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We strive to provide our members, customers, and other users of our website with the best products and services available and recognize that building a long-term business relationship with you depends a great deal on trust. We provide this privacy notice to describe how we collect, use, share, and otherwise process the information we collect.
Subject to the information provided in this Privacy Notice, we have structured our Site so that, in general, you can visit OITA on the web without identifying yourself or revealing any personal information. Once you choose to provide us personal information (name, address, e-mail address, phone number, etc.) you can be assured that it will only be used to support your member/customer relationship with us, or as otherwise set out in this Privacy Notice. Our membership application process, registration process for seminars, certification and educational programs, the OITA Store (Marketplace), and Job Board (Talent Watch) may request and/or require you to submit personal information. However, you can be assured that any such personal information that you submit to us will be protected by industry standard security and management procedures and will be used only for the purpose for which it was submitted, unless you request or agree otherwise, or as otherwise set out in this Privacy Notice.
Our Privacy Notice covers these areas: Awareness, Choice, Access & Correction, Security, Additional Site Issues, International Visitors, Retention, Enforcement Contact Information, and Changes to this Notice.
OITA provides this Privacy Notice to make you aware of our privacy practices and of the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.
What Information We Collect
On OITA's Sites, over the telephone, or through the mail, you are able to order products or services from OITA, apply for OITA membership, and register for seminars, courses, and certification. The types of personal information collected by OITA include your name, your employer and job title, your contact and billing information for business and home (including telephone number and e-mail address), and your credit card information (if applicable). In order to tailor our subsequent communications to you and continuously improve our products and services, we may also ask you to provide us with information regarding your personal or professional interests, demographics, experience with our products, and contact preferences. By using our Sites, or by contacting us over the telephone, or through the mail, you may transfer your personal information to locations outside of the jurisdiction in which you live, including to the United States and other jurisdictions in which OITA operates.
The provision of information is sometimes required by law and at other times is a result of a contractual requirement. You may be required to provide information, for example in a case where we enter an agreement with you, and the non-provision of information could, in certain circumstances, prevent a transaction from concluding.
Information Collected Through Technology
When you use any of our Sites or services, we or our service providers may collect tracking information such as your browser type, mobile device, the type of operating system you use, the domain name of your Internet service provider, and pages visited on the Sites. We use this information for aggregate reporting. For example, we may want to know how long the average user spends on our Sites or which pages or features get the most attention. We use this information to make our Sites and other products and services more useful to you; to provide you with more effective customer service; to make the Sites or services easier to use by eliminating the need for you to repeatedly enter the same information; to perform research and analysis aimed at improving our products, services and technologies; and to display content and advertising that are customized to your interests and preferences. (See Section 5, Additional Site Issues, for more information about technologies used to collect information about user activity on OITA Sites.)
How We Use the Information
OITA uses your information to better understand your needs and provide you with better service. Specifically, we use your information to help you complete transactions requested by you, to communicate back to you, and to offer and update you on OITA services and benefits. Credit card numbers are used only for payment processing and are not retained for other purposes.
As a benefit to OITA members and certificants, OITA will (at no charge) include your name and relevant biographical information in OITA directories. From time to time, we may also contact you for market research purposes or to provide you with marketing information we think would be of interest. OITA will not reveal your personal information publicly or to any third party (except as stated below), unless we receive your permission to do so. For example, the OITA membership application includes a question asking if you want your name included in mailing lists, OITA announcement lists and OITA directories. Your name will not be used for any such purpose unless you affirmatively request OITA to do so. In addition, if at any time you would like to have your name removed from OITA lists and/or directories, please follow the directions given below in the "Choice" section (Section 2) of this document to opt-out of such contact.
We do not use automatic decision-making or engage in profiling that results in legal effects or similarly significant effects on you.
Where we intend to process your personal information for a purpose other than the purpose for which it was collected, we will provide you with information regarding the purpose for the processing, as well as other relevant information, prior to processing your personal information for the new purpose.
With Whom We Share the Information
OITA will not sell, rent, or lease your personal information to others outside of OITA without your permission. Unless we have your permission or are required by law, we will only share the personal information you provide to us with other OITA entities and/or business partners who are acting on our behalf to help us provide you with our products and services. Such OITA entities and/or business partners are governed by our privacy policies with respect to the use of this data and are bound by this Privacy Notice and applicable confidentiality agreements.
OITA will not use or share the personal information provided to us for purposes other than for which the information was originally submitted, without your express permission, except as expressly stated in this Notice. We will also provide you the opportunity to inform us at any time if you choose to opt-out of partial or total contact from OITA and we will comply with such requests. This choice regarding communications from OITA may be offered on our membership and certification applications, registration forms or web pages, or at the bottom of online or off-line communications from us. If you have any difficulty exercising your choices, please send your request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You may also exercise your choices by contacting OITA by phone at +1-440-835-5648, (Customer Care) or by mail at Ohio IT Association, 1991 Crocker Road, Suite 105, Westlake, Ohio 44145. Except as expressly stated in this Privacy Notice, your permission will always be secured first, should we ever decide to share your information with third parties that are not acting on our behalf and not governed by our Privacy Notice.
OITA strives to keep your personal information accurate. We will provide you with access to your information, including making every reasonable effort to provide you with online or telephone access to your registration data so that you may review, update or correct your personal information. To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or enabling you to make corrections. If you are an OITA member, you can access your personal information by logging into OITA with your user ID and password. You may also request a change in your personal information by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by telephone at +1 440 835 5648.
