The Council of Chief State School Officers is committed to assuring the privacy of its users. This privacy policy (the "Privacy Policy" or "Policy") covers how we collect, use, and treat personal information that you may provide to us through this website (the "Website" or "Site"), while participating in the services that we offer on the Website (the "Services"), or while accessing and using the content that we provide via the Site (the "Content"). The terms "you" and "your" refer to any visitor to the Website, including casual visitors ("Site Visitors"), as well as users who are authorized to access any password protected areas of the Site ("Authorized Users"). The terms "CCSSO", "we" and "us" refer to The Council of Chief State School Officers.

PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU ACCESS OR USE THE SITE. BY ACCESSING OR USING THE SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS OUR SITE.

1. Your Consent
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully as it imposes legal obligations on you and on CCSSO, and establishes our legal relationship. By using the Services or accessing our Site, you are acknowledging that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and agree to be legally bound by it. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Site.

2. Scope of Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to anonymous and personally identifiable information you provide to us online while visiting or using our Site.

3. The Information We Collect, and Our Uses of This Information
We will not share personally identifiable information you provide via the Website with any third party, other than as expressly disclosed in this Policy. By "personally identifiable information" we mean information that identifies you, such as your name, email address, or any combination of this or similar information that may reasonably be used to identify you. We collect information from Site Visitors and Authorized Users at different points on our Website, and use this information as follows:

3.1. Registration. In order to participate as an Authorized User in any password protected areas of our Site, we may require that you be a registered member of our Site. Information required to obtain an account may vary depending on the type of account that is being created.

3.2. Postings; Information Exchanges. The Website may allow Site Visitors or Authorized Users to (i) provide and receive a range of information on education-related topics and other matters, and (ii) engage in other activity through Website discussions that may include, at the option of the Site Visitor or Authorized User, an exchange of personally identifiable information. In these instances, we use any information you provide to us strictly for the purposes for which you submit the information.

3.3. Anonymous, Aggregate Information. The term "Aggregate Information" means information that does not identify you, and may include statistical information concerning use of the Services, or the pages on our Site that users visit most frequently. We use Aggregate Information to analyze the effectiveness of our Site, to improve our Services, and for other similar purposes. In addition, from time to time, we may undertake or commission statistical and other summary analyses of the general behavior and characteristics of users participating in our Services and the characteristics of visitors at and users of our Site, and may share Aggregate Information with third parties. Rest assured, though, that Aggregate Information provided to third parties will not allow anyone to identify you, or determine anything personal about you. We may collect Aggregate Information through features of the software that supports our Services, through cookies, and through other means described below.

3.3.1. IP Addresses. CCSSO may automatically receive and record information in our server logs from your browser, including your IP address (the Internet address of your PC), the type and version of your web browser, referrer addresses and other generally-accepted log information. We may also record page views (hit counts) and other general statistical and tracking information, which will be aggregated with that of other users in order to understand how our Website is being used.

3.3.2. Cookies. A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier, which is sent to your browser from a website's computers and stored on your computer's hard drive. Cookies can be used to provide you with a tailored user experience and to make it easier for you to use a website upon a future visit. We may include cookies on our Website and use them to recognize you when you return to our Website. You may set your browser so that it does not accept cookies. Cookies may need to be enabled on your web browser, however, if you wish to access certain Services that we offer on our Site.

3.3.3. Computer Configuration. In order to determine whether your computer is supported by our system, we may collect certain anonymous information. This information includes, but may not be limited to, your operating system and browser, as well as the presence of any software that our Website may require to operate with your computer, or other third party software on your computer. This information is kept strictly confidential and is not shared with third parties, except as provided for in this Privacy Policy.

3.4. Extent of Information Collected. We do not collect any more personal information than we reasonably believe to be necessary to provide our Services and to allow Site Visitors and Authorized Users to participate in these Services.

We will not disclose your personally identifiable information to unaffiliated third parties without your express consent, except in the following limited circumstances:

4.1. CCSSO Site Vendors. We may employ other companies to perform functions on our behalf, such as maintaining the Website, providing services related to the Site, collecting information, or other functions necessary to our business. We may need to share your personally identifiable information with these companies (collectively, "Site Vendors"). We will provide Site Vendors with only that information necessary to perform their functions, and we will not allow them to use your personally identifiable information for any other purpose.

4.2. Imminent Harm. We may reveal your personally identifiable information to school officials, attorneys, private investigator organizations or law enforcement agencies if we believe that you are: (i) in risk of harm from another, (ii) harming or interfering (or will imminently harm or interfere) with others; or (iii) violating (either intentionally or unintentionally) our Terms or otherwise violating any legal rights.

4.3. Legal. CCSSO will reveal your personally identifiable information to the extent we reasonably believe we are required to do so by law.

4.4. Transfer of Site. CCSSO shall be entitled to transfer to a third party information it collects, including any personally identifiable information, in connection with a sale of all or substantially all of the assets of the business entity responsible for the information under this Policy provided, however, that the acquiring third party has agreed to safeguard your personally identifiable information with protections that in all material respects are the same as or more protective than those set out in this Policy.

5. Deleting Information
If you request, we will remove your name and all other personally identifiable information from our databases. Please understand, however, that it may be impossible to remove this information completely, due to backups and records of deletions. In addition, please understand that, if you request deletion of your information, you will be unable to utilize associated features of the Website and any services provided through password protected areas of the Site. You may not remove de-identified or aggregate data from our databases.

6. Security
We have put in place processes designed to prevent unauthorized access to, or disclosure of, information you provide to us, and we take commercially reasonable steps to secure and safeguard this information. Any password protected sections on our site require users to give us unique identifiers such as their username and password. CCSSO employees (and employees of our affiliates and Site Vendors) are required to acknowledge that they understand and will abide by our policies with respect to the confidentiality of personally identifiable information. Moreover, we provide access to our databases containing personally identifiable information on a need-to-know basis only.

Our security systems are therefore structured to deter and prevent hackers and others from accessing information that you provide to us. We also use software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Please understand, though, that this information should not be construed in any way as giving business, legal, or other advice, or warranting as fail proof, the security of information provided by or submitted to CCSSO. Due to the nature of Internet communications and evolving technologies, we cannot provide, and expressly disclaim, assurance that the information you provide us will remain free from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties who, despite our efforts, obtain unauthorized access.

7. Modification
We reserve the right to modify, in our sole discretion, this Privacy Policy. If we modify this Privacy Policy, any such modifications will take effect proactively, upon your subsequent access to the Website.

8. Relationship to Terms of Use and Other Contracts
This Privacy Policy must be read in conjunction with our Terms, and the provisions of our Terms are incorporated herein. To the extent the Terms conflict with the terms of this Privacy Policy, the terms of this Privacy Policy shall control.

9. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, or your dealings with this Website, please contact us at SDDinfo@ccsso.org.

10. Effective Date
The effective date of this Privacy Policy is August 31, 2007.