We cherish and value the privacy of visitors to the websites owned by ACASC and protect the personal data, which you provide us. Your personal data is handled in a confidential manner. The processing of the personal data happens in a manner that is in accordance with the demands of the Chinese Data Protection Act. This privacy policy describes how ACASC collects and uses the personal information you provide on our website. It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update this information.
Through our China-based trustworthy independent web service providers, ACASC's website collects, uses, and distributes to those member Colleges and/or Universities that you select personally identifiable information collected about you on-line. All personal information that you submit to us is handled within the Republic of China. Please read carefully the following Privacy Policy before registering with us and completing an on-line user registration form. Take note that this Policy only addresses ACASC's privacy practice concerning information collected from its own website and does not apply to information that may have been collected about you by others. This Policy also does not cover the privacy or information practices of those websites that may be linked to or referenced by the ACASC website or the privacy or information practices of those Colleges and/or Universities or other partners of ours that receive the personal information that is collected from our site and distributed to them as part of the application admissions process or other purpose. Please also note that this Policy may change from time to time so please check back to review this Policy each time you visit or use the website.
Changes in this Privacy Policy Statement
If we decide to change our Privacy Policy or email practices we will post those changes to this Privacy Policy statement, login page and other places we deem appropriate so that you are 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 Policy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this Policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our login page and other places we deem appropriate prior to the change becoming effective.
Our Reservation of Rights
By using our Service to apply to any of our members, you consent and we reserve the right to use your data collected under a previous privacy practice in ways that are consistent with the currently disclosed practice but which may not be entirely consistent with previously disclosed practices when your data was originally collected.
What personally identifiable information does ACASC collect from you?
Through our trustworthy independent web service providers, ACASC collects information in several ways from different parts of our website. If you are an applicant, certain required and optional personal information such as your name, home and mailing address, email address, telephone number, citizenship, date and place of birth, parents' names and address, telephone numbers and/or email addresses of your parents or legal guardian are collected. During registration, ACASC asks you to create a username and password. Your personal information including any personal information of your parents or legal guardian that you provide shall be considered to be “your personal information” for purposes of this Privacy Policy. Once you register you are no longer anonymous to ACASC and your email address that you provide to us becomes your “User Name” so that you are able to take full advantage of ACASC's online services. You can also enter your credit card information to pay for admission application fees for the Colleges and/or Universities that you select. See "The kind of security precautions that are in place to protect the loss, misuse, or alteration of your information, including your credit card information and how is your information stored and accessed by others" on how we keep your credit card information secure.
If you are an administrator at one of our colleges or universities who uses ACASC to receive student admission application data, we collect your name and email address to permit you to retrieve data of student applicants who have applied to your college or university using ACASC. Please note that we do not collect, use, and store or share personal identifying information of our member administrators for any other purpose.
What are tracking technologies and how are they used?
Technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags and scripts are used by us and/or our web service and technology support providers to analyze trends, administer the site, track users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic and aggregate data (see “who is collecting information”) about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as on an aggregated basis.
We also use cookies for authentication purposes, to remember your website or mobile app settings and preferences, to gain certain behavioral information about you that is shared between us and our members. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject all cookies, you may still use our site but your ability to use some features or areas of our site or app may be severely limited, including possibly not being able to use those ACASC services that require registration in order to participate.
As is true of most websites and apps, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We do link this automatically-collected data to other information we collect about you.
We partner with a third party to either display advertising ONLY on www.acasc.cn or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third party partner may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on www.acasc.cn and other sites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests.
How does ACASC use applicant information?
When you seek to register with us, complete an ACASC application form, an application supplement and/or other applicant forms, we need to know your name, email address, telephone number and mailing address among other items of personal information, including the names, telephone numbers, and/or email addresses of your parents or legal guardian. See "What personally identifiable information is collected from you". This information, requested by the Colleges and/or Universities, allows them to identify you and process your application upon submission.
