Privacy Policy

Effective May 22, 2019.

The following Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy") governs your use of the Websites and the Services, which are owned by AMS, Inc. ("AMS").

We have created this Privacy Policy to ensure that you understand our policies and procedures relating to privacy, what personal information you must provide if you wish to use certain portions of the Websites and the Services, ultimately, just how we use such personal information.

This Privacy Policy is a part of and is incorporated into the Terms of Use set forth above. All defined terms in this Privacy Policy shall have the meaning assigned to them in the Terms of Use. By accessing or using any of the Websites and the Services, you agree that you have read and agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy.

1. Sites and Site Operator The sites to which the following Privacy Policy applies are: www.amshq.org (collectively, “the Websites”). The operator of the Websites is American Montessori Society, 211 E 43rd St., 7th Fl #262, New York, NY 10017. The agent for AMS is Andrew Hofland, and the email address for AMS’s agent is andrew@amshq.org.

2. Effective Date. This Privacy Policy is effective as of, and was lasted revised on the date specified above. AMS reserves the right to add to, delete from and/or otherwise change this Privacy Policy at any time in its sole and absolute discretion. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you are responsible for monitoring the Websites to determine if any changes have been made to the Privacy Policy in the future. Access to and/or use of the Websites and/or the Services by you after the date of any such change shall be deemed to confirm your agreement to be bound by the Privacy Policy then in effect. By agreeing to the Terms of Use applicable to the Websites at which this Privacy Policy is posted, you are also agreeing to be bound by this Privacy Policy. Unless otherwise indicated, defined terms in this Privacy Policy shall have the same meaning assigned to them in the Terms of Use.

3. Information Collected by the Websites. We collect two types of information from users of the Websites: personal information described below; and non-personal information such as information about traffic patterns on the Websites.

4. Personal Information. To access certain portions of the Websites, including the portions where the Services are offered, we require you to register and with your email address and a password. Some personal data is collected during the registration process. We may then ask for additional information, including personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information.

When you make a purchase on one of the Websites, when you subscribe to the Services, we may ask you for certain personal information such as your name, address, e-mail address, or credit card number/bank account information, in order to process your order, manage your subscription, administer the contest, or send you promotional e-mails. Providing personal information in these instances is solely your choice; you do not need to provide such information, make purchases, or enter such contests to browse our Websites as a Visitor.  As noted in our Terms and Conditions, we only retain credit card information until the transaction is processed. 

5. How We Use Your Personal Information. We use the information collected on the Websites for a variety of purposes, including, but not limited to, running the Websites and the Services and contacting users. The Websites and the Services may also make available to other Registered Users information provided by you during registration, such as your screen name. We may use your information to communicate back to you, to update you on products, services and benefits, to personalize the Websites for you, to contact you for market research or to provide you with marketing information, newsletters, or other information we think would be of particular interest. We will always give you the opportunity to opt out of receiving such materials. In addition, if you make a purchase on any of the Websites, we may send you order and shipping confirmation emails.

If you are a member of AMS, we will retain the information that you provide upon joining.  If you subscribe to publications through the Websites or request to be included in subject matter or other mailing lists maintained by AMS for the benefit of its members, we will retain the information that you provide for that purpose for so long as the list continues in existence or you tell us that you wish to unsubscribe to that list.  If you provide us with payment information, we will retain that information only as long as it is necessary to process your payment (including the time it the processor has to let us know if they payment has been rejected.  Note that if you pay through a third-party provider (e.g. a service we use to process payments), the terms and conditions and privacy policy on that third party provider’s website will govern the retention of information provided for the purpose of processing payment. 

You can remove your e-mail address from our e-mail list at any time by following the procedures set forth below (“Opt Out Procedures”) or by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link in every e-mail from AMS. In addition, you can modify your information or change your preferences, as set forth in Section 10 below (“Reviewing or Changing Your Information”). Information obtained through the Websites and/or the Services may be intermingled with and used in conjunction with information obtained through sources other than our Websites, including both offline and online sources.

You can remove all other personal information by contacting us at either ams@amshq.org or at American Montessori Society, 211 E 43rd St., 7th Fl #262, New York, NY 10017 Attn: Webmaster. If you have obtained or are in the process of obtaining a credential through a Teacher Education Program affiliated with AMS, we will retain information about you associated with your credential to fulfill our obligations as a credentialing body. In compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations adopted by the European Union, we store personal information in an encrypted format and the encryption key is not maintained on the same server as the personal information.  This is part of our efforts to assure that the personal information that you provide to us is maintained as confidential information.

When you join as a member or subscribe to an online publication or email marketing, we will ask you if we have your permission to share the information you provide with third party providers.  Periodically, we will request that you review and update that information.  AMS only shares information with third party providers when it believes that the third party provider has a product or service that would be advantageous to AMS’s members or subscribers.  Such third party providers are only given short term access to your electronic or snail-mail contact information or both, depending on the permission that you give.  Such third parties are also required to comply with applicable European Union and United States regulations regarding opting out from communications.

