Association of Texas Professional Educators
Association of Texas Professional Educators

Privacy Policy

Last updated: December 10, 2025

The Association of Texas Professional Educators (“ATPE”) is committed to respecting the privacy of our customers and website visitors. This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected on our website https://www.atpe.org (the “Site”) and official ATPE social media webpages (“Official Social Media Pages”), including our Facebook Page. This policy does not apply to information collected by:

  • Us offline or any third party; or
  • Any third party, including through any third-party application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from the Site.

Please note that we do not have control over the data collection and use practices of third-parties with respect to information that you submit on a social media site. Thus, the provisions of this Privacy Policy pertaining to Official Social Media Pages only apply to information submitted directly to us by or through a social media site.

In all other respects, all information or other content submitted to any website linked to the Site or any other third-party website is subject to the terms of the privacy policy applicable to such website, which we encourage you to read before providing information on or through them.

Please read this 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, your choice is not to use our Site or engage with our Official Social Media Pages. By accessing or using our the Site or submitting information to our Official Social Media Pages, you agree to this privacy policy.

Information We Collect

Contact and Membership Information. When you contact us using one of our online contact forms, or contact us using any of the methods provided under the Site’s “Contact” tab, we receive the messages you send as well as any personal information you provide.

‎Log Data. We may automatically record information concerning your activity on the Site. This may include your IP addresses or other identifiers, your browser type, the types of information you search for and view on the Site, locale preferences, and your mobile carrier. If you arrived at the Site by clicking on an advertisement or promotion on another website, we may also take note of the web page you visited before you came to the Site.

Cookies and Web Beacons. A cookie is a small data file that may be transferred to your browser or mobile device. We may use session, persistent, and third-party cookies to collect information in order to study, enhance, and improve the use and capabilities of the Site. We may also use cookies to enable certain features of the Site, preserve your preferences, and customize your experience when you visit and return to the Site. In addition to cookies, our Site also uses web beacons (either directly or from our partners), which are small electronic files (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs), to determine, for example, if a user has visited a particular website and for other website statistics.

By continuing to use our Site, you are agreeing to our placing cookies and/or web beacons on your computer in order to analyze the way you use our Site.

If you do not wish to accept cookies or web beacons in connection with your use of this Site, please discontinue use of this Site.

Third-Party Analytics. We use providers of third-party analytics services and communications services to help us understand and improve the usage of the Site and the effectiveness of our communications strategies and recruiting efforts. In some cases, we may permit the third-party companies providing these services to set and access cookies (or similar data tools, such as “pixel tags” or “web beacons”) through the Site and our email messages. These companies may use your IP address or an anonymous identifier as well as certain information from your browser, together with other non-personal information about your visits to the Site and other websites, in order to provide advertisements about products and services of interest to you on other websites or via e-mail, and/or to provide analytical information for the Site and other websites. We do not control these third-parties' tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about advertisements about products and services or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible third-party provider directly.

Like many sites, this Site uses Google Analytics. Google offers a Google Analytics browser add-on (designed to be compatible only with certain browsers) to provide website visitors the ability to prevent their data from being collected and used by Google Analytics. That add-on may be obtained here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en; and other privacy controls are available here: http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html.

Other Websites (including Official Social Media Pages). If you choose to enroll in a user forum on this Site using your Facebook or other social media account, we may receive limited information from the social media site associated with that other account (as further addressed below). We also receive any information you submit to us on an Official Social Media Page, which is treated in the same manner as comparable information collected from the Site under this Policy. In other respects, we do not collect personal information about your activities on third-party websites or other online services.

Linked Accounts. If you register on a user forum on this Site using the login information from your Facebook or other social media account, we will use such login information to access and collect the information that the social media site permits us to access so that we can create your user forum account on this Site and so that you can more easily connect to your family and friends. Note, however, that we will not post to Facebook or another social media account without your permission. You should review your forum registration information on this Site even if you use a social media account to sign up, so that you will be aware of and make any necessary corrections to the information the social media site has provided, so that you can see what registration information may be publicly available on the user forum, and so that you can exercise available privacy choices.

How We Use Personal Information

We use personal information to provide and improve services to our members and others, and to deliver news and information to you.

We also use information to improve our Site, to enhance our operations and effectiveness (including the operations and effectiveness of our regional and local units), and to carry out requested transactions.

We may also provide personal information to third-party service providers who assist us in providing products and services and information to you.

In addition, we may retain and use communications, transaction details, your IP address, and identifying information in order to maintain audit trails for security purposes.