If you select the "opt-out" option described in the Section entitled, "What are your choices regarding collection, use and distribution of my information, including your rights to ‘opt-in’ or ‘opt-out’," users of the website who use our services to apply to various member Colleges and/or Universities will not receive any College/University specific information concerning their respective admissions process; however, we may use your email address (User Name), your home address, and your cell phone number (if you opt in) to send or mail you registration and submission confirmation texts, physical mail, and/or emails, to contact the user/applicant to help answer a technical support question that you may have posed to us regarding your use of the site, or app. If you select the “opt-out” option described in the Section mentioned above for receiving communications from ACASC, we will not communicate with you beyond what is in technical support of your admission application process. Technical support of the admission application process shall include such matters associated with processing a request for financial aid, reminding you of application admission deadlines, or encouraging you to complete an unfinished application.
How does ACASC use school official information?
By activating your account registration with our site your collected personal information may be shared and used by our member Colleges and/or Universities to contact you at any time and for any reason, including sending you texts to your cell phone number(s), written communications to your mailing address, and/or emails to your email address in order to provide you with other information relevant to the applicant’s admission application process. This information that we collect and share with our members includes your name, your official title, your email address, your cell phone number, your zip code, school code information, and date, as well as your mailing address.
If you “opt-out” of the online recommendation system via the email invitation initiated by the applicant, you will not receive any College/University specific information concerning their respective admissions process; however, we may use your email address (User Name), cell phone number and/or mailing address to send you registration and submission confirmation communications, text messages or emails, or we may need to contact the user to help answer a technical support question that you may have posed to us regarding your use of the site p and to provide you with other information relevant to the student’s admission application process. Additionally, any member colleges may communicate with you regarding the applicant, using the information you provide on any paper forms or using the contact information provided by the applicant on his or her application.
Who is collecting information?
When you are on the Website and are asked for and provide personal information, this information is being collected by our trustworthy independent web service providers who provide all of the technical support, including collection, storage, and protection of your personal information, in order to allow ACASC to offer our service to you. Please note that we and/or other trustworthy third party organizations and their contracted researchers may attempt to collect, provide our members access to, or compare personal information about you from sources other than what you voluntarily provide to us when using the Website in order to generate non-personal identifying demographic, historical, generic, analytical, statistical or aggregate data obtained from other sources, and/or data (collectively “aggregate data”) which we and/or the third party may publish, combine or enhance with other aggregate data obtained from other sources, and/or share or distribute the aggregate only data for monetary value with our members and other colleges or universities who are not members for the purpose of recruiting them to be part of our membership or with other third parties for research purposes only.
With whom does ACASC share applicant information?
We will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy.
ACASC shares your personal information (including your cell phone number and email address) with our trustworthy independent web service providers who then share your personally identifiable information (including your name, date of birth, home mailing address, cell phone number and email address) with member Colleges and/or Universities. We also share your name, phone number and home address with Experian QAS, one of our trustworthy independent web service partners, solely to confirm or “validate” the accuracy of the mailing address that you entered and to enhance the aggregate data that we and our partners are developing solely for research use. Experian QAS does not store this personal information. By voluntarily providing us with your personal information, you are giving us your express consent to share or provide access to your personal information with our trustworthy independent service providers (and subject to this Policy and/or their privacy policy and applicable law) so that we can provide the service for which you have registered. We may also share on a temporary basis your personal information (including, but not necessarily limited to, your name and date of birth) with other trustworthy third party organizations allowing us and/or them to generate aggregate data which we and/or the third party may publish, combine or enhance with other aggregate data obtained from other sources, and/or share or distribute the aggregate only data for monetary value with our members and prospective member colleges or universities or with other third parties for research purposes only. Note that even if you never submit an application through the ACASC, the Colleges, and/or Universities will still have access to personal information downloaded as part of your pre-application data–unless you opt out of receiving communication from member Colleges and Universities prior to your application being submitted– and such Colleges and/or Universities may contact you even prior to the time your application is submitted.
While ACASC requires that each member College and University sign or assent to a membership profile agreement pledging that they will accept the ACASC without prejudice and fully support its use, ACASC is not responsible for the failure of any College or University to accept the ACASC® or how any given College or University (after accessing or receiving your personal information from us) will use, protect or store the information in their possession. You are encouraged to review that College/University's individual privacy policies and information practices as to how they use and protect your personal information and ACASC neither accepts nor assumes any liability or responsibility for the use, protection or storage of your personal information by said College or University.
