Big Data U is committed to safeguarding the privacy of data provided by our users. This privacy policy applies specifically to the information that we collect on this website, consisting of all the content located within the website, as well as other information we may collect via email and other means of communication. This privacy policy describes Big Data U’s collection, use, and disclosure of information about you that are provided to Big Data U.
Please note that this privacy policy does not cover any third party sites or services, or your use of them; we suggest that you review those sites’ policies to learn more about their privacy practices.
USER INFORMATION
User information, also known as personal information, refers to any information provided by you through which you can be identified. This information includes your name, email address, password, gender, display name, affiliated university, department/discipline, highest degree, academic standing and interest. Please note that outside of your name, email address and password, all the other fields are optional on the website. Big Data U tries to minimize the amount of personal information required of users to access resources provided on the website while simultaneously satisfying legal and regulatory requirements.
INFORMATION COLLECTION & HOW WE USE IT
Collection of information involves information provided by you when you sign up to make an account, send us an email or participate in a public discussion. We track information, which includes site navigation, resource page interaction, educational plan interaction, searches performed, login/logout and profile changes.
We might also track your IP address to determine the geographic location of the general traffic or point of connectivity (e.g., city or state). For this purpose, a number of web analytics tools such as Google Analytics are used. We use Google Analytics or other analytics tools to track how the users are interacting with our website. This includes the pages you visit, your clicks, and your IP address in the form of a user ID. IP addresses collected by Google for this purpose are shared with us. Some of the information will be collected by small text files that are placed on your computer (cookies). You should be able to control whether this information is collected from you or not by choosing to reject cookies on your web browser. However, if you do reject the cookies, some functionalities associated with the website might be affected. Furthermore, any clicks or interactions with the website in the form of search, page views and associated IP addresses are automatically logged on our servers. This information is not shared with any third party. You can also request to see what information we store by sending an email to bigdatau@ini.usc.edu.
CHILDREN UNDER 16 YEARS OF AGE
Big Data U does not knowingly solicit or collect information from children under 16 years of age without obtaining explicit parental consent. If you become aware that your child (who is under 16) has provided us with information without your consent, please contact us at bigdatau@ini.usc.edu.
USERNAMES AND POSTED CONTENT
The information provided by you upon creating your account or during general use of Big Data U website will be used by us and our third-party collaborators for the purposes outlined in this Notice. If you choose not to provide us with certain information required to provide you with access to the resources, you might not be able to create a user account. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not use the Big Data U website.
If you choose not to provide us with certain necessary information required to provide you with access to the resources, you might not be able to create a user account. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not use this website.
Comments posted by you on Big Data U under resources or in any form of communication can be viewed, copied or downloaded by anyone using the website. For this reason, we encourage you to use discretion when deciding to post any information which might be used to identify you or against you.
THIRD PARTIES
We may share your personal data with third parties under the following circumstances:
Service providers and business partners. We may share your personal data with our service providers and academic or business partners that perform services for us.
Law enforcement agencies, courts, regulators, government authorities or other third parties. We may share your personal data with these parties where we believe this is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of any third party.
OUR USE OF YOUR INFORMATION AND THE BASIS ON WHICH WE USE IT
Big Data U and other third-party institutions that will provide resources through Big Data U, might use the information provided by you for the following purposes:
- To help us improve resources and to provide you with the experience of using Big Data U and access to the site.
- Evaluate the access and influence of Big Data U on the educational and professional community worldwide.
- For the purpose of scientific research.
- For the purpose of choosing specific resources of user’s interest or to advance their learning of a particular resource.
- To track individual resources’ progress and completion as well as to analyze the response of users towards individual resources.
- To make sure that the website is used according to agreed Terms of Use and privacy policy.
- To send you updates about online resources offered by Big Data U or any associated event, products or services of Big Data U and associated members that might be of interest to you, or send you the information regarding the functioning of the website and its maintenance state.
- To archive this information and or use it for future communication with you.
