Encoura, LLC Detailed US Privacy Notice

Information For US Residents with Applicable State Laws

This Privacy Notice (“States Notice”) is part of and incorporated into, both the Encoura, LLC general Privacy Policy available at https://encoura.org/privacy-policy/, and Encoura’s Terms of Use available at https://encoura.org/terms-of-use/. We collect Personal Data from US residents and comply with the consumer privacy laws of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia (“US Privacy Laws”). In addition to our general Privacy Notice available at https://encoura.org/privacy-policy/, this Detailed US Privacy Notice applies to US residents (“users,” “you,” or “your”).

For the purposes of this Detailed US Privacy Notice, “Personal Data” means information that is linked or reasonably linkable to a particular individual or household. However, the following categories of information are not Personal Data:

  • Publicly available information;
  • Deidentified or aggregated data; or
  • Information is otherwise excluded from the scope of US Privacy Laws.

This Privacy Notice does not apply to the information of individuals acting in commercial or employment contexts, such as job applicants to Encoura, LLC (“Encoura”) or employees or contractors of Encoura. Persons acting in those roles should review the applicable States Limited Privacy Notice made available by Encoura. A separate policy related to information received from employees and job applicants and independent contractors and business contacts can be made available upon request.

Our Primary purpose is to help colleges, universities, and other providers of Education-related Products and Services (defined below) connect with students that participate in our Programs, such as voluntary educational and occupational interests and opportunities surveys so that students can receive information and resources directly from them. “Education-related Products and Services” means from colleges and universities, as well as other education-related products and services such as:

  • Financial planning, student loans, and scholarships
  • Enrichment opportunities such as travel programs, camps, extra-curricular activities, and conferences
  • Curriculum materials, books, Internet-based educational programs, and educational magazines providing low-cost literary products
  • Academic assistance, remedial help, and preparation for college-entrance examinations
  • Recognition for high levels of performance
  • Participation in community service
  • Learning about civic responsibilities; and
  • Employment, career options, and the military
  • Additional purposes include Processing Interactions and Transactions Managing Interactions and Transactions Performing Services Research and Development Quality Assurance Security Debugging

 

This Privacy Notice provides the following information to US residents:

  • Categories of Personal Data we collect;
  • Purposes for which we use Personal Data;
  • Categories of Personal Data we disclose to third parties;
  • Categories of third parties to which we disclose Personal Data; and
  • How US residents can exercise their rights under US Privacy Laws:
    • The rights to access, correct, or delete Personal Data;
    • The right to obtain a portable copy of Personal Data;
    • The right to limit the use of sensitive Personal Data in certain circumstances;
    • The rights to opt out of targeted advertising, sales of Personal Data, or profiling; and
    • The right to appeal our decisions about your requests.

How Encoura Collects Personal Data

Encoura collects Personal Data in a number of ways, including, for example, the following:

  • Personal Data you provide to us. We will collect Personal Data when you interact with us. We also will collect Personal Data when you subscribe to receive marketing materials, submit applications or other information through our website, apps or otherwise.

  • Personal Data provided by our Clients. We receive Personal Data from our clients, such as colleges and universities who are using our services or who wish for us to provide you with information or services. We receive that information by various means, including information that clients provide to us directly.
  • Information automatically collected by our website and apps. We may collect information about our websites and apps, and how you use them. This information includes:
    • Computer, tablet, or mobile telephone information. We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, device sensors and mobile network information including phone number) and device sensors and related information. Encoura may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your account. We will comply with the usage/license restrictions and requirements applicable to the device from which the information comes.

    • Log information. When you use the websites or apps or view content provided by us, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This may include, for example:
      • details of how you used the website or app.
      • Internet protocol address.
      • device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL.
    • Location information. When you use websites or apps, we may collect and process information about your actual location, such as GPS signals sent by a mobile device. We also may use various technologies to determine location, such as sensor data from your device that may, for example, provide information on nearby Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.
    • Unique application numbers. The websites or apps may include a unique application number. This number and information about your installation (for example, the operating system type and application version number) may be sent to Encoura when you install or uninstall an application or utilize the website or when the website or app periodically contacts our servers, such as for automatic updates.
    • Local storage. We may collect and store information (including Personal Data) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches.
    • Cookies and anonymous identifiers. We use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit the Platform as described below, and this may include sending one or more cookies or anonymous identifiers to your device.

