IBS Terms & Conditions for IBC

The International Biometric Society (IBS) is committed to providing a safe, productive, and welcoming environment for all our members, event participants and IBS staff both online and in person. All participants, including, but not limited to, members, attendees, speakers, volunteers, sponsors, IBS staff, service providers, and all others are expected to abide by this Code of Conduct.

IBS has zero tolerance for any form of discrimination, intimidation or harassment by participants or our staff online and at our meetings. If you experience harassment or hear of any incidents of unacceptable behaviour, IBS asks that you inform Executive Director Peter Doherty at pdoherty@biometricsociety.org or +1-202-712-9022 so that we can take the appropriate action.

 Unacceptable behaviour is defined as:

• Harassment, intimidation, or discrimination in any form.
• Verbal or written abuse of any member, attendee, speaker, volunteer, exhibitor, IBS staff member, service provider, or other guest.
  • Examples of verbal abuse include, but are not limited to: verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, national origin, inappropriate use of nudity and/or sexual images in public spaces or in presentations, or threatening or stalking any member, attendee, speaker, volunteer, exhibitor, IBS staff member, service provider, or other guest.
• Disruption of presentations during sessions or at other events organized by IBS. All participants must comply with the instructions of the moderator and any IBS event staff.
• Presentations, postings, and messages should not contain promotional materials, special offers, job offers, product announcements, or solicitation for services. IBS reserves the right to remove such messages and potentially ban sources of those solicitations.
• Participants should not share login credentials with other individuals.

IBS reserves the right to take any action deemed necessary and appropriate, including immediate removal from the event, message board, or revoking of membership without warning or refund, in response to any incident of unacceptable behaviour, and IBS reserves the right to prohibit attendance at any future meeting, virtually or in person.

The IBS knows that your privacy is important. This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, stored, maintained, and shared by the International Biometric Society, and documents your rights regarding control of your personal information.  

PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT 
The personal information that we collect, and store comes to us in a variety of forms, including hard copy and electronically, and comes from several different sources. Much of this information is considered PII, or Personally Identifiable Information. PII is information that can be used to uniquely identify, contact, or locate a single person. Throughout this policy, we refer to PII as Personal Information. We believe that protecting member privacy and allowing customers access to their data is an essential part of our work.

When you visit the IBS online at www.biometricsociety.org, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, and time zone. Additionally, as you browse the website, information is collected about the individual web pages that you view, and how you interact with the site, through Google Analytics. We collect information through the site using “log files”, which track actions occurring on the website, including date/time stamps. However, it is our practice not to use this information or store it in a permanent database except in aggregate form. You may opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Additionally, when you register for a conference or event, such as the International Biometric Conference, we collect certain information from you, including your name, billing address, payment information (including credit card numbers), email address, and phone number. We collect this data so that we may communicate with you regarding the upcoming conference. Similar information is collected when you register for an IBS Journal Club virtual session, or for funding through one of our several travel funding programs.  

Those who register and submit an abstract as part of the IBC abstract review process are redirected to our 3rd party supplier, currently Scholar One. Please review their privacy policy for details on their use of data: https://clarivate.com/clarivate-analytics-scholarone-privacynotice/.

In addition, we collect information from each of our IBS Regions who are responsible (in most cases) for the annual collection of membership fees from their members and for the timely reporting of the IBS portion of those fees and member contact information to the IBS. In some cases, a member may join the IBS directly, at which point similar contact information normally submitted to the IBS by a Region is collected directly by the IBS as part of the membership application or renewal process.  

Information typically collected by the IBS for use with membership, conference and/or abstract submission transactions includes one or more of these items: your full name, physical address, payment information (in the case of direct payments to the IBS), phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses.  

HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? 
We use much of the contact information that we collect in order to communicate with you regarding only those services, memberships, subscriptions, abstract submissions, information you have requested and/or registrations for which you have paid. We also use this information to communicate with you when you when you have contacted us directly with a question or request. The information is also used to fulfill any orders placed through the website (including processing your payment information, making arrangements for shipping, and providing you with invoices and/or order confirmations), and to send you regular member communications and journals that are regularly shared as a member benefit. Members may opt out of one or more communications if they choose. And, in line with the communications preferences you may have shared with us, we will provide you with information or advertising related to our conferences, programs or services for up to two years from your most recent engagement with the IBS.

If you have provided us with an email address for marketing purposes, we will always provide a way for you to unsubscribe in every marketing email we send.

The IBS staff will typically generate analytics about how our website visitors browse and interact with the website, to better assess the popularity of certain pages and gauge the success of specific advertising campaigns. You may opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Customers have the option of submitting some applications and/or registrations by sending a paper or PDF form in person, or by mail, fax or e-mail. These forms will often contain payment information necessary in order to complete a purchase. The practice of the IBS is to not retain any payment information once a payment is processed successfully. The IBS follows the guidelines of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) in the handling of credit card information, and does not retain actual credit card number information any longer than it takes to complete the financial transaction. Paper and/or PDF forms containing PII are destroyed within seven years after the relevant order or event has ended.  

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We share your Personal Information with third parties when their work relates to activities in which you are or have been engaged with in the past.  - We use Scholar One to prepare for the abstract submission process prior to each IBC conference and will load past speaker data into the system in order to limit the work required by returning speakers. Click here to view the Scholar One privacy policy.

