do not imply any endorsement by us of the activities or content of these other websites, applications or services nor any association with their operators. TWQA is not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of any third-party including websites or services directly linked to our service. TWQA encourages you to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites that you link from the TWQA Website.

Texas Rights (for Texas Residents)

Business and Commerce Code, Title 11, Subtitle B, Chapter 521 of the Texas Civil Code requires select businesses to disclose policies relating to the sharing of certain categories of your Personal Data with third parties. If you reside in Texas and have provided your Personal Data to TWQA, you may request information about our disclosures of certain categories of Personal Data to third parties for direct marketing purposes, refer to Personal Data Correction and Removal Section.

Canadian Rights (for Canadian Residents)

TWQA has implemented procedures to be in full compliance with Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL). You have the right to ask us not to send you electronic messages (i.e. email, texts). You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by updating your Personal Data preferences, refer to Personal Data Correction and Removal Section.

European Rights (for European Residents)

You have the right to ask us not to process your Personal Data for marketing purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by updating your Personal Data preferences, refer to Personal Data Correction and Removal Section.

TWQA is headquartered in the United States. Your Personal Data may be accessed by us or transferred to us in the United States or to our affiliates, partners, merchants, or service providers who are located worldwide. If you are visiting our website from outside the United States, be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located, and our central database is operated. By using our Service, you consent to any transfer of this information.

Under the European data protection law, in certain circumstances, you have the right to:

  • Request access to your Personal Data. You may have the right to request access to any Personal Data TWQA holds about you as well as related information, including for the purposes of processing the Personal Data, the recipients or categories of recipients with whom the Personal Data has been shared, where possible, the period for which the Personal Data will be stored, the source of the Personal Data, and the existence of any automated decision making;
  • Request correction of your Personal Data. You may have the right to obtain without undue delay the rectification of any inaccurate Personal Data TWQA holds about you;
  • Request erasure of your Personal Data. You may have the right to request that Personal Data held about you is deleted;
  • Object to processing of your Personal Data. You may have the right to prevent or restrict processing of your Personal Data;
  • Request restriction of processing your Personal Data Request transfer of your Personal Data. You may have the right to request transfer of Personal Data directly to a third party where this is technically feasible;
  • Withdraw your consent.

In addition, where you believe that TWQA has not complied with its obligations under this Notice or European law, you have the right to make a complaint to an EU Data Protection Authority, such as the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

Copyright

  • The text, logos, and images on TWQA’s website are protected under the copyright laws of the United States, as well as other countries. Any downloading, reproduction or further distribution of any original material appearing on this website without prior written permission of TWQA is strictly prohibited.
  • Requests to reprint TWQA published material should be in written form and should specifically state the item(s) to be reprinted, the purpose, and distribution of the reprints. Requests for permission to reprint materials should be referred to executivedirector@twqa.org.

Personal Data and Email, Marketing Messages/Communications – Correction or Removal

Such requests must be submitted to one of the following: executivedirector@twqa.org or TWQA;
Attn: Janet L. Jaworski, Re: Privacy Right Preferences
2109 Luna Rd., Suite 100, Carrollton, TX 75006-6437.

Personal Data Corrections or Removal:

Email, Marketing Messages/Communications Corrections or Removal:

Changes to this Notice

If TWQA makes any material changes to this Notice or the way TWQA uses, shares or collects personal Data, TWQA will notify you by revising the “TWQA Board Approved Date” at the bottom of this Notice, prominently posting an announcement of the changes on our TWQA website, or sending an email to the email address you most recently provided us (unless TWQA does not have such an email address) prior to the new policy taking effect. Any changes TWQA makes to this Notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notification sent to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to this Notice. TWQA Board Approved on 1/12/2024.