This site is operated by USC Forward.
USC Forward strongly believes in the importance of your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes how USC Forward treats the personal information we collect through the USC Forward website (the “Website”). By using or accessing the Website, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Statement applies only to information collected online through the Website and does not describe the ways in which we may collect or use information obtained offline or through any means other than our Website.
How, When, and Why We Collect Information
Activity That Doesn’t Require Registration. You can view content on the Website without registering or providing any personal information. When you enter the Website, we collect information such as your browser and operating system type and IP address to optimize your experience on the Website and to track aggregate Website usage. In addition, we use a “session” cookie to identify you while you are on the Website, if cookies are enabled on your computer. This session cookie terminates once you finish using the Website and close your browser.
Mailing list. You may provide us with your email address if you wish only to join our mailing list.
Activity Requiring Registration. Certain activities on the Website — for example participating in advocacy campaigns — require you to register. To become a registered user, we ask you to provide your name and email address. If you decide to register, we use a persistent cookie that stores certain information to make it easier for you to login when you come back to the Website. However, none of your personal information is stored in that cookie. You may also be asked to provide certain additional information to participate in other activities that we may undertake through the Website.
Usage Information. We may record information about your usage of the Website, such as when you use the site and the areas of the site you click on and/or participate in. If you are logged in, we may associate that information with your account. A persistent cookie may be used to track this information. We may use pixel tags and/or trackable links in HTML-based emails sent to our users to track which emails are opened and/or clicked on by recipients.
We do not knowingly collect any information from children under the age of 13.
Uses of Personal Information
The personal information collected on the Website helps our affiliated organizations pursue their advocacy agendas.
In order to advance these goals and activities, we may share the personal information that we collect about you with our affiliated organizations, as well as with third parties that perform services on our behalf. Additionally, subject to applicable law, we may share any of the personal information that we collect about you with certain third parties that share our interests.
We will use your email address to communicate with you about USC Forward’s activities and offerings, unless you opt-out from receiving such messages. We will also use your email address for administrative purposes, such as notifying you of major Website changes, sending messages related to actions you have taken on the site or for customer service purposes. Although we hope you’ll find these communications informative and useful, if you don’t, you can always unsubscribe by following the simple instructions included in each email.
When you send email or other communications to us, we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our services.
We use both your personally identifying information and certain non-personally-identifying information (such as anonymous usage data, IP addresses, browser type, clickstream data, etc.) to improve the quality of your user experience and the design of the Website and to create new features, functionality, and services by storing, tracking, and analyzing user behavior, preferences, trends, and actions.
Other Disclosures
We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. If we receive a subpoena requesting information about you and if you have provided us with your email address, we will attempt to notify you of the subpoena at the email address that you have provided. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with the law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Website or to prevent bodily harm, to enforce our User Agreement, or to protect the rights, property or safety of visitors to our site, our members, the public or Faculty Forward.
Information Security and Data Integrity
USC Forward takes security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store personal data.
More Information
Our Website may also permit you to access non-USC Forward sites.
USC Forward reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. We will post any changes to this Privacy Policy on this page, so we encourage you to check this page regularly. Your continued use of this Website following any changes to this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such changes.