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Privacy Policy

Educational Credit Management Corporation (“ECMC”) and ECMC d/b/a Solutions at ECMC (“ECMC Solutions”) respect the privacy of our Website users and the importance of the information they entrust to us. This Privacy Policy is part of our Terms of Use and is designed to inform you of our policies for the collection, use, and disclosure of the information we may gather from you when you visit our website (“Policy”). This Policy explains when and how such information is collected, used, disclosed, and safeguarded on our Website. By using this Website, you are agreeing to the terms of this Policy. If you do not agree with the information and practices described in this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use, please exit from this Website.

Introduction
ECMC, ECMC Solutions and the website www.ecmcsolutions.org is owned by ECMC Group, Inc. (for more information, please visit www.ecmcgroup.org). ECMC Solutions is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your Personal Information. This Policy covers the website www.ecmcsolutions.org (“Website”)—along with all online forms on this Website used to collect personal information. It does not cover third-party sites that are linked to or from the Website. This Policy does not apply to other entities that we do not own or control or persons that are not our employees, agents or within our control. By accessing or using this Website, you are agreeing to the terms of this Policy. This Policy may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the Policy periodically for updates.

Information We Collect
We may collect your personal information if you voluntarily provide it to us when you are seeking access to specific resources or seeking more information or other similar purposes. We collect this predominately to verify that you are the person we are authorized to disclose information to. We also collect this information to provide relevant information to you. For example, you may choose to give us your name, phone number, address, account number, email address, other identifying information (“Personal Information”) and other information when you choose to fill out our web forms requesting information. 

You may always choose whether or not to provide this personal information online. For example, when you fill out the web form to Request Information, this information will be directed to the appropriate staff to respond to your request and may be stored by us. We may also ask for your consent to contact you by phone, text or other means and we will record and save that information if you choose to consent. We may also use this information to help us update our Website and to better respond to similar requests. We may share that information with certain third-party service providers we contract with to help us organize contact information, improve our ability to respond efficiently to your requests, and other business purposes. These third-party vendors are not permitted to share the information we provide to them with anyone other than us. 

In addition to the information you voluntarily provide on our Website, we also collect additional information automatically as you navigate through the site. See below under “Cookies and other Automatic Data Collection Tools” for a more detailed explanation of the tools we use for this.  

Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Tools
When you interact with our Website, certain information about your use of the site is automatically collected. The tracking technologies employed when you use our Website may be first-party or third-party. Our primary goal in collecting the information described within is to provide you, the user, with a better experience on our Website. By knowing a little about each user, we are able to deliver better service and more relevant content to our Website users and visitors.

Umbraco is our third-party website hosting servicer, and as part of its hosting services it automatically logs certain information in its server log, such as error logging, along with a few other things. Umbraco may share this aggregated information with us and with other certain trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website or conducting our business, and who agree to keep the information confidential. This information helps us to track users’ movements around our site, to understand trends, and to test updates on various types of browsers and devices. We may also use cookies to collect information that tracks your use of our Website and enables us to customize our services. We may use this data in the aggregate to better understand the needs and interests of visitors to our Website and provide more relevant content.

ECMC uses cookies and other similar technologies on our Website for a variety of purposes, including to improve our Website and better serve our Website users. A “cookie” is a small file that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive to remember your preferences. We may use cookies to track general information about our users (e.g., pages viewed, time spent on our Website, and the websites visited just before and just after our Website) for statistical and market research purposes. We also use cookies when you fill out a webform in order to help prevent spam, fraud and abuse. The information is collected on an aggregated and anonymous basis.

You have choices with respect to cookies. By activating the appropriate settings on your browser preferences, you may set your browser to reject all cookies. However, by doing so, it may prevent you from accessing certain features on our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings so that the browser will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.

We also use third-party analytics vendors to collect information about the use of our site, including:

  • Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a third-party analytics provider, which collects information about the use of our site. Google Analytics records things like the time of visit, pages visited, type of device accessing the site, referring site details, the length of your visit, the type of web browser and operating system, document downloads, network location and IP address, clicks on videos and external websites, flash version, screen resolution, and screen color processing ability, along with a few other things. Google Analytics, however, does not identify individual users. Google Analytics use cookies on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site. You can learn more about how google uses cookies here. We use the reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand website traffic and usage. You may read more about what methods and technologies are used by Google Analytics here. The information generated by Google Analytics is transmitted and stored by Google and will be subject to Google’s privacy policy found here, which you may read more about at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. You may also opt out of Google Analytics tracking software by installing and using the browser plugin found here.
  • Matamo: Matamo is a web analytics service that tracks and generates information about the use of our Website, including things like your time of visit, pages visited, type of device accessing the site, referring site details, the length of your visit, the type of web browser and operating system, document downloads, network location and IP address, clicks on videos and external websites, screen resolution, and screen color processing ability, along with a few other things. Matamo uses this information to help evaluate your use of our Website and internet usage to help us. The information generated by Matamo is governed by its privacy policy, which can be found here. You may opt out of Matamo Analytics there and find more information on opting out here.
  • Google Tag Manager: We use Google Tag Manager, a tag management system offered by Google, Inc. to manage tags used for tracking and analytics on websites (including, for example, Google Analytics). Tags are small code elements that, among other things, are used to measure traffic and visitor behavior and to test and optimize websites. Google Tag Manager (“GTM”) only implements tags and does not itself process user’s personal data. The GTM triggers other tags, which, in turn, may collect data under certain circumstances. You may read more about GTM here. GTM’s privacy practices can be found here. 

