California Society of CPAs' Online Privacy Policy Statement

Revised April 14, 2023

www.calcpa.org is a website ("the Site") of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants ("CalCPA"), CalCPA Education Foundation and CalCPA Institute. CalCPA is committed to maintaining your confidence and trust. We understand the value of your personal information and we respect your right to restrict our use of it. CalCPA has created this Online Privacy Policy Statement ("the Privacy Policy") to demonstrate our commitment to fair information practices and the protection of privacy.

1. Access to the Areas of Our Website.

Our Site has areas that are open to all users, with no registration required to obtain access.

Some areas of our Site, including specific pages in the "for Members" section and the communities features, are password-protected for specific user groups, such as Members of CalCPA ("Members").

2. Information We Collect.

a. Website Usage Information Collected. Our Web server automatically collects and aggregates information about your visit to our Site, including your service provider, browser type, domain names of referring websites, the pages accessed on our Site, and the date and time of your access. This is anonymous information that does not personally identify you.

b. Personal Information Collected. When you use our Site's "Contact Us" feature, fill out a form, submit a classified ad, complete a survey or poll on our Site or access subscription or Customer services that we offer through our Site, you will give us information that personally identifies you. Personal information may include: (i) contact data (such as your name, mailing and e-mail addresses and telephone numbers); (ii) financial data (such as your account number); and (iii) demographic data (such as your zip code, age, or affiliations). If you communicate with us by e-mail, post any information or messages to any job listing area, chat groups, bulletin boards, forums, blogs, or other facilities that may exist on our Site from time to time, post a classified advertisement, or complete online forms, surveys, polls or contest entries, we may collect any information from that communication. When you provide feedback through surveys or polls, your comments may be quoted and attributed to you using your first name and last initial, unless you request anonymity.

c. Automatic Information Collected. We automatically send, receive and store the information about your visit to our Site described in Section 2.a. above. Unlike many other websites, which use "cookies" to provide information about you, the only cookie we use on our Site is one to automatically remember Member logins and passwords for the password-protected areas.

d. Information from Other Sources. We only collect information from you and from returned mail, not from outside sources.

3. Use of Information We Collect.

We will store and update the contact information, demographic information and other information collected from Members.

We also may use Website usage information and personal information for editorial and feedback purposes, for marketing and promotional purposes, including to customize our communications to you, for statistical analyses of user behavior, for product development, for content improvement, to inform advertisers how many visitors have seen or clicked on their advertisements, and to customize the content and layout of our Site. Personal information, including names, postal and e-mail addresses and phone numbers, may be added to our databases and used in the following ways:

• to provide access to the Site.

• to contact you when necessary and to send you information about CalCPA and our marketing partners’ products and services.

• to fulfill your requests and process your transactions.

• to respond to your e-mail messages.

• to attempt to optimize your experience and enhance your time spent with us online.

• to share survey feedback and testimonials, which may be attributed using your first name and last initial.

4. Sharing and Release of Information We Collect.

We share website usage information, demographic data, automatically collected data, and feedback with partners, advertisers and other third parties only on an aggregate basis.

We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling subscriptions and orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing and/or sales assistance, providing customer service for our Site, evaluating enrollment applications and carrying out duties in the operation of our programs. These third parties have access to Website usage information, contact information, demographic information, automatically collected information and feedback needed to perform their functions, but they may not use it for other purposes.

We share contact information with other, trusted companies to provide you information about exclusive products and services for our Members and Customers.

As CalCPA continues to grow, we might sell or buy sites, companies or assets. In such transactions, Website usage information and personal information generally is one of the transferred business assets.

We will, without specific or further notice to you, release your Website usage information, contact information, demographic information, automatically collected data and feedback when we believe such disclosure is appropriate to: (a) comply with any law or a court order or other legal process; (b) protect the rights, property or safety of CalCPA, our Site, our Members, our visitors, enrollees in our programs, our employees, contractors, agents or others; or (c) enforce our terms of service.