Use of Personal Data

We use Personal Data for the purposes described in our general Privacy Policy (see https://encoura.org/privacy-policy/). Personal Data may also be used or disclosed as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law. As permitted by applicable law, we do not treat de-identified data or aggregated consumer information (that does not disclose individual information) as Personal Data, and we reserve the right to convert, or permit others to convert, your Personal Data into de-identified data or aggregated consumer information and may elect not to treat publicly available information as Personal Data. We have no obligation to re-identify information or keep it longer than we need it to respond to your requests.

Categories of Non-Sensitive Personal Data

The table below outlines the non-sensitive categories of Personal Data Encoura, LLC collects about US residents and whether and how they are disclosed to third parties.

We collect Non-Sensitive Personal Data from the following sources:

  • Directly from our users
  • Inferences from your activity using our services
  • From our affiliates (“affiliates” are businesses that share common ownership with Encoura, LLC)
  • From our business partners (“business partners” are companies that we have a pre-existing commercial relationship with)
  • From data brokers (“data brokers” are companies engaged in the business of buying or collecting Personal Information and selling it to other businesses)

Categories of Personal Data

Personal Data we might collect includes data such as the following:

Type of Information Categories of Sources Business or commercial purposes for collection Disclosed for a Business Purpose? Third parties to whom Disclosed for Business Purpose Retention Period
Identifiers such as: real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, driver’s license, or other similar identifiers Through user contact or from clients Regular business operations, legal requirements, performance of services, marketing and internal analytics Yes
  • Service Providers, such as marketing and advertising agencies, data processors, and cloud service providers for regular business operations
  • Public authorities/government bodies as required by applicable laws and regulations
  • Third parties or affiliates to enable colleges, universities, and other providers of education-related products and services to learn about and connect directly with students.
  • Cookie Operators to collect information about interactions with the Service or emails, including information about your browsing and activity behavior
Varies. The data is accessible until the consumer requests to delete their account or according to our internal data retention schedule, which you can find here.
Personal Characteristics may contain the following: race, gender, etc. Through user contact or from clients Regular business operations, legal requirements, performance of services, marketing and internal analytics Yes
  • Service Providers, such as marketing and advertising agencies, data processors, and cloud service providers for regular business operations
  • Public authorities/government bodies as required by applicable laws and regulations
  • Third parties or affiliates to enable colleges, universities, and other providers of education-related products and services to learn about and connect directly with students.
Varies. The data is accessible until the consumer requests to delete their account or according to our internal data retention schedule, which you can find here.
Commercial Information such as products or services purchased, obtained, or considered Through user contact Regular business operations, legal requirements, the performance of services, marketing, and internal analytics Yes
  • Service Providers, such as External Marketing and Advertising Agencies, Data Processors, and Cloud Providers, as needed for regular business operations
  • Public Authorities/Government Bodies as required by applicable laws and regulations
  • Third Parties or Affiliates to enable colleges, universities, and other providers of Education-related Products and Services to learn about and connect directly with students.
Varies. The data is accessible until the consumer requests to delete their account or according to our internal data retention schedule, which you can find here.
Internet/Electronic Activity, which may include: browsing history, search history, and information regarding your interaction with an Internet website or application Through the websites and apps Regular business operations, legal requirements, performance of services, marketing and internal analytics Yes
  • Service Providers, such as External Marketing and Advertising Agencies, Data Processors, and Cloud Providers, as needed for regular business operations
  • Cookie Operators to collect information about interactions with the Service or emails, including information about your browsing and activity behavior.
Varies. The data is accessible until the consumer requests to delete their account or according to our internal data retention schedule, which you can find here.
Sensory Information including audio recordings of customer care calls, and profile pictures Through user contact Customer service, legal requirements, performance of services, and internal analytics Yes Service Providers, such as Data Processors as needed for regular business operations Varies. The data is accessible until the consumer requests to delete their account or according to our internal data retention schedule, which you can find here.
Professional Information, which may include: professional memberships or employment-related information Through user contact Regular business operations, legal requirements, performance of services, marketing and internal analytics Yes
  • Service Providers, such as Data Processors as needed for regular business operations
  • Other users of the services such as educators
  • Third Parties or Affiliates to enable colleges, universities, and other providers of Education-related Products and Services to learn about and connect directly with students.
Varies. The data is accessible until the consumer requests to delete their account or according to our internal data retention schedule, which you can find here.
Educational Information, which may include: education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf Through user contact or from clients Regular business operations, legal requirements, performance of services, marketing and internal analytics Yes
  • Service Providers, such as Data Processors, as needed for regular business operations.
  • To the extent permissible by applicable law, to Third Parties or Affiliates to enable colleges, universities, and other providers of Education-related Products and Services to learn about and connect directly with students.
Varies. The data is accessible until the consumer requests to delete their account or according to our internal data retention schedule, which you can find here.
Inferences, which may include: creating a profile about a user reflecting the user’s preferences, characteristics, attitudes, or abilities Through user contact or from clients Regular business operations, legal requirements, performance of services, marketing and internal analytics Yes
  • Service Providers, such as External Marketing and Advertising Agencies, Data Processors, and Cloud Providers as needed for regular business operations.
  • Third Parties or Affiliates to enable colleges, universities, and other providers of Education-related Products and Services to learn about and connect directly with students.
Varies. The data is accessible until the consumer requests to delete their account or according to our internal data retention schedule, which you can find here.
Sensitive Personal Data, which may include race, ethnicity Through user contact or from clients Regular business operations, legal requirements, performance of services, and internal analytics Yes
  • Service Providers, such as External Marketing and Advertising Agencies, Data Processors, and Cloud Providers as needed for regular business operations.
  • Third Parties or Affiliates to enable colleges, universities, and other providers of Education-related Products and Services to learn about and connect directly with students.
Varies. The data is accessible until the consumer requests to delete their account or according to our internal data retention schedule, which you can find here.

CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE SELL OR DISCLOSE FOR TARGETED ADVERTISING

The following chart provides information about the types of Personal Data we disclose and the purposes for which we sell or disclose the information where disclosure is for the purpose of targeted or cross-context advertising (under California law, this is called “sharing”), and the categories of third parties to whom we disclosed the information for business purposes in the last 12 months.

Encoura does not sell or share the Personal Data of minors under 13 years of age and does not sell or share the Personal Data of minors under 16 years of age without authorization.

Type of Information Sold or Disclosed for Targeted Advertising? Third parties to whom Sold or Disclosed for Targeted Advertising Business or commercial purposes for Selling or Disclosing for Targeted Advertising
Identifiers such as a real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, or other similar identifiers Sold; Disclosed for Targeted Advertising Service providers and affiliates For business operations, generate revenue, and to provide educational institutions and providers the ability to connect directly with students
Personal Records Sold; Service providers and affiliates For business operations and to educational institutions and providers to learn about and connect directly with students
Personal Characteristics or Traits Sold; Service providers and affiliates For business operations and to educational institutions and providers to learn about and connect directly with students
Customer Account Details / Commercial Information Sold; Service providers and affiliates For business operations and to educational institutions and providers to learn about and connect directly with students
Internet Usage Information Disclosed for Targeted Advertising Service providers and affiliates For business operations, directed marketing and to educational institutions and providers to learn about and connect directly with students
Geolocation Data Disclosed for Targeted Advertising Service providers and affiliates For business operations and to educational institutions and providers to learn about and connect directly with students
Professional or Employment Information Sold; Service providers and affiliates For business operations and to educational institutions and providers to learn about and connect directly with students
Non-public Education Records Sold; Service providers and affiliates For business operations and to educational institutions and providers to learn about and
Inferences from Personal Data Collected Sold; Service providers and affiliates For business operations and to educational institutions and providers to learn about and connect directly with students

Use of Personal Data

We use Personal Data for the purposes described in our general Privacy Notice (see https://encoura.org/privacy-policy/). Personal Data may also be used or disclosed as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law.

Disclosing Personal Data

We share and/or sell Personal Data with the following categories of third parties:

  • Processors: We use processors to securely handle Personal Data on our behalf and only on our instructions. These companies may not use your Personal Data for their own purposes.
  • Affiliates: We may disclose your information to our affiliates, subsidiaries, and representatives as part of providing our services.
  • Other Users: Content you post on our systems, such as comments or reviews, may be displayed to other users as appropriate.
  • Our Analytics and Advertising Partners: We use analytics services to collect and process certain data and to provide you with relevant advertising. These services may also collect information about your use of certain other websites, apps, and online resources.
  • Our Business Partners: We may disclose relevant personal data to our business partners to provide you with exclusive offers for products and services that may interest you.

See the tables above for more details about how different categories of Personal Data are disclosed.

