Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) governs your use of our Websites (the “Websites”), and explains, in general, what Personal Information (as defined below) and other information is collected on the Websites, how the information is used, and with whom we may share such information. The Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Inc. (“TMCF”) is referred to in this Privacy Policy as “TMCF,” “we,” “us,” “our,” or other similar pronouns.
By visiting the Websites, and/or by using the services available on the Websites, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy as they may be amended from time to time. As we update and expand our services, this Privacy Policy may change, so please check this page from time to time. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into, and part of TMCF.org and any other related TMCF-operated Websites, which also governs your use of the Websites in general.
The Websites are intended for users who are 13 years of age or older, and are located in the United States of America. TMCF does not direct any part of its Website to individuals under 13 years of age and does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. This Privacy Policy shall be interpreted under the laws of the United States.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to information that you may provide to us, or that we may obtain, through sources other than our Website, such as by phone, through postal mail and through other live and print media, including without limitation, information obtained from or provided to us by third parties.
Purpose
Your privacy is a serious matter to us. In order to make your visits to our Website and use of the services available through our Website as worthwhile as possible, we may ask you for Personal Information and we may collect certain information from your computer each time you visit the Website. “Personal Information” includes, for example, your name; home and/or business address; email address; telephone, wireless and/or fax number; short message service or text message address or other wireless device address; instant messaging address; credit card and other payment information; demographic information, educational and scholastic information and/or other information that may identify you as an individual or allow online or offline contact with you as an individual. This privacy statement explains, in general, what Personal Information and other information is collected on our Website, how the information is used, and with whom we may share such information. Please take a few minutes to read our Privacy Policy so you can understand how TMCF treats your information.
Right to Opt In and Opt Out
You may have the right and opportunity on the Website to opt in and opt out of certain of our uses of your Personal Information. For example, at the time you are requested to provide Personal Information on the Website, we may provide you with the opportunity to elect to, or not to: (1) share your resume Personal Information, your resume, or other information with certain entities or organizations (including, but not limited to colleges, universities, and actual or potential partners and employers (collectively “Entities”); or (2) receive correspondence from Entities. You also may be able to make these requests by adjusting your preferences in your Website account or profile, if such an account or profile is available. You will also be able to opt out of TMCF’s emails by clicking on an opt-out or unsubscribe link within the email you receive. In the opt-out email, please say whether: (i) you would like to opt out of receiving correspondence from TMCF in general, or just via email, postal mail, short message service, instant messaging, and/or by phone; (ii) you would only like to opt out of certain of TMCF’s e-newsletters or correspondence, and if so which ones; or (iii) you would like TMCF to refrain from sharing your Personal Information with Entities.
Please understand that if you opt out of receiving correspondence from us, we may still contact you in connection with your relationship, activities, transactions and communications with us. Also, a request to have us stop sharing your Personal Information with Entities will only apply as of the date of your request, and we will not be responsible for any communications that you may receive from Entities that received your Personal Information prior to such request. In these cases, please contact that entity directly.
What information is collected on the Website?
- User-Provided Information
We may collect Personal Information from users of our Website, for example, through such users’ activities, transactions and completion of online forms on our Website. Such information may be collected, for example, when users create membership profiles, register or subscribe for accounts or features on our Website, submit resumes, enter into online transactions, complete surveys, provide reviews, respond to polls, input information into our interactive programming features such as an interactive calendar or search engine, submit content, including without limitation, media files, photos, videos, documents or other information to the Website, contribute to a social media platform, chat room, list serve, blog or other open forum or community feature that we may make available on our Website, submit a comment or question to us using a “contact us” or similar feature on our Website, send us an email, view web pages, advertisements or file attachments, or in any other way submit Personal Information to us via our Website.
- Website Usage Information
Cookies
We may use “cookies” to keep, and sometimes track, information about you. Cookies are small data files that are sent to your browser or related software from a Web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies track where you travel on our Website and what you look at and purchase. They may store your username and/or password. A cookie may enable us to relate your use of our Websites to other information about you, including your Personal Information. All of these purposes serve to improve and personalize your experience on our Websites. Most Web browsers can be set to inform you when a cookie has been sent to you and provide you with the opportunity to refuse that cookie. Additionally, if you have a Flash player installed on your computer, your Flash player can be set to reject or delete Flash cookies. However, refusing a cookie may, in some cases, preclude you from using, or negatively impact the display or function of, the Website or certain areas or features of the Website.
