Privacy & Cookies Policies

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last updated on December 20, 2021.

Thank you for visiting the aa.org website and reviewing our Privacy Policy. This policy explains how A.A.W.S. collects, uses, shares and protects personal information about you (meaning, information that can identify you personally or that can be used with other sources of information to identify you). This policy applies to personal information you submit to us and other information we collect about you when you interact with our website or with A.A.W.S., as described below. PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE WEBSITE OR PROVIDING INFORMATION TO A.A.W.S. THROUGH ANY OTHER MEANS.

Certain apps and activities may be subject to additional or different privacy notices, which will be shared in connection with the relevant apps and activities. Those notices are incorporated into this Privacy Policy by reference, but where they conflict with this policy, the supplemental notices control.

A.A.W.S. may modify this Privacy Policy at any time by posting an updated policy on this page. If A.A.W.S. makes any material changes to this Privacy Policy, it will indicate the date the Privacy Policy was last revised at the top of this page.


1. Personal Information We Collect

Information You Submit

You may submit certain personal information in connection with your use of our website, download and use of our apps, and participation in activities. For example, if you purchase products on our website, make a contribution or register for one of our events, you may be asked to enter your name, email, phone number, credit card information and address. You may also submit personal information when you request information, customer service or other assistance, sign up to receive Daily Reflections or newsletters or communications from us, submit your personal story, or otherwise communicate with us.

If you submit personal information on behalf of someone else, you must ensure and you have their authorization and consent to provide A.A.W.S. with their personal information.

We may receive personal information about you from our third party service providers, software or applications, who enable us to deliver our website, apps and online content to you, to process your orders and contributions, to manage events, and to provide other activities offered by A.A.W.S..

Our service providers are contractually bound to use your personal information only in accordance with our instructions and this Privacy Policy. With your consent, the service providers may use your personal information for other purposes as stated in that provider’s privacy policy.

Information Collected Automatically

In order to improve our website and to tailor our web services to your needs, A.A.W.S. may also automatically collect information about you when you use our website. The type of information

collected includes information about your computer, mobile device, or other device that you use to access the website or other application(s), which may also include, for example, IP address, geolocation information, unique device identifiers, browser type, browser language, and other transactional information. We may also collect information about your use of our website and application(s), which may include, for example, a reading history of the pages you visit on our website.

Information Collected during our Conferences and Events

We may take photographs at our conferences and events. (Every effort is made to protect the anonymity of A.A. members in all photographs or notices.) You may withdraw your consent at any time.

Information from Local Groups, Intergroup/Central Offices & Area Committees

Local groups, intergroup/central offices and area committees are not part of A.A.W.S., and do not share information about you with A.A.W.S., unless you expressly consent to be listed in our internal directory of contacts for the groups, intergroup/central offices or area committees, to be used for purposes of sending notifications and updates about the Fellowship.


2. Use of Cookies

Like many websites, A.A.W.S. may use cookies, which are files stored on your device that help A.A.W.S. identify users and optimize their website experience. Most browsers accept cookies automatically but allow you to disable them. We recommend that you leave cookies enabled so we can offer you a better experience. A.A.W.S. will not drop cookies or other tracking methods that are persistent and cannot be erased from your device. Your IP address, searches, and other usage information may be collected by Google analytics, but only to generate aggregated data to help us improve our website. You can disable the use of cookies on your browser. If you disable the use of cookies on your browser, you may not be able to access certain functions of our website. To learn more about our use of cookies, please consult our Cookie Policy.

Our third-party providers may occasionally drop cookies on your device. For example, A.A.W.S. also uses Google Ads to help third-party vendors serve their ads, based on your prior visits to our website or other websites. A.A.W.S. does not control these cookies, and these cookies fall outside the scope of this policy. To opt out of the personalized advertising from Google please visit https://www.google.com/settings/ads  or to opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info .


3. Our Use of Information

We may use your information to provide and improve our website, apps, orders and activities, and to personalize your experience with the website, apps, orders and activities. For example, we may use your personal information to:

• process and fulfill orders, contributions and other transactions;

• organize and coordinate your participation in events, including travel arrangements and special accommodations that you request;

• communicate with you about your account or information you have submitted, respond to your inquiries and requests for customer service or other assistance or information;

• send Daily Reflections, newsletters and other communications that you have requested;

• notify you about changes to our policies;

• optimize or improve our website, apps, content, products, events, activities, communications and operations;

• let you know about websites, apps, content, products, events, activities, promotions, features and functionality, that we think might be of interest to you; and

• detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our terms or policies, applicable law or regulations, or the rights of any persons, organizations or entities.


