Forum Education Software Privacy Policy
1. The Scope of this Policy
This Policy applies to the forumeducation.nyc website, including all subpages and successor pages (collectively, our “Website”) and to all software and services that we offer through our Website (collectively, “Services”).
This Policy does not apply to any website, product or service of any third-party company, even if the website links to (or is linked from) our Website. You should always review the privacy practices of a company before providing any information to that company.
2. Your Acceptance of this Policy
By using our Website or Services, you are accepting the practices described in this Policy. If you do not agree with this Policy, please delete all of our cookies from your browser cache after visiting our Website and do not visit or use our Website or Services. Your continued use of our Website or Services confirms your acceptance of this Policy.
3. Our Collection and Use of Information
We collect information about you in two ways: (1) actively when you provide it directly to us, and (2) passively through technology such as “cookies”, as described in subsection (b) below. The types of information we collect and our use of that information will depend on whether you are a Forum Website Visitor, as described in subsection (c) below, or a Forum User, as described in subsection (d) below.
(a) Personal Information
As used in this Policy, the term “Personal Information” refers to any information that can be used to identify a specific person, including any information that is defined as personal information or personally identifiable information under applicable law. However, Personal Information does not include information that has been aggregated or made anonymous so that it can no longer be reasonably associated with a specific person.
(b) Cookies and Similar Technologies
Like most commercial websites, we utilize “cookies” and other technologies, such as web server logs, to collect non-personally identifiable information from our Website. “Cookies” are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. Cookies store information accessed through your browser and make your online experience easier and more personalized. Information gathered through cookies and web server log files may include information such as the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, IP addresses, links to/from any page, and time spent at a site. We use cookie data to measure web traffic and usage activity on our Website for purposes of improving and enhancing the functionality of our Website, to look for possible fraudulent activity, and to better understand the sources of traffic and transactions on our Website. Cookies also allow our servers to remember your account information for future visits and to provide personalized and streamlined information across related pages on our Website. Web server log files are used to monitor, measure, analyze, improve, and troubleshoot our Services. You can choose to disable cookies for our Website, but this may limit your ability to use our Website and Services, as described in Section #4 below.
In order to understand and improve the effectiveness of our advertising, we may also use web beacons, cookies, and other technology to identify the fact that you have visited our Website or seen one of our advertisements, and we may provide that information to one or more third party advertising networks. The information we provide may include the time and date of your visit to our Website, the pages viewed, the links clicked, and other non-personally identifying information. These advertising networks may recognize the web beacon or cookie associated with your visit to our Website when you visit other websites for which they provide advertising, and they may make decisions about the advertisements you see based on it. For more information about advertising and tracking online, visit the Network Advertising Initiative, which describes digital advertising, including the ability of consumers to “opt out” of the behavioral advertising delivered by member companies.
(c) Forum Website Visitors
You are not required to provide any Personal Information in order to browse our Website. However, we may gather non-personally identifiable information, as described in subsection (b) above, for the purposes of monitoring and improving our Website and Services. We will not share this information with third parties except as a necessary part of providing our Website and Services, nor will we use it to target any advertisements to you.
(d) Forum Users
To gain full access to our Website and Services, you must register for a Forum account. Since Forum interoperates with, and is dependent upon, the Stripe platform, registration for a Forum account authorizes us to create a Stripe Connect account on your behalf and constitutes your acceptance of and agreement to the Stripe Services Agreement, the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, and the Stripe Privacy Policy.
When you register for a Forum account, we collect Personal Information that you voluntarily provide to us, such as the following:
Your name, company name (if applicable), mailing address and email address, to set up your account
Your social security or other government-issued identification number(s), as well as your date of birth, to verify your identity
Your credit card, debit card, or bank account information, to process and settle funds for your transactions
Your IP addresses, devices, and locations used to access Forum, which will be linked to your account for fraud detection/prevention purposes
We may retrieve additional Personal Information about you from third parties and other identification/verification services, such as credit bureaus. With your consent, we may also collect additional Personal Information in other ways, including emails, surveys, and other forms of communication. Once you begin using the Services through your Forum account, we will keep records of your transactions and collect information of your other activities related to our Services. This Personal Information may be shared and disclosed as described in Section #3 below.
(e) Use of Information
In addition to the other uses described above, we may use the information we collect from or about you to provide you with access to our Website and Services, including the use of Forum, to fulfill any other purposes for which you provide the information to us, to provide you with information that we believe may be of interest to you, and to perform our obligations and enforce our rights arising from or relating to any agreements between you and us.
(f) Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
Our Website and Services are directed to the general public. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 years of age or have any reasonable grounds for believing that children under the age of 13 are accessing our Website or using our Services. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected Personal Information from a child under age 13, we will delete that information as quickly as reasonable. If you believe that we might have any information from a child under age 13, please contact us.
