The American Fence Association (“AFA,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy, and we are committed to protecting your privacy through our compliance with this Privacy Policy (“Policy”). This Policy was created in order to demonstrate AFA’s commitment to the privacy of our participants, members, event attendees, sponsors, exhibitors and website users and governs how AFA collects and uses data, including from forms, our apps, registration platforms and websites, social media and our website www.americanfenceassociation.com (“Website”). By accessing our website or providing your information to us, you accept and agree to the practices described in this Policy.
Last updated April 2, 2025
What Types of Data We Collect and How We Use It
We collect a variety of information when you visit our website and engage with our service.
Personal Data may include name, employer, email, employer phone, mobile phone, address, credentials/certifications, credit card information, IP addresses, membership history, and details of products and/or services purchased and identifies you as an individual or is information that can be linked to you as an individual (“Personal Data”). Here is what we collect:
- Name: We may use your name to personalize digital and print communications sent to you by AFA, on name badges at AFA programs that you attend, to list on the AFA Website and/or newsletter, and to appear in the AFA membership directory.
- Employer Name: We may use your employer name on digital and print communications sent to you by AFA, on name badges at AFA programs that you attend, to list on the AFA Website and/or newsletter, and to appear in the AFA membership directory.
- Email: We may use your email to send you communications regarding AFA news, membership updates, information on programs, products, services, and dues renewal notices. Your email may appear in the AFA membership directory.
- Employer Phone: Your employer phone may appear in the AFA membership directory. Depending on your communication preferences, AFA may contact you on your employer phone regarding membership dues or other AFA member information.
- Mobile Phone: Your mobile phone may appear in the AFA membership directory. Depending on your communication preferences, AFA may contact you on your mobile phone regarding membership dues or other AFA member information.
- Address: We may use your address to deliver communications sent you by AFA. Your address may appear in the AFA membership directory. It may be reported in aggregate (e.g. the number of AFA members in your state) when reporting on member demographics and analyzing member trends.
- Credentials/Certifications: We may use your credentials and/or certifications as part of your name on digital and print communications sent to you by AFA, on name badges at AFA programs that you attend, to list on the AFA Website and/or newsletter, and to appear in the AFA membership directory.
- Credit Card information: Your credit card information is collected and processed by a third-party provider when purchasing any products or services from AFA.
- IP addresses: We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
- Membership history: We may report on your length of membership when recognizing legacy members in AFA communications. It may be reported in aggregate when reporting on member demographics and analyzing member trends.
How We Collect Personal Data
In general, a visitor will know when Personal Data is being collected because he or she will have to fill out a form or has emailed the organization. In addition, we may collect Personal Data through your use of the Website(s), any apps, social media, registration platforms or any discussion boards or chat rooms. This includes the collection of IP addresses.
Visitors may generally browse public portions of the AFA Website anonymously without providing any detailed information. However, AFA does use Google Analytics to collect data and performs data analysis in order to improve our services. In addition, Personal Data is required in connection with registering with the sites. Personal Data will be requested in connection with membership registration, event activities and registration, purchasing products or services, requesting additional information, signing up for newsletters, registration for an education program or event, submitting a program application (e.g. award, certification, etc.), and/or completing the application to be a speaker at an AFA event, or submitting questions through these sites.
AFA does not knowingly collect or use any Personal Data from users under 13 years of age.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored for varying amounts of time on the user’s hard drive containing information about the user. AFA may use cookies in order to collect certain information about you, such as IP addresses (the Internet address of a computer), domain names (e.g., whether you are logged on from a .com, .gov, or .edu domain) and the type of computer and operating system being used. We may also use cookies to identify your computer when you revisit our Website or to recall your authentication information. We may collect such information in order to better operate the Website so as to enhance your experience while using the Website. You have the option of 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 Website may not function properly.
How We Share Information
AFA may provide personal information to third party agents that have been hired to help provide a requested good or service or to facilitate us in providing our services to you. This may include payment processors, association membership system providers, learning management systems, AFA newsletter publishers, website analytics, member analyses, membership renewal and/or updates on member programs and services. We also share limited data with exhibitors at FENCETECH. Unless directed otherwise at the time of collection, we may also share collected personal information with third parties who may have information or services that we believe could be helpful to members or visitors. Visitors may opt-out from the sharing of collected information by contacting us.
AFA reserves the right to disclose without notice any information in its possession if required to do so by law, to protect or defend AFA’s rights or property, or to respond to an emergency.
