Last Updated: June 1, 2018 | Download printable format (PDF)
This privacy statement applies to information collected, submitted or accessible through the City of Learning initiative website (the “Website”) operated and maintained by Northwestern University through its Digital Youth Network (“Northwestern”) and Big Thought (“Big Thought”).
The City of Learning initiative and the Website are part of a collaborative learning program offered by Northwestern and Big Thought, with the support and participation of numerous other organizations that offer learning opportunities and issue associated badges (“Partner Organizations”) (Northwestern, Big Thought and the Partner Organizations are collectively referred to as “we” or “us”).
We respect your privacy and are committed to adhering to all applicable privacy laws. This privacy statement describes: (•) the categories of information collected, submitted or accessible through the Website; (•) how this information is used, shared, retained and protected; (•) the choices you have about how this information is used and shared; and (•) how you can correct or update your information.
By using the Website or otherwise providing your personal information in connection with the City of Learning initiative, you accept and agree to the privacy practices described in this statement. Please read this privacy statement carefully and contact Northwestern if you have any questions.
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Categories of Information Collected, Submitted or Accessible Through the Website |
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Information You Provide Though the Website This information may include, but not be limited to: (•) individual student data, including your name, student ID number, and/or certain unique identifying information including your zip code, gender, age, grade, race/ethnicity, school, badges earned, badges claimed, and badges pledged; (•) the number and type of badges issued and claimed overall by you; (•) the number and type of badges issued and claimed in each subject matter category; and (•) a breakdown of badges by Big Thought and/or Partner Organizations issuing the badges. Information Provided by Big Thought This information may include, but not be limited to: (•) individual student data, including your name, student ID number, and/or certain unique identifying information including your zip code, gender, age, grade, race/ethnicity, school, badges earned, badges claimed, and badges pledged; (•) the Partner Organizations that you choose to link your account to; and (•) the badge-issuing programs offered by Partner Organizations that you choose to participate in. Information Provided by Partner Organizations This information may include, but not be limited to: (•) individual student data, including your name, student ID number, and/or certain unique identifying information including your zip code, gender, age, grade, school, badges earned, badges claimed, and badges pledged. Information Collected Automatically by Visiting the Website The Website may use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags, log files, or other technologies to collect certain non-personal information relating to your use of the Website, including, but not limited to, your IP address, browser type, operating system, language preferences, referring site and date and time of each visitor request. Although this information may not be identifiable in and of itself, Northwestern may link this information to other identifiable information to help Northwestern best tailor the Website and enhance your online experience. A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Most major websites use cookies. Because the browser provides this cookie information to a website at each visit, cookies serve as a sort of label that allows a website to “recognize” a browser when it returns to the site. The domain name in our cookies will clearly identify their affiliation with us and, where applicable, our third-party service provider. Clear gifs (also known as web beacons) are used in combination with cookies to help website operators understand how visitors interact with their websites. A clear gif is typically a transparent graphic image (usually 1 pixel x 1 pixel) that is placed on a site. The use of a clear gif allows the site to measure the actions of the visitor opening the page that contains the clear gif. It makes it easier to follow and record the activities of a recognized browser, such as the path of pages visited at a website. Information Collected by Third Parties through Content Hosted on the Website Content from other sources that is hosted on the Website may sometimes contain cookies that send information to those third parties. Third party cookies are often associated with embedded content such as YouTube videos and other site linking buttons. In certain cases, a third party cookie may be set by the third party content or provider. In these cases, the privacy statement of the third party governs with respect to information that may be collected by and sent to the respective third party. If you are concerned about these third party cookies, please see the information below on how to decline cookies. |
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Use of Your Information |
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We use your personal information collected, submitted or accessible through the Website for the following purposes: <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Register you in, and manage your participation in, the City of Learning initiative. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Coordinate, manage, track and report on the services provided by Northwestern and Big Thought in connection with the City of Learning initiative and the impact of the City of Learning initiative. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Improve and develop the Website and the City of Learning initiative. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Showcase your projects on the Website (with your consent). <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Research, evaluation and reporting relating to the impact of the City of Learning initiative on individuals, families, the community and society. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Research, evaluation and reporting relating to education and youth/child development. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Respond to your inquiries and provide you with information regarding the City of Learning initiative and Website. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Send you electronic marketing communications with information about the City of Learning initiative. Northwestern and Big Thought use your non-personal information collected through cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes: <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Help Northwestern and Big Thought identify and track visitors, their usage of the Website, and their Website access preferences across multiple requests and visits to the Website. The Website also may use clear gifs for these purposes. The basic idea is to gather aggregate data about how people use the Website. The term usually used to describe this is “web analytics” and the cookies and clear gifs are the tools by which a website owner collects this web analytics data. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Northwestern and Big Thought use the web analytics data only to determine aggregate usage patterns for the Website as described above. Northwestern and Big Thought do this by using either Northwestern’s own internal analytics software or by sending this information to a third-party service provider to help us analyze this data. Northwestern has agreements with its third-party service providers that they will not share this information with others or use the information for purposes other than to maintain the services they provide to Northwestern. It is possible to link cookies and clear gifs to personally identifying information, thereby permitting website operators, including our third-party analytics providers, to track the online movements of particular individuals. Northwestern does not do so and Northwestern’s third-party service providers are not allowed to correlate this data with any other data. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Northwestern and Big Thought use the information provided by cookies and clear gifs to develop a better understanding of how Northwestern’s and Big Thought’s visitors use the Website and to facilitate those visitors’ interactions with the Website. Northwestern may make the aggregate data obtained from web analytics (including from our third-party analytics providers, if applicable) publicly available. If this data is made available, none of the information will be personally identifying information or potentially-personally identifying information. |
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Sharing of Your Information |
