User login accounts

Many portions of the site–such as the store, event and contest registrations, discussion forums, and members-only areas–require you to log in in order to participate. Non-member login accounts are free and easy to set up, though they do not provide access to all parts of the site.

To create a login account, you need to provide the following information:

• email address
• the password you want to use to log in
  (note: as a matter of basic security, we recommend that you not use a variant of your name, your birthdate, the word “photographer”, or the name “NPPA” as your password; we won’t stop you from doing so, but it’s not a good idea)
• your name

Member accounts

NPPA members are also required to provide additional information when they join, including Home and Work address, and some basic professional information.

Store purchases

Purchasing an item from the store requires that you provide us with your billing and shipping address (and of course the information about what you want to purchase). A user login account is required in order to buy anything from the NPPA store.

Credit card numbers and expiration dates are taken when you place your order, but the full credit card number is never stored by NPPA except temporarily in memory on the server while the order is being processed. All credit card information is transmitted using 128-bit encryption.

We do store the last 4 digits of your credit card number for auditing purposes, but we never record the full number in any permanent medium.

Surveys and Questionnaires

We may ask visitors to our website to complete online surveys and opinion polls on a variety of topics, such as their activities, attitudes, and interests, and our products and services. These surveys help us understand the needs of our visitors.

“Contact Us”

You may choose to contact us through our website. If you e-mail us comments or questions, we will have your e-mail address, as well as your comment, question, or any other information you choose to provide.

When you visit our website, your browser automatically sends us certain Internet-related information, such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer you’re using, and your browser version.

We also collect certain information about our website visitors, such as how many users visited our site, the date and time of visit to our site, the time spent on the site, the pages viewed, and referring websites. By collecting this information, we learn how to better tailor our website to our visitors. While we examine such information only in the aggregate, such information could potentially be linked back to your individual IP address.

We also use cookies on our site to allow users to access the members-only sections and the store. Cookies are small text files that websites often store on the computer hard drives of visitors. The cookie contains a unique code, which is used to confirm that you are logged in. We do not track cookies beyond the current browser session, so you can disable stored cookies without causing any problems.

If you are extra-concerned about being tracked, most browsers allow you to block cookies altogether. Remember, though, that cookies are used to keep you logged in, so if you disable all cookies, you will probably not be able to access the members-only content on the NPPA website.

Aggregate information about visitor statistics is used to detect abuse of our site, to tune our server configuration, to refine navigation links, and to set prices for online advertisers.

Contact information collected through our website is used in connection with the purpose for which it was submitted (for example, to answer a question, or to inform you of upcoming deadlines for a contest for which you have registered).

In addition, we periodically contact our members by email to keep them informed about what is going on in the organization.

We may also use the information we collect to customize our contacts with you and to do other internal analyses, such as market research, that will allow us to better meet the needs of our members.

Public Information

Some information on the site (such as the Forum discussions or the Find a Photographer listings) is viewable by any visitor to the site. This follows from the function of these areas: the Find a Photographer service is only useful if prospective clients can in fact find you; and a discussion forum is only useful if other people can read what you write.

By listing your contact information in one of those areas, you accept that people may contact you as a result. (Note that forum postings do not generally include contact information, and we do not request or recommend that you provide such information in your posts.)

In addition, contact information for staff members, officers, event chairs, and committee members are listed on the appropriate pages, so that members and attendees can reach them with questions. Volunteers and officers choose what information they want to have listed, but they must be reachable.

Members-Only Information

An additional tier of information (directory listings, contact information for the Mentorship program, and contact information for jobs posted on the Job Information Bank or Student Internship Guide) is available to any logged-in member of the organization. In all these cases, sharing your information with other members is either your goal in using the service, or a necessary means to achieving that goal: nobody can apply for your job if they can’t contact you.

This information is only shared if you choose to make it available, and is only shared within the context you provided it for.

Event, Contest, and Regional Information

Information about participants in NPPA events and contests may be provided to the registrar and relevant (sub)committee chair, for administrative purposes.

In addition, contact information for members in each NPPA region may be provided to the Regional Director and Associate Director, for use in outreach and other NPPA business.

Private Information

All other information you may provide is considered private and will not be shared, except as required by law.