Last Modified: February 14, 2023

Introduction

Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. and our affiliated entities (together, “IEM,” “we,” or “us”) respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.

This policy describes the collection, use, processing, deletion, security, and disclosure of data and information that identifies, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with you and is subject to protection under applicable data protection, data privacy, and data security laws (such data and information collectively, “Personal Information”). Personal Information does not include publicly available information, such as information lawfully made available from government records, information we have a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public by you or by widely distributed media, or by a person to whom you have disclosed the information and not restricted it to a specific audience, or deidentified or aggregated information.

This policy applies to websites owned and operated by IEM, our social media activities on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, our official blogs, and our other activities and sources (collectively, the “Sites”). To the extent that any of these Sites include specific privacy policies or terms and conditions, they will take precedence.

We are committed to ensuring that we process your Personal Information following applicable data protection legislation and privacy and data security laws. Your use of the Sites means that you accept and understand this policy. Please do not use the Sites or provide us with any Personal Information if you do not accept this policy.

This policy does now apply to the Personal Information we receive from our clients while providing goods or services. Such processing is on a case-by-case basis at the direction of our clients, subject to our client agreements and professional responsibilities. Furthermore, this policy does not apply to personal information from IEM’s recruiting- and employment-related activities, which are covered by a separate policy.

Information Collected

We may collect the following Personal Information when you visit the Sites or otherwise provide us with Personal Information in connection with the Sites:

• Personal Information you provide when you complete forms available on the Sites.
• Personal Information you provide when you contact us.
• Personal Information collected through mobile and desktop applications you download from the Sites, which provide dedicated non-browser-based interaction between you and the Sites.
• Details of visits to the Sites, including the volume of traffic received, logs and the resources you have accessed, and the devices you have used to access such information.
• Personal information about your registration and attendance at an IEM event or subscription to an IEM publication.
• Personal Information relating to you or your employees and officers you provide enables us to provide services to you and comply with our legal obligations.

The categories of Personal Information we may collect include the following:

• Identifiers, such as name, contact details, address (including physical address, telephone number, email address, and Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, which we may use to identify your geographic location), and other identifiers by which you may be contacted online or offline.
• Professional information collected in connection with your event participation or publication subscription.
• Information that is about you but does not identify you individually.
• Internet or other electronic network activity information, such as your use of the Sites and information you provide when you correspond with us concerning your inquiries.

You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted”) on public areas of the Sites or transmitted to other users of the Sites or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although we may limit access to certain pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot guarantee unauthorized persons will not view your User Contributions. If you delete your User Contributions, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or might have been copied or stored by other users. Proper access and use of information provided on the Sites, including User Contributions, is governed by our Terms of Use.

How We Collect Information

In connection with operating the Sites, we obtain your Personal Information from the following sources:

• Information from your communications with us in connection with the Sites or other services, events, publications, or programs we offer, including any updates to such information provided by you.
• Information captured on the Sites, including information provided by you through online forms and any information captured via cookies.
• Information you provide us at the start of our engagement with you or while providing services to you.
• Information that you provide us in conjunction with your employment application.
• Information that we collect from publicly available sources, generally including information collected in an online or offline context.
• From third parties such as our business partners.

How We Use Your Information

We use your Personal Information for one or more of the following business purposes and according to the corresponding legal bases:

Purpose	Legal Bases
Understand your needs, maintain our business relationship, and provide you with goods and services.	Necessary for our legitimate interests in providing goods or services to you or in the performance of a contract with you.
Improve the Sites and notify you about changes to the Sites.	Necessary for our legitimate interests in providing goods or services to you and other clients.
Communicate with you, including responding to requests for information submitted through the Sites, or notify you of goods and services we provide, events we are hosting, employment opportunities, or publications that may interest you.	Necessary for our legitimate interests in providing goods or services to you, in the performance of a contract with you, or based on your consent in opting into such communications.
Keep a record of your relationship with us.	Necessary for our legitimate interests in the performance of a contract with you or required to comply with a legal obligation.
Research and analyze users’ demographic characteristics, interests, and behavior in an aggregated form to better understand and serve our users and improve the Sites and their offerings.	Necessary for our legitimate interests in providing goods or services to you and other clients.
Ongoing operations, administrative, accounting, reporting, account maintenance, and other processes.	Necessary for our legitimate interests in providing goods or services to you or required to comply with a legal obligation.
Audit and verify the quality and effectiveness of the Sites, goods, services, and compliance.	Necessary for our legitimate interests in providing goods or services to you and other clients or required to comply with a legal obligation.
Detect security incidents and protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity.	Necessary to comply with a legal obligation.
Comply with laws, rules, and regulations.	Necessary to comply with a legal obligation.

