Privacy Policy

Effective May 17, 2023

The Bulgarian Studies Association and its officers and members (collectively, “BSA”) are committed to protecting your privacy and adhere to the highest ethical standards in gathering, using, and safeguarding personal information you share with BSA, whether or not submitted via this Web site. This Privacy Policy describes how BSA collects, uses, and shares your information when you use and interact with BSA and applies to all persons who interact with the BSA through its Web site or otherwise (“Users”). Our Privacy Policy, along with our Web Site Terms and Conditions also governs your access to and use of all Internet content and sites operated and controlled by BSA, including https://www.bsastudies.org (the “Web site”).

If you have questions about BSA’s Privacy Policy or practices, or if you need to contact us about the information we collect about you, our contact information is at the end of this Privacy Policy.

Applicability and Eligibility

This Privacy Policy applies only to BSA’s collection, use, disclosure, and protection of your data. It does not apply to third party websites, applications, or services.

Before accessing, using, or interacting with BSA or the Web site, you should carefully review the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and the Web Site Terms and Conditions.

The Web site is not directed to children under the age of 13. You may not use the Web site if you are under the age of 13.

Information Collection and Use

BSA collects data about you and your use of the Web site (“Personal Data”) through various means, including when you provide information to us such as when you join, sign up for a membership, donate, register for events and webinars, and when we automatically collect information about you when you access, use, or interact with the Web site. We use this information for a variety of different reasons, including to improve the Web site.

BSA processes Personal Data collected on the lawful basis of legitimate interests to provide the Web site and other services to Users. Such processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by BSA.

The BSA does not rent, sell, or exchange information submitted via the Web site, and use of such information is restricted to BSA’s own marketing and Web site development and maintenance purposes. The BSA may contact you to provide information about BSA activities, programs, membership, development, and other opportunities, products, and special events that may interest you. We disclose in aggregate form our statistical analyses or demographics of users to third parties, such as persons involved in product development.

Visitors to this Web site who do not wish to have their Personal Data collected are asked to not provide such information. If you have provided your e-mail address and wish to remove it from the BSA’s mailing lists, please contact BSA using the information below. The BSA will make reasonable efforts to delete your e-mail address from existing files.

The types of information BSA may collect about you include:

Information You Provide to Us:

BSA Membership and Event Information: BSA collects certain Personal Data from you when you join the BSA or register for BSA events. “Personal Data” refers to information about you that may be used to identify you, such as your name, title, current affiliation, email address, phone number, and mailing address. BSA uses this information to provide your membership, include your information in the BSA member directory, register you for events, provide information about memberships and events, and administer your registrations with BSA.

Form Information: We may use online forms to request certain information from you in order to provide certain services, such as your contact information to assist with membership, donations, contacts or other service requests. This information may include Personal Data.

Correspondence Information: If you sign up for a membership, attend a conference or event, email us, subscribe to our newsletters, mailing lists, publications, or blogs, we may keep your message, email address, and contact information to respond to your requests, provide the requested products or services, and to provide notifications or other correspondences to you. If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, you may let us know by sending us an email at the address below. Please note requests to remove your email address from our lists may take some time to fulfill. We may also still contact you as needed to provide important or legally required announcements or notifications.

BSA Account Information: BSA may require you to register for an account (an “BSA Account”) in order to use certain Web site functions and services. We do not require you to register to use all of our services or Web site functions. However, if you do register for an BSA Account, you will gain access to those BSA services and Web site areas and features that require registration. BSA will collect certain information about you in connection with your registration for your BSA Account, which may include Personal Data and other information which may include a username, password, personal profile, pictures, your location, and contact information. Some of your BSA Account information may be displayed publicly. You are not required to provide your Personal Data; however, if you choose to withhold certain Personal Data, we may not be able to provide you with certain BSA services and Web site areas and features.

Payment Transaction Information: We collect and store Personal Data related to membership and donations, but will not store any financial account or payment information provided for your payments. We do not request or collect any financial account or payment information through the Web site, and you are prohibited from entering any such information through the Web site.

You may provide certain information to complete payments directly to our Treasurer, including your credit or debit card number, card expiration date, CVV code, and billing address (collectively, “Payment Information”), along with your name and billing, delivery and shipping address, to complete payment transactions with BSA. BSA is not responsible for third-party interception of any Payment Information or other information you include in communications, whether by texts, messaging applications, email, or telephone, to BSA.

Please note BSA allows for third party payment transactions, such as through PayPal. BSA does not itself collect or maintain your credit card or other financial account information; this information is handled for BSA by third-party payment service providers. Your use of third-party payment service providers such as PayPal is subject to the terms, conditions, and privacy policies of those providers, and BSA is not responsible for the privacy or security of any information you provide to those providers, their agents, websites or applications. You are subject to the privacy policies and terms and conditions of such providers when purchasing a BSA membership, shopping for BSA products, or making donations using these third-party payment service providers, the terms of which may differ from those of BSA. Please review the applicable service provider’s privacy policies and terms and conditions before using their services.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: As a general policy, we minimize cookies and prefer using open-source and privacy-friendly options wherever possible.

