Terms of Service

We provide the Service for educational purposes only. You may not rely on any information or opinions expressed on the Service for any other purpose.

The Service may contain links to other Websites or services maintained by third parties. We do not operate or control, in any respect, or necessarily endorse the content found on third-party Websites or services. You assume sole responsibility for your use of third-party links, Websites, products and services.

You agree that (i) you will use the Service solely for your own, non-commercial, personal use in accordance with this Agreement and in accordance with any specific rules or usage provisions specified by us on the Service and (ii) all information supplied by you to us will be true, accurate, current and complete. We retain the right at our sole discretion to deny or suspend access to the Service to anyone, at any time and for any reason, without liability.

You acknowledge and agree that your use of the Service, including, without limitation, the storage of any data, files, information and/or other materials on a server owned or under our control or in any way connected to the Service, shall be at your sole risk and responsibility and we shall have no obligation to back-up such data, files, information and/or other materials. We expressly reserve the right to limit storage capacity and to remove and/or delete any data, files, and/or other information stored or used in connection with the Service for any reason including, without limitation, if we deem, in our sole discretion, such data to be in violation of this Agreement and/or any rule or policy of ours and/or any local, state, or federal law or regulation.

We cannot always foresee or anticipate technical or other difficulties which may result in failure to obtain data or loss of data, personalization settings, or other interruptions. We cannot assume responsibility for the timeliness, accuracy, deletion, non-delivery or failure to store any user data, communications or settings.

Please remember that you are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Service. We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and any other user of the Service, or any user’s action or inaction.

You agree that you will abide by any third-party company policies and terms necessary in using our Website or Service (such as a third-party publisher terms of use or Facebook terms of use).

• use the Service in any unlawful manner, for any unlawful purpose, or in any manner inconsistent with this Agreement and/or any and all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations and treaties;
• use the Service for the distribution, housing, processing, propagation, storage, or other handling of, any Content (as defined below) or other material prohibited by this Agreement, or any material that may create a risk of any loss or damage to any person or property, or any other material (including, without limitation, links to such material) that we deem, in our sole discretion, to be objectionable whether or not such material is unlawful;
• permit or otherwise enable unauthorized users to access and/or use the Service;
• use the Service to export software or data in violation of applicable U.S. laws or regulations;
• sell, copy, duplicate, rent, lease, loan, distribute, transfer, or sublicense the Service, or otherwise permit any third party to use or have access to the Service for any purpose (except as expressly permitted by us in writing) or decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, modify, create a derivative work of, display in human readable form, attempt to discover any source code, or otherwise use any software that enables or comprises any part of the Service;
• remove any copyright, trademark, patent or other proprietary notices from the Service or any Content on the Service;
• distribute, publish, exhibit, or otherwise use the Service, in any manner and for any purpose not expressly permitted under this Agreement;
• exploit the Service or collect any data incorporated in the Service in any automated manner through the use of bots, metaspiders, crawlers or any other automated means;
• register as a user of the Service by providing false, inaccurate, or misleading information;
• post hyperlinks to commercial services or Websites;
• collect personal data about other users of the Service for commercial or any other purposes;
• post or otherwise make available irrelevant Content (as defined below), repeatedly post or make available the same or similar Content or otherwise impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to our computer systems (including any non-public areas of the Service) or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, probes for vulnerability, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of, the Service (or the servers and networks which are connected to the Service);
• make available Content (as defined below) that in our opinion constitutes or contains "affiliate marketing," "link referral codes," "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or unsolicited commercial advertisement, except to the extent such Content is provided to you by us or one of our affiliates for a purpose specifically authorized by us in writing;
• access or use the Service if you have been previously removed from the Service by us.
• use or access the ISM Supply Chain Mastery™ Model for any other purpose beyond internal purposes, including for your own employees and contractors and educational purposes. For avoidance of doubt, you may not commercially distribute the ISM Supply Chain Mastery™ Model for commercial, for consulting or any other purpose including any use of it in the creation of competing programs.
• use or access our online courses for any other purpose beyond internal purposes, including for your own educational purposes. For avoidance of doubt, online course access is for individuals only. You may not share your log in or commercially distribute the online courses, for consulting or any other purpose including any use of it in the creation of competing programs.

There are a number of fundamental principles upon which the GDPR is based.

These are as follows:

1. Personal data shall be:

(a) processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’);

(b) collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes shall, in accordance with Article 89(1), not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes (‘purpose limitation’);

(c) adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (‘data minimisation’);

(d) accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay (‘accuracy’);

(e) kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed; personal data may be stored for longer periods insofar as the personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) subject to implementation of the appropriate technical and organizational measures required by this Regulation in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the data subject (‘storage limitation’);

(f) processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organizational measures (‘integrity and confidentiality’).

2. The controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate compliance with, paragraph 1 (‘accountability’).

Institute for Supply Management will ensure that it complies with all of these principles both in the processing it currently carries out and as part of the introduction of new methods of processing such as new IT systems.

The data subject also has rights under the GDPR. These consist of:

1. 1. The right to be informed
2. 2. The right of access
3. 3. The right to rectification
4. 4. The right to erasure
5. 5. The right to restrict processing
6. 6. The right to data portability
7. 7. The right to object
8. 8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

Each of these rights are supported by appropriate procedures within Institute for Supply Management that allow the required action to be taken within the timescales stated in the GDPR.