6. Discussions and Community Tools. The Websites and the Services may make chat rooms, forums, bulletin boards, news groups and other community tools available to Registered Users and/or Visitors. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information for other users to view and for AMS to use. Please do not disclose any personally identifiable information, including without limitation your full name or e-mail address, in these publicly accessible areas of the Websites or the Services. Please be considerate and respectful of others while using any chat rooms, forums or message boards to share your opinion.

7. Non-Personal Data. In some cases, we may collect non-personal information. Examples of this type of information include the type of Internet browser you are using, the type of computer operating system application software, and peripherals you are using and the domain name of the web site from which you linked to our Site. We use your information on an aggregated basis to do such things as operate our Websites, enhance our Websites and sell and deliver advertising.

8. Cookies. Certain features on the Websites and/or the Services utilize cookie technology. A cookie is a small data file that certain web sites write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain various types of information, including a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you've visited. We may use cookies to enhance your experience on our Websites, to determine user traffic patterns and for other purposes.

Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies; however, you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent or you can flush your browser of cookies from time to time. (Note: you may need to consult the help area of your browser application for instructions.) If you choose to disable your cookies setting or refuse to accept a cookie, however, you may not be able to access all areas of the Websites and/or the Services.

9. Opt Out Procedures. You have the option to opt out of receiving information from AMS, the Websites and the Services. This opt out messaging will appear at the bottom of every promotional email that is sent out. If you no longer wish to take advantage of the Websites or the Services or receive any form of direct contact from AMS, whether it is email, discounts, newsletters, or other promotional offers or materials, contact us at: ams@amshq.org.

10. Reviewing or Changing Your Information. In order to ensure that the information we maintain is accurate, we give users the option to change or modify their information previously provided during registration. If you would like to change your information currently in our database, please log in and click the “My Account” link on the various Websites or email us at ams@amshq.org.

11. Sharing of Your Information. AMS may share your personal information: (i) with AMS’s parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, or successors (collectively the “AMS Parties”), or with third parties who are under obligations of confidentiality with any of the AMS Parties, (ii) if a AMS Party is required by law to do so, (iii) in the event of a transfer of ownership of a AMS Party, merger or other similar transaction, or (iv) as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy. The following describes some of the ways that your personal information may be disclosed to third parties:

We may employ third parties to perform services or functions on our behalf in order to improve our Websites, merchandising, marketing and promotional efforts, communications or other services. Those third parties may include authorized contractors, consultants and other companies working with us. They only have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, and they may not share any personal information with others or use it for any other purpose than providing or improving AMS's services and offerings.

We may share your information with third parties whom we believe have information of interest to you. In addition, we may share certain non-personal information with third parties for advertising, promotional and other purposes. For example, we may work with third party advertising companies, to serve and track our ads. These third parties may install other cookies. Our advertising partners may use the non-personal information they collect from our Websites, in the aggregate, to help us better market and serve our customers.

This Privacy Policy applies only to the Websites and the Services and does not address the practices of third parties who may collect your personal information. You may visit other websites, through links on the Websites, which may collect, use and share your personal information in accordance with their own privacy policies. The information practices of those linked websites are not covered by this Privacy Policy, and we encourage you to be very cautious before you disclose your personal information to others. In order to provide you with the information, products or services which you have requested, we may share or transfer your personal information with our parent, affiliates or subsidiaries, or third party agents acting on their behalf.

The AMS Parties may be obligated to cooperate with various law enforcement inquiries. Each AMS Party reserves the right to disclose or transfer personal information and non-personal information about you and your activities on our Websites in order to comply with a legal requirement or request from law enforcement or other government officials, administrative agencies or third parties as we, in our sole discretion, determine necessary or appropriate for the administration of justice, or in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements or violations of any other law, rule or regulation, our Terms of Use or other rules or policies of our Websites, the rights of third parties, or an investigation of any other activity that may expose us or you to legal liability, or to investigate any suspected conduct which AMS in its sole discretion deems improper.

12. Security. Providing a secure site is essential for your peace of mind and trust in AMS. We have installed encryption software conforming to the Secure Socket Layers (SSL) protocol to safeguard all of the commerce related (e.g. credit card and billing address) information you send to us. All information is stored on our servers in a secure location. It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. If your password is compromised, notify Customer Service at once at ams@amshq.org.

13. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Policy. The Websites and the Services are not intended for or directed to users under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly or intentionally collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 or other minors. Where appropriate, we take reasonable measures to determine that our users are adults of legal age and to inform minors not to submit such information to the Websites or the Services or in response to advertisements. If you are concerned that personal information may have been inadvertently provided to or collected by AMS, please contact us immediately at ams@amshq.org so that we may appropriate steps to remove such information from our database.

14. Privacy Precaution Warning. Please note that no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee the security of the information that you transmit via our online services.