The Web site collects basic technical information about your system, to enable the Web site to function properly for you, and for our minimal Web site use of analytics service. The information collected includes your operating system, screen resolution, browser engine and language, and whether your browser is set to emit a “Do Not Track” request. This process does not collect Personal Data or place cookies in your browser. We use Independent Analytics, which provides us with general statistics regarding the Web site’s traffic and usage. BSA keeps this data for one year and will not share it with third parties unless legally required to do so.

When browsing the Web site, you may encounter embedded resources, which may or may not place cookies in your browser. In addition, logging into a BSA Account causes a set of session cookies to be placed in your browser which are essential for accessing portions and features of the Web site restricted to BSA Account holders. The Web site does not deploy any tracking cookies, or use any web beacons or other tracking strategies and devices.

Public Information: BSA may also collect information about you from publicly available sources. Information you make publicly available in any public or open forum, such as on a social network, may be considered public information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy, and may be accessed and collected by BSA. Please be aware that any content or information you share with or provide to third parties using or related to your interaction with BSA is neither private, nor confidential. BSA is not responsible for any content or information you post or share with third parties. If you do not wish for certain information to be public, please do not share it.

Information Sharing

BSA Personnel: BSA’s personnel may have access to your information as needed to provide and operate BSA’s membership services in the normal course of business. This includes information regarding your use and interaction with BSA.

Service Providers: BSA works with various organizations and individuals (“Providers”), including:

Website Hosting Service Provider: The BSA Website is hosted by INTEREK EOOD (Reg. No. 204515373) – a registered commercial entity in the Republic of Bulgaria, European union. INTEREK EOOD has employed the VPS Cloud infrastructure services of Cloudways – a commercial entity, registered in Malta, European union. The datacenter, where the VPS Cloud cell is situated, is located in Frankfurt, Federal republic of Germany, European union. Thus, the applicable European law (GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation) applies in the responsible handling of any digital information. INTEREK EOOD acknowledges their compliance with our Privacy policy and their lack of commercial and other interest in the information we store on the infrastructure employed by them.

Mailing List and Opt Out Service Provider: BSA uses the following for managing its email list and opt-out services:

Kjetil Rå
University of Oslo
k.r.hauge@ilos.uio.no

We may share certain personal information with these and other Providers as is necessary. These Providers are not agents of BSA and BSA is not responsible for their use of such information. The information we share with our Providers may include both information you provide to us and technical information we collect about your browser. BSA takes reasonable steps to ensure that our Providers are obligated to reasonably protect your information on BSA’s behalf. If BSA becomes aware that a Provider is using or disclosing information improperly, we will take commercially reasonable steps to end or correct such improper use or disclosure. The Web infrastructure provider explicitly declared lack of commercial and other interest towards the said information and stated their compliance regarding any requests we may make on deleting that data.

Lawful Requests: We may be required to disclose User information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We generally do not disclose User information unless we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. We may share your information when we believe it is necessary to comply with applicable laws, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the BSA or the Web site, or using the BSA name, or to protect the safety of any person. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents, or government agencies. Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit any legal defenses or objections that you may have to a third party’s, including a government’s, request to disclose your information.

Opting Out of Communications from BSA

Users may opt out of receiving certain communications from BSA using unsubscribe and manage list options at https://sympa.uio.no/ilos.uio.no by selecting “Other users” from the Login menu, and clicking “First login”. However, please note you may not opt-out of certain communications, such as membership and account verification, technical and security notices, and notices required by law.

Information Security

Security of Your Information

BSA takes reasonable efforts to secure and protect the privacy, accuracy, and reliability of your Personal Data and to protect it from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. BSA implements security measures as we deem appropriate and consistent with industry standards. As no data security protocol is impenetrable, BSA cannot guarantee the security of our systems or databases, nor can we guarantee that personal information we collect about you will not be breached, intercepted, destroyed, accessed, or otherwise disclosed without authorization. Accordingly, any information you transfer to or from BSA is provided at your own risk.

Please do your part to help us keep your information secure. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and BSA Account, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or BSA Account. BSA specifically reserves the right to terminate your access to your BSA Account, your membership, access to portions of the Web site accessible only to BSA members or through a BSA Account, and any contract you have with BSA in the event it learns or suspects you have disclosed your BSA Account or password information to an unauthorized third party.

Additional Provisions

Transfer and Storage of Your Information

Please note information BSA collects about you may be transferred, processed, and/or accessed by us in the United States or another country where we or our Providers operate. Please be aware Personal Data may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state or country where privacy laws may differ from and may not be as protective as those where you live. If you are located outside the United States and choose to allow us to collect information about you, please be aware that BSA may transfer your Personal Data to the United States and process and store it there.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from United States law, please note that we may transfer information to a country or jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, as disclosed in this Privacy Policy. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our Providers, also as disclosed.

Safely Using BSA’s Services

Despite BSA’s safety and privacy controls, we cannot guarantee the Web site and Other BSA-provided content are entirely free of illegal, offensive, pornographic, or otherwise inappropriate material, or that you will not encounter inappropriate or illegal conduct from other Users. You can help BSA by notifying us of any unwelcome contact by contacting us using the information below.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

BSA may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most current version of this Privacy Policy will govern our use of your information and will be located at ADD LINK HERE.

Contact BSA

Please contact BSA for any purposes related to our Privacy Policy and Web Site Terms and Conditions by the President of BSA through this email link.