- To authenticate your identity when you register for an activity (resources, content) on this website.
- To allow you to connect and/ or communicate with other users with similar interest or educational goals. For example, we might suggest educational plans made by a user who is highly proficient in your field of interest.
- As otherwise described to you at the point of collection or pursuant to your consent.
- For integration with third party services. For example, other websites not controlled by Big Data U.
- To carry out daily operations and to comply with legal obligations.
We will only share personal information about you to the point where it complies with applicable law and is limited to the personal information required to fulfill the purpose stated at the time of collection.
We must have a legal basis to process your personal information. In most cases the legal basis will be one of the following:
- For USC to carry out its agreement with you to provide you with access to Big Data U or services in connection with the website; or
- So that USC can comply with its legal obligations. These obligations may be under US law, in which case we have a legitimate interest in complying with US law.
However, in specific circumstances, USC may also have other legal justifications to use your information:
- Where you have consented (for example, if you sign up for a newsletter); or
- Where USC has a legitimate interest in your information being used for a particular purpose, including for the following purposes:
- Making you aware of opportunities that may be of interest to you, which serves our legitimate interest in providing information to our website visitors;
- Preventing fraud, which serves our legitimate interest in legal compliance and crime prevention generally;
- Complying with legal and regulatory obligations to which USC is subject under US or other non-EU laws, which serves our legitimate interests in compliance with the law of multiple jurisdictions;
- Carrying out your requests, to the extent such requests fall outside the scope of our agreement with you, which serves our legitimate interests in providing training services to our site visitors.
LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES
The website contains links published by third parties, including other content providers, such as those that offer certification. These websites are not under our control and you acknowledge and agree that the liability of any changes in the policies of these websites does not lie with Big Data U. We would like to encourage you to be aware when you are being redirected to third party websites and review the privacy policy of each website you visit and use.
SECURITY
Your passwords are stored as cryptographically-secured hashes and are not accessible to anyone. We strongly advise you not to share your password with anyone. Big Data U has various policies in place to protect the information provided by our users. These include a variety of privacy policies, security policies and other technical safeguards that appropriately protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the personal information that we create, receive, maintain or transmit. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and Big Data U cannot guarantee its absolute security. In case of any data breaches, you and appropriate authorities will be notified so that proper security measures can be taken to protect any further information leak.
RETENTION AND DESTRUCTION OF YOUR INFORMATION
Your information will be retained by Big Data U in accordance with the applicable retention periods in the University of Southern California’s Record Management Policy, available at https://policy.usc.edu/record-management/. The manner of destruction shall be appropriate to preserve and ensure the confidentiality of your information given the level of sensitivity, value and criticality to Big Data U.
Big Data U and its online platform are based in the United States. If you voluntarily submit personal information to us while located or residing in a country outside of the United States, you understand that you are voluntarily agreeing to the use and processing of such information as provided in this Privacy Notice, including transfer of your information to the United States.
If you are located in the European Union, you may also have additional rights with respect to your information, such as: (i) data access and portability; (ii) data correction (including the ability to update your personal data); (iii) data deletion (including the right to have Big Data U delete your personal information, except information we are required to retain, by contacting us); and (iv) withdrawal of consent or objection to processing (including, in limited circumstances, the right to ask Big Data U to stop processing your personal data, with some exceptions, by contacting us). You may also be able to file a complaint with the appropriate supervisory authority in the European Union. Please contact us at bigdatau@ini.usc.edu if you wish to exercise these rights.
UPDATES TO THIS POLICY
Big Data U reserves the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, with new policies coming into effect immediately after the revisions are posted. You will be able to see when we last updated the Privacy Notice because we will include a revision date. You will be informed via email about any updates in the privacy policy that will have a fundamental impact on the nature of the processing or otherwise have a substantial impact on you, so that you may exercise your rights. In case you miss the notification, you should return to this page periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version of this policy.
updated December 2018