4. Retention of Information

We delete your personal information as soon as we no longer need it in connection with the purpose for which it was submitted or collected, unless we are required by law to retain it for a longer time and we only retain it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

When you cancel an order, contribution or registration for an event, or stop participating in an event, or using a product, application, feature, activity or promotion, the service provider who processed your personal information may not automatically delete your personal information they have previously received, if information is still needed for the purpose for which it was collected.

We encourage you to read the privacy notices of these service providers, organizations and companies to make sure that you understand how they may use the personal information you provide to them. You can engage directly with the service providers if you have any concerns about the way they process your personal information.


5. Disclosure of Information

We will only disclose your Personal Information to other organizations, companies and individuals as described in this Privacy Policy.

Service Providers

A.A.W.S. occasionally engages third-party contractors and agents that provide services to A.A.W.S., such as credit card processing, order fulfillment, marketing, database hosting, web analytics, and providing customer service. These entities may have access to Personal Information in order to perform their functions. We do not authorize them to use the information we share with them for any other purpose.

Legally Compelled Disclosures

A.A.W.S. may disclose personal information to government authorities and other third parties when compelled to do so by law, including, without limitation, in response to court orders and subpoenas.

Emergency Situations

A.A.W.S. may disclose personal information if required to do so or in the good-faith belief that such disclosure is necessary to (i) protect and defend its rights or property, the website or its

members, and (ii) act under emergency circumstances to protect the personal safety of A.A.W.S. personnel, its members, or others.

Affiliated Entities

We may disclose personal information to our parent, subsidiary and other affiliated organizations, including the General Service Board, and AA Grapevine.

Change of Ownership or Organizational Structure

We may transfer personal information to another entity in connection with any change of ownership, change of organizational structure or similar transaction, such as, for example, a transfer to an entity with which we have merged, that we have acquired or that has acquired

A.A.W.S. Under such circumstances, A.A.W.S. will require the transferee to agree to follow the practices described in this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time.

Limited Publications

If you participate as an A.A. speaker at one of our events, your first name, last initial, and limited biographical information will be included in the event programs, which are distributed to other event attendees and speakers, and copies retained in our archives. If you submit a personal story, memoir or correspondence and expressly consent to allow us to publish such, we may include

them (in whole or in part), including such personal information as you have authorized us to publish, on our website and in digital and print publications, in accordance with the consent granted. Copies of the published stories will be retained in our archives.


6. Security

We use appropriate technical and organizational measures to keep your personal information secure.

For example, payment card information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”)

technology and then encrypted into our payment gateway provider’s database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. Once a transaction is complete, your payment information will be deleted from our servers.

Though A.A.W.S. takes reasonable steps to protect the security and integrity of all personal information provided to A.A.W.S., due to the nature of the Internet, no transmission of data over the Internet is guaranteed to be completely secure. It may be possible for third parties to intercept or access transmissions or private communications unlawfully, including when you contact A.A.W.S. by email or a “contact us” or similar feature on the website. Accordingly, A.A.W.S. cannot guarantee that information, during transmission through the internet or while stored on its system or otherwise in its care, will be absolutely safe from intrusion by others, such as hackers.


7. Children

This website is not directed at children under the age of 13, and A.A.W.S. does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13 years of age. If you are under

13 years of age you should not use this website, and under no circumstance should you provide personally identifiable information to A.A.W.S.


8. Referrals

A.A.W.S. may refer you to other websites, organizations or entities, in which case this Privacy Policy may not apply to information that you submit or make available to such websites, organizations and companies. We encourage you to read the privacy notices of those websites, organizations and companies before submitting or making available any information to them.


9. Notice to Persons Outside of the United States

Please note that:

• the personally identifiable information you provide to A.A.W.S. will be transferred to the United States for processing in accordance with this Privacy Policy, for which we will obtain your express consent, to the extent required by law;

• you have the right to access your personal information upon request, to have it corrected as necessary, to have it deleted when you no longer want to use our website, download or use our app, participate in activities, or communicate with us, or to have it transmitted to anyone you choose;

• you also have the right to share your concerns if you have any about how we use and protect your information.