Social Media Features

The Site may include social media features, such as the Facebook Like button and the Share This button. If you utilize any of these features, the third-party social media website may collect your IP address and information about which page you are visiting on the Site, and they may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Actions you take in connection with our social media features may be reflected in a manner visible to others; for example, if you “Like” us on Facebook, others may be able to see that you have done so.

Protecting Personal Information

We are committed to maintaining the security of personal information, and we employ reasonable security measures to protect the information we receive. Please remember, though, that neither the Internet nor any method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure.

We conduct security awareness training for our staff and volunteers. When it is necessary for our service providers to have access to your information, we expect the same level of data security, integrity and confidentiality standards as ATPE itself provides.

Disclosure Policy

We disclose personal information as necessary, such as in connection with providing services and information to you or processing or facilitating your transactions. We also may share limited information with the insurer under our group policy(ies) so that the insurer and its authorized agents and representatives may contact members with other insurance and related offerings.

We may disclose information concerning you if required to do so by law or if we believe that such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation or to protect and defend our rights or property, or those of others.

Choices About How We Use Your Personal Data and Do Not Track Policy

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal data you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your personal data:

  • Tracking Technologies. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe’s website.

    How do I disable cookies?

    If you want to disable cookies, you can change your website browser settings to reject cookies. How you can do this will depend on the browser you use. Further details on how to disable cookies for the most popular browsers are set out below:

    For Microsoft Internet Explorer:

    • Choose the menu “tools” then “Internet Options”
    • Click on the “privacy” tab
    • Select the setting the appropriate setting

    For Google Chrome:

    • Choose Settings> Advanced
    • Under “Privacy and security,” click “Content settings”.
    • Click “Cookies”

    For Safari:

    • Choose Preferences > Privacy
    • Click on “Remove all Website Data”

    For Mozilla firefox:

    • Choose the menu “tools” then “Options”
    • Click on the icon “privacy”
    • Find the menu “cookie” and select the relevant options
  • Location Information. You can choose whether or not to allow the Applications to collect and use real-time information about your device’s location through the device’s privacy settings. If you block the use of location information, some parts of the Application may become inaccessible or not function properly.
  • Promotional Offers. If you do not wish to have your e-mail address/contact information used by us to market or otherwise promote our own or third parties’ products or services, you can opt-out through the unsubscribe mechanism at the bottom of the applicable email.

Please note that, if you delete or choose not to receive cookies from the Site, the functionality of the Site may be impaired. The online advertising industry provides websites from which you may opt-out of receiving targeted ads from our data and advertising partners. You can access these, and also learn more about targeted advertising and user choice and privacy, at http://www.aboutads.info and at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.

We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) on the NAI’s website.

Your web browser may offer you a “Do Not Track” option, which allows you to signal to operators of websites and web applications and services (including behavioral advertising services) that you do not wish such operators to track certain of your online activities over time and across different websites. We do not honor any web browser “Do Not Track” signals or other mechanisms that provide you with the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services. At present, no universally accepted standards exist on how companies should respond to do-not-track signals. In the event a final universally accepted standard is established, we will assess and provide an appropriate response to these signals.

No Use by Children Under the Age of 13

The Site is not intended for use by minors under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, you may not use our Site. If we believe that any information has been posted by a minor under the age of 13, we will promptly delete that information. Parents may contact us using the methods set forth below to request that information concerning their child be removed from our Site.

Notification of Changes to Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy. The date this Privacy Policy was last updated is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Site and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.

Storage of Personal Data

We will only retain your personal data, in a form which permits us to identify you, for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for. We will retain and use your personal data as necessary to satisfy any legal, accounting or reporting requirements, to resolve disputes or to enforce our agreements and rights. To dispose of personal data, we may anonymize it, delete it or take other appropriate steps. Data may persist in copies made for backup and business continuity purposes for additional time.

Data Security

We understand that the security of your personal data is important. We provide reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security controls to protect your personal data. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Site. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Site like message boards. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Site.

Accessing and Correcting Your Personal Data

You can review and change your personal information by logging into our Site and visiting your account profile page. You may change, correct or delete any personal data that you have provided to us using the contact information provided below. You can also update your personal data inside of the Site.

How to Contact Us

Questions, comments, and feedback are very important to us. For privacy-related issues, click here to contact us via email, or write to us at: Association of Texas Professional Educators, 305 E. Huntland Dr., Suite 300, Austin, TX 78752-3792.