15. Your Consent. By using the Websites and/or the Services, and by providing your personal information to us, you also authorize the storage, use and export of your personal information as specified herein.

16. Applicable Law. The headquarters of AMS is located in the State of New York, U.S.A. This Privacy Policy and our legal obligations are subject to the laws of New York and the U.S.A., regardless of the location of any user. Any claims or complaints must be filed a court of competent jurisdiction in the State of New York, U.S.A.

California “Shine the Light” Law

California’s “Shine the Light” law (Cal. Civ. Code Sections 1798.80, et seq.), adopted effective January 1, 2005, provides California residents with the right to receive certain disclosures when personal information that has been collected online is shared with third parties for direct-marketing purposes.

If you are a California resident and you provided personal information to AMS through a website in the past, and/or if you do so in the future, you are entitled to submit a request in writing to AMS for a description of the information we may have provided to third parties. To submit your written request, please send it to andrew@amshq.org and put the following words in the subject line of the email: “California Privacy Request.”

Within 30 days after receipt of your request, we will send you a list of the categories of personal information disclosed to third parties during the immediately preceding calendar year, along with the names and addresses of the third parties who actually received such information, if any.

We reserve our right not to respond to requests sent more than once in a calendar year.

Please note that the California “Shine the Light” law does not cover all aspects of on-line information sharing, and our policy relates only to information covered by the law.

Community Posting Guidelines

By joining and using this online community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines.  You also agree to reserve discussions and shared files and content to that best suited to the medium.  This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation.  Questions should be directed to us via the Contact Us link on this site.

In order to preserve an environment that both encourages civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this online community for anyone who violates these rules.

The RULES:

• Respect others.Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them.Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members; there’s no such thing as a stupid question.
• Respect the purpose of the community.Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions and goals instead of products or services that you provide.If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.
• Use caution when discussing products.Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to applicable laws includes the laws of libel, slander and antitrust.
• All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive or illegal materials are strictly prohibited.Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
• Respect intellectual property.Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
• When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse.It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
• Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities.This helps ensure that all messages receive the best response by eliminating “noise.”

  Discussion Group Etiquette

• State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line.This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
• State messages such as “thanks for the information” “me, too” to individuals, not to the entire list.Do this by using the “Reply to Sender” link in every message.
• Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group.Instead use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list.If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address.Simply change your settings.

Anti Spam Policy

We do not sell or provide email addresses to any unauthorized third party and do not authorize any third party or affiliate to misuse products or services created by or associated with AMS in spam or bulk emails. If you feel you have received any unwanted emails from us, please contact us immediately and we will look into the matter.

AMS prohibits the use of their website and/or services in any manner associated with the transmission, distribution or delivery of any unsolicited bulk or unsolicited commercial e-mail.  You may not use any AMS services to send Spam. You also may not deliver Spam or cause Spam to be delivered to any customers of AMS.

In compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (15 U.S.C. 7701, et seq., Public Law No. 108-187, was S.877 of the 108th United States Congress), e-mail sent, or caused to be sent, to or through the AMS website or service or on behalf of AMS may not:

• use or contain false, misleading, invalid or forged headers
• use deceptive or misleading subject lines
• use or contain invalid or non-existent domain names;
• employ any technique to otherwise misrepresent, hide or obscure any information in identifying the point of origin or the transmission path;
• use other means of deceptive addressing;
• use a third party’s internet domain name, or be relayed from or through a third party’s equipment, without permission of the third party;
• contain false or misleading information in the subject line or otherwise contain false or misleading content;
• fail to comply with additional technical standards described below;
• otherwise violate our Terms of Use.

AMS does not authorize the harvesting, mining or collection of e-mail addresses or other information from or through the website or its services. AMS does not permit or authorize others to use the AMS services to collect, compile or obtain any information about its customers or subscribers, including but not limited to subscriber e-mail addresses. AMS does not permit or authorize any attempt to use its services in a manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair any aspect of any of the services, or that could interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of any AMS service.

If AMS believes that unauthorized or improper use is being made of any service, it may, without notice, take such action as it, in its sole discretion, deems appropriate, including blocking messages from a particular internet domain, mail server or IP address. AMS may immediately terminate any account on any service which it determines, in its sole discretion, is transmitting or is otherwise connected with any e-mail that violates this policy.

Nothing in this policy is intended to grant any right to transmit or send e-mail to, or through, the AMS website and/or services. Failure to enforce this policy in every instance does not amount to a waiver of AMS’s rights.

Unauthorized use of any AMS services in connection with the transmission of unsolicited e-mail, including the transmission of e-mail in violation of this policy, may result in civil, criminal, or administrative penalties against the sender and those assisting the sender.

Violators of the CAN SPAM Act may be subject to cease and desist orders or penalties from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) of up to $11,000 per violation. Criminal prosecution is also possible in the case of egregious offenders, which can result in penalties such as fines, forfeiture of proceeds and equipment. The worst offenders can also be subject to prison time.