Privacy Policy

Last Updated: May 2021

The Transcultural Nursing Society (“TCNS”) respects you and understands how important the privacy of your personal information is to you. We are committed to honoring your privacy. TCNS is committed to developing or utilizing technology that gives you the most powerful and secure online experience. Personal information collected by TCNS will only be used to conduct business with its customers, will not be sold, and will not be shared with others except as identified below.   Use of our website, application forms and registrations for event indicates understanding and agreement with this policy.  

Reference to “TCNS” means “The Transcultural Nursing Society” and includes any committee/division that TCNS controls. Reference to “we” or “our” or “site” means TCNS. We may share information among committees/subsidiaries/SAGE Publication/Editorial Office of TCNS and the respective sites we own or control, but it is always protected under the terms of this Privacy Policy.

This privacy statement applies to all TCNS-owned Web sites, domains, mobile site, or “app” (the “Site”). TCNS has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to your privacy. You are encouraged to read the privacy policy at each Web site you visit after you leave any TCNS-owned Web sites and domains. TCNS is not responsible for how other Web sites treat your privacy once you leave our site.

You can visit our corporate site at www.TCNS.org to learn more about TCNS or to obtain contact information.

The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for this Website: www.TCNS.org

What Information Do We Collect?

We may collect and store information that you have voluntarily provided to us. During the various application processes, you will be asked to provide us with identifying information such as your name, address, phone, fax, email address, license number, state in which you are licensed, specialty, profession, date of birth,  billing information, and credit card information. In addition to personally identifiable information, TCNS also collects aggregated non-personal identifiable information such as demographics.

Information that is required is clearly labeled as such, as is information that is optional and may be given at your discretion.

When you browse our Web site, you do so anonymously.

Access to your Personal Information

We will provide you with the means to ensure that your personal information is correct and current. You may review and update this information at any time by contacting the TCNS by email/phone/letter or through our website www.tcns.org . To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity, such as name/address/email/phone, before granting access to your data.

Correction of Information We Have About You

If you believe that there are errors in the information associated with your account, or updates need to be made, you may change your personal information any time.  Applicants should contact TCNS at staff@tcns.org .    

Information from Outside Sources

We may also collect additional information about an applicant/certificant from third party sources in order to verify identity and licensure status.

How Do We Use the Information?

 We use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • To make the site easier for you to use by not making you enter your personal information more than once.
  • To deliver services that you request or purchase.
  • To help you effectively complete requirements relevant to the TCNS and TCNCC Certification application  and renewal process.
  • To help us create and publish content most relevant to you.
  • To alert you of product upgrades, special offers, updated information and other new services provided from TCNS.
  • To provide feedback in an online survey.
  • To appropriately target marketing efforts and/or promotional offers.
  • To request assistance or fill out support requests.
  • TCNS’s Customer Support staff or technology partners will have internal access to files containing personally identifiable information, including evaluation forms and aggregated CE information. These files can be accessed in order to respond to your questions or comments. TCNS’s staff may also use personally identifiable information, including application information and assessing and evaluating educational or professional development activities.

Who Do We Share the Information With?

We never sell or rent your personal information. TCNS may disclose some kinds of personal information with third parties as described below:

  • Legal Requirements—we may release account and other personal information when we believe it is required to do so by law or regulation, or in good faith to (a) comply with legal processes served on the site, or (b) protect the rights and property of TCNS, or (c) where our records indicate fraudulent activity or other deceptive practices that a governmental agency should be made aware of, or (d) where your communication suggests possible harm to others.
  • Other Organizations—TCNS has strategic relationships with other companies (SAGE Publications/Journal of Transcultural Nursing/Editorial Office) who may offer products and services on the site(s). If you interact with these organizations, their Privacy Policies and rules may apply to the interactions.
  • Companies and Individuals Who Work for TCNS—We may contract with other companies and individuals to help us provide our respective services. Examples include Web hosting, technical support, marketing analysis, customer service, or accreditation. We require all companies to comply with the terms of this Privacy Policy, to limit their access to personal information to the minimum required to fulfill their obligations, and to not use the information they may have access to for any other purpose other than fulfilling their responsibilities to TCNS. We use our best efforts to limit the use of other companies in areas where personally identifiable information may be involved.
  • Consent—we may release personally identifiable information to a third party in accordance with your consent, subject to the purposes and limits we disclose when we request your consent.
  • Business Transfers—if TCNS transfers business assets to another company, that company will be required to honor the applicable terms of this Privacy Policy.

When you apply, TCNS will not share your information with third parties without your permission, other than for the limited exceptions already listed. It will only be used for the purposes stated above. All third parties will be asked to agree in writing to abide by TCNS’s Privacy Policy. If we discover that a third party inadvertently disclosed personal information about any of our users, we will take immediate action to prevent further occurrences.

We use personal information to reply to inquiries, handle complaints, provide operational notices, keep records up to date to notify you via periodic e-mails of technical service issues, specials, or other related product/service information. Your information may be shared with agents or contractors of TCNS for the purpose of performing service for TCNS.

Internet Commerce

TCNS is committed to data security with respect to information collected. We offer the industry standard security measures available through your browser called encryption.

Security of your Personal Information

TCNS strictly protects the security of your personal information. We carefully protect your data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Your personal information is never shared outside the company without your permission, except under conditions explained above. Inside the company, data is stored in password-controlled servers with limited access. You also have a significant role in protecting your information. No one can see or edit your personal information so do not share these with others.

