Effective Date: 06/4/2025
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine “AASM” has implemented the following privacy policy to provide you with information regarding the collection and processing of your Personal Data when you interact with our websites (collectively, the “Site”) and our various services. This privacy policy is incorporated into and is a part of the Terms and Conditions of Use of our Site. This Privacy Policy includes the following entities that may collect and process your Personal Data:
When you see “AASM” throughout this privacy policy we are referring to all collective organizations stated above.
The AASM collects information, including Personal Data, through individual interactions with our Site. “Personal Data” means information that can reasonably identify an individual, or as otherwise defined by law. We do not knowingly collect, solicit or maintain Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register for or use our Site. In the event that we learn that we have collected Personal Data from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete that information from our database. Please contact us if you have any concerns. If you are a citizen or resident of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, the definition of Personal Data is defined under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and you have certain rights; therefore, please see the section below entitled “Legal Rights – EU.” Personal Data does not include information publicly available from government records or information excluded by applicable law. Personal Data also does not include Personal Data that has been deidentified, pseudonymized, anonymized, aggregated, and/or otherwise processed so as to be unidentifiable in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific individual (by reasonable means) without the use of additional information, and where such additional information is kept separate and under adequate security to prevent unauthorized re-identification of a specific individual such that one could not, using reasonable efforts, link such information back to a specific individual (collectively, all of the foregoing in this sentence being referred to as “De-Identified Personal Data”). The Personal Data we collect includes:
We collect Personal Data from the following sources:
Information You Provide Us.
The Personal Information we collect through our Websites, or from our distributors, resellers, franchisees, representatives, business partners, service providers affiliates, divisions, subsidiaries, exhibitors, and sponsors may include the following:
Information We Collect from Third Parties.
We may collect information that others provide about you when you use the Website, or obtain information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through the Website.
Other Sources.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may receive additional information about you, such as demographic data or fraud detection information, from third-party service providers and/or partners, and combine it with information we have about you. For example, we may receive background check results or fraud warnings from service providers like identity verification services for our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We may receive information about you and your activities on and off the Website through partnerships, or about your experiences and interactions from our partner ad networks.
Information Usage.
AASM uses Personal Data for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including to:
Provide Membership Services and Resources.
AASM may use and store such Personal Data in order to notify you of official AASM business; provide a product or service you requested; secure your membership status; analyze, evaluate, and improve member and prospective member needs and interests; track accreditation related activities; alert you of AASM news, activities, programs, services, and benefits; and for other legitimate and lawful business purposes. We also may use your Personal Information to manage donation history, transactions, registration, attendance, and management for events (e.g., webinars, conferences, meetings, distance learning, etc.).
For our Publications.
When you submit a manuscript to us or agree to review a manuscript for the an AASM publication, we will use your personal information to consider your submission and the information and Personal Data contained in your manuscript and cover letter to be confidential information and will treat it as such. We do send submissions, including all author names, to external peer reviewers but require that they keep the information confidential. We use the information and Personal Data to perform internal editorial review and external peer review of your manuscript. If we publish your manuscript, your name, institutional affiliation, and much of the material you submit with the manuscript will be made public.
For Administrative Purposes.
We may use your Personal Information de-identify, aggregate, anonymize, etc., your Personal Information or other data, or for internal purposes such as Websites or Services administration or internal audits and reviews, and use of identity-verification technologies.
For Legal Reasons.
To comply with applicable law(s) (e.g., to comply with a search warrant, subpoena or court order) or to carry out professional ethics/conduct investigations.
Other.
We may use your Personal Information in any other way we may describe and for which we obtain your consent when you provide the information.
We may disclose your Personal Data to third parties for the purpose of providing or improving the services to you. We may disclose your Personal Data to third-party service providers which perform services on our behalf (“Service Providers”). This includes, without limitation, Service Providers which provide services relating to: outbound and/or inbound communications, data analysis, credit checks, screening checks, collection services, marketing assistance, managing customer information, creating, hosting, and/or providing customer or support services on our behalf, fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and email, removing repetitive information from customer lists, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links), processing credit card payments, or managing our conferences and other events. These Service Providers may have access to your Personal Data in order to provide these services to us or on our behalf. If we engage Service Providers for any of the foregoing, use of your Personal Data will be bound by obligations of confidentiality and their use of Personal Data will be restricted to providing their services to us. We may store Personal Data in locations outside our direct control (for instance, on servers or databases located or co-located with hosting Service Providers). We disclose your information with analytics service providers such as Google. Google may combine your browsing information, including information from your use of our website, to generate interest-based advertisements. We may transfer Personal Data to a third party in the event of a merger, transfer of ownership or assets, bankruptcy, or other reorganization. We transfer the information that we collect to our related affiliates acting on our behalf for the purposes described in this privacy policy. We may share your Personal Data to:
This Site uses the Google AdWords remarketing service to advertise on third party websites (including Google) to previous visitors to our site. It could mean that we advertise to previous visitors who haven’t completed a task on our site, for example using the contact form to make an enquiry. This could be in the form of an advertisement on the Google search results page, or a site in the Google Display Network. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the AASM website. Any data collected will be used in accordance with this privacy policy and Google’s privacy policy. Users may opt out of this service through the Google’s Ads Settings or Ad Settings mobile resource.
