Privacy Policy

The Oncology Nursing Society ("ONS"), the Oncology Nursing Foundation, the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation, and affiliates (together, "affiliated organizations") respect the privacy needs and concerns of their customers.

This policy applies to any personal information that a customer provides in connection with activities, transactions, and websites of ONS and its affiliated organizations. This policy describes the personal information that ONS or its affiliated organizations may gather from customers, what is done with it, safeguards for its protection, and customer control of its use.

Personal information is collected and used in accordance with U.S. law. If a customer shares information with ONS or its affiliated organizations, U.S. law dictates how that information is collected, stored, processed, and used. This policy shall not be construed to limit or prohibit access to or use of personal information for legitimate and legal functions of ONS or its affiliated organizations.

Collection of Personal Information

Personal information means information that relates to an individual who can be identified from that information. Personal information does not include information that has been deidentified. Examples of personal information include:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Date of birth
  • E-mail address

Deidentification means altering or removing personal identifiers (e.g. name, Social Security number) from personal information.

Use of personal information of customers means when ONS and its affiliated organizations collect personal information from individuals or customers, ONS and its affiliated organizations endeavor to notify individuals or customers how their personal information will be used. Personal Information will be used in a manner consistent with the notice given to an individual at the time of collection of personal information or when other consent for the use of personal information is given by the individual. Individuals have the choice to opt-out such that ONS and its affiliated organizations will not thereafter use Personal Information.

ONS and its affiliated organizations are committed to employing reasonable technology to protect the security of collected personal information and websites. ONS and its affiliated organizations will take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect customer information from loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction, and, where possible, will ask that any third parties to whom they may transfer personal information take comparable steps to protect that security.

ONS and its affiliated organizations may collect personal information related to the following activities.

  • Purchases, orders, returns, exchanges, or requests for information about membership, products, and services, including information needed to process transactions, prevent fraud, and/or provide customer assistance
  • Participation in advisory panels, mentoring programs, project or planning teams, boards, and other activities or projects sponsored by ONS and its affiliated organizations
  • Registration with a website or feature of a website managed by ONS or its affiliated organizations, including chapter or online communities
  • Administration of surveys
  • Collection of information provided by service providers to assess and improve products and services

Note the following.