Exercising Your Personal Data Rights

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia residents have the following rights under US Privacy Laws:

  • The rights to access, correct, or delete Personal Data;
  • The right to obtain a portable copy of Personal Data;
  • The right to limit the use of Sensitive Personal Data in certain circumstances;
  • The rights to opt out of targeted advertising, sales of personal data, or profiling;
  • The right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights; and
  • The right to appeal our decisions about your requests if you disagree with them.

Your Right to Know. Your right to request a list of the categories of data that we collected about you.

The Right to Access and Receive Your Specific Personal Information. The right to request that Encoura provide a portable copy of the Personal Data it collects, uses, discloses, and sells. You can request a listing of the types of Personal Data we have collected about you, the sources of that information, how we use the information (e.g., our business or commercial purposes for collecting or selling personal information), other individuals and business with whom we share personal information, and the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you. For further details about the data we collect, please reference the above Categories of Information We Collect.

The Right to Correct Personal Information Collected, Disclosed, or Sold. The right to request that Encoura correct the Personal Data it collects, uses, discloses, and sells. This is called the “Right to Correct”. Under the Right to Correct, you can request a correction of any inaccurate personal information, and Encoura will use commercially reasonable efforts to correct this information.

The Right to Request Deletion of Personal Information about You. The right to request the deletion of their personal information collected or maintained by Encoura.

When you make a request, you can expect the following:

  • We will verify your identity. You will need to provide us with certain information such as your name, email address, physical address, or other information, as relevant, so we can verify that you are who you say you are. Which information may depend on the type and sensitivity of information requested.
  • We will confirm receipt of your request within 10 days. If you have not received a response within a few days after that, please let us know by contacting us at the email address listed in the “Contact Us” section.
  • We will respond to your request within the legally required amount of time. If necessary, we may need additional time to respond where allowed by law, but we will reply either way within the legally required period and, if we need an extension, we will explain why.
  • In certain cases, a Request to Know may be denied. For example, if we cannot verify your identity or if providing you the information could create an unreasonable risk to someone’s security (for example, we do not want very sensitive information disclosed inappropriately). If we deny your request, we will explain why we denied it. If we deny a request, we will still try to provide you as much of the information as we can, but we will withhold the information subject to denial.

If you are a US resident, you can submit a request to exercise your personal data rights under US Privacy Laws by Consumers can submit a request to exercise personal data rights under the applicable state’s privacy policies as follows:

Please note that exercising your right to opt out of the sale of Personal Data will terminate our ability to continue to provide your Personal Data to providers of Education-related Products and Services so that they may contact you.

To protect your privacy, we may need to authenticate your identity before we respond to your rights request. To verify your identity, you will need to provide us with certain information such as your name, email address, physical address, or other information, as relevant, so we can verify that you are who you say you are. The verification requirements may depend on the type and sensitivity of the information requested. If you do not complete the verification process, we may be unable to process your request. Any information you provide to authenticate your identity will only be used to process your rights request and not for any other purpose. Please be aware that we do not accept, or process rights requests submitted through other means (e.g., via fax or social media).

We will respond to your rights request within 45 days, though in certain cases we may inform you that we will need up to another 45 days to act on your request. If we suspect fraudulent or malicious activity on or from your account, we will delay taking action on your request until we can appropriately verify your identity and the request as authentic. Also, note that each of the rights is subject to certain exceptions.

Encoura, LLC also processes opt-out requests sent by Universal Opt-Out Mechanisms (also referred to as “Opt-Out Preference Signals”) frictionlessly in compliance with US Privacy law. You can send an Opt-Out Preference Signal for our business to process frictionlessly by visiting our website using a device or browser that broadcasts commonly used and recognized Opt-Out Preference Signals, such as the Global Privacy Control. We will apply the Opt-Out Preference Signals we receive to the browser or device that sent the signal.

We reserve the right to decline to process or charge a reasonable fee for requests from a US resident that are manifestly unfounded, excessive, or repetitive.

Notice Of Right To Opt Out Of Sale/Sharing For Targeted Advertising

US privacy laws give US residents the right to direct a business that “sells” or “shares” their Personal Information to stop selling and/or sharing their Personal Information at any time. As used here, “selling” means exchanging Personal Data with a third party for money or anything of value, and “sharing” means disclosing Personal Data to a third party for use in conducting “cross-context behavioral advertising,” also referred to as “targeted advertising.” An example of targeted advertising is displaying advertisements to a person where the advertisement is selected based on Personal Data obtained from their activities over time and across non-affiliated websites or applications to predict their preferences or interests. In certain situations, and as detailed above, we sell and share for targeted advertising with third parties. For more information about your right to opt-out, please see our Notice of Right to Opt-Out.

