The University School (“US” or “the School”) is concerned about the privacy of all who use this site—students, parents, faculty and staff, and members of the public who visit for any purpose. The School wants you to know what personal information we may collect from you on this site and how the information we collect about you online is used by the School and/or shared with others. This privacy policy ("Policy" or "Privacy Policy") is designed to tell you about our practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personally identifiable information (“PII” or “personal information”) that you may provide via this site, (the "Site"). Note that the Policy applies both to information obtained from the “public” areas of the site as well as password-protected areas. Please read this entire Privacy Policy before using or submitting information to this Site.
Note: this Policy applies only to PII that is collected online within the United States. It does not necessarily apply to PII that we collect through offline processes. When this Privacy Policy uses the term "personally identifiable information," we mean information that identifies a particular individual, such as the individual's name, postal address, e-mail address and telephone number. When other information is directly associated with personally identifiable information, this other information also becomes personally identifiable information for purposes of this Policy.
In this Policy, the terms "we," "us," or "our” refer to the School. The terms "you," "your" or "yourself" refer to the user who is using this Site.
Your Consent
When you access or use this Site, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information in accordance with this Policy. By providing personal information to the Site, all users, including, but not limited to, users in the European Union, fully acknowledge that they understand and consent to the collection, processing and use of such information according to United States law and these terms.
Collection of Information
Information You Give Us
We collect information from users both by asking specific questions and by permitting you to communicate directly with us via e-mail and the site’s other online functions. Some of the information that you submit to us may be PII, including, but not limited to, your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, date of birth, user name and/or password associated with the password protected portions of this Site, credit card information and educational and professional information.
Non-Personally Identifiable Information; Cookies
As part of the standard operation of this Site, we may passively collect some non-personal information about you (such as user's IP address) using information-gathering technology, so it may not be readily apparent to you that it is being collected. This information is not PII. At this time, we do not disclose such information, but we may use it in the aggregate to test how our site is being used and how it can be improved. At this time, we do not place cookies on our Site. Any changes to these practices will be handled in accordance with “Changes to This Privacy Policy,” below.
Use and Disclosure of Information
The personal information that you provide to the School may be stored, processed, and used by us to contact you, provide you with information about the School (such as newsletters, updates or other literature), respond to your requests for information, update our records and conduct transactions with you.
We may also provide this information to employees, agents or service providers acting on the School’s behalf in connection with the activities described above and other professional, technical and administrative services. The School will provide only those employees, agents and service providers the personal information they need to perform their functions for us and only on the condition that they agree to use it consistently with the terms of this Policy, only for the purposes for which we disclose it, and not for their benefit or the benefit of any other third party. Some information will be shared with alumni for school purposes, for example, for class agents in connection with reunion activities.
In addition, we will disclose personal information about you if you request or direct us to do so, or if we are required to do so as specified in more detail in "Disclosure Exceptions," below. Except as set forth in this Policy, we will not voluntarily disclose your personal information to other third parties without your permission. We do not sell your personal information. Some personal information is accessible to users of the website, such as alumni who have access to our alumni directory (name, home and work address, occupation, title). Although the School can not effectively monitor all uses of such information, alumni do agree to the condition that they will not use this information for commercial purposes.
Privacy of Children
The School complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), which requires that we never knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. The School requires that all parents and legal guardians of students under the age of 13 review and sign an authorization form each year that will permit us to collect and maintain PII about their children. US students will not have or be able to use a school e-mail account without our having a current parental authorization form. If we discover that we inadvertently have received unauthorized personal information from a child under the age of 13, we will delete such information unless we have received verifiable consent from that child's parent or legal guardian to keep it.
The School further works to protect students under the age of 13 who use school computers while on school premises. For example, the School uses sophisticated software to restrict or block access to inappropriate websites that could otherwise be visited from the School’s computers. Also, young students’ School email accounts are limited to receiving emails from other “us.edu” accounts.
