AdoptionIreland: the Adopted People's Association of Ireland (hereinafter known as "APA") is conscious of its duties under the Data Protection Act 1988. As such APA or any member of the APA will only use any personal information which you provide on the website for the intended purposes of any services offered by APA together with the facilitation of those services. Any information provided will remain strictly confidential to APA and its agents or service providers and will be only given in order to facilitate the offering or performance of any services on your behalf. Any information transferred abroad (which shall only include Northern Ireland or United Kingdom) will only be transferred where it is necessary to facilitate the provision of your services and the information will remain strictly confidential to APA, its agents or its service providers.

You should also be aware that each time you visit a website information about your visit may be retained. This only comprises statistical and other analytical information collected on an aggregate and non-individual specific basis of all browsers who visit the site.

The statistical and analytical information provides APA with general and not individually specific information about the number of people who visit the AdoptionIreland.com website; the number of people who return to this site; the pages that they visit; and where they were before they came to this site and the page in the site at which they exited. This information helps us monitor traffic on our website so that we can manage the site's capacity and efficiency. It also helps APA to understand which parts of this site are most popular, and generally to assess user behaviour and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the site.

"Cookies" are small text files that a website can use in order to recognise visitors who revisit a site so as to facilitate their ongoing access to and use of the site. They enable usage behaviour to be tracked and aggregate data to be compiled that would facilitate more targeted advertising and improved content. Typically, cookies involve the assigning of a unique number to the visitor. APA website utilises temporary cookies for security purposes only, and only on the Irish Contact Register portion of our website. Ensure that the 'receiving cookies' option is enabled on your web browser. If you have disabled 'receiving cookies', APA can not determine who you are and it disables the Register service.

There are options on newer versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator that will send a message to your web browser if a 'cookie' is sent to your device. On some versions, you can view the contents of the 'cookie'.

We may record the number of users, location of computers on the Internet and other non-personal information for visitors to the public areas of the website. This recording is for administration analysis purposes and it will not identify you in person.

However, throughout this website you may have an opportunity to send us information relating to you such as through the "contact us" pages or any other area where you may send e-mails or request information. By choosing to participate in these, you will be providing us with some level of personal information relating to you. This information will only be used by APA for the purposes for which it was provided by you, for verification purposes and for statistical analysis.

If you wish to find out what personal data APA holds on you, you can write to the

Chairperson
AdoptionIreland: the Adopted People's Association of Ireland,
14 Exchequer Street
Dublin 2,
Ireland

Security

APA uses up to date technologies and maintains rigorous security standards and procedures with a view to preventing unauthorised access to your data. However messages and information passing over the internet may not be secure and can be intercepted by third parties or incorrectly delivered. The confidentiality of such communications can not, therefore, be guaranteed and you should not divulge personal information over the internet unless you are using a secure or encrypted communications technology.

Governing Law

This website is controlled and operated by APA from Ireland. These terms and conditions of use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with laws of Ireland, and you hereby agree for the benefit of APA, and without prejudice to the right of APA to take proceedings in relation to these terms and conditions of use before any other court of competent jurisdiction, that the courts of Ireland shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine any action or proceedings that may arise out of or in connection with these terms and conditions of use, and for such purposes you irrevocably submit to the jurisdiction of such courts.

Regulatory Compliance

This website is controlled and operated by APA from Ireland, and secondarily administered from the US. APA does not make any representation that Materials, Software and/or the facilities or services offered through this website are appropriate or suitable for use in countries other than Ireland, or that they comply with any legal or regulatory requirements of such other countries. In accessing this website, you do so at your own risk and your own initiative, and are responsible for compliance with local laws, to the extent any local laws are applicable. If it is prohibited to make this website, the Materials, Software and/or facilities or services offered through this website or any part of them, available in your country, or to you (whether by reason of nationality, residence or otherwise), this website, the Materials, Software and/or facilities or services offered through this website or any part of them are not directed at you.

Miscellaneous

Any waiver of any provision of these terms and conditions must be in writing and signed by APA to be valid. A waiver of any provision hereunder shall not operate as a waiver of any other provision, or a continuing waiver of the same provision in the future. If any court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of these terms and conditions to be void or unenforceable for any reason, then such provision shall be ineffective to the extent of the court's finding without affecting the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. These terms and conditions represent the entire understanding and agreement between you and AdoptionIreland: the Adopted People's Association of Ireland relating to use of this website, and supersede any and all prior statements, understandings or agreements whether oral or written, and shall not be modified except in writing, signed by you and by APA.