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EDUCATION PHILANTHROPY DIVISION OF ASCENDIUM EDUCATION GROUP

Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us. Ascendium Education Group, Inc. and Affiliates (collectively, "Ascendium" or "we" or "us") has a strong commitment to providing excellent service, including respecting concerns about privacy. Ascendium’s affiliated group is comprised of the following entities: Ascendium Education Group, Inc., Ascendium Education Solutions, Inc. and Northstar Education Services, LLC (“Affiliates”).

Below are the guidelines we use for protecting the information you give us or we obtain when you use any of our websites ("Website"). By using our Website, you consent to the data practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the data practices described in this Privacy Policy, you should not use the Website.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Definitions. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, the following terms are defined below.

  • “Personal Information” means any personally identifiable information that you submit to us, including contact information, such as your name, e-mail address, company name, address, phone number, and other information about yourself or your business. Personal Information also includes information you provide to us depending on the product or service you have with us such as social security numbers and account balances, payment history and income and transaction history and credit history.
  • “Navigational Information” means information about your computer and your visits to this Website such as your IP address, geographical location, browser type, operating system, referral source, time and length of visit, and pages viewed.
  • “Public Information” means information about you that is available on the internet, such as from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and publicly-available information that we acquire from other service providers.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Personal Information. We do not automatically collect Personal Information from your computer when you browse this Website. When you look to access specific resources, we may request that you provide Personal Information. This means that unless you knowingly provide us with Personal Information, we will not know your name, your email address or any other personally identifiable information about you as a result of your visit to our Website.

We may have your Personal Information as a result of the services that we provide to you as a student loan guarantor. As a result, we are legally obligated to maintain records of your Personal Information.

In addition, you may decide to send us your Personal Information if you are seeking more information, requesting to attend one of our events or for other similar purposes. Your decision to disclose your Personal Information is entirely voluntary and, by doing so, you are providing us with specific consent to use your Personal Information only for the purposes for which you have disclosed it to us.

Ascendium may access and use your Personal Information only for the purposes for which you have submitted it to us to: (a) provide information to you; (b) make contact with you; (c) provide products or services to you; or, (d) maintain the operations and security of the Website and services we provide to you. Except for providing services to you, we will not use your Personal Information for any other purposes, for example, the communication of marketing material, unless we have your specific consent to do so.

Navigational Information. We automatically collect and store Navigational Information from all users, including those with "Do Not Track" signals enabled in their web browsers.

We use "cookies" to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web server. Cookies are not used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize pages on our Websites, or register for our blog, a cookie helps us to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. When you return to the same Website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of our Website.

We also keep track of the pages you visit within our Website in order to determine what portion of the site is the most popular. This data is used to deliver customized content and promotions to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

  • Log Files. We also collect information about your computer hardware and software such as: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring Website addresses. This information is used to provide general statistics regarding use of the Website. For these purposes, we do link this automatically-collected data to any of your Personal Information.
  • Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs). We employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs). Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on web pages or in emails and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
    We use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients, which allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. We tie the information gathered by clear gifs in emails to our customers’ Personal Information. If you would like to opt-out of these emails, please see the "Opting-Out and Unsubscribing" section below.
  • Website Analytics. We may also partner with third-party vendors, such as Google Analytics, to allow tracking technologies and remarketing services on the Website through the use of first party cookies and third-party cookies, to, among other things, analyze and track users’ use of the Website, determine the popularity of certain content and better understand online activity. By accessing the Website, you consent to the collection and use of your information by these third-party vendors. You are encouraged to review their privacy policies and contact them directly for responses to your questions. We do not transfer Personal Information to these third-party vendors.
  • Information We Obtain from Third Parties. We also obtain contact details and other personal information regarding media contacts and influencers from a variety of sources including Cision. If you wish to know more about how such information is collected and used, please refer to Cision’s privacy notice at www.cision.com/us/legal/privacy-policy/.

Declaration of Third Party Service Providers. For you to make an informed decision on whether to provide your Personal Information to us, we need to make you aware of the following organizations that act as data processors for us in our provision of our services to you (“Third Party Service Providers"):

  • Amazon Web Services, a provider of secure hosting services, based in the United States;
  • Educational Credit Management Corporation, a provider of secure hosting and processing services, based in the United States;
  • Navient Portfolio Management, LLC, a provider of collection management and master servicing activities, based in the United States;
  • Navient Solutions, LLC, a custodian of loan documents, based in the United States; and,
  • HubSpot, Inc., a provider of client management services, based in the United States.

We may use Third Party Service Providers to assist us with collecting and using Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy. Third Party Service Providers are not permitted to use or store Personal Information for their own purposes.

Information About Children. Consistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, we do not knowingly or intentionally collect information from anyone under the age of under 13. If you believe that we have collected information about a child under 13, please contact us by clicking the "Contact Us" link so we may delete the information.

