Privacy & Security

The American Academy of Religion is committed to safeguarding the privacy of its members as well as visitors to its website, and adheres to the following policies regarding communications as well as the gathering and dissemination of personal information.

Cookies

The AAR website may use cookies to enhance site navigation.

Collecting Information on Members

By necessity, the AAR collects contact information on its members, including, but not limited to, name, address, telephone numbers, fax number, and e-mail address. This information is requested on the membership forms. The AAR does not use any technique to collect information on its members beyond that which they freely provide us.

Collecting Information on Website Visitors

The AAR does not use any technique to collect information on its website visitors beyond that which they freely provide us. Please be aware, however, that when any website is visited, the Web browser provides information about the connection and browsing program. We sometimes read some of this information, especially on pages with occasional malfunctions that have not yet been fully diagnosed, to see if we can find ways to make the website more functional and reliable.

The AAR does not use cookies or any other technology to monitor which pages an individual visits on our website.

Demographic Information

On AAR membership lists, we request demographic information. This information is used internally (and only internally) to help us to plan programs and to assess whether we are making adequate progress in reaching out to members and prospective members of diverse backgrounds. This information is optional; withholding it will not in any way affect a member's standing in the AAR.

Sharing Information on Members with Advertisers

Mailing Addresses:  The AAR rents its mailing list — for one-time use — to advertisers who wish to publicize a product, service, or event of interest to religion teachers and scholars. AAR members may instruct us to withhold their names from such rental lists (see below under "Excluding Information").  We allow agencies renting our mailing list to target members by geographic area, membership type (regular, student, or retired), and research interest.  Solicitations sent to our members are reviewed by the AAR.  We have systems in place to be certain that advertisers do not use unauthorized lists and do not use lists more than once.

Other Information:  The AAR does not make other information on its members (such as telephone numbers, fax numbers, or e-mail addresses) available to outside agencies.

Facilitating Communications on behalf of Regional Organizations

AAR members in the US and Canada are, by virtue of geographic location, automatically associated with a specific AAR regional group. Additionally, members can identify regions beyond their geographical location for which they wish to receive information by contacting the executive office at membership@aarweb.org or 1-404-727-3049.

• Mailing Addresses:  The AAR provides mailing labels to each regional group with addresses for members associated with that group.
• E-Mail Notices:  The AAR forwards e-mail notices on behalf of each regional group to members associated with that group.  Members can instruct us to withhold routine e-mail notices (see below under "Excluding Information").

E-Mail Notices

The AAR sends out a monthly e-Bulletin, as well as other occasional e-mail.  AAR members can instruct us to withhold routine e-mail notices (see below under "Excluding Information").  All members receive urgent and procedural e-mails (such as the balloting procedures for the fall AAR election).

E-mail addresses collected from non-members on submissions forms (e.g., Employment Listings advertisements) are used only for communication relating to the submission.

The AAR never provides any outside organization with e-mail addresses, unless required to do so by law.

Membership Directory

The AAR maintains an online Membership Directory.  Members can elect to withhold some or all of their contact information from this directory (see below under "Excluding Information").

Excluding Information

Members can contact the executive office at membership@aarweb.org or 1-404-727-3049 to update or confirm their privacy settings.  Your individual privacy settings can be reviewed by logging in with your AAR member information and clicking on My account.  Following are the options available.

• No Mailing Label Rentals or E-mail Rentals:  Members can elect to exclude their records from mailing lists rented to advertisers or e-mails sent by the AAR on behalf of advertisers (your e-mail is not shared).
• No E-Mail Notifications:  Members can elect not to receive routine e-mail notifications or AAR e-Bulletins. All members will receive urgent and procedural e-mails (such as the balloting procedures for the fall AAR election).
• No Journal:  Members can elect not to receive the Journal of the AAR.  (This is most common when two or more persons in the same household are members, and have no use for multiple copies. Membership dues are the same whether or not the member elects to forgo journal delivery.)
• Withhold Information from Directory:  Members can elect to withhold some or all of their contact information from the membership directory. Selecting this option will result in member information being omitted from the online directory.

While no other sort of exclusion is currently available, we are interested in feedback about how we can better serve our members. Please send an email to support@aarweb.org if there are other ways of withholding information that you would like us to consider for the future.

Online Credit Card Transactions

As a convenience to members and advertisers, the AAR accepts online credit card transactions. The credit card information provided by users at our site is processed by PayPal Payflow Pro, the e-commerce provider with which the AAR has contracted to process the secure electronic transactions. Credit card information is not saved on the AAR website or in AAR databases.  (After the payment is processed, we get a transaction code from Payflow Pro, but we only have access to the first and last four digits of the credit card number.)  The payment information collected is not used for any purpose other than to process the single authorized payment.  Please note that credit card information should not be submitted by e-mail; it is safe to transmit credit card information only in the following ways:

• Surface mail (in a sealed envelope),
• Telephone (only if you initiate the call), or
• Secure website (see below for information on secure websites).

Other Sites

The AAR website contains links to other websites. The AAR has no control over, and no responsibility for, the privacy practices or content of such websites.