OITA is committed to ensuring the security of your information. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. We use data encryption technology to help protect against loss, misuse or alteration of your sensitive credit or debit card information. We use PCI compliant technology to encrypt the connection between you and our systems for the transmission of any credit or debit card information you input online, and we use encryption protection for any payment authorizations for transactions we request through any channel.
Any unauthorized access to or use of any of our Sites and other products and services or to the information collected and maintained by us should be immediately brought to our attention by contacting us via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by writing to us at Ohio IT Association, 1991 Crocker Road, Suite 105, Westlake, Ohio 44145.
Your access to some services and content is password protected. We recommend that you do not divulge your password to anyone. OITA will never ask you for your password in an unsolicited phone call or in an unsolicited email. You should not disclose your user name and password to others.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Accordingly, despite our best efforts to protect your personal information, OITA cannot completely ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, or to or from our online products or services. You transmit all such information at your own risk. However, once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.
OITA uses cookies and web beacons (described below), to collect information about the pages you view, the links you click and other actions you take on our Sites and services. Additionally, we collect certain standard information that your browser sends to every web site you visit, such as your IP address, browser type and language, access times and referring web site addresses. We also deliver advertisements and provide web site analytics tools on non-OITA sites and services, and we may collect information about page views on these third party sites as well.
Most aggregate information is collected via cookies, web beacons and other technical methods. Web beacons (also known as clear gifs), in conjunction with cookies, are used to compile statistics about site usage. Web beacons are small pieces of data that are embedded in images on the pages of web sites or applications. We or our service providers use these technical methods to analyze the traffic patterns on our Sites, such as the frequency with which our users visit various parts of our Sites and to measure site effectiveness or use of online products and services. We also use Web beacons in HTML e-mails that we send our visitors who have agreed to receive e-mail from us, to determine whether our recipients have opened those e-mails and/or clicked on links in those e-mails. If you choose to furnish OITA with personally identifiable information, this information can be associated to the data stored in the cookies or Web beacons. These technical methods may involve the transmission of information either directly to us or to our service providers. These technical methods allow us to make our Sites and other products and services, and any e-mails you have agreed to receive, more interesting to you. You may render some Web beacons unusable by rejecting their associated cookies.
We also use cookies to store, and sometimes to track, user information. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your e-mail address or other personal information unless you choose to provide this information to us by, for example, registering or subscribing to our Sites. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a Web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. A cookie contains a unique number that allows our Sites to recognize your computer. We use both temporary and persistent cookies; a temporary cookie tracks visitor activity during a session or visit and it expires when you close your browser. We use them to provide continuity for your visit as you visit Site pages. Persistent cookies allow us to keep track of your user name and password (if you are a subscriber) so you don't have to re-enter that information each time you visit. The Help function on most browsers contains information on how to set your browser to notify you before accepting cookies or to disable cookies entirely. However, if you don't accept cookies, you won't be able to take advantage of various features on our Sites that are available to other visitors.
Links to third party web sites are provided solely as a convenience to you. If you use these links, you will leave the Site. OITA has not reviewed all of these third party sites and does not control and is not responsible for any of these sites, their content or their privacy policies. Thus, OITA does not endorse or make any representations about them, or any information, software or other products or materials found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party sites linked to this Site, you do this entirely at your own risk.
This section applies to those that visit our Site from the European Union.
Lawful Basis for Processing
On certain occasions, we process your personal information when it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, such as to provide services to you that you have requested. We may also process your personal information to respond to your inquiries concerning our products and services.
On other occasions, we process your personal information where required by law. We may also process your personal information if necessary to protect your interests or the interests of a third party.
Additionally, we process your personal information when necessary to do so: (i) for direct marketing purposes, (ii) to provide you with content that may be of interest to you, (iii) to contact your references if you have applied for certification, and these interests are not overridden by your data protection rights. Where we process your personal information for these purposes, our legitimate interest is to carry out our activities in furtherance of the well-being of all our employees, users, certification holders and members.
If the processing of personal information is necessary and there is no statutory basis for such processing, we will ask for your consent to process your personal information. You have the right to withdraw your consent to processing of personal information at any time.
If you wish to exercise the right to withdraw consent, contact us using the contact information found in the “Contact” section below.
Transfers of Personal Information
Please be aware that the personal information we collect may be transferred to and maintained on servers or databases located outside your state, province, country, or other jurisdiction, where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your location. If you are located outside of the United States, please be advised that we process and store personal information in the United States.
Your Rights
You have a right to the following:
To exercise these rights, contact us or our privacy officer. See the “Contact Us” section below. Please be aware that OITA may be unable to afford these rights to you under certain circumstances, such as if we are legally prevented from doing so.
Additionally, you have the right to lodge a complaint against us. To do so, contact the supervisory authority in your country of residence.
We will process and store your personal information only for the period necessary to achieve the purpose of the storage, or as permitted by law. The criteria used to determine the period of storage of personal information is, for example, the respective statutory retention period. After expiration of that period, the corresponding data is routinely deleted.
If you have any questions or comments regarding our privacy practices, please contact OITA, in our role as data controller, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Ohio IT Association at 1991 Crocker Road, Suite 105, Westlake, Ohio 44145. This is the number to the authorized privacy officer for OITA. OITA is subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission. Any disputes arising out of a breach of this policy will be submitted to and resolved by the privacy dispute resolution procedure set up by the Direct Marketing Association.
If there are updates to the terms of this Privacy Notice, we will post those changes and update the revision date listed on this document, so you will always know what information we collect online, how we use it, and what choices you have. For material changes to this Policy, OITA will provide notification to affected customers.
