Online Privacy Notice

Overview

PA Distance Learning Charter School ("PA Distance") prepared this Online Privacy Statement (“Privacy Notice”) to explain how we collect, use, disclose, and protect Personal Information (defined below) using ethical and responsible practices that respect your privacy and as required by law.  This Online Privacy Notice applies to Personal Information collected on our websites, mobile applications, or cloud-based services and communication platforms with a link to this Privacy Notice (collectively, the “Site”).  It covers how we collect, use, share, and otherwise process Personal Information as of the date that this Privacy Notice is posted.  It does not apply to any other information collected by us through any other means.  By “Personal Information,” we mean information that identifies or can identify you personally, including any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular individual or its equivalent.

Information We Collect

For public areas of our Site, we generally collect and process only Personal Information you voluntarily provide to us.  For some secure areas of our Site, however, we require you to provide Personal Information, including your login credentials.  We also collect your Personal Information to perform services on our Site, enhance the services we offer you, maintain and improve the Site, to secure you and our Site, comply with legal obligations, and inform you about other services and products that may be available through us, our affiliated companies, and our marketing partners.  If you choose not to provide us with the Personal Information that we legitimately require, we may be unable to provide you with the information or services you have requested. Public areas of our Sites ask for Personal Information from you when you engage in the following activities:

  • Enroll in our programs

  • Sign up for newsletters or general information about our products and services

  • Submit comments, reviews, or other user generated content

  • Apply for a job

  • Request customer or technical support

Personal Information may include any or all of the following:

  • First and Last name

  • Email address

  • Telephone number

  • County of residence

Information Collected Through Technology

We may also obtain information in other ways through technology. Some of this information may be linked to you personally. We process this information to help our Sites function correctly, and better understand the needs of our customers.

Device Information

Depending on the permissions you’ve granted and other factors, we may receive information about your location and your mobile device, including a unique identifier for your device. Examples of the device information we collect include:

  • Attributes such as the operating system, hardware version, device settings, battery and signal strength, and device identifiers.

  • Certain device locations, including specific geographic locations, such as through GPS, Bluetooth, or WiFi signals are gathered if you enabled the functionality within our product configuration.

  • Connection information such as the name of your mobile operator or ISP, browser type, language and time zone, mobile phone number and IP address.

  • Gathering of IP address is used for our enhanced security.

  • Most mobile devices allow you to turn off location services, and we encourage you to contact your device manufacturer for detailed instructions on how to do that.

How We Use and Share Your Information

Whatever the purpose may be – whether we share with service providers, consultants, government authorities, or other external entities – we only process and share your Personal Information to the extent reasonably necessary to fulfill your requests and meet our legitimate business and legal objectives.  We do not share your Personal Information with unaffiliated third parties solely for their own direct marketing purposes. We do not sell your Personal Information.  When we disclose Personal Information to external entities to perform support services for us, we establish by contract that they may access your Personal Information only for the purposes of performing those support services. We may also use what we know about you to potentially offer you other products and services in the future. We may combine your online information with information collected from offline or online sources, or information we already have. We may also use and disclose certain Personal Information to our affiliated companies and others for any purpose allowed by law.

We will use your information to provide certain services and to comply with regulatory or legal requirements imposed on us in each jurisdiction in which we operate.  We may monitor or record any communications with one of our employees, including telephone calls. We may use these recordings to check instructions to us, to assess and improve our services, and for training and quality purposes.  The information may also be shared with partner companies that provide marketing services to us at our request and under our direction.  We may need to process your data for additional purposes not listed but necessary to give effect to the business relationship.

