Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

 

Effective Date: July 1, 2026

 

1. Introduction and Overview.

 

This Privacy Policy describes how Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (“GALA,” “we,” “our,” or “us”), a non-profit organization, collects, uses, and shares information about you as well as your rights and choices about such use and sharing, and applies to your use of our website located at www.galalaw.com and any online service location that posts a link to this Privacy Policy and all features, content, and other services that we own, control, and make available through such online service location (collectively, the “Service”). This Privacy Policy does not apply to our information collection activities outside of the Service (unless otherwise stated below or at the time of collection).

By using the Service, you agree to our Terms of Use and to our collection, use and disclosure practices, and other activities as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree and consent, discontinue use of the Service.

 

If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please contact us as set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” below.

 

2. Information Collection.

 

A. Information You Provide.

 

We collect information you provide directly via the Service, such as when you register a membership account, update your member profile, access our content, subscribe to our mailing list and newsletter or contact us. This information may include contact data, such as your first and last name, e-mail address, postal address, law firm name, phone number and similar contact data; registration data, such as your username, password; and the content of messages you send to us, such as your feedback or questions and information you provide to us. Please do not provide any information that we do not request.

 

B. Information Collected Automatically.

 

We and our Service Providers may automatically collect information about your device and how it interacts with our Service.  This includes technical information about the type of device or browser you use, your device’s operating system, your internet service provider, your device’s regional and language settings, and similar information, as well as IP addresses and other device identifiers.

 

This information may be automatically collected through essential cookies and other similar technologies incorporated into our Service. We use these technologies to help make our Service work, prevent fraud and assist with security.  We do not use any non-essential cookies or other similar technologies.

 

C. Information From Our Business Relationships.

 

Through our business relationships with you, we collect your contact data and other information relating to you and your business. This information is not subject to this Privacy Policy except as required by applicable law.

 

D. Information from Third Party Sources.

 

We also obtain information about you from other third party sources. We protect data obtained from these third parties according to the practices described in this Privacy Policy, plus any additional restrictions imposed by the source of the data. These third party sources include:

 

·       Social networks that we use. For more information, please see the “Third-Party Social Network” section below.

·       Our business partners and members of GALA, including information shared by business partners in connection with GALA-hosted and GALA-sponsored events, through the GALA Member Country Directory, or in connection with other similar activities.

·       Publicly-available sources, including professional directories and databases (such as legal directories, bar association listings, and membership directories of industry organizations), court filings and regulatory decisions, corporate registries, published legal updates and thought leadership articles, academic publications, conference materials, and other information lawfully made available to the general public.

 

 

3. Use of Information.

 

We use information about you for our legitimate interests, including to:

 

·       Manage our Service, including membership administration, your registration and account, and to verify your identity when you log in.

·       Perform services requested by you, such as to respond to your comments, questions, and requests, and provide customer service.

·       Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, information regarding changes to our policies, and support and administrative messages.

·       Prevent and address fraud, breach of policies or terms, and threats or harm.

·       Monitor and analyse trends, usage, and activities.

·       Conduct research, including focus groups and surveys.

·       Improve the Service or other GALA websites, apps, marketing efforts, products and services.

 

We also use information about you with your consent, including to:

 

·       Send you communications (including via our mailing list or newsletter) regarding our membership benefits, GALA-related events, and/or other opportunities, and our and our business partners’ and GALA members’ services and offers.

·       Develop and display content and features.

·       Fulfill any other purpose disclosed to you and with your consent.

 

We may use information that does not identify you (including information that has been de-identified) without obligation to you except as prohibited by applicable law. For information on your rights and choices regarding how we use your information, please see the section entitled “Your Rights and Choices” below.

 

4. Disclosure of Information.

 

We disclose information about you as follows:

 

·       Service Providers. We may disclose your information to our agents, vendors, and other service providers (collectively “Service Providers”) in connection with their work on our behalf. Service Providers assist us with services such as payment processing, data analytics, marketing and promotional services (such as, for instance, Constant Contact), website hosting, and technical support. Service Providers are prohibited from using your information for any purpose other than to provide this assistance, although we may permit them to use aggregate information which does not identify you or de-identified data for other purposes.

·       Business Partners and GALA Members. We may disclose your information to our business partners or in connection with GALA-hosted and GALA-sponsored events, through the GALA Member Country Directory, or in connection with other similar activities. We may also disclose your information with GALA members or prospective members for referral and other similar purposes.

·       Merger or Acquisition. We may disclose your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any proposed or actual merger, purchase, sale or any other type of acquisition or business combination of all or any portion of our assets, or transfer of all or a portion of our business to another business.

·       Security and Compelled Disclosure. We may disclose your information to comply with the law or other legal process, and where required, in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. We may also share your information to protect the rights, property, life, health, security and safety of us, the Service or any third party.

·       Consent. We may disclose your information for any other purpose disclosed to you and with your consent.