  • Registration with websites of ONS and its affiliate organizations is optional. Not registering may preclude you from accessing specific members-only or registration-required pages or completing specific transactions online.
  • Although users do not have to provide information in order to access ONS or its affiliated organizations' main websites, information such as Internet protocol addresses, page requests, browser type, operation system, and average time spent on sites may be collected and monitored for quality improvement.
  • ONS or its affiliated organizations may elect to restrict access to specific website content to members and/or individuals willing to register and allow some use of personal information. All potential uses of personal information will be made known to nonmember registrants at the time of registration. Nonmember registrants may then elect to not register if they do not agree to the use of their personal information.
  • Individuals using ONS or its affiliated organizations' websites are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their access information, including user name and password, and for restricting access to their computers. Users agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under use of their user name. ONS will never ask for user names or passwords in any unsolicited communications, including correspondence such as letters, phone calls, or email messages.
  • All customer data provided to ONS and its affiliated organizations becomes the property of ONS and its affiliated organizations.
  • California residents have the right to request one Notice of Information-Sharing Disclosure per year that will identify the third parties with whom ONS and its affiliated organizations have shared the information they have collected from you. Notice of Information-Sharing Disclosure may be requested by contacting ONS and its affiliated organizations at help@ons.org or 125 Enterprise Drive Pittsburgh PA 15275 Attention: Customer Service. A response to a request for a Notice of Information-Sharing Disclosure will be sent within 30 days.
  • ONS and its affiliated organizations use session, persistent, and third party cookies, which are tiny data elements that ONS websites can send to individual browsers to be stored on hard drives and recognize users upon return. Users may set their Web browsers to provide notification when cookies are received. Users can opt to not accept cookies, which will limit functionality on ONS and its affiliated organizations' sites. Cookies may be used to identify customers, access account information (stored on ONS and its affiliated organizations' computers) to deliver products and personalized services, understand browsing habits and buying activities, and personalize sites according to user preferences. Cookies are also required to optimize shopping experiences.
  • ONS and its affiliated organizations use web beacons, either directly or from partners), along with cookies, to determine if a user has visited a particular website. These beacons aid in providing more relevant advertising to the user, as well measuring the success of an advertising campaign, but provide no personally identifiable information.
  • A session cookie is a cookie that stores information as a user is using a site but is deleted once the browser session is finished.  A persistent cookie is a cookie that stores information as a user utilizes a site and stores and uses that information in connection with future visits of the user to the site.  Third party cookies and/or web beacons are cookies or web beacons provided by technology and/or advertising partners.  Any third party cookie or web beacon authorized for use on the site collects that information described herein for the same stated purposes as if we were directly collecting the information. For a third party cookie or web beacon, the third party will have access to the collected information in order to provide us with information or services to enhance the performance and functionality of the site.
  • The cookies and web beacons used on the sites collect non-personally identifiable information about users of the site, including: browser used to access the site, date and time, the URL of the page being loaded, users who have visited a particular website(s), any previously assigned cookie identification (a unique identifier assigned to a user to identify repeat visitors), browser window size, the geographic location of the user, device and operating system used to access the site. The information collected from these cookies and web beacons is used to determine information about a user’s visit to the sites, including the number of visits, average time spent, pages viewed, navigation history through the website, and other statistics. This information is used to enhance the users experience while visiting the sites and to improve the performance of the sites by, among other things, allowing us to monitor site performance, making the site easier to use, measuring the effectiveness of promotional placements, and tailoring the site (including the ads and offers a user receives) to better match a user’s interests and preferences. 
  • Users who prefer not to accept cookies can set their Internet browser to notify them when they receive a cookie or to prevent cookies from being placed on their hard drive.
  • If you consent to our collection of cookies and you subsequently wish to withdraw your consent, you will need to manage the settings on your web browser to delete all cookies and disallow further acceptance of cookies. Please note that disabling cookies on your browser will prevent tracking of your activities in relations to the sites, however, it may also disable some of the functions and features of the sites and the site may not work properly

Use of Personal Information

To serve members and customers better, ONS and its Affiliated Organizations may combine Personal Information received on websites or via phone or mail with publicly available information and information received from or cross-referenced with marketing partners or others. This information may be used to generate demographic summaries that are disclosed in summary form only to third-party development partners and industry supporters for the express purpose of evaluating funding opportunities and services. These summaries contain non-identifiable, aggregated information.

Some ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' operations may be managed by unaffiliated companies. These companies may have access to customer information to perform their functions.

ONS rents mailing lists to companies and organizations seeking to reach ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' customers with information related to oncology nursing, cancer care, and other healthcare issues. ONS and its Affiliated Organizations provide customer names and preferred addresses (home or work as specified by each individual customer) to list renters that may be used only for a mail piece approved by ONS and its Affiliated Organizations. Phone numbers and fax numbers are not made available for purchase or rental. Email addresses are not released to any third party except service providers who act on behalf of ONS and its Affiliated Organizations. ONS and its Affiliated Organizations reserve the right to send email communication to ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' customers via email on behalf of a third party, subject to approval by ONS and its Affiliated Organizations. ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' customers have the ability to opt-out of such mailings and email communications, resulting in such customer's name and address not being included in mailing list rentals and customer's email address being excluded from third party communications.

ONS includes a personally identifiable barcode on attendee badges at national conferences. By scanning a badge at an exhibitor booth, session, registration, satellite symposia, or other location, an attendee agrees to release Personally Identifiable information, including demographics, name, business address (or preferred address if business address is not available), credentials, email address, business phone number, and fax number. Such information has been released by the customer who uses a bar code badge. ONS maintains no further obligation regarding further use of the Personally Identifiable information.