IBC attendee information is shared with exhibitors and sponsors through the attendee roster on our mobile event application. You may choose not to have your information displayed at any time by contacting the IBO.  

The mailing information for those who have purchased a hard-copy subscription to either Biometrics or JABES is shared with our publishers in order to send each issue of the journal to your preferred address. To read the publishers’ privacy policies, please click on the appropriate link below:

Wiley (publisher of Biometrics): https://www.wiley.com/en-us/privacy  

Springer (publisher of JABES): https://www.springer.com/gp/privacy-policy 

IBS members receive a subscription to both publications in electronic form, by e-mail. Members may choose to stop hard copy or electronic subscriptions, and the related sharing of data with the publishers, by contacting the IBO at any time.

The IBS may share your personal data with Regions in order to confirm current contact information. This is primarily to ensure that the service or subscription you have purchased within the last two years continues uninterrupted. A contact for each Region may be obtained by visiting the IBS Regions page. We encourage you to contact the Region with which you are affiliated to learn more about how they protect your data.  

The IBS offers an online directory of members to those with a current IBS membership. This directory contains some Personal Information. You may opt out of this “member directory”, or choose to have certain information hidden or deleted, by contacting the IBO.  

We may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights. Please contact the IBO for more information regarding this aspect of data management.

The IBS works with any third party with whom your information is shared to ensure that your information is only used for the express purpose of the activity for which the third party has been engaged.

BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING
As described above, the IBS uses your Personal Information to provide you with marketing communications that we believe may be of interest to you. You have a right to opt out of one, multiple or all types of marketing communications that we send you. Each message contains an unsubscribe option. If you have any questions regarding these communications, we encourage you to contact the IBO.

DO NOT TRACK 
You can opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

YOUR RIGHTS
You have the right to access Personal Information we hold about you and to ask that your Personal Information be corrected, updated, or deleted. If you would like to exercise this right, please contact the IBO.

Additionally, we note that we are processing your information in order to fulfill contracts or agreements we might have with you (for example, if you place an order through the website, sign up for an IBC, or join the IBS through a Region), or otherwise to pursue our legitimate business interests listed above. Additionally, please note that your information will be transferred between countries and jurisdictions, for GDPR purposes.

DATA RETENTION 
When you become a member or customer of the IBS, and we receive Personal Information from you, that information will be added to our internal database. If no additional transactions or activity have been noted during a two year period, the record containing your Personal Information will be considered inactive and will be deleted upon your request. In addition, we will maintain the information related to any transactions or purchases in our records unless and until you ask us to delete this information.

CHANGES
The IBS may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.

CONTACT US
For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact the IBO. You may also contact us by mail using the details provided below: 

International Biometric Society 
1120 20th Street, NW Suite 750
Washington, DC 20036 USA 

When you enter the IBC2024, you enter an area where photography, audio, and video recording may occur.

By entering the event premises, you consent to interview(s), photography, audio recording, video recording and its/their release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction to be used for news, webcasts, promotional purposes, telecasts, advertising, inclusion on websites, social media, or any other purpose by IBS and its affiliates and representatives. Images, photos and/or videos may be used to promote similar IBS events in the future, highlight the event and exhibit the capabilities of IBS. 

By registering to attend IBC2024 you release IBS, its officers, and employees, and each and all persons involved from any liability connected with the taking, recording, digitizing, or publication and use of interviews, photographs, computer images, video and/or sound recordings.

By entering the event premises, you waive all rights you may have to any claims for payment of royalties in connection with any use, exhibition, streaming, webcasting, televising, or other publication of these materials, regardless of the purpose or sponsoring of such use, exhibiting, broadcasting, webcasting, or other publication irrespective of whether a fee for admission or sponsorship is charged. You also waive any right to inspect or approve any photo, video, or audio recording taken by IBS or the person or entity designated to do so by IBS.

You have been fully informed of your consent, waiver of liability, and release before entering the event. 

If you decide to cancel any portion of your registration (Conference Registration, Short Course, Guest or Gala Tickets) a written refund request must be received by the IBS (by email to conference@biometricsociety.org) no later than 23:59 EST Eastern US / Canada time on Friday 30 August 2024. Refunds will be issued less a 35% processing fee. After 30 August 2024, request for refunds will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. IBS reserves the right to decline a refund request after the deadline. 

The IBS reserves the right to cancel any short course and 1) suggest that registrants choose another course or 2) return all fees to the registrant in the event there are insufficient registrations for a course. In addition, in the unlikely event that the IBC is cancelled, registrants will receive a full refund. 

In the event of a "no-show", no refund will be issued.

The IBS will not be responsible for any losses incurred by the registrants, including but not limited to airline cancellation fees or hotel deposits. ALL refunds will be processed after the IBC has concluded.

IBS is not responsible for any losses incurred by registrants that are denied a visa to travel to the conference. Upon registration IBS will provide a letter of invitation to assist with the visa application process however the registrant is fully and solely responsible for obtaining all necessary documentation and visa requirements to attend IBC2024.  

This policy is subject to change without notice. By registering, you agree to be bound to the Cancellation Policy as stated above. You also grant IBS the right to contact you electronically or by other means regarding your registration, events, or programming related to the IBC 2024. Questions or concerns regarding these communications should be directed to conference@biometricsociety.org.