 

We may disclose aggregated information which does not identify you or de-identified information about you for any purpose except as prohibited by applicable law. For information on your rights and choices regarding how we share your information, please see the section entitled “Your Rights and Choices” below.

 

5. Public Information.

 

Certain areas of the Service, such as user profiles and our blog, are designed to help you share information with the world. If you make information public through our Service, other people will have access to it. Please think carefully before making information public as you are solely responsible for any information you make public. Once you have posted information, you may not be able to edit or delete such information; however, you may have additional rights as set forth in “Your Rights and Choices” below.

 

6. Third-Party Social Networks.

We may make posts or publish pages relating to GALA, our Service, and our activities on social media platforms (including LinkedIn, Facebook, and X). We do this to help social media users discover and engage with us, and help us promote and keep social media users updated about our organization and activities.

 

We may receive insights from the third-party providers of these social media platforms about how users interact with our pages and posts. We receive this information so that we can understand how many people saw our social media content, which content people are engaging with the most, actions users are taking (such as whether they clicking on any content), and the demographics (such as age, gender and location) of those that view our social media pages.

 

These insights are derived from personal data that the third-party social media providers process and are only provided to us in the form of anonymous and aggregate statistics – we do not receive your personal data or any information that we can use to identify you when we receive these insights. In addition, we may also see who has ‘liked’ or shared content that we post on social media.

 

We use these insights to improve our online presence and promote GALA via social media, and to improve the content that we post on social media, including to ensure that our content is relevant to persons that we would like to engage with on social media.

 

7. Third-Party Links and Services.

 

This Privacy Policy only applies to information processed by us. Our Service may contain links to third-party websites. We have no control over these third-party websites and this Privacy Policy does not apply to your interaction with the relevant third parties.

 

8. Your Rights and Choices.

 

A. Review and Update of Account Information.

 

You may access, update, or remove certain account information that you have voluntarily submitted to us through the Service by sending an e-mail to the e-mail address set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” below. We may require additional information from you to allow us to confirm your identity. Please note that we will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

 

 

B. Communications.

 

You can opt-out of receiving promotional e-mails from us at any time by following the instructions as provided in e-mails to click on the unsubscribe link, or e-mailing us at the e-mail address set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” below with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field of the e-mail. Please note that you cannot opt-out of non-promotional e-mails, such as those about your account, transactions, servicing, or GALA’s ongoing business relations. Please note that your opt-out is limited to the e-mail address used and will not affect subsequent subscriptions.

 

C. Region-Specific Rights.

 

US State Privacy Laws

 

GALA is a non-profit organization and, as such, is not subject to many state consumer privacy laws. However, the laws of certain US states – namely, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Oregon – may apply to our activities and you may have rights under those laws. This section describes information we are required to provide under these laws and the rights that you may have, including how you can exercise those rights.

 

Data Practices

 

Our practices regarding the collection, use, disclosure, and retention of your personal data are set out in the main Privacy Policy above.

 

We do not sell your personal data or process your personal data for purposes of targeted advertising. We do not process personal data for purposes of profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning consumers.

 

Rights

 

Depending on which US state law or laws apply and your place of residence, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

 

Right to Access: You may have the right to access and obtain a copy of the specific personal data that we have collected about you in a usable format.

 

Right to Know: You may have the right to know the categories of personal data that we collect, and the purposes for collecting that personal data. You may also have the right to know, including to obtain a list of, the categories of third parties, or the specific third parties, to whom we may disclose that personal data.

 

Right to data portability: You may have the right to obtain a copy of your personal data that you previously provided to us in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit the data to another business without hindrance, where the processing is carried out by automated means.

 

Right to delete: You may have the right to request that we delete any personal data that we have collected from you unless retention of that information is permitted under applicable law.

 

Right to correct: You may have the right to request the correction of any personal data we maintain about you.

 

 

Exercising your Rights

 

To exercise any of these rights, please email us at privacy@galalaw.com, indicating the type of right you would like to exercise.

 

In order to process your request, we are permitted by law to collect certain information about you to verify your identity and your eligibility to exercise the relevant right.. To verify your identity, we may require you to confirm receipt of an email sent to an email address that matches our records, provide us with details relating to your history with us, or provide additional information. If we cannot verify your identity, we may deny your request in accordance with applicable law.

 

You have the right to revoke consent previously given to us for the processing of your personal data. To revoke consent, write us at the email or postal address set out in the “Contact Us” section below (specifying the consent you wish to withdraw). If you withdraw consent, you may not be able to receive certain services related to that consent.

 

Your rights are subject to exceptions and our retention practices. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of your rights. To the extent permitted by law, rights requests must be exercised through the applicable designated method listed above. You may make a rights request using an authorized agent. We will require written and signed proof of the agent’s permission to do so and we may verify your identity directly with you.