ONS Congress: ONS Congress is a virtual event produced by Oncology Nursing Society (“ONS”). For ONS Congress, we rely on our legitimate business interest to collect and use your personal information. We have balanced our interests with yours and do not believe these activities will negatively impact your privacy rights. For ONS Congress, we believe it is a legitimate interest for your information to be shared with select ONS Congress exhibitors and sponsors.

These exhibitors and sponsors have information that is relevant and worthwhile to oncology nursing professionals who register to attend ONS Congress. Sharing your information enables those exhibitors and sponsors to contact you about ONS Congress and the information they make available during ONS Congress. The information shared with these exhibitors and sponsors will be limited to your name and the email address that you used to register for ONS Congress. If you have any questions or concerns, or if you would like to be excluded from this arrangement, please email us at help@ons.org.

ONS may offer meeting attendees the opportunity to obtain a roster of meeting attendees. Meeting rosters will contain attendee names and email addresses.

The ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' websites provide multiple opportunities for customers to share Personally Identifiable information. Some examples include communicating via event registration, community and discussion forums, and opting-in to electronic newsletters. All Personally Identifiable information collected by the ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' websites are subject to the terms of the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use contained on each website.

ONS and its Affiliated Organizations occasionally publish customer information via electronic and printed materials. Some examples include listings of Boards of Directors and editorial contacts. Any published customer information shall be limited to the customer's name, credentials, email address, city, state, and country.

In the event that ONS and its Affiliated Organizations or some of their assets are sold or transferred or used as security, customer information may be transferred to third parties as part of that transaction. ONS and its Affiliated Organizations may also provide information or provide access to information between Affiliated Organizations or to ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' business partners.

If ONS and its Affiliated Organizations are requested by law enforcement officials or judicial authorities to provide information on individuals or customers, ONS and its Affiliated Organizations may, without consent and without notice, provide such information. In matters involving claims of personal or public safety or in litigation where the data is pertinent, ONS and its Affiliated Organizations may use or disclose Personal Information without consent or court process. ONS and its Affiliated Organizations will provide Personal Information in response to a search warrant or other legal inquiry or court order, or to an investigative body or in litigation involving ONS and its Affiliated Organizations. ONS and its Affiliated Organizations may also disclose Personal information to assist in debt collection.

ONS and its Affiliated Organizations may use Personal Information of customers to contact customers about the marketing of future events and meetings.

ONS and its Affiliated Organizations may use Personal Information in ways that are not restricted by its policies or legal requirements if ONS and its Affiliated Organizations determines that the uses are consistent with ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' nursing and cancer care mission and of the type of interest to ONS and its Affiliated Organizations customers.

Opt Out

Customer may opt out by visiting the manage email preferences link within their ONS account and updating their preferences accordingly or by contacting ONS and its Affiliated Organizations at help@ons.org or 125 Enterprise Drive Pittsburgh PA 15275 Attention: Customer Service.

Agreements With Third Parties

Third parties, who perform services for ONS and its Affiliated Organizations (e.g., mailing houses) with access to customer information provided by ONS and its Affiliated Organizations will be required to maintain use of customer information only to perform the requested service.

This Privacy Policy only applies to ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' activities. Websites may contain links to other website that are beyond the control or oversight of ONS and its Affiliated Organizations. These websites may collect customer Personal Information, which is governed by separate privacy policies and terms of use. Consult individual websites' privacy statements and terms of use.

ONS's Privacy Policy May Be Modified or Amended

This statement may be modified or amended to comply with new laws or regulations or to reflect changes in business practices. Changes in policies are immediately communicated on the ONS and its Affiliated Organizations' websites via the "Legal Notices."

Questions about the handling of personal information may be directed to:

Customer Relations
Oncology Nursing Society
125 Enterprise Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15275
866-257-4ONS
help@ons.org