Clear GIFs
We may use “clear GIFs” (aka “Web beacons” or “pixel tags”) or similar technologies, in the Website and/or in our communications with you to enable us to know whether you have visited a Web page or received a message. A clear GIF is typically a one-pixel, transparent image (although it can be a visible image as well), located on a Web page or in an email or other type of message, which is retrieved from a remote site on the Internet enabling the verification of an individual’s viewing or receipt of a Web page or message. A clear GIF may enable us to relate your viewing or receipt of a Web page or message to other information about you, including your Personal Information.
IP Address and Clickstream Data
Our servers automatically collect data about your server’s Internet address when you visit us. This information is known as an Internet Protocol address, or IP Address, and is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer by your Internet service provider. When you request pages from our Website, our servers may log your IP Address and sometimes your domain name. Our servers may also record the referring page that linked you to us (e.g., another Website or a search engine); the pages you visit on our Website; the websites you visit after our Website; the ads you see and/or click on; other information about the type of Web browser, computer, platform, related software and settings you are using; any search terms you have entered on our Website or a referral site; and other Web usage activity and data logged by our Web servers. We may use this information for internal system administration, to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer our Website. Such information may also be used to gather broad demographic information, such as country of origin and Internet Service Provider. We may also link this information with your Personal Information.
Any or all of these activities with regard to Website Usage Information may be performed on our behalf by our service providers.
How is personal information used?
We will use the Personal Information you provide to our Website, for example, to respond to your requests and to provide you with our services, opportunities and features. We may also use your Personal Information to maintain our internal record keeping. We may match information collected from you through different means or at different times, including both Personal Information and Website Usage Information, and use such information along with information obtained from other sources, including third parties.
In addition, we may send you notices (for example, in the form of emails, mailings and the like) and otherwise correspond with you, about products, services, opportunities and events, sponsored by us and others, that we think might interest you. You may opt out of receiving such correspondence by following the instructions in the Right to Opt In and Opt Out section.
We may analyze user behavior as a measure of interest in, and use of, our Website and emails, both on an individual basis and in the aggregate.
Do we share personal information and website usage information with others?
Yes, personal information may be shared through the following ways:
- Public Forums and Submitted Content
When you contribute to a public area or similar feature of our Website, such as a chat room, bulletin board, survey, list serve, blog, wiki or other open forum that we may make available on or through our Website, or when you contribute content (including resumes) to our Website, the information that you submit may be made available to other users of the Website, as well as the general public. For this reason, we recommend that you do not include any sensitive information or information you wish to remain confidential on, or in your submissions to, these areas of our Website as the information may be accessed by the public.
- Third-Party Offers
We may provide visitors an opportunity to receive offers from other Entities, including, without limitation, institutions of higher education and promotional partners, who have services, products and offers that we think might be of interest to you. Unless you elect not to receive such offers by following the instructions in the Right to Opt In and Opt Out section above, we may from time to time provide your Personal Information to these Entities so that they may send you these offers. We will not provide your Personal Information to these Entities for marketing purposes without your prior consent.
- Co-Sponsored Contests, Sweepstakes and Offerings
We may offer contests, sweepstakes, surveys, polls and other offerings (including, for example, employment opportunities) on our Website, some of which may be operated by or co-sponsored with another company. In those situations, unless you give your information to that other company directly, the information we may obtain from you in connection with such contest, sweepstake or offering may be shared with our sponsor and other third parties. In those situations, such other companies or our co-sponsors may have the right to use your information for their own purposes, in accordance with their own policies. We are not responsible for how such other companies or our co-sponsors may use your information.
- Service Providers
We may use third-party partners to help: (a) operate or promote our Website; and (b) deliver our products and services. We may also share your information with our affiliates, service providers and other third parties that provide products or services for or through the Website, or otherwise with respect to our business (such as website or database hosting companies, address list hosting companies, email service providers, analytics companies, distribution companies, institutions of higher education, fulfillment companies, promotional partners, licensees of our data and other similar service providers that use such information on our behalf).
- Aggregate Statistics
We may disclose aggregate statistics regarding user behavior as a measure of interest in, and use of, our Website and emails to third parties in the form of aggregate data, such as overall patterns or demographic reports that do not describe or identify any individual user.