If ACASC is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all of its assets, we will post a prominent notice on the Website informing you of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.
What is ACASC’s policy when there has been an allegation of fraud, misrepresentation or other inappropriate act involving an applicant?
Members, secondary schools and applicants are advised that ACASC functions and solely view itself as a conduit of information between the student applicant, his/her secondary school and the various member Colleges and Universities selected by the applicant. As such, it is ACASC’s policy not to judge, evaluate, conduct any verification of or perform an investigation on any data provided on or about a student applicant regardless of the source of that data. That said, where we have been informed of an act of fraud, misrepresentation or other inappropriate act involving an applicant, ACASC reserves the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law or in any instance or circumstance when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, the rights of our members and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, police investigation, court order, or legal process served on our Website or involving the Website, or associated services. Subject to any rights afforded by law, ACASC also reserves the right upon notice to an applicant to disclose information collected from a registered user about which member Colleges and/or Universities a student applicant had applied to, including possibly suspending or closing an applicant’s on-line account upon notice to the student, when we have reason to believe that accessing and/or disclosing this information or taking such action is necessary to prevent, identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating any of our on-line user agreements or policies or who may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) ACASC rights or property, other ACASC users, members or schools, or to help protect anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. ACASC may also disclose or access registered user information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative, technical and other related purposes that we deem necessary to maintain or improve our services. Subject to the terms and conditions of ACASC, Inc. Membership Non-Compliance Procedures, The ACASC also reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove any College or University as a member without any further or special notice.
What is ACASC's policy on allowing you to access, update, correct, or delete your personally identifiable information?
You may access and edit your registration information by using your User Name (your email address) and password. If you have forgotten your password, please click the "Forgot Password?" link at www.apply.acasc.cn to have the password reset instructions emailed to you. For all other problems signing in to ACASC, please click "Help Center” at www.acasc.cn. If you wish for us to delete or no longer use any of your personal information that you submitted to us, you may email us with such a request at privacy@acasc.cn and your personal information will be deleted or no longer used within ten (10) business days after receiving your request. See "What kind of security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse, or alteration of your information including credit card information and how is your information stored, accessed and used by others?"
ACASC, through its independent trustworthy web service providers, will make reasonable efforts to see that your instructions to make revisions to your personal information are made. For any information that was erroneously provided by the applicant but was already submitted and can no longer be changed or re-submitted, you must contact the College/University or credit card processor directly to alert them to the erroneous information.
You may also update your email address and cell phone number within your on-line account, though once your email address information has been submitted to a selected member College/University, you can only update your email address and cell phone number if you contact that member College/University directly.
Participation in Partner Programs
As a student applicant user and registrant of the ACASC site, you will also be given the opportunity to choose whether you want us to securely share a more limited amount of personal information that you provided to us for the purpose of participating in certain partner programs.
What kind of security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse, or alteration of your information including credit card information and how is your information stored, accessed and used by others?
Your User Registration information is password-protected. You may edit your User Registration information by using your User Name (your email address) and password.
We recommend that you do not divulge your password to anyone. Also remember to sign out of your ACASC registration account and close your browser window when you have finished your work. This is to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and correspondence if you share a computer or other electronic device with someone else or are using a computer or other electronic device in a public place like a library or Internet "cafe." Also, to help ensure the security of your application, do not copy and paste links from within the online application into an email or share with others on a public forum. If you do not log out of the online system, users with technical knowledge may use these links to access your online application.
When you make submissions of the ACASC, supplements or other applicant forms to designated member Colleges or Universities or when you access your user registered account information from our Website when you give us your permission to share certain of your personal information, we offer the use of a secure server. The secure server software encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us, including your credit card information. We also restrict access to the secure server through the use of firewalls.
When you give ACASC personal information on-line, that information is viewed by ACASC and its trustworthy independent web service providers for the purpose of providing technical support for the services being provided to you. This information is then accessed by the designated member Colleges and/or Universities with whom you select by logging into the secure system of our trustworthy independent website service providers. Consequently, your personal information can then be viewed, printed and/or exported electronically to the designated member Colleges and/or Universities which are located outside and separate from the ACASC website and outside of the jurisdiction and perhaps the country where you originally entered the information.