Cookies are pieces of stored information used: to provide smoother navigation throughout the Site, such as a saved password; to identify user trends, such as page views; and for other internal purposes, such as assessing the effectiveness of the Site. You have the option of using our CookieBot tools or setting your computer to disable cookies or to alert you when cookies are being used. If you choose to disable cookies, please be aware that portions of the Site may not function properly.
We incorporate “pixels” provided by Meta Platforms, Inc. on our Site. This enables us to track user behavior after a user clicks on a Facebook ad and is redirected to our Site. By doing so, we can assess the effectiveness of Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes and sometimes retarget certain users. Please note that the data collected through this process remains anonymous to us, meaning we do not have access to Personal Data of individual users. However, Facebook stores and processes this data. Therefore, we are providing you with this information based on our current understanding. It is important to be aware that Facebook may associate this information with your Facebook account and utilize it for its own promotional activities, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage Policy available here. You have the option to authorize Facebook and its partners to display advertisements on and off Facebook (see here). Additionally, a cookie may be stored on your computer for these purposes.
We may use tiny images known as clear GIFs to track behavior of users, including statistics on who opens our emails. Our servers (or those of our service providers) automatically record certain log file information reported from your browser when you access the Site. These server logs may include information such as which pages of the Site you visited, your internet protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, and other information on how you interact with the Site. These log files are generally deleted periodically.
Web browsers may allow you to send a “Do Not Track” request with your browsing traffic, which would enable anonymous browsing of the Site. We honor Do Not Track requests from web browsers. However, anonymous browsing may prevent us from providing you with full functionality of the Site.
Online registration and information, such as credit card numbers, will be secured using a commercially accepted method of encryption. However, while we employ reasonable security measures to protect your Personal Data, please be aware that no method of electronic transmission is completely infallible, and we cannot guarantee its absolute safety. If you become aware of any breach of Site security, please contact us immediately.
This privacy policy applies only to AASM. We do not control the privacy practices or the content of any of our business partners, advertisers, sponsors, or other third parties we link to from our Site. AASM does not endorse, approve, or certify content from third parties, and we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, or timeliness of the information they provide. You should check the applicable privacy policy of the website sponsor when linking to other websites.
Using our Site indicates your acceptance of our data collection and privacy practices. We may update or change this privacy policy from time to time. We will post the changes on our Site and will indicate the effective date of the changes. Your continued use of our Site after the changes are effective constitutes your acceptance of the privacy policy.
Certain states in the U.S., including Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Oregon provide (now or in the future) their state residents with rights related to their Personal Data. Although some of these rights apply generally, certain rights will only apply to limited individuals or circumstances. To the extent that these laws apply, you may exercise the following rights:
To exercise any of your privacy rights, please contact us at the information provided in the privacy policy. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request. If we deny your rights request, you may have the right to request an appeal of our decision. To initiate an appeal, follow the instructions provided in the communication denying your request, or contact us at the information provided in this privacy policy. You have the right to not experience discrimination from us for exercising the rights listed in this section. What we mean by discrimination is denying you access to our Site or limiting the quality of our Site. However, limiting use of, or deleting, your Personal Data may restrict the purposes or uses that rely on that information.
As referenced through this privacy policy, those residing in the EU, UK, and Switzerland may benefit from a number of rights in relation to your information that we process. Some rights apply only in certain limited cases, depending on your location. To the extent that these laws apply, you may exercise the following rights:
We generally process Personal Data of those residing in the European Union on the legal basis of AASM’s legitimate interests in performing the function or service you requested. Where appropriate, we may rely on alternate legal bases, such as your consent to certain types of processing. Where we process your Personal Data on the basis of consent, we will clearly obtain your opt-in consent. Where you have provided consent to certain data processing, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us. A withdrawal of consent will not affect the validity of our use of your Personal Data up until the point you have withdrawn your consent.
Personal Data AASM collects about you is transferred, processed, and accessed by us in the United States, or another country where we or our service providers operate. Please be aware your information may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state or country where privacy laws may differ from and may not be as protective as those where you live. If you are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information to a country or jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, as disclosed in this privacy policy.
You may contact the AASM Data Protection Officer by email or mail to update your Personal Data or to opt in to or opt out of any service at any time. We will provide opt-in and opt-out opportunities as applicable to the service or product being offered.
The AASM has appointed a Data Protection Officer who is responsible for questions relating to GDPR privacy rights and this privacy policy. For questions or to exercise your privacy rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer.
Mailing Address
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
2510 N. Frontage Rd.
Darien, IL 60561
Email: inquiries@aasm.org Data Protection Officer
Mailing Address
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
2510 N. Frontage Rd.
Darien, IL 60561
Attn: Ray Anthonijsz
Email: ranthonijsz@aasm.org