Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: February 28, 2024

1. Introduction and Overview.

This Privacy Policy describes how Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (“GALA,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) 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, and the content of messages you send to us, such as your feedback or questions and information you provide to us. You may choose to voluntarily submit other information to us through the Service that we do not request, and, in such instances, you are solely responsible for such information.

B. Information Collected Automatically.

We automatically collect information about your device and how your device interacts with our Service. We may use Service Providers to collect this information. Some examples of information we collect include the following:

• Service Use Data. We collect data about the features you use, the pages you visit, the e-mails and advertisements you view, the products you purchase, the time of day you browse, your referring and exiting pages, and other similar information.
• Device Connectivity and Configuration Data. We collect data about the type of device or browser you use, your device’s operating software, your internet service provider, your device’s regional and language settings, and other similar information. This data also includes IP address, MAC address, device advertising Id (e.g., IDFA or AAID), and other device identifiers.

We use various current – and later – developed technologies to collect this information (“Tracking Technologies”), including the following:

• Log Files. A log file is a file that records events that occur in connection with your use of the Service, such as your service use data.
• Cookies. A cookie is a small data file stored on your device that acts as a unique tag to identify your browser. We use two types of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies make it easier for you to navigate the Service and expire when you close your browser. Persistent cookies help with personalizing your experience, remembering your preferences, and supporting security features. Additionally, persistent cookies allow us to bring you advertising both on and off the Service. Persistent cookies may remain on your device for extended periods of time, and generally may be controlled through your browser settings.
• Pixels. A pixel (also known as a web beacon) is code embedded in a website, video, e-mail, or advertisements that sends information about your use to a server. There are various types of pixels, including image pixels (which are small graphic images) and JavaScript pixels (which contains JavaScript code). When you access a website, video, e-mail, or advertisement that contains a pixel, the pixel may permit us or a third party to drop or read cookies on your browser. Pixels are used in combination with cookies to track activity by a particular browser on a particular device. We may incorporate pixels from third parties that allow us track our conversions, bring you advertising both on and off the Service, and provide you with additional functionality, such as the ability to connect our Service with your social media account.

Some information about your use of the Service and certain Third Party Services (defined below) may be collected using Tracking Technologies across time and services and used by us and third parties for purposes such as to associate different devices you use, and deliver relevant ads and/or other content to you on the Service and certain Third Party Services.

For further information on Tracking Technologies and your rights and choices regarding them, see the sections entitled “Third Parties” and “Your Rights and Choices” below.

C. Information from Other 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 vary over time, but may include:

• Social networks when you reference our Service or grant permission to GALA to access your data on one or more of these services.
• Our partners and members.
• Publicly-available sources such as open government databases or other data in the public domain.

For further information on Third Party Services, see the section entitled “Third Parties” below.

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.
• 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 conferences, and/or other opportunities, and our and our partners’ and members’ services and offers.
• Develop and display content, features, and advertising tailored to your interests on our Service as well as on other platforms and services.
• 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. Sharing of Information.

We share information about you as follows:

• Service Providers. We may share your information with 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.
• Affiliates. We may share your information with our related entities including our parent and sister companies. For example, we may share your information with our affiliates for customer support, marketing, and technical operations.
• Business Purposes. We may share your information with our business partners or in connection with GALA-hosted and GALA-sponsored conferences, through the GALA Member Country Directory, or for other similar purposes. If you are a member of GALA, we may share your contact information with other members or prospective clients for referral purposes.
• Third Parties. We may share your information with third parties for purposes of facilitating your requests (such as when you choose to share information with a social network about your activities on the Service) and in connection with tailoring advertisements, measuring and improving our Service and advertising effectiveness, and enabling other enhancements.
• Merger or Acquisition. We may share 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 share 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 share your information for any other purpose disclosed to you and with your consent.

Without limiting the foregoing, in our sole discretion, we may share aggregated information which does not identify you or de-identified information about you with third parties or affiliates 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, California residents and European data subjects have additional rights as set forth in “Your Rights and Choices” below.

