LAST UPDATED: [1/20/2011] 

Privacy Policy 

StudentMentor.org (“we,” “us”) is pleased to provide the Student Mentor Project. We are concerned about online privacy issues and wants you to be familiar with how we collect, use and disclose your Personally Identifiable Information (as defined below). This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) describes our practices in connection with Personally Identifiable Information that we collect through our website located at www.StudentMentor.org (the “Site”). This Policy does not address our practices regarding information that we collect through any website, or by any other means, other than through the Site; nor does this Policy govern the collection, use or disclosure of information by third parties.

By using the Site, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Policy. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of this Policy, please do not use the Site. We reserve the right to change this Policy without prior notice. You can determine when this Policy was last revised by referring to the “LAST UPDATED” legend at the top of this page. Any changes to our Policy will become effective upon our posting of the revised Policy on the Site. Use of the Site following such changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Policy then in effect.

Note Regarding the Use of the Site by Minors: This Site is intended to provide a forum for mentoring and career advice for adult students. You must be at least eighteen (18) years old to register for the Student Mentor Service. The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of eighteen (18) and we request that such individuals do not provide Personally Identifiable Information through the Site.

1. What Types of Information Do We Collect?

We gather two basic types of information through the Site: “Personally Identifiable Information” (or “PII”) and “Non-Personally Identifiable Information” (or “Non-PII”). Personally Identifiable Information is information that identifies a person as an individual. Non-Personally Identifiable Information is aggregated information, demographic information, IP addresses and any other information that does not reveal a person’s specific identity.

a. Personally Identifiable Information. You do not have to provide PII to use the Site. However, in order for you to take advantage of particular opportunities provided through the Site (for example, to register to become a mentor or mentee), we may require that you furnish PII. We collect PII from you through the Site, such as your name, zip code, telephone number, or e-mail address, only when you voluntarily provide it to us. If you register to become a mentor or mentee, you will be asked to complete an online registration form that requests your name, username, email address, password, birth date, sex, zip code, undergraduate and graduate schools attended, college major, professional industry (mentors only), years of professional experience (mentors only), area of mentorship expertise (mentors only), and/or areas of mentorship sought (mentees only). The online registration form also allows you to submit other types of information, such as your reason for joining the Site and a photograph of you. For the purposes of this Policy, this information is referred to collectively as your “Registration Data.”

b. Non-Personally Identifiable Information. When you visit and interact with the Site, we and our third-party service providers and business partners may collect Non-PII (for example, a catalog of the Site pages you visit). Non-PII is generally collected through the Site from five different sources: (i) server log files, (ii) environmental variables, (iii) cookies, (iv) pixel tags and other similar technologies, and (v) information that you voluntarily provide to us.

i. Server Log Files. Your Internet Protocol (IP) address is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer that you are using by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This number is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever you visit the Site, along with the time(s) of your visit(s) and the page(s) that you visited. We and our service providers use IP addresses for purposes such as calculating Site usage levels, helping diagnose problems with the Site’s servers, and administering the Site. Collecting IP addresses is standard practice on the Internet and is done automatically by many websites.

ii. Environmental Variables. We and our service providers may also collect certain environmental variables, such as your MAC address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, OS version, Internet browser, and Internet browser version. These environmental variables are collected by most websites, and can be used to optimize your experience on the Site.

iii. Cookies. We and our service providers may use “cookies” in connection with the Site. Cookies are data that a web server transfers to an individual’s computer for recordkeeping and other purposes. Cookies are an industry standard used by most websites, and can facilitate users’ ongoing access to and use of a particular website; cookies do not cause damage to your computer systems or files. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to automatically decline cookies, or to be given the choice of declining or accepting the transfer of a particular cookie, or cookies from a particular website, to your computer.

iv. Pixel Tags. We and our service providers may also use so-called “pixel tags,” “web beacons,” “clear GIFs,” or similar means in connection with Site pages and HTML-formatted e-mail messages to, among other things, track the actions of Site users and e-mail recipients, to determine the success of marketing campaigns and to compile aggregate statistics about Site usage and response rates.

v. Information That You Voluntarily Provide. We also collect Non-PII (e.g., your interests, your geographic location) when you voluntarily provide such information to us. Such information constitutes Non-PII because, unless combined with PII, it does not personally identify you or any other user. Additionally, we may aggregate PII in a manner such that the end-product does not personally identify you or any other user of the Site, for example, by using PII to calculate the percentage of our users who have a particular telephone area code. Such aggregate information is considered Non-PII for purposes of this Policy.

