Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2025-11-11

AANI (Alumni Association of the National Institute) respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal data we collect from members, alumni and visitors, how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over your data. If you have questions or wish to exercise your rights, please use the website contact form or contact your chapter leadership.

1. What data we collect

• Identity & contact: name, preferred name, email, phone number, postal address, graduation year, chapter affiliation.
• Account & membership: username, password hash, membership status, roles (e.g., ChapterAdmin, SECMember), profile photo and public profile details.
• Transactions: payment history, donation records, invoices and receipts, billing address.
• Event & activity: event registrations, attendance records, volunteer or committee participation.
• Communications: messages sent to/from AANI, newsletter subscriptions and opt‑ins/outs, support requests.
• Technical & security: IP address, device/browser metadata, login timestamps, failed login attempts, session identifiers (for security and auditing).
• Optional data: survey responses, uploaded documents, or media you choose to share with AANI.

2. How we use your data

We use personal data to provide membership services, manage chapters and events, process payments, communicate news and official announcements, and ensure security and compliance. Typical uses include:

• Managing member accounts and chapter directories.
• Processing dues, donations and event fees; issuing receipts for tax and accounting purposes.
• Registering and managing event participation, volunteer assignments and committee membership.
• Sending newsletters, important updates, and transactional emails (you may opt out of marketing communications).
• Protecting against fraud, abuse, and security incidents; maintaining audit logs.
• Aggregated, anonymized analytics to improve AANI services.

3. Legal basis & legitimate interests

Where applicable, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases for processing personal data: performance of our contractual obligations to members (membership management), consent (for marketing communications), compliance with legal obligations (financial and tax records), and legitimate interests (security, fraud prevention, improving services). Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

4. Who we share data with

We may share personal data with trusted third parties to perform services on our behalf, including payment processors, email/service providers, event platforms, hosting/CDN providers, and analytics vendors. We require such providers to protect personal information and to use it only for the purposes we specify (Data Processing Agreements where applicable).

5. Data retention

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to provide services, comply with legal and regulatory obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements. Financial and tax-related records are typically retained for a minimum of 7 years or as required by local law. Member profile data is retained while the member is active and for a reasonable period after account closure unless you request deletion.

6. Your rights

• Access: request copies of personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Deletion: request deletion of data where we are not required to retain it by law.
• Portability: request a machine-readable copy of the data you provided.
• Objection & restriction: object to or request restriction of processing in certain circumstances.
• Withdraw consent: withdraw your consent for marketing or other consent-based processing.

To exercise any right, please use the website contact form or reach out via your chapter leadership. We may ask for information to verify your identity before fulfilling requests.

7. Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical measures to protect personal data—secure transport (TLS), password hashing, access controls, and periodic security reviews. Administrative actions by privileged users are audited. In case of a data breach, we will follow applicable laws on notification and remediation.

8. International transfers

Where data is processed outside your country, we apply safeguards such as contractual protections and standard contractual clauses where required. Contact us via the site contact form for details about specific transfers.

9. Children

Our services are intended for adults and alumni; we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you believe we have collected such data, please use the site contact form to request deletion.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated policy here with a revised “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, notify members directly of material changes.

Contact: Please use the website contact form or your chapter leadership for privacy enquiries.