Our navigation information collection practices on our Website will continue to operate as described in this Privacy Policy regardless of any “Do Not Track” signals that may be sent by certain browsers. Because these features are not yet uniform, we are not currently set up to respond to any “Do Not Track” signals. For more information about “Do Not Track” signals, please visit https://allaboutdnt.com/.

How we use your information
We use the information you provide, including any personal information, so that we may provide you with information or services that you request or that we believe will be beneficial to you. For example, we may use your personal information to:

  • provide you information or services that you request from us;
  • to fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;
  • customize the content you see on our Website;
  • facilitate your use of our Website or manage your preferences;
  • analyze the use of our Website to improve our web site and services;
  • identify and protect against fraudulent transactions and other misuses of our Website; and
  • to enforce our Terms of Use.

We also may periodically send you news or information about Solutions and the services we offer. This could include notices, forms and information regarding webinars, events, income-driven repayment plans, student loan deferment, forbearance, and other repayment programs.

Sharing Practices
We do not ever sell or trade personal information about our website visitors to any third parties for marketing purposes. We may share your information with our employees, agents, and affiliates with a business need to know; our third-party service providers to process or use it for us based on our instructions; your educational institution; and with third-party partners that collaborate with us to host events. We do not allow third-party advertising companies or ad networks to display advertisements on our Website. If you believe any third party is misusing the information you provided to us, please contact us promptly via the contact information below.

In addition to what we have stated in other sections of this Policy, we may share your information with our employees and agents; third-party service providers; our affiliated entities in order to provide services to you, and as required by law.

On our Website, we use Acuity Scheduling, a scheduling software, to manage online scheduling for appointments. If you choose to schedule an appointment, your personal information will be collected and stored by Acuity Scheduling and will be shared with us. The collection and use of personal information by Acuity Scheduling is governed by their privacy policy, which you may find here.

Social Media Features and Links
Our Website may contain links to other websites, including some third-party social media sites and/or websites that provide you with additional ways in which you can learn about or discuss the activities of ECMC. Please note, unless otherwise indicated, that we have no affiliation with any of these other websites that you may visit. These third-party websites are governed by their own terms of use and privacy policies, which you should read. We are not responsible for the security or privacy of any information collected by other websites or other services or any other content or information on these other websites. You should exercise caution and read the third-party privacy policies to understand how the third parties collect, process, share and store your information.

Disclosures Required by Law
We reserve the right, subject to applicable law, to disclose your information to third parties when required by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with applicable law, court order, subpoena, or other legal process.

Your Choices
You may choose to:

  • Not provide personal information, although that may result in your inability to obtain or use certain features of our Website; and
  • Delete or decline cookies by changing your browser settings, although if you do so, some of the features of our Website services may not function properly.

Personal Information and Security
We take reasonable precautions to protect the personal information we collect from our Website users and visitors. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and verify the appropriate use of information, we have put in place physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, use or disclosure. While we do our best to protect your personal information, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable and thus the transmission of information sent over the Internet, whether by email or by using our online system and Website, is not completely secure against interception. As a result, although we utilize such measures, we cannot guarantee you against interception, loss, misuse, or alteration of your information and you provide such personal information to us at your own risk. You should take care how you handle and disclose your personal information.

Storage Period
We will store information regarding you, including any personal information, until it is no longer needed to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, or as otherwise required or permitted by law. After such time, we will either delete or anonymize your personal information or, if this is not possible, we will securely store your personal information until deletion is possible. We may dispose of any data in our discretion without notice, subject to applicable law.

Links to Third-Party Websites
This Website may contain certain hyperlinks to other websites, including third-party social media sites. Although these websites may have privacy policies, all of these websites and their privacy policies are independent of our Website and this Policy. This Website may contain certain hyperlinks to other websites, including third-party social media sites, in which our name or logo may appear. This Policy does not apply to any third-party websites and we are not responsible for compliance with the other websites’ privacy policies or data collection practices. You should consult the respective privacy policies of each of those third-party websites to learn how they collect, process, share, and store your information. You should exercise caution and read the third-party privacy policies carefully before providing any personal information to be sure you understand the third parties’ policies related to the collection, processing, sharing and storing of your information. 

California Privacy
If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits you to request information regarding the disclosure, if any, of your personal information to a third party for the third party’s direct marketing purposes. It is our policy, however, to not share or sell any personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. If you have further questions or otherwise wish to make a request, please contact us at the address listed below.

International Users
If you are visiting this site from outside of the United States, your connection may be made through and to servers located in the United States. Your entries and information placed through our Website may be fully processed in and from the United States, and all information you provide may be processed and maintained in our web servers and internal systems located within the United States. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, but please be assured that we take steps to ensure that your privacy is protected. By using our services, however, you acknowledge that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Policy. By using this site, you authorize the export of your personal information to the United States and its storage and use as specified above when you provide such information to us. This Policy and our legal obligations are subject to the laws of the United States, regardless of the location of any user.

Protection of Children's Privacy
Our Website is not intended for, nor designed to attract children under the age of 13. No one under the age of 13 may provide any information to or on our Website. It is our policy never to knowingly collect or maintain personal information about any person under the age of 13. If you are under 13, please do not use or provide any information on this Website or provide any personal information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or username you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will promptly delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at the contact information below so that we may promptly address the issue.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy
From time to time, we may update our Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices and services. If we make material changes in the way we collect, use or share personal information, we will notify you by prominently posting notice of the changes on our Website. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this Policy to check for any changes.

Contact Us
If you have questions or suggestions about our Website, this Policy, or our information practices, please contact us at:

Attn: Legal/Website Privacy Policy inquiry
ECMC Solutions
111 Washington Avenue South
Suite 1400
Minneapolis, MN 55401
privacy@ecmc.org
800-276-0366, opt. 3

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