Privacy Policy Scope

The Council for Professional Recognition, recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of your personal information. This Privacy Policy governs our collection and use of personal information on all websites and web pages offered by the Council that provide a link to this Privacy Policy, including principally www.cdacouncil.org (collectively, the “Site”). It does not govern personal information collected by the Council offline, by our foreign subsidiaries, or on other Council websites or web pages having separate privacy policies or not linking to this Privacy Policy. The Council for Professional Recognition is a non-profit company whose operations and data servers are located soley within the United States. If you are located outside the U.S., please be aware that while we strive to collect and process your data in a fair and transparent manner consistent with industry standards, any data you submit on the Site will be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy and U.S. law, which may not offer the full protection of the laws of the country where you are located. By providing information to us on the Site, you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy. As used in this Privacy Policy, “the Council” and “we/our” refers to the Council for Professional Recognition.

Information We Collect

The Council collects certain Personal Information that you provide voluntarily when using the Site. “Personal Information” includes information that can identify you as a specific individual, such as your name or address. “Personal Information” does not include anonymized, aggregate or statistical information. Under the following circumstances, the Council may collect the following Personal Information from you:

• Test registration and services. When you register for a test or to use the Council’s services, we may collect your name, home address, email address, telephone number, social security number, date of birth, credit card information, and other personally identifiable information such as educational background and interests. Certain information is requested but not mandatory to provide. We will identify to you at the time of collection which information fields are required.
• Online orders or questions. When you are ordering materials or requesting information from the Council, we may collect your name, address, email address, birth date, and other personal information, such as job title or needs for our materials. If you are purchasing materials, we additionally collect credit card information.
• Suppliers. If you are supplier or contracted representative of the Council, we may collect your name, address, email address, telephone number, tax identification number, birth date, bank account information, and other personally identifiable information. Certain information is requested but not mandatory to provide. We will identify to you at the time of collection which information fields are required.
• Job applicants. If you are applying for a position with the Council, we collect your name, address, email address, work and educational history, as well as other personal information necessary to evaluate your application.
• Other interactive tools or functions on the Site may collect other personal information from you, but in each case the personal information being collected is clearly marked at the time of collection.

How We Use Your Personal Information

The Council uses your Personal Information to:

• Administer tests such as Council CDA® assessments, as well as communicate with you regarding the test.
• Process your requests for other products, services, or information and communicate with you regarding such requests.
• Verify your identity, process payments and collect debts you owe us.
  Personalize your experience on the Site and customize the content and/or format of the pages you visit.
• Improve the Site and our other business systems and procedures.
  Conduct research and produce aggregate statistical studies and analysis related to our products and services.
• Ask you to participate in brief surveys regarding the products and services offered by the Council.
• Provide you with information about products, services or special offers from the Council. Please see the section below entitled “Your Choices” to better understand your choices with regard to these communications from the Council.

Marketing by Third Parties

The Council honors your preferences with regard to sharing your Personal Information outside the Council for marketing purposes. Prior to our sharing your Personal Information with our affiliates or other third parties for marketing purposes, you will be given the opportunity to indicate whether you wish your information to be shared with such parties.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

The Council will not sell or disclose your Personal Information to third parties except with your consent, or as set forth below:

• If you are under 18 years of age, we may provide your Personal Information to your parent or guardian, who may direct us to release the information to third parties. Information will not be provided to third parties without explicit consent.
• We may share Personal Information within the Council family of companies.
• We may employ third party contractors to perform functions on our behalf, which may include assisting us in processing your Personal Information. These contractors are contractually required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and are restricted from using the information for any purposes other than those authorized by the Council.
• The Council may provide your Personal Information to government agencies or others as necessary to comply with the law or in response to legal or administrative processes such as subpoenas. In addition, the Council may release your Personal Information as permitted by law in the unlikely event the Council deems release necessary to protect the health and safety of its customers or others, or to legally protect the Council, its customers or service providers.