The School may collect personal information from children under the age of 13 when University School students use their School e-mail account to communicate with us. US student e-mail accounts allow for students to share work, send files back and forth from home, write to their teachers and turn in class work, among other uses.
If a US student corresponds with us via e-mail, we may store, process and use any personal information contained therein to communicate with the student and/or his parent or legal guardian, to address technical issues with the student's e-mail account or access to the internet or network, to update our records or perform other administrative functions. We may retain the student's e-mail messages together with his e-mail address and our responses. We may provide the collected information to employees, agents or service providers acting on the School’s behalf in connection with the activities described above, but we will only provide those employees, agents and service providers the personal information they need to perform their functions for us and only on the condition that they not use or transmit the information for their own uses or for any purpose other than what the school has authorized.
In addition, we may disclose such child's personal information if you, as her parent or legal guardian, direct us to do so. A parent or legal guardian may request that the School not disclose personal information about their children to third parties, except as described in “Disclosure Exceptions,” below. You may also review your child's personal information, ask to have it deleted and refuse to allow any further collection or use of the child's information. If you wish to take any of the foregoing actions, please see "Contact Us" below for information on how to contact the School.
For additional information on protecting children's privacy and your rights under COPPA, click here for the Kidz Privacy page at the Federal Trade Commission web site.
Disclosure Exceptions
Notwithstanding the above policies, we reserve the right to disclose your personal information to appropriate third parties if we are required to do so by law or we believe that such action is necessary:
- To comply with legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena or court order;
- To protect the School’s rights and property or defend against legal claims;
- To protect any other party's rights, property, and safety;
- To report to any law enforcement agency any activity that we, in good faith, believe to be unlawful;
- To investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud, situations involving harassment, abusive messages or potential threats to the physical safety of any person;
- To protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Site;
- or During emergencies, such as when we believe someone's safety is at risk
Provisions above to the contrary notwithstanding, the USA Patriot Act may restrict the School from notifying individuals that such information has been disclosed.
In the event that the School is ever sold, acquired or otherwise transferred, we reserve the right to transfer our user databases, together with any PII contained therein, to a third party who acquires the assets. In the event we do so, we will place a prominent notice of the sale on the homepage of our Site, with links to information as to how you can change your privacy preferences.
Access and Correction
Our goal is to assure that your personally identifiable information is accurate, current, and complete. We will take reasonable steps to update or correct PII in our possession that users have previously submitted via this Site. In many cases, users of the website will be able to change or update their own information in an efficient manner. You may also contact us as specified below in "How to Contact Us.”
Security
We take reasonable steps to protect your PII as you transmit it from your computer to our Site and to protect such information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. You should keep in mind that no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. We cannot warrant the security of any information that you submit to us other than to use best efforts. You submit PII to us at your own risk.
In particular, e-mail sent to or from this Site may not be secure. You should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via e-mail. Moreover, where you use passwords, ID numbers, or other special access features on this Site, it is your responsibility to safeguard them. Remember to sign off the Site and close your browser window when you are finished. This is to ensure that others cannot pose as you online.
Links to Other Web Sites
This Site may contain links or references to other third-party Web sites. Please be aware that we do not control other third-party Web sites and that the inclusion of any link does not imply the School's endorsement of or recommendation for the third-party, its Web site, its products or services, or its privacy policy. The School’s Privacy Policy and practices do not extend to third-party sites that can be accessed through links on our Site. We are not responsible for the content, security, or privacy practices employed by other third-party Web sites. You should always read the privacy policy of every Web site you visit, even when you access it through this School’s site.
Other Terms
Your use of this Site is subject to our Terms of Use.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or the information practices of this Site, or if you would like to review, update and delete any personal information that you provide to us through this Site, please contact us at websupport@us.edu.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
The School reserves the right to change this Policy at any time in its sole discretion without prior notice to you. If this Privacy Policy changes, the revised policy will be posted on this Site. Please check back periodically, and especially before you provide any new personally identifiable information. |