Privacy Policy

Effective: September 2, 2022

INTRODUCTION

Acadiate’s mission is to create an environment where people quickly and easily share their competencies online. To accomplish this goal, it’s essential that Acadiate is a safe place for our users to capture their competencies, and that they have complete control over how that information is shared.

Protecting your privacy is fundamental to our mission and business. The following summarizes our promises to you.

  • We never sell user or school data.
  • We do not have paid 3rd party advertising in individual Acadiate accounts.
  • We don’t own the content you add to Acadiate.
  • Your data is private to your account by default.
  • We use the latest security industry best practices to protect you.
  • We are transparent about our practices and will notify you if things change.
  • We are compliant with GDPR.

This Privacy Policy governs the use of data collected by our websites at Acadiate.com, and the Acadiate Application (collectively “the Acadiate Service”, “the Service” or “Acadiate”). This includes personally identifiable information that we collect when you create an account (“Account Information”), content added to your account (“Account Content”), Class Directories created by school networks, and Messages sent via Acadiate. Any data collected by Acadiate that can be linked back to an individual student is considered “User Data”.

By using Acadiate, you agree to this Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree, please don’t use Acadiate. You can contact us anytime with questions about this policy at [email protected].

ACADIATE AND GDPR

Acadiate complies with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) and makes it easy for EU individuals to exercise their rights described in that regulation. The purposes for which Acadiate collects your information, the categories and specific types of information, and our practices and policies regarding the processing of your information are described in this Privacy Policy.

WHO DOES ACADIATE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM?

Users (students, alumni, faculty), employers, and schools may create accounts on Acadiate. We also collect limited log-data from all visitors to our marketing website.

WHAT INFORMATION DOES ACADIATE COLLECT?

Account Information: When Users create an account on Acadiate we collect your name, email address, and password. Acadiate may also collect your phone number if you enter it in your Account Settings.

Account Content: Acadiate also collects content that is added to a user’s account. This content may be photos, journals, drawings, files, notes, hyperlinks, and other ways of documenting competencies. We regularly add types of information that can be uploaded to your account, and these are all covered by this Policy. We also collect comments left on Showcase Digital Portfolios.

Messages: Acadiate collects messages that are sent and received in Acadiate by users.

Class Directories: Teachers may use Acadiate to create Class Directories to collect and organize user Showcase Digital Portfolios. Class Directories may include text about the Directory, along with a link to the Digital Portfolio of students who choose to join the directory or make themselves available to be added to Class Directories.

Communications: Acadiate collects any information you send to us directly, such as email communications.

Event Registration Information: When Users register for an event on Acadiate, we may collect names, emails, and additional information. In some situations event organizers require additional permissions around data usage outside what is listed in this privacy policy, in those cases it will be clearly outlined on the registration form.

Log Data: When you use Acadiate, we receive log data such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, device information, and your mobile carrier. In addition, we may receive or collect additional information such as the referring web page, referring search terms, and pages visited.

HOW DOES ACADIATE USE THIS INFORMATION?

We only use this information to provide our services to you. For example we use this information to:

  • Allow you to access and use our service by verifying your identity and storing your Account Content, Class Directories, and Messages.
  • Provide users and faculty with customer support.
  • Notify you about activity on and updates to your account (if you’ve indicated in your account settings that you’d like notifications).
  • Research, understand, and analyze trends of users to improve and develop new features for our products.
  • Promote enhancements to Acadiate relevant for users, faculty, employers, and educators.
  • Investigate, prevent, and detect activities on our service that we believe may violate the law or applicable regulations. We may, at the request of a school, investigate accounts to determine whether their connection with a Showcase Group may violate their policies.

You can withdraw consent for the collection of your personal information at any time, and also opt-out of marketing communications from us.

DOES ACADIATE ALLOW ADVERTISING OR SHARE DATA FOR ADVERTISING?

Acadiate does not deploy third-party advertising within user accounts or on Showcases. Acadiate also does not share or sell user information with third-party advertisers unless explicit permission is given. For example, you attend a career fair on Acadiate and want to share your information with an employer.

Schools or Clients that use Acadiate to run events, functions, or experiences may, at their own discretion, have advertisers or sponsors participate in their spaces. These schools or clients may share data from their own events with third parties based on their own privacy policies. At no time is Acadiate or the school sharing user Identifiable Data unless the user is providing explicit permission by signing into a network/event, using a contact button, lead generation button or any such mechanism. Some schools or clients may have unique data-sharing requirements outside our privacy policy. In those cases, we require clients and schools to communicate that to users via a statement of privacy before any information is shared.

IN WHAT LIMITED CIRCUMSTANCES MAY ACADIATE NEED TO SHARE MY INFORMATION?