To exercise these rights, please contact our privacy office at privacy@aa.org.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may file a complaint with your national data protection authority.


10. Questions?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please use this website feedback form to contact us.

Cookies Policy

This Cookies Policy was last updated on December 20, 2021.

The A.A.W.S. websites make use of cookies to optimize and improve the functionality of our websites. As we want to ensure your privacy and improve the user-friendliness of your visit(s) to our website, we feel it is important that you know how and why we use cookies. This policy provides information about our use of cookies across all our platforms.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small and simple text files that are stored by your computer or mobile device when you use one of our websites or apps. Nearly all existing websites make use of cookies.

By using cookies we can make sure that, for example, it is easy for you to surf our website, that when you visit our websites, you are not presented with the same information repeatedly. Cookies also enable us to measure how our website is being used and how to further improve it.

Your options

We can only place cookies if your browsers allow the use of cookies. It is your choice to either accept or refuse the cookies and there is always the option to revoke your permission to place cookies.

If you do not want to receive cookies at all, you can adjust the settings of your Internet browser to fully block the use of cookies. In this case, some functionalities on our website will be deactivated. You can, however, consult the website for information. You can also adjust the settings of your Internet browser to be informed by your browser when a cookie is placed.

Third party cookies

Our website also allow the placement of third party cookies. In the event that other companies use cookies, the privacy and cookie policies of the relevant company apply.

Analytical cookies

We may use Google Analytics cookies to collect statistics of the use and users of our website. By measuring the use of (specific parts of) the website, we can improve our website for the benefit of the users. We further use these statistics to measure the amount of our visitors and the duration of the visit of each visitor, to determine how visitors navigate through the different pages on our website, to consider which sections of our website need adjustments/should be revised, and to optimize our website in general.

The Analytics cookies provide us with the following information/data that will be stored in our web analytics system:

  • The IP-address anonymized;
  • Traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached the site;
  • Which (sub)pages are visited on the website;
  • The duration of the visit/use of the website and its subpages. The following analytics cookies used on our websites are:
     

Name

Description

Expiration Time

_ga

Used to distinguish users.

2 years

_gid

Used to distinguish users.

24 hours

_gat

_dc_gtm_<property-id>

Used to throttle request rate.

1 minute

AMP_TOKEN

Used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. May also indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a

Client ID from AMP Client ID service

30 seconds to 1 year

_gac_<property-id>

Contains campaign related information for the user. If you have linked your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, Google

Ads website conversion tags will read this cookie unless you opt-out.

90 days


Browser settings

If you do not want our websites to store cookies on your computer you must adjust your browser settings. You will then be given a warning before cookies are placed. You could also adjust your settings to the extent that your browser refuses all cookies or only those from third parties. You can delete cookies that have been placed. Please note that you have to adjust the settings for each browser and computer you use.

Please note as well that we cannot guarantee that our website will function properly if you do not want to accept cookies. It could be that some functions of the site are lost or that you will not see certain pages at all. In addition, rejecting cookies on this website does not mean that you will not be shown any related ads on other platforms. You have the option to opt out of the personalized advertising from Google. Please visit https://www.google.com/settings/ads or to opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info.


Deleting cookies

Deleting cookies in Internet Explorer

Go to the menu Extra > Internet options > General. Under Browsing History, click on Delete. It could be that you do not want to delete everything. Just make sure that the Cookies box is ticked and click on Delete.

Deleting cookies in Firefox

Go to Extra > Options > Privacy. Click on Delete your recent history. Under Details you can indicate exactly what you want to delete. In any case tick the Cookies box. You can also indicate how old the cookies should be. Then click on All.

Deleting cookies in Chrome

Click on the icon with the 3 lines in the top right corner. Click on More tools > Clear browsing data. Make sure that the "Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data" box is ticked. You can also indicate how old the cookies should be. Then click on All.

Deleting cookies in Safari

Click on the radar icon in the top right corner. Click on Preferences, go to Privacy and click on Remove All Website Data. You can also click on Details and remove selected data.

 

Questions

If you have questions or complaints about the use of cookies by A.A.W.S., or would like to respond to our cookie policy, please contact A.A.W.S. by emailing us at privacy@aa.org.