Privacy Statement

1. Introduction AOSIS (Pty) Ltd has formulated this privacy statement in order to demonstrate its firm commitment to the privacy of its users. AOSIS (Pty) Ltd reserves the right to change these policies at any time and to publish the new terms on this website. Readers are advised to review the latest policies.

The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for the AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services sites:

2. Personal Information
Personal information refers to all information about you as an identifiable individual, including (but not limited to) your name, address, email address, telephone number, and identity number. Visitors using the products and services of AOSIS (Pty) Ltd may be asked to fill out a questionnaire as part of the user registration process. Registrants' information will be utilised to refine and improve the content and services of AOSIS (Pty) Ltd. The information provided will not be sold or redistributed to third parties without the explicit permission of the user, unless obliged to do so by law or legal processes.

3. Use of Personal Information
The aggregated demographic information allows us to verify the types of professionals who use AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services. Registrants will also have the opportunity to receive email updates of what is new in terms of AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services, should they indicate so at the end of the registration process. At this point of collection the user will also have the opportunity to indicate whether he or she would like to "opt out" of receiving promotional and/or marketing information about other products, services and offerings from AOSIS (Pty) Ltd and/or any third parties.

Further, notwithstanding any “opt out” option of promotional information by the user, AOSIS (Pty) Ltd reserves the right to contact a subscriber regarding account status, changes to the subscriber agreement and other matters relevant to the underlying service and/or the information collected.

AOSIS (Pty) Ltd reserves the right to perform statistical analyses of user behaviour and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the site, and to inform advertisers of such information as well as the number of users that have been exposed to or clicked on their advertising banners. AOSIS (Pty) Ltd will provide only aggregated data from these analyses to third parties.

In addition, users should be aware that AOSIS (Pty) Ltd might sometimes permit third parties to offer subscription and/or registration-based services through the AOSIS (Pty) Ltd sites. AOSIS (Pty) Ltd is not responsible for any actions or policies of such third parties, and users should check the applicable privacy policy of such party when providing personally identifiable information.

Users should be aware that when they voluntarily disclose personally identifiable information (e.g. user name and email address) on the bulletin boards or in the forums or chat areas of the AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services sites, that information, along with any substantive information disclosed in the user's communication, can be collected and correlated and used by third parties and may result in unsolicited messages from other posters or third parties. Such activities are beyond the control of AOSIS (Pty) Ltd.

Upon request AOSIS (Pty) Ltd will allow any user to "opt out" of further promotional contacts at any time.

4. Cookies
As soon as a user visits AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services sites, a "cookie" is placed within his or her web browser. "Cookies" are small text files that AOSIS uses to recognise users, facilitate the user's on-going access to and use of the site, and allow a site to track usage behaviour and compile aggregate data that will allow content improvements and targeted advertising. Cookies are not programs that come onto a user's system and damage files. AOSIS’ cookies work by assigning a unique number to the user that has no meaning outside of our websites. This cookie poses no security risk and cannot harm your computer in any way; its purpose is to allow access to the AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services sites without the need to input a user name and password each time. However, users should remember their password, as they will be prompted to use it when they access the AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services sites from a different computer or browser. Furthermore, users who have configured their browser not to accept cookies will not be able to log in to AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services.

5. Links
The AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services sites contain extensive links to external sites. AOSIS (Pty) Ltd is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such external sites. Users are advised to review the policies of such sites before they disclose any personal information on those sites.

6. Data Profiles
If you want to update any of your personal information held by us, you can either make certain changes online by amending your account details (if enabled), or you can send an email detailing the required amendments to info(AT)aosis.co.za.

Furthermore, upon a user's request AOSIS (Pty) Ltd will use commercially reasonable methods to functionally delete the user and his or her personal information from its database; however, it may be impossible to delete a user's entry without some residual information because of backups and records of deletions. If you wish your details to be deleted from our database, then please send an email to us at info(AT)aosis.co.za stating just that.

7. IP Addresses
Every time you connect to our website we store web server logs which show your IP address (the unique number which your machine uses when it is connected to the Internet); what you looked at; whether the page request was successful or not; and which browser you used to view the pages. The use of this data is strictly for statistical and personalisation purposes only. This helps us understand which areas of the site are of particular interest and also which pages are not being requested. It also tells us how many hits and page requests we receive.

8. Feedback and Complaints
If you have any questions or comments about our Privacy Policy, or if you have a complaint about how we are using your data, please write to us or send an email to info(AT)aosis.co.za or contact us on 086 1000 381 or +27 21 975 2602.

9. Secure internet shopping by credit card
There are no fees associated with registering or browsing the AOSIS (Pty) Ltd products and services sites, but users are required to pay a service fee for:

• Enrolment for courses and issuing of CPD certificates
• Ordering print copies of journals or books

AOSIS (Pty) Ltd is registered as a card-accepting merchant with ABSA and uses Virtual Card Services (http://www.vcs.co.za/) to process credit card purchases.

AOSIS (Pty) Ltd DOES NOT HAVE ACCESS TO CARD HOLDERS’ CREDIT CARD DETAILS – AOSIS (Pty) Ltd DOES NOT KEEP OR STORE YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS.
To view the privacy policy of Virtual Card Services (Pty) Ltd click here.

10. Browser security
It is the user's responsibility to keep his or her Internet browser up to date in order to ensure that the latest security technology is available to him or her. For more information please contact us to assist you in obtaining the latest version of either Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

11. Children’s Privacy
AOSIS does not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 16 and does not target its websites to children under 16. We encourage parents and guardians to take an active role in their children’s online activities and interests.

Our privacy policy is just one facet of our commitment to reliable and ethical information. Please also see our advertising, editorial and terms of use policies.