Privacy Policy of STUDYBLUE.COM
Last Updated: September 10, 2009
STUDYBLUE is strongly committed to protecting your privacy and the security of your personal information.
Who We Are
This Privacy Policy applies to the website you are currently viewing (http://www.studyblue.com) which we will refer to as “the Site.” The Site is owned and maintained by STUDYBLUE, INC., a Wisconsin corporation having its office at 602 State Street, Suite 200, Madison, Wisconsin 53703, and its organizational affiliates (referred to collectively herein as “we,” “us,” “Company” or “StudyBlue”).
If you have any questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at info@studyblue.com.
About This Policy
This Privacy Policy describes the information that we collect from you, how we collect this information, and what we do with it after we collect it.
By visiting or using the Site, you consent to the data collection and use practices described in this Policy. This Policy is intended to be read with, and not to limit, other terms of use agreements, policies or procedures that may appear on the Site.
This Policy does not apply to any information you may provide to us through other means; for example, at a live event, via mail, or via telephone. Likewise, this Policy does not apply to information collected directly or indirectly by our third party service providers.
Does StudyBlue Ever Make Changes To Its Privacy Policy?
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by sending you an email (at the email address you have supplied to us) or posting a notice on www.studyblue.com of the Site. In the event you have opted-out of receiving email from us, it will be your responsibility to periodically review this Policy for all changes and updates. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to this Policy will mean that you accept such changes.
What Type of Information Does StudyBlue Collect?
We collect the personal data that you volunteer while using the Site. This includes but is not limited to demographic, contact, profile, registration, billing, financial and other personally-identifying information
When you use StudyBlue, you may set up your personal profile, form relationships, send messages, perform searches and queries, form groups, set up events, and transmit information through various channels. We collect this information so that we can provide you with the service and offer personalized features. In most cases, we retain this information so you can have a record of your activity.
If you choose to use our invitation service to tell a friend about the Site, we will ask you for information needed to send the invitation, such as your friend’s email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the Site.
If you communicate with us regarding the Site or our services, we will collect any information that you provide to us in any such communication.
We sometimes supplement the information that we receive with information from other sources and companies. Such outside information includes (but is not limited to) updated delivery and address information from carriers or third parties, which enables us to correct our records; page-view information; search term and search result information; search results and credit history information from credit bureaus.
We use analytic and reporting technologies to record non-personal information such as Internet domain and host names, Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser software, operating system types, page views, clickstream patterns, and the dates and times that the Site is accessed. We may use a variety of methods for automatically collecting such “passive” information. We also contract with third party vendors to help manage, monitor and optimize the Site and to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising, communications and how visitors use the Site. To do this, we may use web beacons and cookies.
If you have the settings on your browser set accordingly, we will use cookies to track some of your information. The use of cookies is a very common practice on the Internet. Cookies are small pieces of information that we will place on the hard drive of your computer in order to store personal data such as (but not limited to) your password, preferences, etc. to create a personalized experience for you. Our advertisers and third party service providers may also assign their own cookies to your hard drive, a process we do not control. You have the option to set your web browser to reject cookies and if you do so some features of the Site will not work. You should check the documentation of your browser to learn how to disable cookies.
We use session ID cookies to confirm that users are logged in.
We are able to determine the IP address from which you access the Site. Essentially, your IP address is a numerical address that is used by computers connected to the Internet to identify your computer so that data (such as web pages you want to view) can be transmitted to you. Your IP address does not tell us who you are.
What About Children’s Privacy?
StudyBlue does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 13, please do not attempt to register for StudyBlue or send any information about yourself to us. No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to or on StudyBlue. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us via the Contact Us form.
We recommend that minors between the ages of 13 and 18 ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.
What Does StudyBlue Do With The Information It Collects?
When you register with StudyBlue, you create your own profile and privacy settings. Your profile information, as well as your name, email and photo, are displayed to people in the networks specified in your privacy settings to enable you to connect with other people on StudyBlue. We may occasionally use your name and email address to send you notifications regarding new services that we think you may find valuable.