 

You have the right to appeal our decision in response to your request. To appeal, please write us at the email or postal address set out in the “Contact Us” section below and specify what you wish to appeal. We will review and respond to your appeal in accordance with applicable law (45 days in the case of the laws of Colorado, New Jersey, and Oregon, or 60 days in the case of the laws of Delaware, Maryland, and Minnesota.

 

If we deny your appeal, you may submit a complaint to your Attorney General.

 

Your European Privacy Rights.

 

If you are a data subject in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or the United Kingdom (“UK”), you have the right to access, rectify, or erase any personal data we have collected about you through the Service. You also have the right to data portability and the right to restrict or object to our processing of personal data we have collected about you through the Service. In addition, you have the right to ask us not to process your personal data (or provide it to third parties to process) for marketing purposes or purposes materially different than for which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized by you. You may withdraw your consent at any time for any data processing we do based on consent you have provided to us.

 

To the extent we make a decision about you based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that has a legal or other similarly significant effect on you, we will provide you with meaningful information about how any such decision is reached and what it means for you. We will only make such decisions where we are permitted by law to do so, such as where such processing is necessary for the entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and us. Where we do, you will have the right to obtain meaningful human involvement, to express your point of view, and to contest the decision.

 

 

To exercise any of your rights, contact us as set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” below and specify which right you intend to exercise. We will respond to your request within 30 days. We may require additional information from you to allow us to confirm your identity. Please note that we store information as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, and may continue to retain and use the information even after a data subject request for purposes of our legitimate interests, including as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, and enforce our agreements.

 

If you have any issues with our compliance, you have the right to complain to us. In addition to your right to complain to us, you have the right to complain to an EEA supervisory authority.

 

9. Children.

 

The Service is intended for a general audience and not directed to children under thirteen (13) years of age. GALA does not knowingly collect personal information as defined by the U.S. Children’s Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) in a manner that is not permitted by COPPA. If you are a parent or guardian and believe GALA has collected such information in a manner not permitted by COPPA, please contact us as set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” below, and we will remove such data to the extent required by COPPA.

 

10. Data Security.

 

We implement and maintain reasonable administrative, physical, and technical security safeguards to help protect your information from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Nevertheless, transmission via the internet is not completely secure and we cannot guarantee the security of your information.

 

11. Data Privacy Framework and International Transfer.

 

We are based in the U.S. and the information we collect is governed by U.S. law. If you are accessing the Service from outside of the U.S., please be aware that information collected through the Service may be transferred to, processed, stored, and used in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. Data protection laws in the U.S. and other jurisdictions may be different from those of your country of residence. Your use of the Service or provision of any information therefore constitutes your consent to the transfer to and from, processing, usage, sharing, and storage of your information in the U.S. and other jurisdictions as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If your data is collected in the European Union (“EU”), we will transfer your personal data subject to appropriate or suitable safeguards, such as the Data Privacy Framework discussed below.

 

GALA complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (“EU-U.S. DPF”), the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF (the “UK Extension”), and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (“Swiss-U.S. DPF”) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal data from the EU and Switzerland to the U.S., respectively (collectively, the “DPF”). GALA certifies that it adheres to, as applicable, the EU-U.S. DPF Principles with regarding to the processing of personal data received from the European Union in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF, from the United Kingdom (and Gibraltar) in reliance on the UK Extension, and the Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles (collectively, the “Principles”). If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the Principles, the Principles shall govern. The Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over Gala’s compliance with the DPF.

 

In accordance with our obligations under the DPF, and subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, we hereby affirm our commitment to subject to the DPF Principles all personal data transferred from the EU and Switzerland in reliance on the DPF. Where we rely on the DPF Principles for onward transfers of personal data from the EU, UK, and Switzerland, including the onward transfer liability provisions, we remain responsible under the DPF Principles for third-party agents processing personal data on its behalf.

 

In the event that you have any inquiry, dispute, or claim arising out of or relating to our compliance with the DPF, please contact us as set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” below. If we are unable to resolve your complaint directly, you may submit your complaint at no cost to you to JAMS at https://www.jamsadr.com/dpf-dispute-resolution. In the event there are residual complaints that have not been resolved by JAMS, or any other means, you may seek a non-monetary remedy through binding arbitration to be provided to you in accordance with the DPF.

 

To learn more about the DPF, and to view GALA’s certification, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/s/

 

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy.

 

We reserve the right to revise and reissue this Privacy Policy at any time. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting of the revised Privacy Policy. Your continued use of our Service indicates your consent to the Privacy Policy then posted. If the changes are material, we may provide you additional notice to your e-mail address.

 

13. Contact Us.

 

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, our data practices, or our compliance with applicable law, please contact us:

 

By e-mail:

privacy@galalaw.com

 

By mail:

Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (GALA)
1202 Lexington Avenue, Suite 181
New York NY, 10028
Attention: Stacy D. Bess