TCNS Online Privacy Policy

We use encryption when collecting or transferring sensitive data such as credit card and personal information. SSL is used on the website for online applications, and file attachments are encrypted with passwords in emails when there is personal information involved.  Credit card numbers are only used for processing payment and are not used for other purposes. TCNS does not transmit or store credit card information in their online systems.  Credit card information is handled by payment processing systems (PNC Bank/First Data Processing). Our efforts, as well as yours, to protect credit card fraud help protect your financial data security.

Use of Cookies and Web Beacons

Our Web site(s) are not setup to track, collect or distribute personal information. Our site may generate certain kinds of non-identifying site usage data, such as number of hits and visits to our sites. This information is used for internal purposes only. The statistics contain no personal information and cannot be used to gather such information.

The TCNS Web site(s) may use(s) “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a piece of data stored on your computer by a Web page server and is used by TCNS to track users as they move through our site(s).  The use of cookies on our site facilitates functionality and timesaving features such as remembering passwords or items in your shopping cart. For example, you can elect to have the site(s) “remember” your user name and password and bypass the sign-in process on each visit. Without cookies, this functionality would not be possible.

Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you and can only be read by a Web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies or to control whether you are notified each time a cookie is sent to you. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of TCNS services or Web sites you visit. The Help section of your browser will tell you how to prevent your browser form accepting cookies.

Although cookies do not normally contain personally identifiable information, if you are a registered user of the Web site, we may elect to associate your registration information with cookies that the site(s) place(s) on your computer’s hard drive.

We also may use Web beacons to collect non-personally identifiable information about your use of the site(s), as well as your use of special promotions or newsletters that we send to you. Web beacons are tiny graphic image files, embedded in a Web page in GIF, JPG, or HTML format, that provide a presence on the Web page and send back to its home server (which can belong to the host site, a network advertiser, or some other third party) information from a user’s browser, such as the IP address, the URL of the page on which the beacon is located, the type of browser that is accessing the site, and the ID number of any cookies on the user’s computer that were previously placed by that server.

Web beacons can also be used to place a cookie on the user’s computer. The information collected by Web beacons allows the statistical monitoring of (i) how many people are using the site(s) and what actions they are taking on the site(s), and (ii) how many people open TCNS emails. Our Web beacons are not used to track your activity outside of the site(s) or those of the sponsors of the site(s). We do not link non-personally identifiable information from Web beacons to personally identifiable information without your permission.

Third parties under contract with TCNS may use cookies or Web beacons to collect non-personally identifiable information about your usage of TCNS’s site(s). These third parties may use this information, on our behalf, to help target our advertising you may see on their sites within their networks and TCNS may further tailor the advertising on these third party sites based on your declared profession, specialty and geographic location. These third parties have agreed not to use this non-personal information they collect from our sites except to deliver advertisements on our behalf. If your browser is set to reject cookies, this non-personally identifiable information will not be sent to these third parties.

TCNS does not control these third parties’ use of cookies or Web beacons, or how they manage the non-personal information they gather through them. However, TCNS does require sponsors, advertisers and Ad Servers who collect cookie or Web beacon information through the TCNS Web site to agree that they will not collect any personally identifiable information from the TCNS site(s) without your consent. Further, they have agreed that they will not link any non-personal cookie or Web beacon information collected by them on the TCNS site(s) to personally identifiable information they or others collect in other ways or from other sites except as may be described in connection with a particular program.

You should review the privacy policy of other sites you visit or link to from our Sites to understand how these other sites use cookies and how they use the information they collect through the use of cookies or Web beacons on their own sites. Certain Ad Servers allow you to prevent them from collecting data through the use of cookies. In order to do so, you must Opt-out of such data collection with each individual site.

Children’s Privacy

We are committed to protecting the safety and privacy of children. TCNS site(s) are designed and intended for use by adults, and are not intended for, or designed to be used by children under the age of 13. Parents who wish to allow their children access to and use of the Web site/Services should supervise such access and use. By allowing your child access to the Services you are allowing your child access to all of the Services, including, but not limited to, email, bulletin boards, chat areas, news groups, forums and/or other message or communication facilities. It is therefore your responsibility to determine which services are appropriate for your child. Always use caution when revealing personally identifiable information about yourself or your children via any of the Services. We do not collect personally identifiable information from any person we know is a child.

Newsletters and Other Information

This site may use newsletters, chat rooms, discussion boards, forums, and/or news groups available to its users. If you wish to subscribe to our newsletter, we ask for contact information such as your name and email address. You may opt out of these communications.

If you use the public forums, please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.

  • Discussion Boards: When you post a message to a discussion board on one of the sites, your alias will be available for all registered users to see. An alias consists of your username, specialty and geographic information and other information you agree to show in a profile to others. You should not post any information to one of our discussion boards or other public forums if you want to keep such information private or you are required by law to keep such information private. Information you post to discussion boards is considered public information.
  • Tools: Clinical tools may be available on some of the Professional Sites. These tools may require you to provide information for the tools to operate (for example, a clinical simulation that allows you to enter clinical data). These tools may store information that you provide on our servers.
  • Additional Forms and Emails: We may also ask you to provide additional information after you register if you want to obtain additional services or information or to resolve complaints or concerns.

Surveys

From time-to-time we request information from users via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information. Anonymous Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site or the services offered by TCNS.

Notification of Changes

Because the Web is an evolving medium, we may need to change our Privacy Policy at some point in the future, in which case we’ll post the revised Privacy Policy on this website. 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. By continuing to use the Site after we have posted such changes, you accept the Privacy Policy as modified.

Problems or complaints with TCNS Privacy Policy

We value your comments and opinions. If you have questions, comments or a complaint about compliance, you can contact us at:

Transcultural Nursing Society
37637 Five Mile Rd., #319
Livonia, MI  48154-1543

staff@tcns.org

(888)432-5470

www.tcns.org