- Legally Compelled Disclosures
We may disclose user information (which may include Personal Information) to government authorities, and to other third parties when compelled to do so by government authorities, at our discretion, or otherwise as required or permitted by law, including but not limited to, in response to court orders and subpoenas. We also may disclose user information when we have reason to believe that someone is causing injury to or interference with our rights or property, other users of the Website, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities.
- Business Transfers
In the event that we, or substantially all of our assets, are acquired by one or more third parties as a result of an acquisition, merger, sale, reorganization, consolidation or liquidation, Personal Information may be one of the transferred assets.
- Third-Party Ad Servers
We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Website. If so, we will make a list of these ad serving companies available. These companies may use information about you and your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to you. These companies also may employ cookies and clear GIFs to measure advertising effectiveness. Information that these third parties collect via cookies and clear GIFs is generally not personally identifiable (unless, for example, you provide personally identifiable information to them through an ad or email message). However, we encourage you to read these businesses’ privacy policies if you should have any concerns about how they will care for your Website Usage Information or Personal Information. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, see the Network Advertising Initiative’s consumer website.
Wireless Addresses
If the email address you provide to us is a wireless email address, you agree to receive messages at such address from TMCF (unless and until you have elected not to receive such messages by following the instructions in the Right to Opt In and Opt Out section above). You understand that your wireless carrier’s standard rates apply to these messages, and that you may change your mind at any time by following the instructions in the Right to Opt In and Opt Out section above. You represent that you are the owner or authorized user of the wireless device on which messages will be received, and that you are authorized to approve the applicable charges.
Accessing and Correcting Your Information
You may be able to review and/or correct the Personal Information (not including any content or reviews that you have submitted to the Website) that is stored in your user account that you may have created on our Website, and, if applicable, you may be able to do so by visiting a “My Profile” or similar area of your account on the Website. In such event, we will send you a copy of the Personal Information we may have on file in your user account, if any, and we will endeavor to respond to any request you may make to access, update or delete your information as soon as practicable. Before we are able to provide you with any information, correct any inaccuracies or delete any information, however, we may ask you to verify your identity and to provide other details to help us to respond to your request.
Security
We will take reasonable steps to protect the security and integrity of all Personal Information provided to us via our Website, including employing SSL (or other encryption methods that are at least as secure). However, due to the inherent nature of the Internet as an open global communications vehicle, we cannot guarantee that information, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our system or otherwise in our care, will be absolutely safe from intrusion by others, such as hackers.
If you contact us by email or a “contact us” or similar feature on our Website, you should be aware that your transmission might not be secure. A third party could view information you send by these methods in transit.
You may be able to create an account on our Website with a username and password. If so, you are responsible for maintaining the strict confidentiality of your account password, and you shall be responsible for any access to or use of the Website by you or any person or entity using your password, whether or not such access or use has been authorized by or on behalf of you. You agree to immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security. We will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this provision, nor will we have any liability for disclosure of your information due to errors or unauthorized acts of third parties during or after transmission.
In the unlikely event that we believe that the security of your Personal Information in our possession or control may have been compromised, we may seek to notify you of that development. If a notification is appropriate, we would endeavor to do so as promptly as possible under the circumstances, and, if we have your email address, we may notify you by email. You consent to our use of email as a means of such notification.
Consent to Processing
By providing Personal Information to our Website, you understand and consent to the collection, maintenance, processing and transfer of such information in and to the United States and other countries and territories.
Third-Party “Linked-To” Websites
When you are on our Website, you may have the opportunity to visit, or link to, other sites not operated by us. These sites may collect Personal Information from and about you. TMCF does not control such websites and is not responsible for the privacy and information practices of these sites. This Privacy Policy does not address the privacy and information practices of those other Websites.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change or update this Privacy Policy, or any other of our policies or practices, at any time, and will notify users of our Website by posting such changed or updated Privacy Policy on this page. Any changes or updates will be effective immediately upon posting to the Website. Under certain circumstances, we may also elect to notify you of changes or updates to our Privacy Policy by additional means, such as posting a notice on the front page of our Website or sending you an email.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or comments regarding our privacy practices, you may contact TMCF’s Webmaster, at [email protected].
Last Updated: July 2019