2. How Do We Use Information Collected From You?

a. Personally Identifiable Information. We may use PII in the following ways:

i. Fulfillment of Requests. We may use PII about you to fulfill the purpose for which such PII was provided (e.g., to confirm your registration as a prospective mentee or mentor, to facilitate communications between mentees and mentors, or to send newsletters to you if you sign up to receive them).

ii. Administrative Communications. From time to time, in our sole discretion, we may use PII about you to send to you important information regarding the Site, changes to our terms, conditions, and policies and/or other administrative information. Because this information may be important to your use of the Site, you may not opt-out of receiving such communications.

iii. Other Communications. From time to time, we may use PII about you to inform you of products, programs, services and promotions that we believe may be of interest to you. If you would prefer that we do not send electronic marketing messages to you, please see Section 4.d (“Opt-Out”) below.

iv. Donations. We may use a third-party service provider (the “Payment Service”), such as PayPal, to process donations made through the Site. If you wish to make a donation through the Site, you will be directed to a webpage that is hosted by the Payment Service (or its service providers) and not by us (the “Payment Service Page”). Any PII that you provide through the Payment Service Page will be collected by the Payment Service rather than by us, and will be subject to the Payment Service’s privacy policy rather than this Policy. We have no control over, and shall not be responsible for, the Payment Service’s use of information collected through the Payment Service Page. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POLICY DOES NOT ADDRESS THE COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION THROUGH THE PAYMENT SERVICE PAGE OR THE PRIVACY OR INFORMATION PRACTICES OF THE PAYMENT SERVICE.

v. Internal Business Purposes. We may also use PII about you for our internal business purposes, such as data analysis, audits and so forth.

b. Non-Personally Identifiable Information. Because Non-PII does not personally identify you, we may use such information for any purpose. In addition, we reserve the right to share such Non PII, which does not personally identify you, with third parties, for any purpose.

In some instances, we may combine Non-PII with PII (such as combining your name with your geographic location). If we do combine any Non-PII with PII, the combined information will be treated by us as PII hereunder as long as it is so combined.

3. How Is Personally Identifiable Information Disclosed?

a. Third-Party Service Providers. We work with third parties who provide services including but not limited to data analysis and other services of an administrative nature. We reserve the right to share PII about you with such third parties for the purpose of enabling these third parties to provide such services.

b. Profiles. The Site creates a “profile page” (your “Profile”) for registered users based on data that you provide during the registration process. Please note that profile data, including but not limited to the following, will be accessible to registered Site users: username, photograph (if provided), undergraduate or graduate schools attended, college major, professional industry (mentors only), years of work experience (mentors only), area of mentorship expertise (mentors only), areas of mentorship sought (mentees only), the user’s reasons for joining the Site (if provided), the number of current mentorships through the Site, and the number of previous mentorships through the Site. We urge you to exercise discretion and caution when deciding to disclose PII about you, or any other information, in your Profile. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE BY OTHERS OF ANY PII YOU DISCLOSE IN YOUR PROFILE. If you do not wish to have this PII shared as described above, please do not participate in this function.

c. Facilitating Communications Between Mentors and Mentees. We provide functionality on the Site that allows users to register as prospective mentees or mentors, and helps to place prospective mentees and mentors in contact with each other via internal messages or searching the Profiles of registered users. In this process, we may disclose certain PII about a mentee to prospective mentors, and we may disclose certain PII about these prospective mentors to the mentee. If you do not wish to have this PII shared as described above, please do not participate in this function.

i. Prospective Mentees. If you have registered as a prospective mentee, we may share certain Registration Data, including your name, username, undergraduate or graduate schools attended, college major, areas of mentorship sought, and reasons for joining the Site (if provided), with users who have registered as prospective mentors . In addition, though you are not required to provide a photograph to register as a Site user, if you do voluntarily provide a photograph upon registration, that photograph will be available to users who have registered as prospective mentors.