6. Third Parties.

A. Third Party Services.

Our Service contains content from and hyperlinks to websites, locations, platforms, and services operated and owned by third parties (“Third Party Services”). These Third Party Services may use Tracking Technologies to independently collect information about you and may solicit information from you. The information collected and stored by third parties, whether through our Service, a Third Party Service, a Third Party Feature (defined below), or a third party device, remains subject to their own policies and practices, including what information they share with us, your rights and choices on their services and devices, and whether they store information in the U.S. or elsewhere. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with and consult their privacy policies and terms of use.

B. Third Party Features.

We may allow you to connect our Service to a Third Party Service or offer our Service through a Third Party Service (“Third Party Features”). If you use a Third Party Feature, both we and the applicable third party may have access to and use information associated with your use of the Third Party Feature, and you should carefully review the third party’s privacy policy and terms of use. Some examples of Third Party Features include the following:

• Liking, Sharing. We may embed a pixel or SDK on our Service that allows you to “like” or “share” content on Third Party Services, including social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you choose to engage with such a Third Party Service through our Service, we may collect any information you have authorized the Third Party Service to share with us (such as your user ID, billing information, public profile information, e-mail address, birthday, friends list, and other account and profile data). Likewise, if you choose to engage with such a Third Party Service through our Service or visit our Service while logged in to that Third Party Service on your device, the Third Party Service may receive information about your activities on our Service and be able to associate that information with information the Third Party Service already has about you.
• Social Media Pages. We may offer our content on social networks such as a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Any information you provide to us when you engage with our content is treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Also, if you publicly reference our Service on a Third Party Service (e.g., by using a hashtag associated with GALA in a tweet or post), we may use your reference on or in connection with our Service.

C. Analytics and Interest-Based Advertising.

Our Service contains Tracking Technologies owned and operated by Third Parties. For example, we use Tracking Technologies from third party analytics provides, such as Google Analytics, to help us analyze your use of the Service, compile statistic reports on the Service’s activity, and provide us with other services relating to Service activity and internet usage.

For further information on Tracking Technologies and your rights and choices regarding them, please see the sections entitled “Information Collected Automatically” above and “Your Rights and Choices” below.

7. 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. California residents and European data subjects have additional rights as set forth in the sections entitled “Your California Privacy Rights” and “Your European Privacy Rights” below.

B. Tracking Technology Choices.

• Cookies and Pixels. Most browsers accept cookies by default. You can instruct your browser, by changing its settings, to decline or delete cookies. If you use multiple browsers on your device, you will need to instruct each browser separately. Your ability to limit cookies is subject to your browser settings and limitations.
• Do Not Track. Your browser settings may allow you to automatically transmit a “Do Not Track” signal to online services you visit. Note, however, there is no industry consensus as to what site and app operators should do with regard to these signals. Accordingly, we do not monitor or take action with respect to “Do Not Track” signals or other mechanisms. For more information on “Do Not Track,” visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.

Please be aware that if you disable or remove Tracking Technologies some parts of the Service may not function correctly.

C. Analytics.

You can opt-out of your data being used by Google Analytics through cookies by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout and downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

D. 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.

E. Your California Privacy Rights.

California’s “Shine the Light” law permits customers in California to request certain details about how certain types of their information are shared with third parties and, in some cases, affiliates, for those third parties’ and affiliates’ own direct marketing purposes. Under the law, a business should either provide California customers certain information upon request or permit California customers to opt in to, or opt out of, this type of sharing.

GALA may share personal information as defined by California’s “Shine the Light” law with third parties and/or affiliates for such third parties’ and affiliates’ own direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and wish to obtain information about our compliance with this law, please contact us as set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” below. Requests must include “California Privacy Rights Request” in the first line of the description and include your name, street address, city, state, and ZIP code. Please note that GALA is not required to respond to requests made by means other than through the provided e-mail address or mail address.

Any California residents under the age of eighteen (18) who have registered to use the Service and posted content or information on the Service, can request that such information be removed from the Service by sending an e-mail to the e-mail address set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” below. Requests must state that the user personally posted such content or information and detail where the content or information is posted. We will make reasonable good faith efforts to remove the post from prospective public view.

F. Your European Privacy Rights.

If you are a data subject in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), 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 exercise any of these 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 lodge a complaint with an EEA supervisory authority.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. nternational 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.

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”) 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 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 EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. 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 from the EU 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)
28 Liberty Street, 35th Floor
New York NY, 10005
Attention: Stacy D. Bess