EFFECTIVE DATE: January 27, 2015
Educurious (“Educurious”, “we”, or “us”) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that combines project-based learning, technology, and connections with real-world experts to transform the education experience for students in grades 8-12. We recognize the importance of privacy. In this Privacy Policy (“Policy”), we describe how we collect, use, and disclose information that we obtain about visitors to our website www.educurious.org (the “Site”) and the services available through our Site (the “Services”).
By visiting the Site, or using any of our Services, you agree that your personal information will be handled as described in this Policy. Your use of our Site or Services, and any dispute over privacy, is subject to this Policy and our Terms of Use, including its applicable limitations on damages and the resolution of disputes. Our Terms of Use are incorporated by reference into this Policy.
What Information Do We Collect About You and Why?
We may collect information about you directly from you and from third parties, as well as automatically through your use of our Site or Services.
Information We Collect Directly from You
All visitors to our Site may browse the Site without registering for our Services. However, certain areas and features of our Site and Services may require registration. To register you must provide information such as the following: name, school, city, state, email address, phone number, position, and subject taught. As you use our Site, you may also have the option of uploading pictures, videos, or other content. We will also collect any information that you choose to provide to us, for example your credit or debit card information and billing information is you make a purchase or donation through our Site, information you provide in one of our online courses, or information that you send us in an email.
Information We Collect Automatically
We may automatically collect the following information about your use of our Site or Services through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies: your domain name; your browser type and operating system; web pages you view; links you click on; your IP address; the length of time you visit our Site and or use our Services; and the referring URL, or the webpage that led you to our Site. Please see the section “Our Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms” below.
We may use this information in aggregated form or we may associate it with the personal information that we collect about you.
How We Use Your Information
We use the information that we gather about you for the following purposes:
- To provide our Services to you, to communicate with you about your use of our Services, to respond to your inquiries and complaints, to fulfill your requests, to facilitate your access to third party resources, services and job positions, and for other customer service purposes.
- To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you, to provide personalized help and instructions, and to otherwise personalize your experiences while using the Site or our Services.
- To provide you with news and newsletters, special offers, and promotions; to contact you about products or information we think may interest you; and for other marketing and promotional purposes. We may provide you with such updates and promotional materials via email. We also may use the information that we learn about you to assist us in advertising our Services on third-party websites.
- To better understand how users access and use our Site and Services, on an aggregated as well as an individualized basis, in order to improve our Site and Services, respond to user desires and preferences, and for other research and analytical purposes.
- To comply with legal obligations.
How We Share Your Information
Our Site provides an innovative platform where educators and students can collaborate. We do not share your personal information with third parties for their own marketing purposes. We may share the information that we collect about you, including personally identifiable information, as follows:
- Teachers & Administrators. Certain student information (e.g., grades, completion of assignments and activities within the services) is shared with a student’s teachers and school administrators.
- Educurious Users. Certain features of our Site may permit you to share information with other users and to control who views certain of the information you post. Other features of our Site provide an open platform where users can collaborate with one another. Anything that you post to open areas of our Site (e.g., in collaborative courses) may be viewable by any other visitors to our Site.
- Service Providers. We may disclose the information we collect from you to third party vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents who perform functions on our behalf.
- Third Party Partners. We may disclose your name, contact information and certain background details to third parties, with your consent or in response to your request. For example, if you consent or request that we share your information with prospective employers, or you sign up to receive communications from us and from third parties about potential employment positions, we will share your name, contact details, and any other information provided by you with those third parties so that they may contact you regarding potential employment opportunities.
- Business Transfers. If we are acquired by or merged with another company, if substantially all of our assets are transferred to another company, or as part of a bankruptcy proceeding, we may transfer the information we have collected from you to the other company.
- In Response to Legal Process. We also may disclose the information we collect from you in order to comply with the law, a judicial proceeding, court order, or other legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena.
- To Protect Us and Others. We also may disclose the information we collect from you where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Use or this Policy, or as evidence in litigation in which Educurious is involved.
- Aggregate and De-Identified Information. We may share individualized, aggregate or de-identified information about users with third parties for marketing, advertising, research, or similar purposes.