5. Security.

We work to include security measures in this Site to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information within our control that you provide to us. However, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of that information. It also is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer or one that is otherwise accessible to third parties.

6. User Ability to Access, Update and Correct Personal Information.

To ensure that all of your Personal Information is correct and up-to-date, you may visit your personal profile on the CalCPA Website. Through your personal profile you may: (a) review and update your Personal Information that we have already collected; (b) choose whether or not you wish us to send you information about us, or promotional material from some of our partners; and (c) choose whether or not you wish us to share some of your Personal Information with third parties.

7. Lost or Stolen Information.

You must promptly notify us if your username or password is lost, stolen or used without permission. In such an event, we will cancel that username or password and update our records accordingly.

8. Public Forums.

Our Site may make chat rooms, job listing areas, forum facilities, message boards, e-groups, photo sharing, news groups, community pages and services, member directories and listings, and similar features available to you. Please understand that any information that you disclose in these areas becomes public information and that we have no control over its use. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information or any other information about yourself. For the Find a CPA function on the Site, your contact information will not be disclosed. Prospective clients’ communications are routed through CalCPA and you can choose to respond or not. In addition, the thoughts expressed in these areas reflect the views of the individual users or hosts and do not necessarily reflect the views of CalCPA or any of its affiliates.

9. Updates and Changes to Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy and our Terms and Conditions of Use may change frequently, and use of information that we gather now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time of use. We reserve the right, at any time and without notice, to add to, change, update or modify this Privacy Policy, simply by posting such change, update or modification on our Site. Any such change, update or modification will be effective immediately upon posting on our Site. You should check our Site frequently, and the page where this Privacy Policy is posted, to see recent changes.

10. Conditions of Use.

By using our Site, you consent to the collection and use of information described above. Your visit and any dispute over privacy are subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms and Conditions of Use, including limitations on damages and the application of the law of the State of California. If you have any concern about privacy at our Site, please send a detailed message to us at support@calcpa.org, and we will try to resolve it.

11. Opt-Out Process.

We make every effort to contact you only if you have previously chosen to receive communications from us. At any time, you can "opt out" of receiving direct mail and marketing material from CalCPA, such as product and service updates, by emailing us at support@calcpa.org or calling (800) 922-5272. If you do not want us to share your personal information with any third parties, please e-mail us at support@calcpa.org or call (800) 922-5272.

If, at any time in the future, we decide to use your personal information for a purpose not currently stated in this Policy, we will modify the Policy to disclose such usage. In addition, we will provide you with the opportunity and ability to opt out of this new use.

12. Links to Other Websites.

Our Site contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. You are encouraged to become familiar with the privacy policies and practices of every Website that you visit prior to disclosing any personal information.

13. Security of Personal Information.

We store your personal information in a secure location that is accessible only by designated staff. We make reasonable efforts to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration or destruction. In addition, we use a secure server to protect the safety and security of transactions over the Internet involving personal information.

14. Acceptance.

By using www.calcpa.org, you signify your acceptance of this Privacy Policy, as amended from time to time. If you do not agree with the terms and conditions contained in this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Site.

15. CalCPA Connect Mobile Application Privacy Notice

This section last updated: June 23, 2026

This CalCPA Connect Mobile Application Privacy Notice supplements the CalCPA Privacy Policy and describes how the California Society of CPAs (“CalCPA,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and retains information specifically in connection with the CalCPA Connect mobile application for iOS and Android (“App”).

The remainder of the CalCPA Privacy Policy continues to apply except where it addresses practices limited to the CalCPA website or where this Mobile Application Privacy Notice provides more specific terms for the App. If there is a conflict regarding information collected through the App, this Mobile Application Privacy Notice controls.

CalCPA Connect does not use personal information for cross-app tracking, behavioral advertising, or advertising measurement.