4. Our Disclosure of Information
We do not sell or rent your Personal Information to marketers or third parties.
We may share your Personal Information with trusted third parties who are integral to the operation of our Website and Services, including but not limited to financial institutions, payment processors, verification services and credit bureaus, as well as any third parties that you have directly authorized to receive your Personal Information. We may store your Personal Information in locations outside of our direct control, for instance, on servers or databases co-located with hosting providers.
We may disclose your Personal Information to law enforcement, government officials, or other third parties if: (i) we are compelled to do so by subpoena, court order or other legal process, (ii) we must do so to comply with laws, statutes, rules or regulations, including credit card rules, (iii) we believe in good faith that the disclosure is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss, to report suspected illegal activity, or to investigate violations of our Terms of Use.
We will disclose your Personal Information in response to a request from a third party only if we believe in good faith that doing so is necessary to comply with applicable law or a legal obligation to which we are bound. If we receive such a request, we will use reasonable efforts to give you prompt notice, so that you may contest the request if you choose. However, we won’t provide you such notice if we determine in good faith that either (a) we are not permitted to provide it under applicable law, or (b) that doing so would result in an imminent risk of death, serious physical injury or significant property loss, or damage to us or a third party.
In addition, in the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or other similar event involving us, any information in our possession may be transferred to our successor or assignee.
5. Your Choices
We are required to collect certain Personal Information to confirm your identity and comply with our obligations. If you elect to not provide other Personal Information requested in optional fields, it may limit your ability to use our Services. If you have any questions about the Personal Information maintained by your Forum account, please contact us.
We may occasionally email you with information about offers or new services. You can opt out of these email communications through an unsubscribe link included in such communications or by other means described in the communication. However, you will continue to receive certain email communications related to your account, including information regarding transactions and your relationship with Forum.
If you wish to opt out of having cookies set on your browser (as described in Section #3(b) above), you may manage the settings on your web browser to delete all cookies and disallow further acceptance of cookies. For more information about this, refer to your browser’s technical information. You may also consider visiting aboutcookies.org, which provides helpful information about cookies. Disabling cookies on your browser will prevent Forum from tracking your activities in relation to our Website and Services and may also disable many of the features available through our Websites and Services. We therefore recommend that you leave cookies enabled.
6. Our Retention of Information
We have a variety of obligations to retain the information you provide us, including to ensure that transactions can be appropriately processed, settled, refunded or charged back, to identify fraud, and to comply with laws applicable to us and to our banking providers and credit card processors. Accordingly, even if you close your Forum account, we will retain certain information as necessary to meet our obligations.
7. Our Protection of Information
Although no data transmission can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, we take reasonable steps to protect all Personal Information. We maintain strict administrative, technical, and physical procedures to protect information stored in our servers, which are located in the United States. Access to information is limited (through user/password credentials and software systems) to those employees or representatives who require it to perform their job functions. We and our service providers use industry-standard secure socket layer (SSL) encryption technology to safeguard the account registration process and sign-up information and also use additional security safeguards, including but not limited to data encryption, firewalls, and physical access controls to building and files.
Forum acknowledges that in the course of the performance of these Terms, it may have access to confidential or proprietary information pertaining to the User’s business or financial affairs or to the User’s clients or customers (collectively, “User Data”). Forum will not store, copy, analyze, monitor or otherwise use any User Data, except that Forum may use, solely for the purpose of continually improving the experience of the users of its software.
Forum will comply with all applicable laws and regulations relating to any personally identifiable information (“PII”) that Forum receives or to which it has access in connection with the performance of any services for the User. Forum will not use, disclose, or transfer any such PII except as necessary to perform its obligations under these Terms, as authorized by the relevant data subject, or in accordance with applicable laws.
8. Changes and Notifications about this Policy
We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to make changes to this Policy from time to time. Please review this Policy periodically to check for updates. If any changes are material and/or retroactive, we may, but are not required to, provide you additional notice and/or an opportunity to “opt-in,”as we deem appropriate under the circumstances.
We may provide you with disclosures and alerts regarding this Policy by posting them on our Website, by emailing them to the email address listed in your Forum account, and/or by mailing them to the physical address, if any, listed in your Forum Account. You agree that electronic disclosures on our Website and email notices have the same meaning and effect as if we had provided you with a paper copy. Any disclosure or notice in relation to this Policy shall be considered to be received by you within 24 hours after the time it is posted to our Website or emailed to you (unless we provide it only by email and receive notice within 24 hours that the email was not delivered).
9. Questions and Suggestions
If you have any questions or suggestions about this Privacy Policy or any of our privacy-related practices, please contact us.