These timescales are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 - Timescales for data subject requests

The General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) is one of the most significant pieces of legislation affecting the way that Institute for Supply Management carries out its information processing activities. Significant fines are applicable if a breach is deemed to have occurred under the GDPR, which is designed to protect the personal data of citizens of the European Union. It is Institute for Supply Management’s policy to ensure that our compliance with the GDPR and other relevant legislation is clear and demonstrable at all times.

• 2.5.1 Consent
• Unless it is necessary for a reason allowable in the GDPR, Institute for Supply Management will always obtain explicit consent from a data subject to collect and process their data. In case of children below the age of 16 (a lower age may be allowable in specific EU member states) parental consent will be obtained. Transparent information about our usage of their personal data will be provided to data subjects at the time that consent is obtained and their rights with regard to their data explained, such as the right to withdraw consent. This information will be provided in an accessible form, written in clear language and free of charge.
• If the personal data are not obtained directly from the data subject then this information will be provided to the data subject within a reasonable period after the data are obtained and definitely within one month.

• 2.5.2 Performance of a Contract
• Where the personal data collected and processed are required to fulfil a contract with the data subject, explicit consent is not required. This will often be the case where the contract cannot be completed without the personal data in question. For example, the delivery of an order will require an email address and/or a physical address.

• 2.5.3 Legal Obligation
• If the personal data is required to be collected and processed in order to comply with the law, then explicit consent is not required. This may be the case for some data related to employment and taxation for example, and for many areas addressed by the public sector.

• 2.5.4 Vital Interests of the Data Subject
• In a case where the personal data are required to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person, then this may be used as the lawful basis of the processing. Institute for Supply Management will retain reasonable, documented evidence that this is the case, whenever this reason is used as the lawful basis of the processing of personal data.

• 2.5.5 Task Carried Out in the Public Interest
• Where Institute for Supply Management needs to perform a task that it believes is in the public interest or as part of an official duty then the data subject’s consent will not be requested. The assessment of the public interest or official duty will be documented and made available as evidence where required. For example, some of research performed by the Report on Business® group and the CAPS Research group may fall into this area.

• 2.5.6 Legitimate Interests
• If the processing of specific personal data is in the legitimate interests of Institute for Supply Management and is judged not to affect the rights and freedoms of the data subject in a significant way, then this may be defined as the lawful reason for the processing. The reasoning behind this view will be documented.

Institute for Supply Management has adopted the principle of privacy by design and will ensure that the definition and planning of all new or significantly changed systems that collect or process personal data will be subject to due consideration of privacy issues, including the completion of one or more data protection impact assessments.

The data protection impact assessment will include:

• Consideration of how personal data will be processed and for what purposes
• Assessment of whether the proposed processing of personal data is both necessary and proportionate to the purpose(s)
• Assessment of the risks to individuals in processing the personal data
• What controls are necessary to address the identified risks and demonstrate compliance with legislation

Use of techniques such as data minimization and pseudonymisation will be considered where applicable and appropriate.

Institute for Supply Management will ensure that all relationships it enters into that involve the processing of personal data are subject to a documented contract that includes the specific information and terms required by the GDPR. For more information, see the GDPR Controller-Processor Agreement Policy.

Transfers of personal data outside the European Union will be carefully reviewed prior to the transfer taking place to ensure that they fall within the limits imposed by the GDPR. This depends partly on the European Commission’s judgement as to the adequacy of the safeguards for personal data applicable in the receiving country and this may change over time.

Intra-group international data transfers will be subject to legally binding agreements referred to as Binding Corporate Rules (BCR) which provide enforceable rights for data subjects.

ISM does not currently have any offices within the EU; however, this could apply to data collected in it’s Shanghai office and transmitted to ISM’s corporate office.

A defined role of Data Protection Officer (DPO) is required under the GDPR if an organization is a public authority, if it performs large scale monitoring or if it processes particularly sensitive types of data on a large scale. The DPO is required to have an appropriate level of knowledge and can either be an in-house resource or outsourced to an appropriate service provider.

Based on these criteria, Institute for Supply Management does not require a Data Protection Officer to be appointed.

It is Institute for Supply Management’s policy to be fair and proportionate when considering the actions to be taken to inform affected parties regarding breaches of personal data. In line with the GDPR, where a breach is known to have occurred which is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals, the relevant supervisory authority will be informed within 72 hours following the knowledge of the incident and pursuant to legal and technical guidance. This will be managed in accordance with our Information Security Incident Response Procedure which sets out the overall process of handling information security incidents.

Under the GDPR the relevant DPA has the authority to impose a range of fines of up to four percent of annual worldwide turnover or twenty million Euros, whichever is the higher, for infringements of the regulations.

The following actions are undertaken to ensure that Institute for Supply Management complies at all times with the accountability principle of the GDPR:

• The legal basis for processing personal data is clear and unambiguous
• All staff involved in handling personal data understand their responsibilities for following good data protection practice
• Training in data protection has been provided to all staff
• Rules regarding consent are followed
• Routes are available to data subjects wishing to exercise their rights regarding personal data and such inquiries are handled effectively
• Annual reviews of procedures involving personal data are carried out
• Privacy by design is adopted for all new or changed systems and processes
• The following documentation of processing activities is recorded:
  • - Organization name and relevant details
  • - Purposes of the personal data processing
  • - Categories of individuals and personal data processed
  • - Categories of personal data recipients
  • - Agreements and mechanisms for transfers of personal data to non-EU countries including details of controls in place
  • - Personal data retention schedules
  • - Relevant technical and organizational controls in place

These actions are reviewed on a regular basis as part of the management process concerned with data protection.