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Information collected, submitted or accessible through the Website may be shared with the following parties and for the following purposes: <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>All information collected, submitted or accessible through the Website is provided to and accessible to Northwestern for the purposes identified in the “Use of Your Information” section above. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>When Big Thought or a Partner Organization registers you in the City of Learning initiative, or you register in the City of Learning initiative directly through the Website, all information provided by Big Thought or Partner Organization, and all badge data acquired by you through your participation in the City of Learning initiative, is collected by and/or shared with Northwestern for the purposes identified in the “Use of Your Information” section above. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>When Big Thought registers you in the City of Learning initiative and you choose to link your account to badge-issuing programs offered by Partner Organizations, those Partner Organizations may obtain your basic registration information (for example, your name, age and school) and badge data associated with those Partner Organizations’ badge-issuing programs for the purposes identified in the “Use of Your Information” section above. If you choose not to link your account to badge-issuing programs offered by Partner Organizations, only Northwestern and Big Thought will have access to your information (subject to the other sharing provisions contained in this section). <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>When a Partner Organization registers you in the City of Learning initiative, or when you register in the City of Learning initiative directly through the Website, Big Thought may obtain basic registration information (for example, your name and age) and badge data associated with Partner Organizations or other badge-issuing programs for the purposes identified in the “Use of Your Information” section above (subject to the other sharing provisions contained in this section). <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>When you register in the City of Learning initiative directly through the Website, and you choose to link your account to badge-issuing programs offered by Partner Organizations, those organizations may obtain basic registration information (for example, your name and age) and badge data associated with their badge-issuing programs for the purposes identified in the “Use of Your Information” section above (subject to the other sharing provisions contained in this section). <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Big Thought and Partner Organizations are not allowed to otherwise share your information, except as described below. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Northwestern and Big Thought may share your information with Northwestern staff, Big Thought staff, and approved research partners for the purposes identified in the “Use of Your Information” section above. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>When we engage third-party service providers to assist us with the activities identified in this privacy statement, we may allow these providers to use or access your personal information if it is necessary to perform activities on our behalf or to comply with a legal requirement. These service providers are required to maintain the information in confidence and they can only use the information to perform the relevant services. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>We may disclose information where we think it’s necessary to investigate or prevent an actual or suspected crime or injury to ourselves or others, if required by law, or in response to a request from law enforcement authorities or other government officials. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>During the normal course of our business, we may sell or purchase assets or equity. If another entity acquires us or any of our assets, information we have collected about you may be transferred to such entity. In addition, if any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding is brought by or against us, such information may be considered an asset of ours and may be sold or transferred to third parties. Should a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to require that the transferee use personally identifiable information provided through the website in a manner that is consistent with this privacy statement. <![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Northwestern and Big Thought share the information collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies with the parties and for the purposes identified in the “Use of Your Information” section above. |
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Choice and Control Over Your Information |
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Information Necessary to Participate in the City of Learning Initiative If you do not want to submit personal information that is necessary to participate in the City of Learning initiative or to fulfill your request, you will not be able to access and/or participate in the City of Learning initiative. For example, you will not be able to register on the Website or earn badges. In addition, your refusal to submit personal information may limit Northwestern’s and Big Thought’s ability to respond to your support inquiries in a timely fashion. Cookies and Similar Technologies You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Website visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers by Northwestern, Northwestern’s contractors, or Northwestern’s third-party service providers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before linking to the Website. See http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/ for more information. Certain features of the Website may not function properly without the use of cookies. Opt-Out Procedures and Do Not Track Signals If you signed up to receive but no longer wish to receive electronic marketing communications from us, you can opt-out from receiving these communications by following the “unsubscribe” instructions in any such communication you receive. Northwestern may not be able to honor “do not track signals” and other similar mechanisms. |
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Access to Your Information |
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You may request access, correction, or deletion of your personally identifiable information or potentially personally identifiable information, as permitted by law. Northwestern will seek to comply with such requests, provided that Northwestern has sufficient information to identify the personally identifiable information or potentially personally identifiable information related to you. To do so, you should contact Northwestern by using the email address listed below in this privacy statement. |
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Securing Your Information |
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Protecting your information is important to us. We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to help protect against unauthorized use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of the personally identifiable information collected on the Website. We undertake a range of security measures including physical access restraints, technical security monitoring, and internal security reviews of the environment to help to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. The safety and security of your information also depend on you. Never share your password with anyone else, notify Northwestern promptly if you believe your password security has been breached, and remember to log off of the Website before you leave your computer. |
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Other Information |
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Use of the Website by Children Children under the age of 13 are strongly encouraged to obtain their parent’s or guardian’s verifiable consent before using the Website. Links to Other Sites Northwestern may include links on the Website for your use and reference, including to badge issuers’ websites. We are not responsible for the privacy statements on these websites. Your access and use of such other web sites, including the content, items or services on those web sites, are solely at your own risk. You should be aware that the privacy statements of these sites may differ from this privacy statement. Northwestern is not responsible for their content or privacy policies. If you would like information on another party’s privacy policy, you should contact that party directly, and Northwestern encourages you to do so. |
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Updates to the Privacy Statement |
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This privacy statement may change from time to time and your continued use of the Website after the posting of the revised privacy statement means that you accept and agree to the terms of the revised privacy statement. Please check this area periodically for updates to this privacy statement. |
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Contacting Northwestern |
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If you have questions about this privacy statement, please contact us at [email protected]. |