Our Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms
We use cookies and other tracking mechanisms to track information about your use of our Site and/or Services. We may combine this information with other personal information we collect from you.
- Do Not Track. Our Site does not respond to Do Not Track signals, but we do not track your activities once you leave our Site. You may disable certain tracking as discussed in this section (e.g., by disabling cookies).
- Cookies. We or our service providers may use cookies to track visitor activity on our Site. A cookie is a text file that a website transfers to your computer’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes. We or our service providers may use cookies to track user activities on our Site, such as the pages visited and time spent on our Site. Most browsers allow users to refuse cookies. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Visitors to our Site who disable cookies may not be able to browse certain areas of the Site.
- Local Storage Objects. We may use Flash Local Storage Objects (“Flash LSOs”) to store your Site preferences and to personalize your visit. Flash LSOs are different from browser cookies because of the amount and type of data stored. Typically, you cannot control, delete or disable the acceptance of Flash LSOs through your web browser. For more information on Flash LSOs, or to learn how to manage your settings for Flash LSOs, go to the Adobe Flash Player Help Page, choose “Global Storage Settings Panel” and follow the instructions. To see the Flash LSOs currently on your computer, choose “Website Storage Settings Panel” and follow the instructions to review and, if you choose, to delete any specific Flash LSO.
- Clear GIFs, pixel tags and other technologies. Clear GIFs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on your computer’s hard drive, clear GIFs are embedded invisibly on web pages. We may use clear GIFs (also known as web beacons, web bugs or pixel tags), in connection with our Site to, among other things, track the activities of Site visitors, help us manage content and compile statistics about Site usage. We or our service providers may also use clear GIFs in HTML emails to our customers to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed and track whether our emails are forwarded.
Third-Party Analytics
We use automated devices and applications, such as Google Analytics, to evaluate usage of our Site and, to the extent permitted, our Services. We also may use other analytic means to evaluate our Services. We use these tools to help us improve our Services, performance, and user experiences. We do not share your personal information with these third parties.
User-Generated Content/Blogs
On our Site, we may offer an opportunity for educators, experts, and students to collaborate with one another. Therefore, on certain portions of our Site, you may post your own content, including text, pictures, and videos. Depending upon the portion of the Site on which you post, those postings may be viewable by other Educurious users or parties interested in learning more about our Services. We also maintain a blog on our Site, and we welcome your comments. If you post a comment, your post along with your name and position will be visible to all other visitors to our Site. Any posting that you make to our Site may become public and we cannot prevent such information from being used in a manner that may violate this Policy, the law, or your personal privacy.
Third-Party Links
Our Site and Services may contain links to third-party websites. Any access to and use of such linked websites is not governed by this Policy, but instead is governed by the privacy policies of those third-party websites. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third-party websites.
Security of My Personal Information
We have implemented security measures to protect the personal information that we collect. Please be aware that no data security measures can guarantee 100% security. You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your password, phone, and computer by, among other things, signing off after using a shared computer, choosing a robust password that nobody else knows or can easily guess, and keeping your log-in and password private. We are not responsible for any lost, stolen, or compromised passwords or for any activity on your account via unauthorized password activity.
Access to and Removal of My Information
You may modify personal information that you have submitted by logging into your account and updating your profile information. Please note that copies of information that you have updated, modified or deleted may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Site for a period of time.
Minors may email us to remove information that they have posted to our Site by contacting us at support@educurious.org.
Marketing Communications
We may send periodic promotional emails to you. You may opt out of such communications by following the opt-out instructions contained in the email. Please note that it may take up to 10 business days for us to process opt-out requests. If you opt out of receiving emails about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you emails about your account or any Services you have requested or received from us.
Contact Us
If you have questions about the privacy aspects of our Services or would like to make a complaint, please contact us at support@educurious.org.
Changes to this Policy
This Policy is current as of the Effective Date set forth above. We may change this Policy from time to time, so please be sure to check back periodically. We will post any changes to this Policy on our Site. If we make any changes to this Policy that materially affect our practices with regard to the personal information we have previously collected from you, we will endeavor to provide you with notice in advance of such change by highlighting the change on our Site.
