We respect your privacy, will use reasonable efforts to keep your Personally Identifiable Information private, and will not share it with third parties, except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, or unless we have a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others.
What Information this Privacy Policy Covers
In order to access certain features and benefits on our site, you may need to submit “Personally Identifiable Information” (i.e., information that can be used to identify you). Personally Identifiable Information can include information such as your name and email address, among other things. You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the Personally Identifiable Information you submit to us. Inaccurate information may affect your ability to use the site, the information you receive when using the site, and our ability to contact you. For example, your email address should be kept current because that is one of the primary means by which we communicate with you.
Please note that this Privacy Policy only applies to information that we collect through the site and does not apply to information that we may collect from you through other means such as by mail or over the phone.
What You Consent to by Using Our Site
Please understand that by submitting any Personally Identifiable Information to us, you consent and agree that we may collect, use and disclose such Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, and as permitted or required by law. If you do not agree with these terms, then please do not provide any Personally Identifiable Information to us. If you refuse or withdraw your consent, or if you choose not to provide us with any required Personally Identifiable Information, we may not be able to provide you with the services and materials that can be offered on our site.
The Information We Collect
We gather the following types of information about users through the site:
Non-Personal Information. When users come to our site, we may track, collect and aggregate Non-Personal Information indicating, among other things, which pages of our site were visited, the order in which they were visited, when they were visited, and which hyperlinks were “clicked.” We also collect information from the URLs from which you linked to our site. Collecting such information may involve logging the IP address, operating system and browser software used by each user of the site. Although such information is not Personally Identifiable Information, we may be able to determine from an IP address a user’s Internet Service Provider and the geographic location of his or her point of connectivity.
Cookies. We also use or may use cookies and/or web beacons to help us determine and identify repeat visitors, the type of content and sites to which a user of our site links, the length of time each user spends at any particular area of our site, and the specific functionalities that users choose to use. Essentially, cookies are a user’s identification card for our servers. Web beacons are small graphic files linked to our servers that allow us to track your use of our site and related functionalities. Cookies and web beacons allow us to serve you better and more efficiently, and to personalize your experience at our site. Cookies and web beacons are not used to retain Personally Identifiable Information. From time to time we may also use additional methods of collecting data. We do not provide any data collected through cookies to third parties.
You should be able to control how and whether cookies will be accepted by your web browser. Most browsers offer instructions, in the “Help” section of the toolbar, on how to reset the browser to reject cookies. If you reject our cookies, many functions and conveniences of this site may not work properly.
Personally Identifiable Information. This Privacy Policy serves as notice that we collect Personally Identifiable Information in the manner described herein. Such information may include but is not limited to: username, email address, home address, postal code, gender and year of birth. We collect Personally Identifiable Information that you provide to us when you sign-up for email updates, participate in online courses or services through our site, participate in our public forums, send us email messages, and/or or otherwise contact us. In order to subscribe to services, you may be required to provide us with Personally Identifiable Information such as your user name, name, postal address, and email address. You may also be asked to provide demographic information such as date of birth, gender and educational and vocational information. We may also receive Personally Identifiable Information when you access or log-in to a third party site, e.g., Facebook, from our site. This may include the text and/or images of your Personally Identifiable Information available from the third party site. Personally Identifiable Information shall not include any information posted or sent by or to you via any public forum.
Collection of Information by Third Parties
We may permit a limited number of authorized third parties, such as analytics partners, to place cookies through the site to provide us with better insights into the use of the site or user demographics. These third parties may collect information, including non-personal information, about a consumer’s online activities over time and across different websites when he or she uses our website.
Do Not Track
We do not use technology that recognizes a “do-not-track” signal from your web browser.
How We Use and Share the Information
Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the different ways we use and may disclose the information that we gather. We do not share your Personally Identifiable Information with third parties for their direct marketing use.
Non-Personal Information. We use Non-Personal Information in aggregate form to build higher quality, more useful services by performing statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behavior of our users, and by measuring demographics and interests regarding specific areas of our site. Such aggregate information may include but is not limited to video player interactions, views of posts, views and actions on pages, assessment results and completion rates and assignments. We may share Non-Personal Information with service providers and others to assist us in operating and enhancing our programs and site.