A. Information We Collect

Account and Identity Information

When you create an account or sign in, we collect:

• First name and last name
• Email address
• Profile photo, if you choose to upload one

This information is collected through our authentication provider, Clerk. See “Third-Party Services” below.

Profile Information

You may optionally add the following information to your profile:

• Job title and company or firm name
• Professional bio
• LinkedIn URL
• X, formerly known as Twitter, handle
• Personal website URL

Location Information

The App may access your device’s location while you are using the App. Location is used in the following ways:

Event discovery: When you use the event discovery feature, the App accesses your location to find nearby events. If you are in a recognized city, only the city name is sent to our servers. If you are outside a recognized city, your precise coordinates are sent to our servers solely as search criteria to find events within a 30-mile radius and are not stored on our servers. Location-related preferences and event discovery information may be stored on your device to improve performance and user experience.

Event creation: When you create an in-person event, you can set the event venue by searching for a location or by selecting “Use Current Location.” If you select “Use Current Location,” your device’s precise GPS coordinates are transmitted to our servers and stored as the venue location for the event. If you search for a venue by name, the venue’s coordinates, provided by Google Places, are transmitted and stored in the same way. These coordinates are associated with the event record, not with your personal location history.

The App does not access your location in the background. You can revoke location access at any time in your device settings.

Event Participation Information

When you register for events through the App, we may collect event registrations, waitlist participation, attendance records, event check-ins, and related event activity.

Conference Participation Information

If you attend a CalCPA conference through the App, we may collect conference registration status, session selections, session check-ins, conference networking activity, direct messages, conference resources, and conference-related communications.

User-Generated Content

We collect content that you create within the App, including:

• Community feed posts and comments
• Reactions to posts
• Chat messages in community, event, and conference channels
• Direct messages exchanged through conference networking features
• Photos uploaded to your profile, community feed, event galleries, conference discussions, or other member-generated content features

Information you choose to post in communities, chats, event discussions, conference discussions, direct messages, or your profile may be visible to other CalCPA Connect members, depending on the feature being used. Members are responsible for the content they choose to post within the App.

To help maintain a professional and respectful community, CalCPA may review reports of user-generated content and take moderation actions, including removing content, limiting access to features, or restricting accounts that violate community standards.

Usage and Analytics Data

We collect usage information about how members interact with App features, including community participation, event engagement, search activity, feature usage, and general application activity.

This information helps us improve the App and understand how members use its features.

Camera Access

The App may access your device’s camera when you choose to scan QR codes for event or conference check-in.

Camera access is used solely for scanning QR codes and is not used to capture, store, or upload photographs.

Device Information

When you register for push notifications, we collect:

• Your Expo push notification token
• Device model, such as “iPhone 15 Pro”
• Platform, such as iOS or Android

This information is used to deliver push notifications to your device. If you enable notifications, we may send event reminders, registration confirmations, waitlist updates, chat mentions and replies, community announcements, conference updates, and other service-related communications.

The push notification token is a device-level identifier used solely to deliver notifications to your installation of the App. We do not collect or use advertising identifiers, such as Apple’s IDFA, and we do not use any identifier for cross-app tracking or advertising.

For analytics and diagnostics purposes, we may also collect device and application information such as operating system version, App version, locale, screen characteristics, and session identifiers.

Diagnostic and Crash Data

We collect crash reports and performance data to identify and fix issues in the App. This data may include:

• Error messages and stack traces
• App state at the time of a crash
• Session activity leading up to an error, sometimes referred to as breadcrumbs

This data is linked to your account identifier, but not your name or email address, and is processed by our error-monitoring provider, Sentry. See “Third-Party Services” below.

B. How We Use Your Information

Name and email: We use this information for account creation, authentication, in-App display, CalCPA communications, member-benefit offers, and trusted-partner communications as described below.

Profile information: We use this information to display your profile to other members and support professional networking.

Location information: We use this information to help you discover nearby events, create event venues, and receive location-based recommendations.

