Copyright & Privacy
AFS-USA Inc., the owner of the YES Program web site, insert domain name, is committed to upholding the confidentiality and security of your personal information. The information below explains what we do with the data we collect from you and applies to information submitted anywhere on this site.
The Information We Collect
AFS does not collect personally identifiable information about individuals except when specifically and knowingly provided by such individuals. The YES Alumni Community requires certain information for participation and in order to verify individuals as YES Program Alumni. This information includes, but is not limited to, your full name, date of birth, country of birth, program start year and email address. All required information is verified by AFS staff.
The YES Member Directory automatically makes your name, home country, host city and state, hosting organization, and program year viewable by other registered members. Other information is provided on a voluntary basis, however, we encourage you to fill out all forms in their entirety in order to make your YES Alumni Community experience as fulfilling as possible. Your date of birth and contact information will never be viewable on the site. Only registered members can access the Alumni Community. You may at your own discretion view, delete, update, or correct this information at any time by logging into the site with your User ID (your email address) and password and choosing to update your Profile or contact information.
AFS does not utilize cookies.
How the Information is Used
We sometimes use non-personally identifiable information, including but not limited to, your Domain name and IP address used to access the YES Alumni site, that we collect to improve the design and content of our site, to enable us to personalize your Internet experience, analyze trends, gather broad demographic information, administer the site, and for AFS purposes that may include, but not limited to, for AFS Partners to contact AFS Returnees from their countries.
AFS also collects data in order to keep track of the participants of its international exchange programs and allow program alumni to keep in contact with one another. The YES Program is funded by a grant from the US State Department. AFS must demonstrate to the US State Department the importance of the YES program and other State Department sponsored programs, and tracking its participants’ activities is one way to do this. Collected information may be used on a statistical basis to present information on YES program participant activities to the U.S. State Department.
AFS will not sell, rent, share, trade, or give away any personally identifiable information to any third parties outside our partner organizations and those working directly with them in connection with AFS/YES activities. However, when you voluntarily disclose personally identifiable information (such as your first and last name, email address, etc.), that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other users. AFS is not responsible for who may contact you by using this information.
Otherwise, we will only disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law; for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also may disclose such information in response to a law enforcement request.
Member Directory
The Member Directory and Member Contact Form is intended to help registered members of the YES family find each other. We ask that you use good judgment and discretion when sending messages to other members. Please do not use information found here for the purpose of commercial promotion of any kind. YES does not bear any responsibility for any actions or policies of third parties.
Security
Personal information collected by AFS and our websites is stored in secure operating environments. At present, we centralize some records of personal information in the United States of America and in Thailand. Those databases have a restrictive access and can only be accessed by AFS employees, consultants, or volunteers all of whom will use the information exclusively for the management of the AFS program operations. Therefore, we may perform some of our data processing of your personal information outside your country of residence, for example in the United States of America or in Thailand. To do this, we may transfer your personal information to other countries including the United States of America and Thailand. AFS will protect your personal information no matter where we process it or store it, following this privacy statement. By submitting your personal data to AFS, you hereby consent to this transfer of your personal information.
Links
This web site contains links to other sites controlled and maintained by third parties. AFS is not responsible for the privacy practices or the contents of any site linked to the web site. The inclusion of hyperlinks to such web sites does not imply any endorsement of the material of those web sites or any association with their operators. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of these linked sites as their privacy policy may differ from ours.
By accepting (clicking the acceptance button on the Join page), you explicitly acknowledge that AFS-USA, its national and regional affiliates and Partner organizations are entitled to process the personal data being provided by me (including all sensitive data being provided) in the manner described above. You also acknowledge and confirm that all provided personal data is accurate and complete.
