191 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
191 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
<%inherit file="marketing.html" />
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<section class="privacy-policy">
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<div>
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<h1>Privacy Policy</h1>
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<h2>Confidentiality & Security of Personally
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Identifiable Information</h2>
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<p>We care about the confidentiality and security of your personal
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information. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to keep your
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Personally Identifiable Information private and will not share it with third
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parties, except as set forth in this Privacy Policy. However, no method of
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transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, and we
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cannot guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used, or
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released in a manner that is inconsistent with this policy. </p>
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<p>This Privacy Policy only applies to information that we collect
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through the Site and does not apply to information that we may collect
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from you in other ways (for example, this policy does not apply to
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information that you may provide to us over the phone, by fax or
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through conventional mail). In addition, please note that this policy
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does not apply to your educational records -- those records are protected
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by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA")
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with which we are committed to comply.</p>
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<h2>Usernames and Postings </h2>
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<p>Comments or other information posted by you to our forums,
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wikis, or other areas of the Site designed for public communications may be
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viewed and downloaded by others who visit the Site. For this reason, we
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encourage you to use an anonymous username, and to not post any personally
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identifiable information to those forums (or other public areas).</p>
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<h2>What You Consent to by Using Our Site</h2>
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<p>Please understand that by submitting any Personally Identifiable
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Information to us, you consent and agree that we may collect, use and
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disclose such Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with
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this Privacy Policy and our TOS, and as permitted or required by
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law. If you do not agree with these terms, then please do not provide
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any Personally Identifiable Information to us. As used herein,
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"Personally Identifiable Information" means your full name,
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email address and your student identification number. If you refuse,
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or if you choose not to provide us with any required Personally
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Identifiable Information, we may not be able to provide you with the
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services that can be offered on our Site.</p>
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<h2>What Information We Collect </h2>
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<p>We collect information, including Personally Identifiable
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Information, when you sign up for a User Account, participate in
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online courses, send us email messages and/or participate in our
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public forums. We collect information about student performance and
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patterns of learning. We track information indicating, among other
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things, which pages of our Site were visited, the order in which they
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were visited, when they were visited, and which hyperlinks and other
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user interface controls were used.</p>
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<p>We may log the IP address, operating system and browser software
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used by each user of the Site, and we may be able to determine from an
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IP address a user's Internet Service Provider and the geographic
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location of his or her point of connectivity. Various web analysis
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tools are used to collect this information. Some of the information is
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collected through cookies (a small text file placed on your
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computer). You should be able to control how and whether cookies will
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be accepted by your web browser. Most browsers offer instructions on
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how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the "Help"
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section of the toolbar. If you reject our cookies, many functions and
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conveniences of this Site may not work properly.</p>
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<p>Among other things, we may use the information that you provide
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(including your Personally Identifiable Information) in connection
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with the following:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>To help us improve <i>MITx</i> offerings, both individually
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(e.g. by course staff when working with a student) and in
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aggregate, and to individualize the experience and to evaluate
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the access and use of the Site and the impact of <i>MITx</i> on
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the worldwide educational community.
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</li>
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<li>For purposes of scientific research, particularly, for
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example, in the areas of cognitive science and education. </li>
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<li>For the purpose for which you specifically provided
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the personal information, for example to respond to a specific inquiry or
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provide you the specific course and/or services you select. </li>
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<li>To track both individual and aggregate attendance,
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progress and completion of an online course, and to analyze statistics on
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student performance and how students learn. </li>
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<li>To monitor and detect violations of the Honor Code, the
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Terms of Service, as well as other misuses and potential misuses of the
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site. </li>
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<li>To publish information gathered about <i>MITx</i>
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access, use, impact, and student performance but only as non-personally
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identifiable data.</li>
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<li>To send you updates about online courses offered by <i>MITx</i>
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or other MIT events or to send you email messages about Site maintenance
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or updates.</li>
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<li>To archive this information and/or use it for future
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communications with you.</li>
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<li>As otherwise described to you at the point of
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collection. </li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Sharing with Third Parties</h2>
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<p>We may share the information we collect with third parties
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as follows:</p>
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<ul>
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<li> With service providers or
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contractors that perform certain functions on our behalf, including processing
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information that you provide to us on the Site, operating the Site or portions
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of it, or in connection with other aspects of <i>MITx</i> services. These
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service providers and contractors will be obligated to keep your information
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confidential.</p>
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<li> With all users and other visitors
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to the Site, to the extent that you submit post comments or other information
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to a portion of the Site designed for public communications. As provided in the
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Terms of Service, we may provide those postings to students in future offerings
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of the course, either within the context of the forums, the courseware, or
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otherwise, for marketing purposes, or in any other way. If we do use your postings,
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we will use them without your real name and e-mail (except with explicit
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permission), but we may use your username. </p>
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<li>To connect you to other users of the web site. For instance, we
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may recommend specific study partners, or connect potential student
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mantees and mentors. In such cases, we may use all information
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collected to determine who to connect you to, but we will only connect
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you by username, and not disclose your real name or e-mail address to
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your contact. </p>
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<li> To respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process, in
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response to a request for cooperation from law enforcement or another
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government agency, to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding
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illegal activities, suspected fraud, or to enforce our user agreement
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or privacy policy, or to protect our rights or the rights of
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others.</p>
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<li> As otherwise described to you at the point of collection or
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pursuant to your consent. For example, from time to time, we may ask
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your permission to use your Personally Identifiable Information in
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other ways. In the future, <i>MITx</i> may have an alumni association,
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resume book, etc. We may offer services where it is possible to
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verify <i>MITx</i> credentials. </p>
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<li> For integration with third party services. Videos and other
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content may be hosted on YouTube and other web sites not controlled
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by <i>MITx</i>. We may provide links and other integration with social
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networks, and other sites. Those web sites are guided by their own
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privacy policies. </p>
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</ul>
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<h2>Personalization and Pedagogical Improvements</h2>
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<p>Our goal is to provide current and future visitors with the best
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possible educational experience. To further this goal, we sometimes
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present different users with different versions of course materials
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and software. We do this to personalize the experience to the
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individual learner (assess the learner's level of ability and learning
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style, and present materials best suited to the learner), to evaluate
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the effectiveness of our course materials, to improve our
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understanding of the learning process, and to otherwise improve the
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effectiveness of our offerings. We may publish or otherwise publicize
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results from this process, but only as non-personally-identifiable
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data. </p>
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<h2>Changing Our Privacy Policy</h2>
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<p>Please note that we review our privacy practices from time to time,
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and that these practices are subject to change. Any change, update, or
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modification will be effective immediately upon posting on our
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Site. We will notify you of any material change to this Privacy Policy
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by posting a notice on our Site's homepage for a reasonable period of
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time following such update, and by changing the effective date
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(located at the bottom of this page). Be sure to return to this page
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periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version of
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this Privacy Policy. </p>
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<h2>Privacy Concerns</h2>
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<p>If you have privacy concerns, or have disclosed data you would
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prefer to keep private, please contact us
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at <a href="mailto:privacy@mitx.mit.edu">privacy@mitx.mit.edu</a>. </p>
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</div>
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</section>
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