Privacy Policy

Updated April 11, 2023

The International Gem Society ("IGS") is committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe online experience. This Privacy Policy applies to the website located at www.gemsociety.org and any other web properties which are owned or operated by IGS (collectively, the "Site") and governs data collection and usage by IGS. This Privacy Policy informs you of important information about how we process personal data that we collect in online and offline formats, the privacy policies we undertake, the types of data we collect, how we use and secure that data, and how long we retain that data.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, you should not use the Site.

By using the Site, you consent to the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the practices in this Privacy Policy, please do not use this Site. Each time you use this Site, the current version of the Privacy Policy will govern your use. Accordingly, when you use this Site, you should check the date of this Privacy Policy (which appears at the top) and review any changes since the last version.

Collection of your Personal Information
IGS may collect and store personally identifiable information disclosed by you, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number. IGS may also collect and store anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites. Other information that may be gathered from you and stored by IGS includes, but is not limited to, community discussions, chats, correspondence through the Site, and correspondence sent to us.

IGS also automatically collects and stores information about your computer hardware and software. This information may include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by IGS solely to provide general statistics regarding use of the Site.

This Privacy Policy only applies to information that is collected through the IGS site; it does not apply to any information that may be collected by other Site users, such as through email communications between you and another user. If you disclose your information to other Site users, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of your personal information. IGS does not guarantee the privacy or security of the personal information you provide to others. We therefore encourage you to evaluate the privacy and security policies of the other Site user before sharing your information. You should also review the privacy statements of websites that have links within the IGS Site and which you choose to navigate to from the IGS Site so that you understand how those websites collect, use and share your information. IGS is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on websites outside of the Site.

Use of your Personal Information
You agree that IGS may collect, store and use your personal information to operate the Site, to deliver the information you request, and to deliver the information that you disclose to third parties through the Site. IGS may share your personal information with service providers under contract with IGS to help with our business operations. Such service providers will be required to maintain the privacy of your information in a manner at least as restrictive as this Privacy Policy. If, through the use of the Site, you receive personal information about another Site user, you agree to (a) keep such information confidential and protect the personal information of such user in a manner at least as restrictive as the manner in which IGS protects such information as set forth herein; (b) use the information only for Site transaction-related purposes; or (c) use the information for other purposes expressly authorized by the information owner. You agree that IGS may also use your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from IGS and its marketing partners. IGS may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.

IGS keeps track of the pages our users visit within the Site, in order to determine what IGS services are the most popular. This data may be used to deliver customized content and advertising within IGS to users whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

IGS will not sell your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your prior consent. IGS may combine your information with information it collects from other companies and use it to improve and personalize IGS's services, content and advertising. If you do not wish to receive marketing communications from IGS or participate in its ad-customization programs, simply send us an email indicating your preference.

IGS will disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process served on IGS or the Site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of IGS; (c) enforce our policies; (d) respond to claims that a listing or other content violates the rights of others; (e) protect the personal safety of users of IGS or the public; or (f) to report suspected illegal activity. All such information will be disclosed in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Use of Cookies
The Site uses "cookies" to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a piece of text that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the Site.

Security of your Personal Information
IGS will take reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Individuals who have been granted access to personal information are aware of their responsibilities to protect the security, confidentiality and integrity of that information. As effective as modern security practices are, no physical or electronic security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that the information you supply will always remain private. IGS retains your personal information to comply with the law, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, enforce our General Terms of Use, and take other actions as permitted by law.

Retention of your Personal Information
We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy and in order to provide you any services associated with the Site for as long as your account is active or is reasonably necessary. We will also retain your information to comply with our legal obligations, to conduct audits, resolved disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Financial Information
We use third party payment processors to process online payments made to us. In connection with the processing of such payments, we do not retain any personally identifiable information or any financial information such as credit card numbers. Rather, all such information is submitted directly to the payment processor.

Your Personal Information Choices
You have a choice as to how your personal information is used and shared. You have the right to update, access, correct and/or delete your account information. You may choose whether or not you wish to receive promotional and newsletter communications. You may choose to restrict the processing of your personal information; withdraw your consent for us to collect and process your personal information; complain to a data protection authority about the collection and use of your personal information; and/or deactivate your account and have certain personal information deleted, subject to certain exceptions.

Residents of California
As of January 1, 2020, under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), California Residents have certain additional rights regarding their personal information.

If and to the extent you are a "consumer" as defined under the CCPA and that we are a "business" as defined under CCPA, the following may apply to you:

You have the right to request the following information from us by emailing us and we will provide the following information to you upon verification of your identity:

  • The categories of personal information we collect about you;
  • The categories of sources from which your personal information is collected;
  • The business purpose for collecting your personal information;
  • The categories of third parties with whom we share your personal information; and
  • The specific pieces of Ppersonal information we have collected about you.

You may opt out of any marketing by us and from the disclosure of your personal information to third parties.

If you are 16 years of age or older, you have the right to direct us to not sell your personal information at any time (the "right to opt-out"). We do not sell the personal information of consumers we actually know are less than 16 years of age, unless we receive affirmative authorization (the "right to opt-in") from either the consumer who is at least 13 but not yet 16 years of age, or the parent or guardian of a consumer less than 13 years of age. Consumers who opt-in to personal information sales may opt-out of future sales at any time.

To exercise the right to opt-out, you (or your authorized representative) may submit a request to us contacting us as provided below under "Contact Information."

Once you make an opt-out request, we will wait at least twelve (12) months before asking you to reauthorize personal information sales. However, you may change your mind and opt back into personal information sales at any time by contacting us.  You do not need to create an account with us to exercise your opt-out rights. We will only use personal information provided in an opt-out request to review and comply with the request.

f you elect to exercise any of your rights under CCPA, we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.  Unless otherwise permitted by the CCPA, we will not: deny you goods or services, charge you a different price or rate for our goods or services, or provide you a different level or quality of goods or services because you exercised such rights. Under the current definition of CCPA, we do not sell your personal information.

Other than as provided above, we may offer you certain financial incentives, as permitted by the CCPA, in exchange for your giving us certain information, which incentives may result in different prices, rates, or quality levels. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your personal information's value and contain written terms that describe the program's material aspects. Participation in a financial incentive program requires your prior opt in consent, which you may revoke at any time.

Residents of the EU, UK and Switzerland
Your personal information will be treated in a secure and confidential manner in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including the European General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). If you request that we remove your personal information, we will respond to the request within 30 days.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, including the processing of your personal information, if you would like to exercise your data rights under applicable laws, or if you believe your privacy rights have been violated, please contact us as provided below under "Contact Information."

Contact Information
IGS welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you believe that IGS has not adhered to this Privacy Policy, please contact IGS. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.

Changes to this Policy
IGS reserves the right to modify or amend this Policy at any time by posting the amended Policy on this Site. All amended terms take effect upon posting. Each time you use the Site, the current version of the Policy will govern your use. Accordingly, when you use the Site, you should check the date of this Policy (which appears at the top) and review any changes since the last version.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a "device") by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, "Tags") may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser's cache. The "help" feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser's cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

  • IP Address
  • Operating System type
  • Operating System version
  • Device Type
  • Language of the website
  • Web browser type
  • Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor's referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance's AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.