Event participation information: We use this information to manage registrations, waitlists, invitations, attendance, and event check-in.

Conference participation information: We use this information to provide schedules, check-ins, networking, messaging, resources, and conference communications.

User-generated content: We use this information to display posts, comments, photos, and messages to the appropriate community members or recipients.

Usage and analytics data: We use this information to understand feature usage, improve the App, and measure member engagement.

Device information: We use this information to deliver push notifications.

Crash and diagnostic data: We use this information to identify and fix bugs, crashes, and performance issues.

We do not use this information for behavioral advertising, advertising measurement, or cross-app tracking.

C. Information Sharing

We do not use information collected through the App for cross-app tracking, behavioral advertising, or advertising measurement.

We disclose information as described in this Mobile Application Privacy Notice and the general CalCPA Privacy Policy, including to the recipients described below.

Within CalCPA

Your profile information, including your name, profile photo, title, company, bio, and any profile details you choose to share, may be visible to other CalCPA Connect members as part of the App’s networking features.

Member Communications and Trusted Partners

Your CalCPA Connect account uses the same CalCPA membership profile as our other services. As described in the general CalCPA Privacy Policy, CalCPA may use contact information such as your name and email address to communicate with you about CalCPA programs, membership benefits, and products or services offered by vetted trusted partners.

CalCPA may also provide specified information to vetted trusted partners so they can communicate with you about products, services, resources, or opportunities that CalCPA believes may be useful to members.

Trusted partners may include sponsors that support CalCPA events or programs. Depending on the program or event, shared information may include:

• Name
• Email address
• Company
• Job title
• Registration status
• Attendance status

When sharing relates to a particular sponsored event or program, CalCPA may identify the partner and provide additional information about the sharing at or before registration or participation.

Trusted-partner communications may include direct marketing about relevant products, services, or member benefits. CalCPA does not use App information for cross-app tracking, behavioral advertising, or advertising measurement.

You may opt out of trusted-partner sharing using the methods described in the general CalCPA Privacy Policy.

We do not provide trusted partners with your private messages, posts, uploaded photos, precise location, search queries, push notification token, diagnostic information, or general App analytics for their own marketing purposes.

Service Providers

We disclose information to trusted service providers that process it on our behalf to provide authentication, messaging, notifications, diagnostics, infrastructure, security, and related services.

These providers are not event sponsors or marketing partners and process information to support CalCPA’s operations. See “Third-Party Services” below.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or when reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of CalCPA, our members, or the public.

Business Transfers

If CalCPA undergoes a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or asset transfer, information may be transferred as part of that transaction.

D. Data Retention

Account and profile data: Retained until you delete your account.

Posts, comments, and chat messages: Retained until you delete them or delete your account.

Usage and analytics data: Retained in accordance with CalCPA’s internal data-retention schedule.

Location-related preferences and event discovery information: Stored on your device to support event discovery and recommendations.

Search queries: Stored on your device for display in recent searches and transmitted to our servers for analytics purposes. Server-side information is retained in accordance with CalCPA’s internal data-retention schedule.

Push notification tokens: Deleted when you delete your account. Tokens may otherwise be removed or deactivated when they are no longer valid or needed for notification delivery.

Event and conference participation information: Retained in accordance with CalCPA’s operational, membership, education, legal, and records-retention requirements.

Crash and diagnostic data: Retained in accordance with Sentry’s data-retention policy, which is 90 days by default.

Deleting your CalCPA Connect account removes or anonymizes your App profile, posts, messages, and preferences from active systems. It does not affect your CalCPA membership records, CPE credit history, or event attendance records maintained in CalCPA’s membership system.

E. Third-Party Services

The App uses the following third-party services that may process your information.

Clerk — Authentication

Clerk powers sign-in and account management. Clerk processes your email address and name to authenticate you and maintains your account credentials.

As part of CalCPA’s membership system, Clerk may also hold your phone number, which may be synchronized from CalCPA’s CRM records through a server-side webhook. The CalCPA Connect App does not collect, read, display, or transmit your phone number. It exists solely within Clerk’s authentication infrastructure.