Personally Identifiable Information. Among other things, we may use the Personally Identifiable Information that you provide to respond to your questions, provide you the specific course and/or services you select, send you updates about online courses offered by us or other events, and send you email messages about site maintenance or updates. Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy or as specifically agreed to by you, we will not disclose any Personally Identifiable Information we gather from you on the site. In addition to the other uses set forth in this Privacy Policy, we may disclose and otherwise use Personally Identifiable Information as described below.
Updates. We use Personally Identifiable Information collected when you sign-up for our various email or update services to send you the messages in connection with the site or an online course. We may also archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you.
Forums. We use Personally Identifiable Information collected during your use of forums to facilitate your use of the forums. In addition we may display this information either on the site and/or in other publications. We may also archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you and/or your designee(s). Since the forum is open to the public, you may wish to select a username which does not disclose your identity when you post on the forum.
Communications with Us. When you send us an email message or otherwise contact us, we may use the information provided by you to respond to your communication and/or as described in this Privacy Policy. We may also archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you.
Research. We will study forum participation to learn how to enhance our forums. Records of your participation may be used by us for these research studies. Such records may include but will not be limited to: username, email address, home address, postal code, gender, year of birth and your interactions with the platform such as video player usage, forum posts, actions on class pages, assignments, and assessment results. For purposes of research, we may share information we collect from online learning activities, including Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”), with other researchers. However, your PII will only be shared as permitted by applicable law, will be limited to what is necessary to perform the research and will be subject to an agreement to protect the data. We may also share with the public or third parties aggregated information that does not personally identify you. Similarly, any research findings will be reported at the aggregate level and will not expose your personal identity.
Third Party Sites. We use the Personally Identifiable Information collected from third party sites for research and teaching purposes. To the extent such Personally Identifiable Information contains images of you; you grant us a limited, non-exclusive right to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of or publicly display such images and/or your likeness for educational purposes.
Disclosure to Contractors. Our contractors may have limited access to your Personally Identifiable Information in the course of providing products or services to us. These contractors may include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, marketing assistance, and/or content related to the operation and maintenance of the site. Access to your Personally Identifiable Information by these contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary for the contractor to perform its limited function for us.
Government Authorities, Legal Rights and Actions. We may share your Personally Identifiable Information with various government authorities in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process; to establish or exercise our legal rights or to protect our property, rights or safety or the property, rights or safety of others; to prosecute or to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law or applicable regulations. In such cases we reserve the right to raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us. We also may share your Personally Identifiable Information when we believe it is appropriate to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities; to protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of the site, our users or others; and in connection with our Terms of Use and other agreements.
Security
We take reasonable measures to protect your Personally Identifiable Information from disclosure to or access by third parties. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. Please note that we do not guarantee the security of Personally Identifiable Information, and there is some risk that an unauthorized third party may find a way to circumvent our security systems or that transmission of your information over the Internet will be intercepted. Any information that you post on our site or send to us in an email is not secure.
External Links
For your convenience we may provide links to sites operated by organizations other than us (“Third Party Sites”) that we believe may be of interest to you. We do not disclose your Personally Identifiable Information to these Third Party Sites without obtaining your consent. We do not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these Third Party Sites. If you choose to click on a link to one of these Third Party Sites, you should review the privacy policy posted on the other site to understand how that Third Party Site collects and uses your Personally Identifiable Information.
Updating or Deleting Your Personally Identifiable Information
You may update or delete your Personally Identifiable Information by logging into the site and visiting your user account page. Keep in mind, however, that there will be residual information that will remain within our databases, access logs and other records, which may or may not contain your Personally Identifiable Information.
Opt-Out Rights
If you do not wish to receive information or other notices from us in the future, you can “opt out” by following the “unsubscribe” instructions in any communication you receive from us. Please be aware that you are not able to opt out of receiving communications about your account or your transactions with us.
Changing Our Privacy Policy
Please note that we review our privacy practices from time to time, and that these practices are subject to change. Any change, update, or modification will be effective immediately upon posting on our site. We will notify you of any material change to this Privacy Policy by posting a notice on our site’s homepage for a reasonable period of time following such update, and by changing the effective date (located at the bottom of this Policy). Be sure to return to this page periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version of this Privacy Policy.
Effective Date: June 14, 2014