Credit Card Payments: ACASC working with our trustworthy independent web service provider for credit card payments (Higher One), allows applicants to pay admissions application fees online using a credit card. This collection of credit card information by Higher One is accomplished by directly linking you to the Higher One website when you are ready to submit your credit card information. This feature is designed to accept ONE credit card transaction if you click "Submit" ONE time. However, if you click "Submit" more than once, it is possible your account will have a duplicate charge. Our member Colleges and/or Universities will reverse charges for any duplicate transaction. HOWEVER, NEITHER ACASC, INC., ITS MEMBER COLLEGES OR UNIVERSITIES, NOR THIRD PARTY INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS OF ACASC, INC. WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR REFUNDING ANY PROCESSING FEES INCURRED BY THE INCORRECT USE OF THIS FEATURE. Accordingly, to avoid duplicate charges, please do not click the credit card SUBMIT button more than once! Your credit card information is not stored by us but is immediately transmitted under encryption to your designated credit card processor, and none of your personal information is stored on your computer or other electronic device or a computer of the College or University that would allow someone to bypass the login authentication procedures.
Note that the reasons for granting us continued limited access to your personal information from the remote server may include but are not necessarily limited to, allowing us, our trustworthy independent web service providers or other partners, or member Colleges/Universities to compile aggregate or historical information about applications submitted in previous years. For statistical purposes, your personal information will be used only in the aggregate meaning that personal identifying information such as your name and social security number shall not be used. For some historical purposes, however, we and our trustworthy independent web service providers or other partners, including member Colleges/Universities and non-member colleges and universities will have continued access to your archived personal identifying information as we and/or our trustworthy independent web service providers or other partners deem necessary.
Please note that whenever your personal information is handled as described above, regardless of where this occurs, steps are taken to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. When you enter sensitive information on our order forms, we encrypt the transmission of that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). We follow generally accepted standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet or electronic handling can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us online, including any information that you send or receive an email or text message that is sent or received over your own email domain account, cell phone app or cell phone service, and you do so at your own risk.
Does ACASC have an identity theft policy?
While rare, the risk of identity theft to on-line users of the Internet is on the rise and ACASC recognizes the importance of taking steps to help its student applicants, users, customers and members identify and detect patterns, practices or activities that may indicate the existence of identity theft involving ACASC® service, the ACASC Website“, including implementing the appropriate actions or responses to help safeguard against and/or mitigate the risk of future or continued theft. Please read carefully the identity theft portions of this Privacy Policy before using the ACASC® service, the Website.
The identity theft portions of this Privacy Policy are to help all ACASC users identify identity theft and to provide them with information about what steps ACASC takes to detect identity theft, safeguard against, respond to and/or mitigate continued or future identity theft involving ACASC® service, ACASC Website
Please also note that the identity theft portions of this Policy also only address ACASC’s identity theft policy concerning activities involving its own website, service and it does not apply to activities or identity theft policies of others or other websites or apps independent from, referenced or linked to the ACASC website, such as websites, apps or IT systems of secondary schools, member Colleges or Universities or other third parties or any individuals or officials that may be associated with these other institutions or third parties. IS NOT RESPONSIBLE AND DOES NOT ASSUME ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY TEXTS, EMAILS OR OTHER COMMUNICATIONS THAT YOU RECEIVE FROM OR SEND TO ANY OF OUR MEMBERS, AND WE CANNOT ACCEPT LIABILITY FOR DISCLOSURE OF ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION DUE TO ERRORS IN TRANSMISSION OR UNAUTHORIZED OR ILLEGAL ACTS OF THIRD PARTIES.
What kinds of patterns, practices or activities may indicate the existence of identity theft?