Notice Of Right To Limit The Use Of Sensitive Personal Information

You have the right to limit some uses of Sensitive Personal Data. In general, you may direct companies not to use Sensitive Personal Data except as necessary to provide goods or services you have requested or other exempt purposes.

However, we only use Sensitive Personal Data for purposes that are exempt from this right, such as to provide you with goods or services you have requested, to detect and prevent security incidents, or to verify the quality of our goods and services. The full list of these exempt purposes is specified in the California Code of Regulations, Title 11, Section 7027(m). For more information about your right to opt-out, please see our Notice of Right to Opt-Out.

Children’s Data

Although we do not think we sell Consumer Personal Data in the traditional sense, because we disclose the Personal Data of our Affiliates’ voluntary program participants, under a restricted use license, to colleges, universities, and other providers of Education-related Products and Services to learn about and directly contact them, as more fully explained above, doing so can be seen as a “sale” under the CCPA’s expansive definition of sale. In addition, data collection by certain Cookie Operators, as more fully explained below, may be deemed to be a sale by us. However, In compliance with US privacy laws, we will not knowingly sell the Personal Data of Consumers under 16 without an affirmative opt-in.

US residents may submit opt-in requests by Consumers can submit a request to exercise personal data rights under the applicable state’s privacy policies as follows:

  • If a consumer is requesting information about their data, use our Consumer Rights Request page
  • If an authorized representative is requesting information about someone else’s data, use our Authorized Agent Request page
  • You may also call us at 1-877-360-0833 or email us at privacy@encoura.org and respond to any follow-up inquiries we may make.

There may be cookies and other tracking technologies associated with our online services operated by third-party service providers (“Cookie Operators”) that may collect Personal Data that falls under the identifiers and internet usage categories. We do not believe that we sell Personal Data collected by Cookie Operators. However, we will honor opt-out requests for Personal Data collected by Cookie Operators based on your Global Privacy Controls, if we have not obtained a commitment from Third Parties who associate cookies with our online properties that they will restrict the collection, use, or disclosure of Personal Data collected via our online services to performing services for us or as otherwise permitted by a Service Provider, we provide the option to opt-out of such collection and use of your Personal Data if you exercise cookie preferences in the cookie preference center available on our online services where such activities occur.

Tracking Technologies – Your Additional Choices

Browser Settings: You can also exercise control over browser-based cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser, and mobile devices may offer ad and data limitation choices.  Please note that when you use cookie control tools, you will have to change your settings for each browser and device you use, and your limitation on cookies can limit the functionality of online services you use, including our services. Use the help function on your browser to learn more.

Ad Industry Tools: Some third parties may collect Personal Data in association with your use of our online services for advertising, analytics, and other purposes, and may sell that Personal Data downstream. You may opt out of their sales. Please visit https://www.privacyrights.info/ to opt out of the sale of Personal Data by participating third parties. You must opt out of every device and browser you use in order to effectuate your “Do Not Sell” requests from these parties. However, opting out does not mean you will stop seeing ads and you may continue to still see interest-based ads. You can also learn more about how to exercise certain choices regarding cookies and interest-based advertising at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices, and http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.

In addition, third-party tools may enable you to search for and opt out of some of these trackers, such as the Ghostery browser plug-in available at https://www.ghostery.com/. We do not represent that these third-party tools, programs, or statements are complete or accurate. Clearing cookies or changing settings may affect your choices and you may have to opt out separately via each browser and other devices you use. Cookie-enabled opt-out signals may no longer be effective if you delete, block, or clear cookies. We are not responsible for the completeness, accuracy, or effectiveness of any third-party notices or choices.

Some browsers have signals that may be characterized as “do not track” signals. You may also receive tracking mechanisms from other parties prior to visiting our websites that will continue to track your activity while on our websites. Such data would be subject to the privacy policy of the other party from whom you received the mechanism if you are not using a browser plugin or do not opt out of cookies collection.

Authorized Agent Requests

You may designate an authorized agent to make a rights request on your behalf. Your authorized agent may submit such a request by following the same method described above in the section titled Exercising Your Personal Data Rights. We may require verification of your authorized agent’s authority in addition to the information we require for verification of your identity. Authorized agents may submit on behalf of the consumer using the Authorized Agents Request Form.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Detailed US Privacy Notice, contact us at privacy@encoura.org.

Last updated: January 03, 2024