ii. Prospective Mentors. If you are a prospective mentor, we may share certain Registration Data, including your name, username, undergraduate or graduate schools attended, college major, professional industry (mentors only), years of work experience (mentors only), areas of mentorship expertise and reasons for joining the Site (if provided), with users who have registered as prospective mentees. In addition, though you are not required to provide a photograph to register as a Site user, if you do voluntarily provide a photograph upon registration and that photograph will be available with users who have registered as prospective mentees.

iii. Internal Messaging. Prospective mentors and mentees may communicate through internal messages on the Site (“Internal Messages”). Internal Messages may be sent by prospective mentees to prospective mentors, and vice versa, and, if sent, will result in the sharing of certain PII, including but not limited to any PII contained in your profile name. We urge you to exercise discretion and caution when deciding to disclose PII about you, or any other information, in internal messages. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE BY OTHERS OF ANY PII YOU DISCLOSE IN INTERNAL MESSAGES.

d. Information Posted by Visitors. We may make available through the Site services (for example, chat functionality and blogs, among other services) to which you are able to post information and materials. Please note that any information you disclose through such services or otherwise on the Site becomes public information, and may be available to visitors to the Site and to the general public. In addition, when you choose to make a posting on such services, certain PII (for example, a link to your Profile that contains PII), will be available for other users to view. We urge you to exercise discretion and caution when deciding to disclose PII, or any other information, on the Site. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE OF ANY PII YOU VOLUNTARILY DISCLOSE THROUGH THE SITE.

e. Assignment. We reserve the right to transfer any and all information that we collect from Site users to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business or assets (including without limitation in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

f. Law Enforcement; Emergencies; Compliance. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Policy to the contrary, we reserve the right to disclose PII about you to others as we believe to be appropriate (a) under applicable law; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to governmental requests; (d) to enforce our Terms of Service; (e) to protect our operations; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, you or others; and (g) to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain. For example, we may, to the fullest extent the law allows, disclose PII about you to law enforcement agencies to assist them in identifying individuals who have been or may be engaged in unlawful activities.

4. Other Important Notices Regarding Our Privacy Practice.

a. Third-Party Sites. The Site may contain links to third-party websites, such as links to articles posted on the “Resources” page of the Site. These linked sites are not under our control, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or the contents of any such linked site, or any link contained in any linked site. We provide such links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of a link on the Site does not imply our endorsement of the linked site. If you provide any PII through any such third party website, your transaction will occur on such third party’s website (not the Site) and the PII you provide will be collected by, and controlled by the privacy policy of, that third party. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the privacy policies and practices of any such third parties. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POLICY DOES NOT ADDRESS THE PRIVACY OR INFORMATION PRACTICES OF ANY THIRD PARTIES.

b. Third-Party Advertisers. We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Site. Please note that these companies may use information (not including PII) about your visit to this Site in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to you. In the course of serving advertisements to this Site, these companies may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please visit http://networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp.

c. Security. We seek to have security measures and tools, such as firewalls, in place to help protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or data storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, although we strive to protect PII about you, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us through or in connection with the Site or that is stored by us. You acknowledge and agree that any information you transmit through the Site or upload for storage in connection with the Site is so transmitted or stored at your own risk. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account you might have with us has been compromised), you must immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us in accordance with Section 4.g (“Contacting Us”) below.

d. Opt-Out. If you do not wish to receive marketing-related e-mails from us, you may opt-out of receiving such marketing-related e-mails by clicking on the “opt-out” link in the marketing email. We will endeavor to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.

e. Updating PII About You. If you would like to review, correct, or update PII that you have previously provided to us through the Site, you may do so by editing your Profile on the Site. In addition, you may delete your Profile from the Site. Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes, and there may also be residual information that will remain within our databases and other records, which will not be removed therefrom. We also reserve the right, from time to time, to re-contact former users of the Site.

f. Jurisdictional Issues. We control and operate this Site from the United States, the Site is not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than that of the United States. We does not represent or warrant that the Site, or any part thereof, is appropriate or available for use in any particular jurisdiction. Those who choose to access the Site do so on their own initiative and at their own risk, and are responsible for complying with all local laws, rules and regulations. We may limit the Site’s availability, in whole or in part, to any person, geographic area or jurisdiction we choose, at any time and in our sole discretion.

g. Contacting Us. If you have any questions regarding this Policy, please contact us by e-mail at info@studentmentor.org. Please note that e-mail communications will not necessarily be secure; accordingly you should not include sensitive information in your e-mail correspondence with us.