Clerk Privacy Policy:
https://clerk.com/legal/privacy

Sentry — Crash Reporting and Diagnostics

Sentry receives crash reports and error logs linked to your account identifier, but not your name or email address. Personally identifiable information is disabled in our Sentry configuration.

Sentry Privacy Policy:
https://sentry.io/privacy/

Supabase — Realtime Messaging

Supabase supports real-time community, event, and conference messaging, including channel messages and direct messages. Messages are associated with your account through an authentication token.

Supabase Privacy Policy:
https://supabase.com/privacy

Expo Push Notification Service — Push Notifications

Push notifications are delivered through Expo’s notification infrastructure. Your push token and device model are transmitted to Expo’s servers when you enable notifications.

Expo Privacy Policy:
https://expo.dev/privacy

Google Maps and Google Places — Location Search and Venue Selection

When creating an event or searching for a venue, the App may send venue search terms, place identifiers, and optional location-bias information to Google Places to return venue suggestions and location details.

Google may process this information in accordance with its privacy practices.

Google Privacy Policy:
https://policies.google.com/privacy

Apple and Google Calendar Providers — Optional Calendar Integration

When you choose to add an event to your calendar, the app accesses your device's calendar list so you can pick which calendar to save it to, then writes that event's details (name, date, location, and description) to the selected calendar. The calendar functionality does not read your existing calendar events or appointments.

Depending on your device settings, this information may synchronize with iCloud, Google Calendar, or another calendar service you have configured. This action is user-initiated and optional.

F. Data Security

We protect your data using measures that include:

• Storing authentication tokens using device-protected storage, such as the iOS Keychain or Android Keystore
• Protecting information transmitted between the App and our systems using HTTPS/TLS

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. We encourage you to protect your account by keeping your credentials confidential.

G. Your Rights and Choices

Access and correction: You can view and update your profile information at any time from the Profile screen in the App.

Account deletion: You can delete your CalCPA Connect account by navigating to Settings, then Delete Account. Upon deletion, your App profile and App-specific content are removed or anonymized from active systems in accordance with our retention practices. Certain records may be retained as required for legal, security, operational, or backup purposes. See the Data Retention section above for information about what is not removed.

Location: You can revoke location permission at any time in your device settings. The App will continue to function without location access, but event recommendations will not be location-personalized.

Push notifications: You can disable push notifications at any time in your device settings or within the App’s notification preferences.

Search history: You can clear your recent searches from the search screen in the App at any time. This removes the recent searches from your device. Search-related activity may also be retained in CalCPA’s analytics systems in accordance with our retention practices.

Community controls: You may report inappropriate content, block other members, and manage your own posts and messages within the App.

Trusted-partner communications: You may opt out of CalCPA sharing your personal information with trusted partners by emailing support@calcpa.org or calling (800) 922-5272. You may also use any additional privacy-preference controls CalCPA makes available.

Analytics: Analytics data is used solely for internal operational reporting, product improvement, and member-engagement analysis. It is not provided to trusted partners for their own marketing purposes and is not used for behavioral advertising, advertising measurement, or cross-app tracking.

H. Children’s Privacy

CalCPA Connect is intended for use by licensed and student CPAs and accounting professionals.

The App is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

I. Changes to This Notice

We may update this Notice from time to time. When we do, we will update the “This section last updated” date above.

For material changes, we will notify you through the App or by email. Continued use of the App after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Notice.

16. Contact Us.

If you have thoughts, questions or suggestions about this Privacy Policy or any other aspect of your relationship with CalCPA, please contact us.

Our postal address is: California Society of CPAs, Attn: Customer Service, 500 Capitol Mall, Ste. 1760, Sacramento, California 95814

We can be reached via e-mail at support@calcpa.org.

Or you can reach us by telephone at (800) 922-5272.