This privacy policy describes how Colleges-USA uses the personal information received when you visit our Site. We reserve the right to modify this policy from time-to-time. Material changes will be noted on the website and should be reviewed, as use of this site acknowledges acceptance of our terms. This privacy policy is effective as of March 6, 2009 and covers information found on the websites: www.Colleges-USA.com, www.OnlineDegreeCenter.com, CulinaryDegreeCenter.com and www.1stQuestEducation.com.

Collection of Data
Personal Information – If you request information about a certain school on our site, we require that you provide certain personally identifiable information, including your name, address, phone number and email address. This information is necessary so that we may provide this information to the school chosen.  We will only share this information with the chosen school for the sole purpose of providing you with more information about the school in which you showed interest.  We will not share, rent, trade or sell your personally identifiable information to third parties for promotional purposes.

Uses for your personal information -

• Share your Information with educational institutions you select in order for the school(s) to contact you.
• Make your next visit to the site more personalized.
• Contact you regarding administrative issues such as questions about your request.
• Compile anonymous statistical information for analysis.
• Provide aggregated anonymous information to third parties.
• Mail information and offers to you.
• Email information and offers to you.

Agents/Service Providers – We partner with third parties who act as an intermediary between the schools on our website and our form completion system. Their role is strictly to take all of the information we provide regarding each potential student and provide it in a systematic, organized manner to each school. They facilitate the relationship we have with the universities and colleges. They do not sell, rent or trade this personal information with third parties for their own promotional purposes.

Web Data – Colleges-USA uses non-personal data to effectively study traffic patterns and usage of our website pages. This is geared for better understanding of customer needs and for the improvement of layout and design. The log files used for this reason include, but are not limited to, IP addresses, pages visited, length of time on site, navigation patterns, browsers and search terms. The tracking technologies used by Colleges-USA do not collect personally identifiable information of our users.

Cookies - A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. We use persistent cookies on this site. However, we do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site. The cookies are used for tracking purposes related to navigation and usability of site. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser’s “help” file.

Children’s Privacy
It is not the intention of Colleges-USA to collect information from individuals under the age of 13. Our advertising is not directed to those under-age individuals and we will not knowingly or intentionally collect this information. If a user indicates a graduation date that would imply their age is below 13, our system will generate a generic negative acceptance response to prevent the user from being accepted in to our system.

Information Disclosure
When personal data is provided in an information request, that request is sent to the school of choice. Their method of contacting you is not determined, nor controlled by Colleges-USA. By using our request forms, you are giving permission to schools, their partners and vendors to contact you using the method of their choice.

Security
We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personally identifiable information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it.  No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however.  Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Other Sites
If you click on a link to a third party site, including an advertisement, you will leave the Colleges-USA site and go to the site you selected. Because we cannot control the activities of third parties, we cannot accept responsibility for any use of your personally identifiable information by such third parties, and we cannot guarantee that they will adhere to the same privacy practices as Colleges-USA. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of any other service provider from whom you request services. If you visit a third party website that is linked to the Colleges-USA site, you should read that site’s privacy statement before providing any personally identifiable information.

Tell-A-Friend Functionality - Colleges-USA does not offer tell-a-friend functionality; however, through partnerships with social media sites, this option is available on certain pages within our site. This option is designed to allow users of the Colleges-USA website to share articles and resources with friends via the “AddThis” tool.  Colleges-USA does not collect any of the information nor has access to any of the information entered by using the AddThis tool. The privacy policy for their functionality follows that which is available through their website and can be found by visiting the following link: http://www.addthis.com/privacy

Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

Changes to This Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy or how we use your personally identifiable information, we will notify you here, by email or by means of a notice on our home page.  We want you to be aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently.

Contact Information
Electronic - To opt out of e-mail communications, please click the opt-out/unsubscribe link provided at the bottom of email correspondence.

If your personally identifiable information changes, you may update it by contacting us with your your full Name and the notice “My Information” in the message.

Questions or comments related to this privacy policy or any other aspect of the www.colleges-usa.com website should be submitted via our Contact Form.