 

Please note that we may process your Personal Information on more than one legal basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your Personal Information.

You may opt-in to specific communications by contacting us. You may unsubscribe from further communications by clicking on the unsubscribe link provided in the communication when available or by contacting us at privacy@iem.com.

We may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to advertisers’ target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your Personal Information without your consent, if you click on or interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.

Disclosure of Your Information

We do not sell, trade, rent, or otherwise transfer any of the Personal Information we collect about you to third parties except:

• As permitted or required by law or regulation or according to any legal process.
• In response to governmental, regulatory, law enforcement, or judicial inquiries.
• To IEM’s subsidiaries, affiliates, or their respective successors or assigns.
• To third-party suppliers and service providers bound by contractual obligations to keep Personal Information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it.
• Our attorneys, auditors, and other professional advisors.
• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of IEM’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by IEM is among the assets transferred.
• When disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of IEM, our clients, or others.

We may also disclose Personal Information about you to fulfill any purpose for which you provide it with your consent. We may disclose aggregated information and information that does not identify any individual without restriction.

Links to Third-Party Websites

We may provide links to third-party websites for your information or convenience. Such third-party websites are independently operated and are not under our control, and this policy does not govern the privacy practices of third-party websites. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of third-party websites, any products or services offered by third parties, or for the confidentiality, use, processing, and security of any Personal Information you provide to third-party websites.

Cookies

We may use cookies, other technologies, and tools on the Sites to track user preferences. A cookie is a small text file that certain websites save on your device when you visit those websites. Cookies automatically collect information regarding how you access the Sites and the hardware and software you use to access the Sites.

We use cookies to improve your experience, provide additional security, and remember when you return to the Sites. A cookie cannot give us access to your computer or to information beyond what you provide us, and we do not store Personal Information in the cookies we create. Still, we do use encrypted information gathered from them to help improve your experience.

You can set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, refuse the cookie when your browser alerts you to its presence, or refuse all cookies by turning them off in your browser. Cookies may be required to select text size preferences within the Sites. If you refuse certain cookies, you may not be able to access certain parts of the Sites or use the full functionality of the Sites. You may visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information about types of cookies, how they are used, and how you manage your cookie preferences.

When using the Sites, third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your browsing activity may use Local Storage Objects (“LSO”) such as HTML 5 to collect and store information. Various browsers may offer management tools for removing HTML 5 LSO.

The Sites may use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyze how users use the Sites and to improve services, communications, and user experience. The information generated by the cookies about your use of the Sites (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers controlled by Google in the United States or other jurisdictions selected by Google. Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the Sites, compile reports on Sites activity, and provide other services relating to Sites activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where it is required by law, where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf, or where it is permitted to do so under its privacy policy. Please visit the Google Analytics privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy) for additional information regarding how Google processes and protects your data collected through Google Analytics. By using the Sites, you consent to Google’s processing of data about you in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

Choice

We will not use or share the Personal Information you provide us on or through the Sites in ways unrelated to the uses described in this policy without obtaining your consent. As previously stated, you can also inform us if you do not wish to receive unsolicited direct mailings from us.

Information Security

We employ commercially appropriate organizational, physical, technical, and procedural safeguards and measures to protect your Personal Information in our possession or under our control, to the extent possible, from unauthorized or accidental access and improper use. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not entirely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information transmitted to or through the Sites; any such transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your Personal Information, we will use the safeguard and measures mentioned above to try to prevent unauthorized access to your Personal Information. We are not responsible if you circumvent any privacy settings or security measures on the Sites.

