Effective Date: May 15, 2019 – Updated: February 12, 2021

EdChoice, Inc. (“EdChoice,” “we,” “us,” “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy of your information.  The following Privacy Policy sets forth our policies and practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of the information we receive through your use of our website at http://www.edchoice.org (the “Site”).

Information We Collect

We collect different types of information from users of the Site.

Personal Information.  We may collect personally identifiable information that you voluntarily provide to us, including your first and last name; email address; IP address; mailing address and zip code; telephone number; and photographs (collectively, “Personal Information”).

Usage Information.  We may collect additional information from you that may not by itself reasonably identify you as the source (collectively, “Usage Information”).  Usage Information may include “click stream” activity, such as when you click on a banner advertisement; the type of internet browser and computer operating system you are using; the location from which you are accessing the Site; the URL of the website from which you linked to the Site; the areas of the Site you visited; and the actions you performed on the Site.  We will take reasonable measures to ensure that the Usage Information we collect is not personally identifiable and may not later be easily used to identify you except in the case of fraud checks or as otherwise required by applicable law.

Children Under 13.  The Site is not intended for use by a child under the age of 13.  We do not knowingly collect any Personal Information from a child under the age of 13 through the Site.  If you are aware of a child under the age of 13 using the Site, please alert us at the contact information listed below.

How We Collect Information

We may collect Personal Information when you voluntarily provide such information to us through the Site by, for example, creating an online user account, joining our email list, completing an online donation, completing an online purchase, purchasing our products and services, signing up for subscription services, submitting an online form with comments or inquiries, or posting on one of our forums.

We may automatically record Usage Information on our server logs that your browser transmits when you use the Site.  We may also collect Usage Information about how you access and interact with the Site through the use of automated tracking technology, such as:

1. A cookie is a small data file that is transferred to a web browser, which enables the Site to remember and customize your subsequent visits.  You can instruct your browser to block the acceptance of cookies or to provide you with a warning prompt before you accept cookies from the Site.  If you reject cookies, the functionality of the Site may be limited.
2. Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Site may use local stored objects to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Site. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.
3. Session Cookies. We use a session cookie to ensure that your session remains secure by maintaining an identifier unique to your session. The session cookie self-terminates after you close your browser. Persistent cookies are only used if you choose to have your login and password information maintained for future connections. The default setting is set to not store login and password information.
4. Web Beacons. Pages of our Site may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages and for other related Site statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain Site content and verifying system and server integrity).

How We Use and Disclose Information

• General Uses and Disclosures. We may use the information we collect from users of the Site for the purposes described below.
• Provision of Services. We may use and disclose your Personal and Usage Information to support the delivery of our services.  We may also make such information accessible to third-party service providers that assist us with managing our daily business operations, hosting the Site, facilitating e-commerce, marketing our services, processing donations, and issuing tax receipts when required.
• Contacting You. We may use your Personal Information to directly contact you in response to your inquiries, communicate school choice news, and send you items of interest from time to time.  If you would like to opt out of receiving communications directly from us, you may do so by following any instructions included in the communication or by contacting us at the contact information listed below.
• Improving our Services. We may use your Personal and Usage Information to enhance our understanding of our users’ preferences and improve our services accordingly.  Further, we may analyze Usage Information to better understand our users’ preferences with respect to the Site’s contents and functionalities.
• Data Analysis and Research. We may conduct research based on the information you provided to us while using the Site and services.  For example, we may compile and share aggregated information to researchers who will examine whether our services have improved certain student populations’ access to education.  However, such information will not identify you, any student, or prospective student by name or another unique identifier.
• User Analytics. We may share User Information in the form of user analytics to you and other users on the Site.  This information may include non-personally identifiable information (Non-PII) such as page views and other statistics..

Law Enforcement, Safety, and Legal Processes.  We may share your Personal Information and/or Usage Information with law enforcement or other government officials if it relates to a criminal investigation or alleged criminal activity.  We may also disclose your Personal Information and/or Usage Information if required or permitted to do so by law; for fraud protection and credit risk reduction purposes, or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to protect and defend the rights or property of EdChoice or the users of the Site; and to act under urgent circumstances to protect the safety of EdChoice or its employees or a member of the public.  We may also disclose your information to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, subpoena, or legal process.