When you use StudyBlue, certain information you post or share with third parties (e.g., someone in your network), such as personal information, comments, messages, photos, videos, or other information, may be shared with other users in accordance with the privacy settings you select. All such sharing of information is done at your own risk. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information in your profile or when posting comments, messages, photos, videos, or other items, this information may become publicly available.
StudyBlue may send you service-related announcements from time to time through the general operation of the service. For instance, if content is added or events are changed regarding a class for which you are registered, we will notify you of such an event.
StudyBlue may use information in your profile without identifying you as an individual to third parties.
Third Party Advertising
This Privacy Policy does not cover the use of cookies or other tracking technologies by any of our advertisers.
Advertisements that appear on StudyBlue are sometimes delivered (or “served”) directly to users by third party advertisers. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. These third party advertisers may also download cookies to your computer, or use other technologies such as JavaScript and web beacons (also known as “1×1 gifs”) to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. Doing this allows the advertising network to recognize your computer each time they send you an advertisement in order to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. In this way, they may compile information about where individuals using your computer or browser saw their advertisements and determine which advertisements are clicked. StudyBlue does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third party advertisers.
When Will StudyBlue Disclose My Information to Third Parties?
StudyBlue does not share, rent or trade your personal information with third parties for promotional purposes.
We may sell information we collect on the Site in conjunction with the disposition of StudyBlue’s assets in bankruptcy and/or through merger or acquisition. In the event StudyBlue goes through a business transition, such as a merger or acquisition by or with another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your personal information will likely be among the assets transferred.
We may disclose information (including personally identifiable information) about you to our Affiliates. For purposes of this Policy only, “Affiliates” means any person or entity which directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by or is under common control with us, whether by ownership or otherwise.
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process or government request served on us; (b) protect and defend our rights or property; or (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of a user of the Site, or the public.
As needed we may also disclose information we collect on the Site to third-party service providers we retain to provide goods and services to us, including but not limited to reports, analyses, technical support, hosting and maintenance, credit card processing, fraud screening and developing applications. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to prevent such third parties from disclosing your personal information, except for the purpose of providing the services in question. We cannot guarantee that such third parties will not disclose your personal information.
Security
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow reasonable industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. Your account information is located on a secured server behind a firewall. However, people who try and bypass security systems, or “hackers,” are often very skilled at breaking through security systems, and therefore we can make no guarantee that your information will be 100% safe. For your own information and protection on the Site and on the Internet in general, please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information, that information can be collected and used by others. Similarly, if you post personal information in public places, you may receive unsolicited e-mail messages.
Our credit card processing provider is: authorize.net StudyBlue makes no representations regarding authorize.net’s security policies or procedures. We encourage you to contact authrorize.net directly to obtain such information. Authorize.net’s URL is: http://www.authorize.net/.
How Can I Access My Personal Information?
Access and control over most personal information on StudyBlue is readily available through the profile editing tools.
Where you make use of the content features of the service to share information with other users on StudyBlue, (e.g., sending a personal message to another user, uploading files, or creating flashcards) you generally cannot remove such content.
Other Sites
The Site may contain links to other websites not owned or operated by StudyBlue. If you click on such a link, you may be taken away from the Site to an entirely different website. This Policy applies only to the Site and not to any third-party website that may be accessed through links on the Site. We encourage you to be aware when we link to other websites and to read the privacy policies or statements of each and every such website.
Questions?
We welcome feedback regarding this Policy. If at any time you believe that the Site has not adhered to this Policy, please contact us and we will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly investigate and, if necessary, correct the problem.
You accept that any dispute you may have with us involving privacy shall be governed by this Policy and any terms of use appearing on the Site, including limitations on damages. The law of the state of Wisconsin, USA shall control. If you have any concern about privacy issues, please contact us as directed in this Policy.
If you have any questions, please contact us at info@studyblue.com