In order to be on guard for possible identity theft, all student applicants, users, customers and members should be aware of the potential indicators of identity theft. These may include but are not necessarily limited to the following:
• Receiving an alert, notification or warning from a consumer reporting agency
• Receiving notification of a credit freeze or address discrepancy
• Receiving notification of an abnormal increase in the number of credit inquiries, new credit relationships or new credit users
• Receiving notification of an account being involuntarily closed or a credit abuse being identified
• Receiving or becoming aware of suspicious documents, information or photos provided for identification that appear to have been altered or forged or are inconsistent with other authenticated and accessible personal identifying information
• Receiving or becoming aware of suspicious documents, information or photos provided for identification that appear to be associated with prior fraudulent practices or activities or is attributable to another student applicant, user, customer, member or other third parties
• Any unusual use of or suspicious activity involving or relating to any account that is held with ACASC
What steps does ACASC take to detect identity theft?
ACASC primarily functions as an information and document conduit between students that apply to various partner colleges and universities using the ACASC Online service, ACASC website, and the various secondary school officials and members that also utilize the service and site While ACASC through its trustworthy web service providers deploys several security measures to protect the personally identifying information (including credit card information) of its users (see the section on security precautions in place discussed in this Policy), such security measures may not always prevent the crime of identity theft due to the specific nature of this crime. Accordingly, ACASC must also rely upon the credible reporting of suspicious patterns, practices or activities of identity theft from its trustworthy student applicants, users, customers, members or school officials.
In this connection, any student applicant, user, school official or member that becomes aware of any suspicious pattern, practice or activity suggestive of an identity theft that also involves or relates to ACASC Online service, ACASC website is urged to notify the ACASC via email at privacy@acasc.cn. Please be sure to disclose your name, all relevant information about the suspected identity theft including information about how you may be contacted.
What steps does ACASC take to safeguard against, respond to and/or mitigate continued or future identity theft or breaches of personal data?
Upon receiving credible information about a possible identity theft or other possible related wrongdoing involving or relating to the ACASC® service, the ACASC Website from a trustworthy student applicant, user, customer, member, school official or other trustworthy third party, ACASC will do what it reasonably can to investigate the merits of the claim by gathering up any other information within its reasonable control in order to evaluate whether there has been a possible attempt to commit identity theft or other possible related wrongdoing. If ACASC believes there are grounds for believing in good faith that an attempt at wrongdoing was made, ACASC reserves the right to cancel or close an offending or possible tainted transaction or account, monitor a particular account or line of communication, change applicable security codes, notify law enforcement officials, notify the victim of the alleged attempted fraud or other wrongdoing, provide to the victim certain information (including the personal identifying information of another user) if reasonably requested or justified and/or do such other acts reasonable and/or necessary to protect ACASC and/or victim of the alleged theft or other possible wrongdoing and otherwise comply with any data breach notification or identity theft law that is applicable to the particular circumstance. ACASC also reserves the right not to take any action if no such action is warranted. Finally, ACASC reserves the right to rely on its trustworthy independent web service providers to help implement, safeguard against and/or mitigate continued or future identity theft or other possible wrongdoing involving any student applicant, user, customer, member or school official when the alleged theft or other possible wrongdoing involves or is related to the ACASC® service or the ACASC Website.
Please click "Help Center " at www.acasc.cn to pose any questions, comments, feedback or complaints regarding the identity theft portion of this Privacy Policy.
Referrals
If you choose to use our referral service (“Email this topic”) to tell a friend about the Website or service, we will ask you for your friend’s email address. We will automatically send your friend this one-time email. ACASC does not store and only uses this address for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email to your friend.
Social Media Widgets
The Website includes social media features ("Features") such as The Facebook Like button and widgets or interactive mini-programs that run on the Website. These Features may collect your IP address, which pages you are visiting on the Website and may set a cookie to enable the Features to function properly. The Features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on the Website. Your interactions with the Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
Additional Information and how you can contact us regarding this Policy
We encourage you to review the Frequently Asked Questions for additional information and instructions about any questions that you may have regarding this Privacy Policy.
Please click "Help Center " at www.acasc.cn to pose any questions, comments, feedback or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy or the use of personal information by this website, our services.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy statement, you should first contact the following ACASC representative by email, phone or mail at the address below:
Dr. Gulnar Nurdanhazy,
apply@acasc.cn
15850513534
Emails That You Send Us
Please note that any emails, text messages, or other communications that you send us or which we have been given legal access to may be copied, forwarded or distributed to our members within our sole discretion.