Sale or Acquisition of Assets.  If we become involved in a transaction involving the sale of our assets, such as a merger or acquisition, or if our services are transferred to another company, we may disclose and/or transfer your Personal Information and/or Usage Information as part of the transaction.  If we are not the surviving entity in that transaction, the surviving entity may use your Personal Information and/or Usage Information pursuant to its own privacy policies and practices, which may differ from this Privacy Policy.

Security of Personal Information

All information about any financial and non-financial transactions between you and EdChoice or its third party service providers is considered highly confidential and we employ appropriate security measures designed to protect it. While the information is kept confidential, it is shared with our board members, staff, volunteers, and professionals [and with any of our parent organizations or subsidiaries] on a need-to-know basis and in compliance with all laws, regulations, court orders, or other governmental requests.

Unfortunately, no data transmitted over or accessible through the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  As a result, while we attempt to protect all Personal Information, we cannot ensure or warrant that Personal Information will be completely secure from misappropriation by hackers or from other nefarious or criminal activities, or in the event of a failure of computer hardware, software, or a telecommunications network.  We will notify you in the event we become aware of a security breach involving your personally identifiable information (as defined by the applicable state and federal laws) stored by or for us.  By disclosing your email address to us for any reason, you expressly consent to receive electronic notice from us in the event of such a security breach.

Other Provisions

Google Analytics.  We may share your Usage Information with Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google.  Google Analytics plants a cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user each time you visit the Site, but the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google Analytics does not identify users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. We use Google Analytics to analyze trends, research the effectiveness of the Site, track users’ movements around the Site, and gather demographic information about our user base.

Google’s ability to use and share information about your visits to the Site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and Google’s Privacy Policy.  You may prevent Google Analytics from recognizing your future visits to the Site by disabling cookies on your browser or installing Google Analytics’ opt-out browser add-on.

Third-Party Links.  The Site may contain links to websites not affiliated with us.  Your use of an external website or any informational content found on an external website is subject to and governed by the privacy policies, terms, and conditions of that website.  We do not endorse or make any representations or warranties concerning, and will not in any way be liable for, any informational content, products, services, software, or other materials available on an external website, even if one or more pages of the external website are framed within a page of the Site.  We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any external website.

Credit Card Transactions.  Contributions made through the Site via credit card are secured by an SSL certificate using 128-bit encryption.  We use a third-party vendor to collect and process donations you make on the Site.  Accordingly, EdChoice does not access or store your payment card information.

Accessing and Updating Information.  If you would like to access, update, delete, or modify Personal Information, please reach us at the contact information listed below.  Modifying, updating, or deleting any information will not result in the modification, updating, or deletion of any such information that may reside in back-up or disaster-recovery storage.

Your California Privacy Rights.   California law provides that California residents have a right to request businesses to tell them how their personal information has been shared, if at all, with third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes.  To make such a request, please contact us at the contact information listed below.

International Privacy Rights. Although our Site may be accessible to persons outside the United States, we do not intend to offer the Site’s services to those outside of the United States. Thus, for those visiting the Site who may reside in areas protected by other privacy laws, such residents of the European Economic Area (EEA) protected by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we ask that you contact us at the information provided below for further information about this Policy and our privacy practices.

Do Not Track.  Certain web browsers and other devices you may use to access the Site may permit you to submit your preference that you do not wish to be “tracked” online.  We do not currently commit to responding to these submissions, in part, because no common industry standard for “do not track” has been adopted by industry groups, technology companies, or regulators.  We will make efforts to monitor developments around Do Not Track browser technology and the implementation of a standard.

Updates to the Privacy Policy.   We may periodically revise the Privacy Policy in our sole and absolute discretion to reflect changes in the law or our business practices.  If we revise the Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting the updated Privacy Policy on the Site.  Changes to the Privacy Policy will become effective and will apply to the information collected starting on the date we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Site.  Your continued use of the Site after any change to our Privacy Policy has become effective will constitute your acceptance of the change.

Comments and Questions.   If you have a comment, question, or requested related to the Privacy Policy, please reach us at the contact information listed below:

EdChoice
111 Monument Circle, Suite 2650
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Media@edchoice.org