Business Activities

We generally process and may disclose your Personal Information to others to:

  • Verify your identity or other fraud prevention measures and reporting obligations;

  • Monitor inbound calls for training and quality enhancement purposes

  • Perform certain transactions initiated by you

  • Respond to your questions about our products or services

  • Perform Site analytics

  • Engage in automated decision-making, including profiling

  • Send you communications about a program or service, ads and promotions, electronic newsletters, or other marketing activities

  • Comply with applicable law, obey judicial orders, cooperate with law enforcement authorities, or prevent any suspected illegal activities

  • Help us run our business

  • For any other everyday business purposes, such as product development and Site administration

Other Disclosures

We may disclose Personal Information as permitted or required by law, when we believe in good faith it is necessary for safety purposes, required for legal reporting, or to protect our legal rights or enforce our Site’s terms and conditions or any applicable rules, or to protect the rights of others. We may also disclose Personal Information to our auditors, legal advisors, or to respond to a subpoena.  Any access to your Personal Information is restricted to those individuals who have a need to receive or access this data in order to fulfill their job responsibilities.  We may also aggregate information that we gather about you (e.g., traffic patterns) and provide these statistics to others in aggregate form.

Cookies and Tracking

Our website utilizes cookies and similar tracking technologies to analyze usage, personalize content, and deliver relevant advertising.  In accordance with applicable law, we use and allow third parties to use essential and non-essential cookies, online tracking tools, web beacons, and similar technologies (collectively, “cookies”) on our Site. We process this information to help our Site function correctly, and better understand the needs of our customers.

Cookies on our Site generally fall into the following categories:

  • Strictly Necessary Cookies: These are required for the operation of our Site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas. These cookies are session cookies which are erased when you close your browser.

  • Analytical/Performance Cookies: These allow us to recognize and count the number of users of our Site and see how those users navigate through our Site. This helps to improve how our Site works, for example, by ensuring that users can find what they are looking for easily. These cookies are session cookies which are erased when you close your browser.

  • Functional Cookies: These improve the functional performance of our Site and make it easier for you to use. For example, cookies are used to remember that you have previously visited the Site and asked to remain logged into it. These cookies are session cookies which are erased when you close your browser.

Controlling Our Tracking Tools

Your browser may give you the ability to control cookies. How you do so, however, depends on your browser and the type of cookie. Certain browsers or browser plugins can be set to reject all browser cookies. If you configure your computer to block all cookies, you may disrupt certain web page features, and limit the functionality we can provide when you visit or use our Site. (e.g., we will not be able to provide you with searches that you have asked us to save). You can change your cookie settings at any time.

Some browsers have a “Do Not Track” feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. These browser features are still not uniform, so we are not currently set up to respond to those signals.

Security of Your Information

We implement a variety of technical, physical, and administrative security measures to secure the confidentiality of your Personal Information and to protect it from loss, misuse, alteration, and destruction.  Those measures include a variety of practices to keep personal information safe and prevent unauthorized access to, or use, or disclosure of it. Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems with control over access to information using both physical and electronic means. Our colleagues receive data protection training and there is a set of detailed security and data protection policies which colleagues are required to follow when handling personal information.  But the safety and security of your information also depends on you.  And while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, or to or from our Services.  You transmit all such information at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

Data Retention

Depending on the product or service, we will retain your Personal Information only for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by a law that applies to us.

Children

This Site is intended for use by parents, guardians, and other adults.  This Site is not intended or directed to individuals under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly collect any Personal Information from minors, or knowingly track the use of our Site by children. If you believe we have impermissibly collected Personal Information from someone under the age of 18, please contact us directly.

How You Can Contact Us to Update Your Personal Information, File a Complaint, or Ask a Question

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice or wish to correct or update your Personal Information, or alert us about a concern or unsubscribe from any updates you have requested, write to us:

Changes to This Policy

We may amend this Privacy Notice at any time. If we make any material change in how we collect, use, disclose, or otherwise process Personal Information, we will prominently post an updated Privacy Notice on our Site. Any changes to this Privacy Notice will be effective immediately upon posting of the updated Privacy Notice or as otherwise required by applicable law.

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice, the ways in which we collect and use your information, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under state privacy laws, please contact us:

PA Distance Learning Charter School
2605 Nicholson Rd, Suite 4100
Sewickley, PA 15143
Telephone: 888.997.3352
E-mail: privacy@padistance.org