HOW WE USE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We Never Sell Personal Information. We will never sell your Personal Information to any third party. Ascendium will not share information with third parties except with our Affiliates or our Third Party Service Providers. Our Affiliates and Third Party Service Providers do not collect, use, share, or store the information except as necessary to provide contracted services to Ascendium.

Use of Personal Information. In addition to providing services and the uses identified elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, we may use your Personal Information to:

  • Improve your browsing experience by personalizing the Website;
  • Improve our product offering;
  • Send information to you which we think may be of interest to you; and,
  • Send you marketing communications relating to our business.

Use of Navigational Information. We use Navigational Information to operate and improve our Website. We may also use Navigational Information to provide you with personalized information about Ascendium and our products when you visit our Website. Finally, Navigational Information may be used in combination with Personal Information and Public Information to send you personalized information about Ascendium and our products.

We may use Third Party Service Providers to assist us with collecting and using Navigational Information as described in this Privacy Policy. Third Party Service Providers are not permitted to use or store Navigational Information for their own purposes.

Use of Public Information. In addition to the uses identified elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, we may use Public Information to:

  • Improve our product offering;
  • Send information to you which we think may be of interest to you; and,
  • Send you marketing communications relating to our business.

Customer Testimonials and Comments. We may post customer testimonials and comments on our Websites, which may contain Personal Information. We obtain each customer’s consent via email prior to posting the customer’s name and testimonial.

Security of your Personal Information. We take strict security precautions to protect your Personal Information. We permit only authorized employees, our Affiliates and Third Party Service Providers who are trained in the proper handling of Personal Information to have access to your Personal Information.

Social Media Features and Links. Our Website includes social media features, such as a Facebook Like button and LinkedIn Follow button ("Social Media Features"). Additionally, our Website may link to other external resources that we think you might find useful. These features and resources may collect your Personal Information, your Navigational Information and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social Media Features, widgets, services and external resources are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Website.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to features and links hosted by third party Websites. Your interactions with these third party features and links are governed by the privacy policy and other policies of the third party providing them. Third parties may not collect personal information from our Website except to provide the Social Media Features, widgets, and external resources linked from our Website.

We also use AddSearch to implement the in-site search on this Website. AddSearch’s privacy policy may be found at www.addsearch.com/privacy.

Public Forums. We may offer publicly accessible blogs. Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose any information through our blogs, this information may be collected and used by other third parties. We will correct or delete any information you have posted on the Website if you so request.

Compelled Disclosure. We reserve the right to use or disclose your Personal Information if required by law or if we reasonably believe that use or disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or to comply with a law, court order, or legal process.

Email Mailing List and Marketing Messages. Some of our divisions operate an email mailing list program, used to inform subscribers about products, services, and/or news. Users can subscribe through an online automated process where they have given their explicit permission. Subscriber personal details are collected, processed, and managed or stored in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Subscribers can unsubscribe at any time through an automated online service. Email marketing messages may contain tracking beacons, tracked clickable links, or similar technologies in order to track subscriber activity within email marketing messages. Where used, such marketing messages may record a range of subscriber data relating to engagement, geographic, demographics, and already stored subscriber data.

Changes to this Privacy Policy. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time by posting a new version online. Any updates to the Privacy Policy are effective when the updated Privacy Policy is posted on the Website. You should check this page occasionally to review any changes to the Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the Website and/or continued provision of Personal Information to us will be subject to the terms of the then-current Privacy Policy.

OPTING OUT AND UNSUBSCRIBING

Reviewing, Correcting and Removing Your Personal Information. If you provide us with your Personal Information, you have the following rights with respect to that information:

  • To review any Personal Information that you have supplied to us;
  • To request that we correct any errors, outdated information, or omissions in Personal Information that you have supplied to us;
  • To request that your Personal Information not be used to contact you to the extent permitted by federal law; and,
  • To request that your Personal Information be removed from any solicitation list that we use.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us by clicking the "Contact Us" link. We will promptly change, or correct your Personal Information and notify you of the action we have taken.

To Unsubscribe From Our Communication. You may unsubscribe from our marketing communications by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link located on the bottom of our emails, or by contacting us by clicking the "Contact Us" link.

Rights of Individuals in the European Union. As prescribed within the General Data Protection Regulation, individuals within the European Union have several rights connected to the provision of your Personal Information to us using this Website. These include your rights that we:

  • Confirm to you what Personal Information we may hold about you, if any, and for what purposes;
  • Recognize any changes in consent related to your Personal Information;
  • Correct any inaccurate or incomplete Personal Information which may be held about you;
  • Provide you with a complete copy of your Personal Information for you to move elsewhere;
  • Stop processing your Personal Information, while an objection from you is being resolved; and,
  • Permanently erase all your Personal Information promptly, and confirm to you that it has been done unless there is a reason why we may be unable to do so such as to comply with our obligations under federal law.

Contacting Ascendium. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, would like to exercise any of your statutory rights or to make a complaint, please write to:

Ascendium Education Group, Inc. & Affiliates
Attn: Chief Privacy Officer
38 Buttonwood Court
Madison, WI 53718
Email: legal@ascendiumeducation.org