We do not sell or share any data you provide with third parties except in the limited circumstances detailed below:

  • We use a small number of third-party services in order to operate and improve Acadiate – for example a data center operator that manages our servers or a notification service that helps us send you messages about your account. These services need access to your personally identifiable information in order to work (i.e. your email address is required to send you email), but are contractually prohibited from using that information for any other purpose other than to provide the Acadiate service.
  • Acadiate may disclose your information to a third party to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or a valid legal request - including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. If we are going to release your data, we will do our best to provide you with notice in advance by email, unless we are prohibited from doing so by law.
  • By default, Class Directories created by faculty are private. Optionally, educators may choose to share Class Directories at their discretion. In these cases, the Showcase Group and the Showcase Digital Portfolios contained within it may be shared with a 3rd party or with other faculty at their school or with partner employers. User data that is included in the Showcase Group is limited to what the student chose to include in their Showcase Digital Portfolio. Users at all times have the ability to withdraw themselves from a Showcase Group.
  • We may disclose or transfer your Account Information and Account Content in connection with the sale, merger, bankruptcy, sale of assets or reorganization of our company. We will notify you if a different company will receive your information. The promises in this Privacy Policy will apply to your data as transferred to the new entity.

DO YOU COLLECT DATA ABOUT [BLANK]?

We’ve listed all the data we collect in the section above titled What Information Does Acadiate Collect. We intentionally limit our data collection to only what we need to provide the Acadiate service for you.

However, sometimes we get asked if we collect data about some other topic or area that’s of particular interest to a school. Data collected in user Accounts are driven by what the user decides to upload.

DO YOU WORK WITH THIRD-PARTY ANALYTICS SERVICES?

To offer our customers the highest levels of privacy we do not use a third-party analytics service. Instead, we have elected to use a self-hosted installation of analytics software. This software collects anonymized user data that helps us make better decisions around product improvement. No data you have shared with Acadiate (such as your Account Information or Account Content) is collected.

We may share anonymized analytics with institutions in relation to their academic event pages (Virtual Open Houses, Conferences, etc). Alternatively, institutions running academic events do have the ability to add their own third party analytics services to their academic event pages. If an institution elects to add their own third party analytics service, it will be limited to only the event pages managed by the institution.

HOW DO YOU USE COOKIES?

Cookies are small text files that we transfer to your web browser that allow us to identify your web browser and store information about your account. We use these cookies to keep you logged in to Acadiate, customize your Acadiate experience, understand how you use Acadiate, and promote Acadiate to relevant teachers and schools.

You can choose to remove or disable cookies via your browser settings. Please be aware that Acadiate will not work properly if you disable or decline cookies.

HOW CAN USERS SHARE INFORMATION?

Acadiate is designed to promote safe sharing. Users have total control of who can see their Showcases by sharing their private link. 3rd parties who users share their Showcase with can potentially download content contained within the Showcase.

Faculty may also choose to share a Showcase Group within the school or 3rd parties using a private link. The school or 3rd parties can potentially download content contained within the Showcase up to the point before it is deleted or removed from the Showcase Group.

Users at all times have the ability to delete their Showcase and remove access from any 3rd party, school, or Showcase Group.

HOW DOES ACADIATE HANDLE ABANDONED ACCOUNTS?

Acadiate will delete an account and all content associated with the account if the account has not been accessed for more than 7 years. Prior to deleting an abandoned account, Acadiate will notify the user associated with the account by email and provide an opportunity to download an archived copy of account contents.

HOW TO VIEW, CORRECT, EDIT, PORT, OR UPDATE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You have the right to access, correct, download for transport to a similar service, or delete any of your personal information collected by Acadiate.

HOW TO DELETE YOUR ACADIATE ACCOUNT

If you would like to delete your Acadiate account or any content submitted to Acadiate, please send an email to [email protected]. If you request that your account or any content submitted to Acadiate be deleted, Acadiate may still retain information for up to 60 days to provide customer support and prevent accidental deletion.

HOW DOES ACADIATE KEEP YOUR DATA SAFE?

Acadiate takes protecting your security and privacy seriously and we've put a number of measures in place to protect the integrity of your information, including use of access-controlled data centers, routine 3rd party security audits, restricted employee access to user information, data encryption in transit and encryption of Account Content at rest.

In the event of a security breach, we will notify affected account holders within the amount of time required by law so that you can take steps to keep your data safe.

HOW DOES ACADIATE HANDLE DATA FROM INTERNATIONAL VISITORS?

The Acadiate Service is operated out of Canada and is subject to Canadian law. By default, any personal information that you provide to Acadiate will be hosted on servers located in the United States and Canada. By using this Service, you consent to the transfer to and processing of your personal information in the United States and Canada.

In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Acadiate may from time to time make changes to this Privacy Policy to account for changes to our practices or applicable law. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy that we believe will materially affect your rights, we will notify you by email about these changes and post a notice to our service. If you continue to use our service after you receive notice of changes to this Privacy Policy, you will accept these changes.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or feedback, please contact [email protected].