Effective: August 1, 2007
The American Academy LLC (TAA) has established this Privacy Policy to let you know how we collect, use, share and protect information that we may gather from the technology, software, systems and websites that support our operations (collectively referred to as the “Site”). This policy does not apply to information that we may collect from you outside of our Site, such as over the phone, by fax, or through conventional mail. This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that TAA does not own or control or to people that TAA does not employ or manage. In addition, please note that all educational records are protected by TAA as required by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and similar state laws. You may find out more information about FERPA at http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html.
NON-PERSONAL AND AGGREGATED INFORMATION COLLECTED AUTOMATICALLY
Each time you visit our website, we log non-personal information. Such information includes your IP address, domain name, the name of the Web page from which you entered our website, which pages you visit on our website, and how much time you spend on each page. We use this information to monitor and improve our website and for internal analysis. In particular, we use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the website, and gather information for aggregate use. However, IP addresses are not linked to personal information.
USE OF COOKIES
Our website may use “cookies” to help personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you. We use cookies to keep track of how you are using our Site and to tailor Web content to your interests. TAA cookies do not contain any personal information about students enrolled in TAA’s educational programs.
We will not share or sell non-aggregated information contained within cookies to any third party.
You also have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If, however, you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of our Site or have some of our services on the Site function properly.
PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE
You can use portions of our Site without divulging any personal information, including your e-mail address. Our Site does not collect personal information about individuals except when such individuals specifically provide such information on a voluntary basis (for example, enrolling in the school and registering for classes; requesting a catalog; requesting additional information by contacting us; posting a message to a message board; requesting help; or accessing, adding to, or changing the information on your account information page on the Site). When you register yourself or children for whom you are the legal guardian for a TAA program or participate in a TAA program through an affiliate or local school, we may collect information regarding you and your children. This personal information may be collected on our Site or collected via telephone or conventional mail. The types of information that you may be asked to provide, depending on what services you would like to receive, include: first and last name; billing address; the names and ages of the children enrolled in our school; the services you request; registration and enrollment information about your children; and an e-mail address where we can contact you.
Once you have registered yourself or your children for a TAA program (whether you registered on our Site or through offline communications), there is an online service for all such programs. There will be a personal information page on the Site that contains some or all of your personal information. You may also be assigned a User ID and password and may create, at your discretion, a User ID for your children any time you are logged on. The User ID will be used to recognize you and your children on the Site. The User ID will allow TAA to recognize: your first and last name; registration ID; type of account, such as teacher, administrator, parent or student (if you created a separate User ID and password for your children); school affiliation or the TAA program in which your children are enrolled; and the e-mail address you provided. The User ID and the Site will also allow you to track your or your children’s attendance, school work, and testing, and to submit relevant portions of same to TAA, its affiliates, and/or your local school to track your children’s progress and abide by State and/or Federal standards and regulations.
TAA, its affiliates, and/or your local school may use personal information provided by you on your account information page to contact you about your children’s progress, testing, attendance, customer service, and quality control procedures. To the extent that third party vendors assist TAA and/or its affiliates in the provision of online products or services, those vendors are provided the minimum amount of data required to perform the tasks for which they have been engaged. They have no independent rights to such data and have agreed to adhere to the TAA Privacy Policy.
TAA may use the personal information on your account information page to provide you with information about new products and services available through TAA. You can request to opt out of receiving such information by indicating your preference during the initial enrollment process, or by making a request in writing to privacy@taaschools.net.
Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, TAA will not provide your personally identifiable information to companies that are not affiliated with TAA except in the following instances:
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TAA has your consent to share the information;
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TAA needs to share your information to provide the product or service you have requested;
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TAA needs to send the information to companies who work on behalf of TAA to provide a product or service to you;
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TAA responds to judicial proceedings, court orders or legal process; or
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TAA finds that your actions on our Site violate the TAA Terms of Use, or any of our usage guidelines for specific products or services.
TAA reserves the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when TAA believes the disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Site.
If you are interested in receiving information about products and services not affiliated with TAA, you can request to opt in by indicating your preference during the initial enrollment process, or by making a request in writing to privacy [at] taaschools.net.
PERSONAL INFORMATION PROVIDED BY PARENTS ABOUT CHILDREN (if applicable)
TAA only receives personal information about your children directly from you when you enroll your children into a TAA program. You can review certain personal information that TAA has regarding your children by making such a request in writing to privacy [at] taaschools.net. Please be aware that some personal information relating to your children’s educational records may not be able to be disclosed by TAA due to state and/or Federal law.
You can request that your children’s personal information not be used by TAA, its affiliates and vendors acting on behalf of TAA, by making a request in writing to privacy [at] taaschools.net. Please be aware that if you make such a request, your children can no longer continue to be enrolled in a TAA program or to use most features on our Site. Therefore, a request by you for TAA, affiliates, and vendors acting on behalf of TAA to no longer use your children’s personal information will terminate your children’s participation in the TAA program in which they are enrolled.
TAA is not directed to children under the age of 13 and does not permit registration by, and will not knowingly collect or use personally identifiable information from anyone under 13 years of age. We require users to be at least 13 years of age to use the Site.
For information on use of personal information or for any other questions related tot his policy, please contact:
The American Academy, LLC
PO Box 748
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
email: privacy [at] taaschools.net
MESSAGE BOARDS AND CHATS
We may offer TAA message boards and chat rooms to all Students on our Site. Please be aware that anyone may read your or your children’s postings on a message board or in a chat room. Furthermore, any information which you or your children submit to be posted to a message board or in a chat room, including your information from your account information page and Member ID, will be disclosed and available to all users of that message board or chat room, and is therefore no longer private. We cannot guarantee the security of such information that you or your children disclose or communicate online in public areas such as message boards and chat rooms, and you do so at your own risk. Please be aware that whenever you voluntarily post public information to the Site, that information can be accessed by the public and can in turn be used by those people to send you unsolicited communications. We reserve the right to monitor the content of the message boards and to republish your postings from message boards or chat rooms elsewhere on the Web or otherwise in any format. As a parent of a student enrolled in the TAA program, we encourage you to monitor your child’s postings.
LINKS
The Site may contain links to other websites, chat rooms, or other resources that we provide for your convenience (“Linked Sites”). These sites are not under the control of TAA, and TAA is not responsible for the content available on any Linked Site. Such links do not imply TAA’s endorsement of material on any Linked Site, and TAA expressly disclaims all liability with regard to your access to such Linked Sites. Access to any other websites linked to the Site is at your own risk.
OUR COMMITMENT TO DATA SECURITY
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. We also use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol on your account information and registration pages to protect sensitive personal information.
CHANGES IN CORPORATE STRUCTURE
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Privacy Policy, any information TAA receives from you is an asset of TAA and may be transferred if all or part of TAA or any of its affiliates are sold, merged, consolidated or otherwise transferred to another entity as part of that transaction or process. However, TAA will take steps to assure that the personal information is used in a manner consistent with the TAA Privacy Policy under which it was collected. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects your children’s educational records, in the event of such a transaction or transfer.
CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY
We will occasionally amend this Privacy Policy to reflect company and customer feedback. We reserve the right to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this policy at any time. If TAA materially changes its use of your personal information, we will announce such a change on our Site, and will also note it in this Privacy Policy. The effective date of this Privacy Policy is documented at the beginning of the Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about TAA’s Privacy Policy, please contact us in writing at privacy [at] taaschools.net or at the address listed above.
