Privacy Policy

Association of Applied Geochemists (AAG) Effective date: 2026-08-27

The Association of Applied Geochemists (“AAG”, “we”) is an international scientific association. This policy explains what personal information we collect through this website, why, and what your choices are.

Who is responsible. The AAG Business Office is responsible for personal information handled through this website. Contact: [email protected], or AAG Business Office, P.O. Box 567, 223 St. Lawrence St., Merrickville, ON K0G 1N0, Canada.

What we collect and why

Membership applications and member records. When you apply for membership we collect the information on the application form: your name and title, email address, country, mailing address, year of birth, the membership and journal options you choose, your areas of interest, and, depending on membership type, your employer and position or your institution and department. Optional questions (such as gender, phone number, or willingness to act as a peer reviewer) are marked as such on the form. We use this information to administer your membership: processing your application, providing your member benefits and journal access, sending renewal reminders and membership correspondence, and maintaining the Association’s member records.

Student and post-doctoral applicants provide the name and email address of a supervisor, who we contact once to confirm the applicant’s status. Fellow applicants provide the names and email addresses of referees for the same purpose. If someone has named you and you have questions, contact the Business Office.

Payments. Membership dues are paid by card through Stripe, our payment processor. Your card details are entered on Stripe’s secure payment page and are never seen or stored by this website. We keep a record of payments made (amount, date, and Stripe’s payment reference) for membership administration and accounting.

Free publication downloads. Some publications are available free of charge to anyone in exchange for a name and email address. We store these details in a contact list and, unless you unsubscribe, send up to two follow-up emails about the Association through our email service provider, MailerLite. Every such email contains an unsubscribe link.

News emails. Members receive AAG news and announcements only if they opt in. You can change this choice at any time on your account page.

The member directory. The members-only directory is opt-in. If you choose to appear, other logged-in members can see your name, membership type, country, and areas of interest. It never shows your contact details. You can join or leave the directory at any time on your account page.

Cookies

The website uses only functional cookies: the cookies WordPress needs to log you in and keep you logged in, and a small cookie that remembers you have already filled in the free-download form so you are not asked twice. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party analytics.

Who we share information with

We share personal information only with the service providers needed to run the website: Stripe (payment processing), MailerLite (email delivery for news and follow-up emails), and our website hosting provider. Each processes data on our behalf. Member information is never sold or shared for marketing by third parties. Journal access is provided through our publishing partners; where this requires a subscriber list (for example for GEEA access or Elements magazine delivery), we share only the information needed for that purpose (such as name, email or mailing address).

Some of these providers are located outside Canada (for example in the United States or the European Union), which means your information may be processed in those countries.

How long we keep information

We keep member records while your membership is active. If your membership lapses, we keep your record for five years so you can easily rejoin, after which it is deleted. Payment records are kept as long as accounting rules require. Free-download contacts are kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove you.

Your choices and rights

You can view and correct most of your information yourself on your account page, including your address, delivery preferences, directory listing, and news email choice. You can ask the Business Office at any time to access, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you, subject to records we must keep by law. If you are in a jurisdiction with specific data protection rights (such as the European Union), those rights apply to our handling of your information.

Changes and contact

We will update this policy if the website’s data handling changes, and note the new effective date above. Questions or requests: [email protected].