Privacy Policy

1. Scope

The American Society of History, Arts and Letters (ASHAL) respects the privacy of applicants, nominees, members, visitors, and other users of its digital channels.

This Policy explains the categories of personal information that may be processed, the purposes of processing, the parties that may receive information, retention practices, and available privacy choices.

Questions or privacy requests may be sent to contact@theamericanshal.org.

2. Information We Collect

a) Information you provide

We may process your name, contact details, address and country of residence, biography, photograph, professional or academic credentials, social or professional links, referrals, messages, and other information submitted through forms or documents.

b) Technical and navigation information

We may record IP address, approximate location derived from IP, browser and device information, pages viewed, technical events, language preference, session identifiers, cookies, and security logs needed to operate, measure, and protect the portal.

c) Institutional process and payment information

We may process application, nomination, submission, membership, and honor-related responses, documents, status, and history, as well as transaction amount, currency, method, status, and identifiers returned by a payment processor.

Complete card details are entered directly in the payment processor environment and are not stored by ASHAL. ASHAL keeps only the information required to identify, reconcile, evidence, and audit a transaction.

3. How We Use Information

To receive and process applications, nominations, submissions, and institutional requests.

To review eligibility and merit, communicate decisions, and carry out admission, recognition, investiture, registration, and institutional publication when applicable.

To maintain membership, academic, historical, document, certificate, agreement, and other institutional records.

To send operational and institutional communications about a process, membership relationship, activities, events, newsletters, and initiatives, subject to applicable choices.

To process and reconcile institutional fees, contributions, and other payments connected with ASHAL activities.

To prevent fraud and abuse, protect accounts, forms, and infrastructure, investigate failures, comply with legal or administrative obligations, and establish or defend legal claims.

4. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Strictly necessary cookies and identifiers support authentication, security, navigation continuity, and temporary access to restricted documents. Blocking them may prevent parts of the portal from working.

The portal language preference may remain in the browser for up to one year. Authentication, redirect, and session identifiers remain only for the period needed for their purpose.

Google Tag Manager and configured measurement services load outside the administrative area only after the visitor authorizes analytics cookies in the portal preferences. The choice can be changed at any time through the footer.

Protected forms may load Cloudflare Turnstile to analyze security signals and deter abusive automated activity.

The portal measurement layer removes or masks known sensitive references in addresses, query parameters, and events before forwarding them to the analytics service. This safeguard reduces unnecessary exposure but does not replace responsible use of forms.

You may delete or block cookies through browser settings. Doing so may affect language, sign-in, security, forms, and other essential functionality.

5. Service Providers and Sharing

Information is shared only as needed for the stated purposes and may involve:

Vercel and Supabase for hosting, portal delivery, database, authentication, and related technical services;

contracted email and communication services for operational and institutional messages;

Stripe or another processor clearly identified in the applicable journey, only when a payment is made;

Google Tag Manager and configured measurement services to understand portal use and improve its operation;

Cloudflare Turnstile on protected forms to reduce fraud and abusive automation;

public authorities, professional advisers, and service providers subject to confidentiality duties when required for compliance or legal claims.

ASHAL does not sell personal information or disclose it to third parties for their independent commercial use. Providers receive only the access needed to perform their contracted role and remain responsible for their own legal obligations.

Some providers may process information in the United States or other countries. Privacy protections and legal rights may differ by jurisdiction, and ASHAL uses applicable contractual and legal safeguards.

6. Retention and Disposal

Information is kept for as long as reasonably necessary for the stated purpose and for applicable legal, financial, administrative, institutional, security, and audit obligations.

Application, recognition, investiture, membership, publication, payment, and institutional document records may remain part of ASHAL historical and evidentiary archives while a legitimate purpose or retention obligation exists.

Deletion requests are reviewed individually. Information that no longer has an applicable purpose or retention requirement is deleted or de-identified in a manner compatible with system and security records.

7. Information Security

ASHAL uses technical and administrative safeguards proportionate to risk, including access controls, credential protection, audit records, secure communications, and data minimization. No internet-connected environment can guarantee absolute security.

8. Privacy Choices and Requests

Depending on applicable law and the circumstances, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction, or a copy of personal information, object to certain processing, withdraw consent for future processing, or opt out of non-essential institutional communications.

To protect the requester and other individuals, ASHAL may require identity verification and may retain information when permitted or required by law.

9. Updates

This Policy may be updated to reflect legal, operational, or technology changes. The current version will remain available on the portal. Last updated: September 11, 2026.