Children’s Privacy

We are committed to compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (as amended, “COPPA”). We do not knowingly seek to collect or maintain information (including Personal Information) on the Sites from children under thirteen. No part of any Site is structured to attract anyone under thirteen. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Information from an individual under thirteen, we will delete that Personal Information.

Retention

We will retain Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfill our business purposes unless a more extended retention period is required or permitted by law. The criteria used to determine retention periods include the length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide goods or services to you, whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject, or whether retention is advisable in light of our legal position.

Sensitive Information

We ask that you not send us, and you do not disclose, any sensitive Personal Information to us through the Sites.

State Privacy Rights

State consumer privacy laws may provide their residents with additional rights regarding using their Personal Information. See the section entitled Rights Under the California Consumer Privacy Act below to learn more about California residents’ privacy rights.

Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, Utah, and Virginia provide their residents with rights to:

• Confirm whether we process their Personal Information.
• Access and delete certain Personal Information.
• Data portability.
• Opt-out of personal data processing for targeted advertising and sales.
• Correct inaccuracies in their Personal Information, accounting for the information’s processing purpose.
• Opt-out of profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

Rights Under the California Consumer Privacy Act

This section outlines specific rights granted to individual California residents under the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended, the “CCPA”). It provides information regarding how California residents can exercise their rights under the CCPA. Information required to be disclosed to California residents under the CCPA regarding the collection of their Personal Information that is not outlined in this section is otherwise outlined in this policy.

Deletion Rights. You have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information that we retain, subject to certain statutory exceptions, including our compliance with U.S., state, local, and non-U.S. laws, rules, and regulations. We will notify you in writing and explain if we cannot comply with a specific request.

Disclosure and Access Rights. You have the right to request that we disclose certain information regarding our collection and use of Personal Information specific to you over the last twelve months. Such information includes the categories of Personal Information we collected about you, the categories of sources from which the Personal Information was collected, our business or commercial purpose for collecting such Personal Information, the categories of third parties with whom we share Personal Information, the specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you, and whether we disclosed your Personal Information to a third party, and, if yes, the categories of Personal Information that each recipient obtained.

No Discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights under the CCPA, including by denying service, suggesting that you will receive or be charged different rates for services, or implying that you will receive or be provided a different level or quality of service.

How to Exercise Your Rights. To exercise any of your rights under the CCPA or to access this notice in an alternative format, please submit a request as outlined in the section entitled Contact below.

Changes

Our policy is to post any changes we make to this policy on the Sites. The date this policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active, and deliverable email address for you and for periodically visiting the Sites and this policy to check for any changes.

Users Outside of the United States

If you are visiting the Sites from outside the United States, please be aware that the information we obtain about you will be processed in the United States. By using the Sites, you agree that any Personal Information you provide will be treated following the laws of the United States. You acknowledge and consent to the international transfer and processing of your personal information as described in this policy. Please be aware that the data protection laws and regulations that apply to your personal information transferred to the United States or other countries may differ from those in your country of residence.

Contact

For any questions regarding our processing of your Personal Information or requests relating to the exercise of your rights under the CCPA or other applicable data protection laws, please submit, or have your authorized representative submit, a request by contacting us at privacy@iem.com or IEM, Attn: Privacy Officer, 2801 Slater Road, Suite 200, Morrisville, North Carolina, 27560-8477. We aim to respond to any verifiable consumer request promptly and in any event within the period required under applicable law.

If you submit a request under the CCPA or other data protection laws, we will contact you to confirm receipt of your request and request any additional information necessary to verify your request, which may include verification of the requestor’s identity ourselves or using a third-party service. We verify requests by matching the information provided with your request to the information in our records. Depending on the request’s sensitivity and the varying risk levels in responding to such a request (e.g., risk of responding to a fraudulent or malicious request), we may request further information to verify your request. We also reserve the right to confirm your request through a third-party verification service. You may designate an authorized agent to request under the CCPA on your behalf if you satisfy specific requirements outlined in the CCPA for such an authorized agent to request on your behalf. We may verify an authorized person’s identity using the procedures above.