Last Updated: March 2023

The Mexican Society of Neurological Surgery, A.C. (“SMCN”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it at all times. SMCN firmly believes that for e-commerce and online activities to progress, users must be assured that the information provided online is used responsibly and appropriately. This Privacy Policy explains how SMCN collects, uses, and protects information on its website. This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected by SMCN through its website. To protect privacy, SMCN has implemented the following policy.

Scope of the Online Privacy Policy
This policy applies to your use of the website www.smcn.org.mx (the “Site”), which is operated by or on behalf of SMCN. This policy does not apply to your use of other websites that this Site may link to. This policy covers only information collected on this Site and does not cover any information collected offline by us.

Changes to the Online Privacy Statement
As our organization, membership, and benefits change from time to time, this Privacy Policy is also expected to change. We reserve the right to modify the Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. We will publish a notice that this Privacy Policy has been modified by revising the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page.

Information Collection
Most of the data that SMCN collects is used solely to help SMCN better serve its members and the neurosurgical community. Our policy is to collect and store only personal information that our members and visitors knowingly provide.

From General Users: SMCN does not collect personal information from users browsing this Site, except through the registration process, specific feedback forms, and when a user purchases our goods or services. Completing these forms is optional. If you choose not to provide the information on our registration forms, you will not be granted access to the registered user areas of our site. Users in the public areas of the Site browse anonymously. Only aggregated data, such as the number of visits per page, is collected in public areas. Aggregated data is used only for internal and marketing purposes and does not provide any personally identifiable information.

From SMCN Members, Congress Registrants, and Clients: Although it is not collected on the Site, SMCN may collect information that includes name, affiliations, business phone number, and email address provided to SMCN through membership requests, meeting or seminar registrations, publication orders, and subscriptions. Additionally, for some emails sent in HTML format by SMCN to its members through its list servers and electronic newsletters, SMCN will monitor whether a recipient subsequently clicks on the links provided in the message. This information is for the exclusive use of SMCN and is used to improve its services and their distribution to its members.

Uses of Information
Personal information may be used for internal purposes by authorized SMCN staff. Personal information will not be disclosed to third parties, except as stated below:

• SMCN provides a copy of some of its member information to other non-profit educational organizations for use in promoting participation in Continuing Medical Education programs. The information that SMCN provides to these organizations includes only the member’s name and address.
• Certain limited information (i.e., the name and address of SMCN members) may be provided to other organizations whose missions are consistent with SMCN’s mission, according to established procedures. We carefully examine third parties with whom we share information. If you have any concerns regarding third organizations with whom we may share information, please contact us at: contacto@smcn.org.mx.
• Members of the public, through the certified neurosurgeons list on the site, can obtain limited information about SMCN members who practice, including name, address, phone number, and URL.
• Pre-registration lists, including the member’s name and address, are available for sale to exhibitors prior to the Mexican Congress of Neurological Surgery and before some joint Section meetings. Additionally, certain personal information, including only the name, address, phone number, and practice focus of SMCN members, is available at the Mexican Congress of Neurological Surgery for exhibitors through a “lead system.” After the Congress, exhibitors can purchase a list of names and addresses of the attending physicians.
• External service providers may obtain limited personal information in relation to purchases, orders, or registration for goods or services through the Site. Our contractual agreements with such third parties outline their use of personal information. SMCN does not allow such third parties to use or share your personal information, except when necessary to carry out the financial transaction.

Currently, we are not aware of any other circumstances in which SMCN provides or sells personal information collected online to third parties.

Tracking Site Activity and Use of Cookies
We track how our Site is used by both anonymous visitors and visitors who interact with the Site, and we may store certain information on your computer. One way to track is through the use of “cookies.” A cookie is a small file or string of text on the user’s computer that is used to help navigate the web. Commonly, two types of cookies are used. A session cookie is created when accessing a website; this type of cookie is automatically deleted when the web browser is closed. A persistent cookie is one that is stored on the user’s hard drive for a period chosen by the website that sets the cookie, generally for several years unless the user manually deletes it. This policy distinguishes between short-term and long-term cookies. Short-term cookies include all session cookies and those persistent cookies stored for no more than a week. SMCN-related websites may sometimes require users to accept short-term cookies for the websites to function properly. Long-term cookies may be used on the site to track visitor practices to help determine which site features and services are most important and guide editorial direction. Other long-term cookies may enable the user to access the site without needing to enter a username or password, allow the user to view different restricted areas of the site without re-registering, enable the user to customize the site for future use, and provide other features and benefits. Users who do not wish to have the functionality created by long-term cookies should have the option to disable the long-term cookie function, either by indicating when prompted that they do not wish to create a long-term cookie or disabling the long-term cookie function in their web browser. Individuals should be able to opt out of long-term cookie functions that allow tracking of personal information at any time. Additionally, they should have the option to configure their browser to reject cookies. However, doing so will hinder performance and negatively affect your experience on our Site.

Cookies are necessary for the Members Only and e-commerce sections of the Site. Cookies are essential for site management and security.

Another way to track site activity is through the use of transparent electronic images called “transparent GIFs,” “web bugs,” or “web beacons” on the web pages of this site. These images count the number of users visiting that page from specific banners outside of www.smcn.org.mx or through email links. A similar image, sometimes called a “spotlight tag,” is used on the web pages of this site where transactions are made. The spotlight tag collects numerical information, such as the peso amount of an online purchase, to help us understand site usage. We do not use any of these electronic images to collect personally identifiable information.

Retention of Personal Information
SMCN retains personal information related to members indefinitely and customer personal data for at least five years, as dictated by business and legal requirements.

Credit Card Account Information
Credit card information provided to SMCN, such as credit card numbers, will be used only for billing purposes, to complete orders, to provide services, and for meeting registrations. For publication orders and annual meeting registrations, this may involve providing your credit card number to our designated business partners. SMCN and its designated partners will only use your credit card number to process the transactions you request.

When members and customers choose to pay with their credit cards, SMCN sends the necessary information to obtain payment to the company that processes the corresponding transaction. The credit card information provided to SMCN will never be sold or shared with any other party, except as stated above. Neither SMCN nor its designated partners and agents disclose credit card account information provided by its members and customers to third parties.

When purchasing products or services or registering for events that require the disclosure of your financial information on the Site, you agree that we provide your financial information to our service providers and to third parties that we determine are necessary to process your transactions.

Links to Other Sites
Users will find content on this site that links to organizations’ sites that have resources for educational and informational purposes in relation to SMCN. We do not control the content or links that appear on these sites. Furthermore, these sites or services, including their content and links, may change constantly. These sites and services may have their own privacy policies and customer service policies, or no policies at all. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party site or service before providing any personal information to them.

Surveys
Occasionally, this site requests information from users through surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary, and the user has the option to disclose or not disclose information. The information requested may include contact information and demographic information. Survey information may be used to monitor or improve usage and satisfaction levels associated with the site, member services, or issues affecting the neurosurgery community.

Disclaimer Notice
This site and the information contained herein are provided as a service by SMCN. This system is monitored to ensure proper functioning, to verify the operation of applicable security features, and for comparable purposes. Anyone using this system consents expressly to such monitoring. Unauthorized attempts to modify any information stored in this system, to defeat or circumvent security features, or to use this system for purposes other than intended are prohibited and may result in criminal prosecution.