Registration for Tests and Other Council Services

Personal Information collected from you in connection with test registration is used and disclosed in conformity with industry standards, as well as in accordance with any confidentiality policy set forth in registration materials and applicable U.S. law. For example, your Personal Information and scores are provided to parties you designate to receive your scores and may, where applicable, be shared with the school district or other entity that has paid the fee for you to take the test or to receive a certificate of achievement or credential relating to the test, testing centers, selected scholarship programs and agencies, government agencies having authority over your school and more rarely, parties approved by the Council’s executive management to engage in research to inform and improve educational practices. Such researchers must meet certain standards and are required to sign confidentiality agreements. In certain situations, the Council may also provide your Personal Information to parties providing support services to any of the organizations described in this paragraph.

Your Choices

The Council strives to provide you with choices with regard to our use of your Personal Information. For example, although we may occasionally use your Personal Information to contact you regarding products or services of the Council we think might interest you, you will be given instructions on how to opt out of receiving further communications of this nature by email. Note, however, that in such a case, you would still receive program-related messages and similar transactional communications by email.

Log Files and Cookies

In addition, when you access the Site, certain non-personal information is automatically logged about your visit. This information may include your operating system, screen settings, Web browser software, and referring website, if any. It is used for system improvement and administration, security, statistical analysis purposes, and other internal business purposes.

Cookies are small text files that a website can send to a user’s browser for storage on the hard drive. Cookies can make use of the Web easier by saving and administering status, preferences and other user information. Cookies used by the Site do not contain your Personal Information. We use cookies in order to properly route users through the Site, customize users’ experiences on the Site, and to help us improve the Site. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies but users can change the setting to block cookies. Although disabling cookies will not interfere with your ability to access the Site, users will need to accept cookies in order to use certain services on the Site, including test registration.

Links to Other Sites

The Site may contain links to other sites provided by third parties. The Council does not control the privacy policies or practices of these websites. You should review the privacy policy of the third party offering the website before providing any personal information at these websites. The Council is not responsible for the content or practices of any linked third party websites, and we provide these links solely for the convenience and information of our visitors.

Children’s Privacy

The Site is generally intended for use by those in the fields of education and business and other adults, as well as high school students engaged in college and career planning and their parents. The portions of the Site that collect Personal Information (e.g., www.yourcda.org) are intended for high school students above the age of 16 only. We ask that children under the age of 16 do not submit any Personal Information to us.

Security

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the Personal Information we receive. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card numbers or social security numbers) on your registration or order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially reasonable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee that your Personal Information will never be disclosed in a manner inconsistent with this Privacy Policy (for example, as a result of unauthorized acts by third parties that violate applicable law).

Changes to this Privacy Policy

The Council reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so you should review it frequently. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post such changes here and/or on the Site.

Effective Date

The effective date of this Privacy Policy is October 1, 2012.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or your Personal Information, you may contact us at cdafeedback@cdacouncil.org, or at the Council for Professional Recognition, 2460 16th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20009, Attn: Webmaster.

CounciLINK Policies

Newsletter Subscription Form

Information you provide to subscribe to the CounciLINK is used to send monthly newsletters and occasional Council updates. Should you wish to have your name excluded from the subscriber list, please email newsletter@cdacouncil.org with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

CounciLINK Reprint policy

In keeping with the Council’s mission to promote improved performance among professionals in early childhood care and education, the Council grants permission to organizations and individuals to reprint the content of the CounciLINK in its original form, as long as the copies are distributed free of charge. However, the Council asks that you inform us of the intended use (send a message to newsletter@cdacouncil.org). When reprinting the material, please indicate that the CounciLINK article was reprinted with the permission of the Council for Professional Recognition www.cdacouncil.org.

Quoting CounciLINK content

When quoting any content of the CounciLINK, we ask that you reference the CounciLINK volume and number, publication month and year, and the title of the article used. Please identify the Council for Professional Recognition as the official publisher of the CounciLINK, and include a link to our website www.cdacouncil.org.

Submission of articles for publication in the CounciLINK

The Council does not have a policy of open call for submission of articles. If, as a researcher, practitioner, or other ECE professional, you identify/prepare material you deem as urgent, groundbreaking, or extremely useful to the CDA community, please send it to newsletter@cdacouncil.org with a background note. The Council will consider such material for publication on a case by case basis.