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<h1>Privacy Policy</h1>

<h2>Confidentiality &amp; Security of Personally
Identifiable Information</h2>

<p>We care about the confidentiality and security of your personal
information. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to keep your
Personally Identifiable Information private and will not share it with third
parties, except as set forth in this Privacy Policy. However, no method of
transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, and we
cannot guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used, or
released in a manner that is inconsistent with this policy. </p>

<p>This Privacy Policy only applies to information that we collect
through the Site and does not apply to information that we may collect
from you in other ways (for example, this policy does not apply to
information that you may provide to us over the phone, by fax or
through conventional mail). In addition, please note your educational
records are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
(&quot;FERPA&quot;) to the extent FERPA applies.</p>

<h2>Usernames and Postings </h2>

<p>Comments or other information posted by you to our forums,
wikis, or other areas of the Site designed for public communications may be
viewed and downloaded by others who visit the Site. For this reason, we
encourage you to use an anonymous username, and to not post any personally
identifiable information to those forums (or other public areas).</p>

<h2>What You Consent to by Using Our Site</h2>

<p>Please understand that by submitting any Personally Identifiable
Information to us, you consent and agree that we may collect, use and
disclose such Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with
this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service (&quot;TOS&quot;), and as
permitted or required by law. If you do not agree with these terms,
then please do not provide any Personally Identifiable Information to
us. As used herein, &quot;Personally Identifiable Information&quot;
means your full name, email address, your physical address (if you
provide it) and your student identification number, if applicable. If
you refuse, or if you choose not to provide us with any required
Personally Identifiable Information, we may not be able to provide you
with the services that can be offered on our Site.</p>

<h2>Information We Collect and How We Use It </h2>

<p>We collect information, including Personally Identifiable
Information, when you sign up for a User Account, participate in
online courses, send us email messages and/or participate in our
public forums. We collect information about student performance and
patterns of learning. We track information indicating, among other
things, which pages of our Site were visited, the order in which they
were visited, when they were visited, and which hyperlinks and other
user interface controls were used.</p>

<p>We may log the IP address, operating system and browser software
used by each user of the Site, and we may be able to determine from an
IP address a user's Internet Service Provider and the geographic
location of his or her point of connectivity. Various web analysis
tools are used to collect this information. Some of the information is
collected through cookies (a small text file placed on your
computer). You should be able to control how and whether cookies will
be accepted by your web browser. Most browsers offer instructions on
how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the &quot;Help&quot;
section of the toolbar. If you reject our cookies, many functions and
conveniences of this Site may not work properly.</p>

<p>Among other things, we may use the information that you provide
(including your Personally Identifiable Information) in connection
with the following:</p>

<ul>
 <li>To help us improve <i>MITx</i> offerings, both individually
     (e.g. by course staff when working with a student) and in
     aggregate, and to individualize the experience and to evaluate
     the access and use of the Site and the impact of <i>MITx</i> on
     the worldwide educational community.
     </li>
 <li>For purposes of scientific research, particularly, for
     example, in the areas of cognitive science and education. </li>
 <li>For the purpose for which you specifically provided
     the personal information, for example to respond to a specific inquiry or
     provide you the specific course and/or services you select. </li>
 <li>To track both individual and aggregate attendance,
     progress and completion of an online course, and to analyze statistics on
     student performance and how students learn. </li>
 <li>To monitor and detect violations of the Honor Code, the
     Terms of Service, as well as other misuses and potential misuses of the
     site. </li>
 <li>To publish information gathered about <i>MITx</i>
     access, use, impact, and student performance but only as non-personally
     identifiable data.</li>
 <li>To send you updates about online courses offered by <i>MITx</i>
     or other MIT events or to send you email messages about Site maintenance
     or updates.</li>
 <li>To archive this information and/or use it for future
     communications with you.</li>
 <li>As otherwise described to you at the point of
     collection. </li>
</ul>

<p> In addition to the above situations where your information may be
shared with others, there is also the possibility that <i>MITx</i>
will affiliate with other educational institutions and/or
that <i>MITx</i> will become a (or part of a) nonprofit entity
separate from MIT.  In those events, the other educational
institutions and/or separate entity will have access to the
information you provide, to the extent permitted by FERPA.

<h2>Sharing with Third Parties</h2>

<p>We may share the information we collect with third parties
as follows:</p>

<ul>
<li> With service providers or
contractors that perform certain functions on our behalf, including processing
information that you provide to us on the Site, operating the Site or portions
of it, or in connection with other aspects of <i>MITx</i> services. These
service providers and contractors will be obligated to keep your information
confidential.</p>

<li> With all users and other visitors
to the Site, to the extent that you submit post comments or other information
to a portion of the Site designed for public communications. As provided in the
Terms of Service, we may provide those postings to students in future offerings
of the course, either within the context of the forums, the courseware, or
otherwise, for marketing purposes, or in any other way. If we do use your postings,
we will use them without your real name and e-mail (except with explicit
permission), but we may use your username. </p>

<li>To connect you to other users of the Site. For instance, we
may recommend specific study partners, or connect potential student
mentees and mentors. In such cases, we may use all information
collected to determine who to connect you to, but we will only connect
you by username, and not disclose your real name or e-mail address to
your contact. </p>

<li> To respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process, in
response to a request for cooperation from law enforcement or another
government agency, to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding
illegal activities, suspected fraud, or to enforce our user agreement
or privacy policy, or to protect our rights or the rights of
others.</p>

<li> As otherwise described to you at the point of collection or
pursuant to your consent. For example, from time to time, we may ask
your permission to use your Personally Identifiable Information in
other ways. In the future, <i>MITx</i> may have an alumni association,
resume book, etc. We may offer services where it is possible to
verify <i>MITx</i> credentials. </p>

<li> For integration with third party services. Videos and other
content may be hosted on YouTube and other web sites not controlled
by <i>MITx</i>. We may provide links and other integration with social
networks, and other sites. Those web sites are guided by their own
privacy policies. </p>
</ul>

<h2>Personalization and Pedagogical Improvements</h2>

<p>Our goal is to provide current and future visitors with the best
possible educational experience. To further this goal, we sometimes
present different users with different versions of course materials
and software. We do this to personalize the experience to the
individual learner (assess the learner's level of ability and learning
style, and present materials best suited to the learner), to evaluate
the effectiveness of our course materials, to improve our
understanding of the learning process, and to otherwise improve the
effectiveness of our offerings. We may publish or otherwise publicize
results from this process, but only as non-personally-identifiable
data. </p>

<h2>Changing Our Privacy Policy</h2>

<p>Please note that we review our privacy practices from time to time,
and that these practices are subject to change. We will publish notice
of any such modifications online on this page for a reasonable period
of time following such modifications, and by changing the effective
date of this Privacy Policy. By continuing to access the Site after
such changes have been posted, you signify your agreement to be bound
by them. Be sure to return to this page periodically to ensure
familiarity with the most current version of this Privacy Policy. </p>

<h2>Privacy Concerns</h2>

<p>If you have privacy concerns, or have disclosed data you would
prefer to keep private, please contact us
at <a href="mailto:privacy@mitx.mit.edu">privacy@mitx.mit.edu</a>. </p>

<p> Effective Date: February 6, 2012

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