Third-Party Ad Networks
We use third parties such as network advertisers to serve advertisements on our Website and on third-party websites or other media (e.g., social networking platforms). This enables us and these third parties to target advertisements to you for products and services in which you might be interested. Third-party ad network providers, advertisers, sponsors and/or traffic measurement services may use cookies, JavaScript, web beacons (including clear GIFs), Flash LSOs and other tracking technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content to you. These third-party cookies and other technologies are governed by each third party’s specific privacy policy, not this Policy. We may provide these third-party advertisers with information about you.
Users in the United States may opt out of many third-party ad networks. For example, you may go to the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Consumer Choice Page for information about opting out of interest-based advertising and their choices regarding having information used by DAA companies. You may also go to the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) Consumer Opt-Out Page for information about opting out of interest-based advertising and their choices regarding having information used by NAI members.
Opting out from one or more companies listed on the DAA Consumer Choice Page or the NAI Consumer Opt-Out Page will opt you out from those companies’ delivery of interest-based content or ads to you, but it does not mean you will no longer receive any advertising through our Website or on other websites. You may continue to receive advertisements, for example, based on the particular website that you are viewing (i.e., contextually based ads). Also, if your browsers are configured to reject cookies when you opt out on the DAA or NAI websites, your opt-out may not be effective. Additional information is available on the DAA’s website at www.aboutads.info or the NAI’s website at www.networkadvertising.org.
Online Behavioral Advertising and How You Can Opt-Out
We may work with third-party advertising companies who may utilize cookies and web beacons, and data collected on our services, to customize advertisements to you on our services, as well as on other websites or mobile applications in their networks beyond our services. Among other things, these customized advertisements may advertise our products and services and third-party products and services on websites or mobile applications not affiliated with us. Some of these ads are online behavioral advertising – which serve advertisements that are more likely to be of interest to you using non-personal behavioral information. Such ads may contain cookies that allow monitoring of websites and mobile applications (including our own services) and your response to such advertisements. Cookies or web beacons placed by these companies do not collect personal information, and the third-party advertising companies do not have access to or use your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number or other personal information; they may however, anonymously track your usage across our services and other websites or mobile applications in their networks. We limit companies that place our ads from using information for any purpose other than to assist us in our advertising efforts.
For more information about these third-party advertising companies' privacy policies, visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s website at http://www.networkadvertising.org. If you prefer to not receive targeted advertising, you can opt-out of network advertising programs that use your information. To do so, please visit: the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page.
External links
This Policy only addresses AFA’s use and disclosure of your Personal Data. The Website may contain links to other websites, so please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites, and we are not liable for their misuse of Personal Data. We encourage you to be aware that when you go to another website you should carefully read their privacy policy. Links to other sites do not imply AFA’s endorsement of the products or services, or privacy or security practices of those websites.
How You Can Access and Change Information
AFA acknowledges that you have the right to access your Personal Data. In case you request us to remove data, we will respond within a reasonable timeframe.
You can log into you member profile at https://online.americanfenceassociation.com/account/login.aspx to update your personal data at any time. Upon request, we will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your Personal Data. You can update or correct your Personal Data or remove it from our system by making a request to us at the contact information provided below. Requests typically receive a response within thirty (30) days. If access cannot be provided within that time frame, we will provide the requesting party with an estimated date by which the information will be provided. If for some reason access is denied, we will provide an explanation of why access has been denied.
Our Security Measures to Protect Your Personal Data
We are committed to taking reasonable efforts to secure the information that you choose to provide us, and we use a variety of security procedures to help protect against unauthorized access to or alteration, disclosure, or destruction of Personal Data. Except as otherwise provided in this Policy, we restrict access to Personal Data to our employees, contractors and servicers who need to know the information to operate, develop, or improve our services.
Unfortunately, no transmission of Personal Data over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Accordingly, and despite our efforts, AFA cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, or to or from our online services. AFA has no responsibility or liability for the security of information transmitted via the Internet. If you have questions about this Policy or the security of your Personal Data, please contact us as indicated under the “Contact Us” section below.
We retain your Personal Data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
Modifications
We may amend this Policy from time to time without prior notice. If we decide to change this Policy, we will post those changes on our home page so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it, so please review it periodically.
Your continued use of our Website will be deemed to be your agreement to the changed terms.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Policy or our treatment of the information you provide us, please contact as at:
American Fence Association (AFA)
3751 Main St, Suite 600 #373
The Colony, TX 75056
MemberServices@AmericanFenceAssociation.com
800-822-4342
