Privacy Policy
Last UpdatedJun 29, 2023
Research data are protected by additional data use agreements; see our Treatment of Student Data policy here.
Advanced Education Research & Development Fund (“AERDF” pronounced air-diff) is a national nonprofit R&D organization launched in 2021. We build ambitious, inclusive three to five year programs with educators, researchers and developers, aimed at tackling major and persistent teaching and learning challenges that disproportionately affect Black and Latino students and students of all races experiencing poverty in grades Pre-K-12.
aerdf.cloud is a secure cloud R&D environment developed and maintained by AERDF. aerdf.cloud services facilitate the collection, storage, sharing and analysis of research data, and the ability to build, deploy and maintain prototypes. When aerdf.cloud users (researchers, developers and community partners of AERDF) visit or use any of the applications or services associated with https://aerdf.cloud, they may share information with us that helps us to achieve AERDF's goals. This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) is meant to help our users understand how we collect, use and share the information they provide to us when they use aerdf.cloud. This privacy policy applies to Personal Information collected from direct interaction with aerdf.cloud. Research data are protected by additional data use agreements, and in some cases, IRB requirements.
We here at AERDF are committed to the responsible collection and use of personal information. Our Privacy Notice explains:
What information we collect and why we collect it;
How we use that information; and,
The choices we offer, including how to access and update information.
1. COLLECTION OF YOUR INFORMATION
Users are granted the use of aerdf.cloud through their associated AERDF R&D program and project. Users are generally AERDF awarded researchers and developers. Projects give access to their employees and other third parties, by requesting user accounts to access the applications with their email address and credentials. It is the responsibility of the users to ensure their Personal Information is accurate. Administrators of aerdf.cloud grant end users access rights, which result in different permissions and access to the information held in aerdf.cloud. All users and access are cross-referenced with the associated projects Data Management Plan (DMP).
We collect two types of information about you (a user) through aerdf.cloud: (1) information that you provide us while using aerdf.cloud (described below under “Information You Provide to Us”) and (2) information collected automatically as a result of your use of aerdf.cloud (described below under “Information Collected Automatically”).
Information You Provide to Us
You may choose voluntarily to provide certain Personal Information (as defined herein) to us. “Personal Information” is any information that can be used to identify you, including but by no means limited to name, email address, employer, job title or job function. We will not ask you to provide any sensitive Personal Information (e.g., Social Security numbers) through aerdf.cloud, through a form or otherwise.
When you send an email message to any AERDF email address published on aerdf.cloud, we retain the content of your message, your email address, and any information you provide to us, such as your name, your company, your contact preferences, and any response we send back to you. This helps us manage any follow-up questions you may have, measure how effectively we address your concerns, and improve aerdf.cloud. Any information retained would be used to assure the delivery of the information you requested, to optimize your experience and enhance the quality of the time you spend using aerdf.cloud.
Information Collected Automatically
Like most web-based services, we (or our service providers) may automatically collect information from your browser or your device when you use aerdf.cloud. For example, this could include the frequency and duration of your use, or content accessed through use of aerdf.cloud.
Cookies and Other Information
Like many websites, we use cookies and other tracking tools for a variety of purposes, including to improve your visits to aerdf.cloud. Cookies are pieces of information that are transferred to the hard drive on your computer or other electronic devices for record-keeping purposes. These cookies or similar technologies may identify your browser, device, Internet Protocol (IP) address, unique device identifier, device attributes, location, and language. Ultimately, these cookies and similar technologies allow websites to remember important information that will make your use of the website more convenient.
Like many websites, AERDF uses these technologies to gather information, manage data, detect security or privacy related incidents, track user activity, administer and manage accounts, and tailor aerdf.cloud to better support the operations of its users.
2. USE OF YOUR INFORMATION
AERDF collects and uses your Personal Information to provide the information you have requested, and to create and maintain your user account on aerdf.cloud. We may use your information to directly communicate with you about your use of aerdf.cloud or to respond to an email or submission from you. We also use your information to optimize and improve aerdf.cloud and its operation.
3. SHARING OF YOUR INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES
AERDF is a research organization, and we are not in the business of profiting from any information we collect. In the clearly defined situations where we share information, it is to further a research purpose, and the sharing is tightly controlled. AERDF does not sell, rent, or lease the information it receives through aerdf.cloud to third parties. We do not share with third parties any Personal Information collected through this site except for the limited circumstances set forth in this Privacy Notice, including:
Business Partners and Service Providers: AERDF works with vendors, service providers, and other partners to help us provide aerdf.cloud and other services by performing tasks on our behalf. We may need to share or provide information (including Personal Information) received through aerdf.cloud in order to help them perform these business functions, for example, providing cloud compute and networking services, file management services, database hosting, and security consulting and auditing. Generally, these partners and service providers do not have the right to use Personal Information we share with them beyond what is necessary to assist us.
Analytics Services: We use analytics services to help us secure, understand and improve how aerdf.cloud is used. These services may collect, store and use information in order to help us understand things like how often you use aerdf.cloud, the events that occur, usage, performance data, and from where you accessed aerdf.cloud.
Legal Disclosures: AERDF may disclose information received through aerdf.cloud when we are required to or we believe it is appropriate to comply with the law (e.g., due to a lawful subpoena, warrant, or court order); to enforce or apply this Privacy Notice or our other policies or agreements; to protect our rights, property or safety; to protect against fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of our services; to improve our products or services, or if we believe that an emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires or justifies disclosure of information.
4. SECURITY AND RETENTION OF YOUR INFORMATION
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect the information that we collect from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction. In general, we delete information promptly upon determining that we no longer need to retain it to carry out our mission or meet legal obligations.
We make concerted efforts to maintain the security of your information. Although we work hard to ensure the integrity and security of our systems, please note that no information system can be 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of that information. Outages, attacks, human error, system failure, unauthorized use, or other factors may compromise the security of user information at any time.
5. THIRD PARTY VENDORS
The aerdf.cloud incorporates services provided by third party vendors. These other vendors may place their own cookies or other files on your computers, collect data or solicit Personal Information from you. While we make reasonable efforts to ensure the security and data protection efforts of our vendors, we are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of third-party vendors.
6. YOUR RIGHTS
For personal information we have about you, you can:
Access your personal information: If you are an end user of the application, you can log in to view your Personal Information or reach out to help@aerdf.cloud for assistance.
Change or correct your personal information: You have the right to update/correct your personal information or ask us to do it on your behalf. You can edit your information through your user account or ask us to change it by contacting help@aerdf.cloud.
Delete or erase your personal information: You have the right to request the deletion of your personal information at any time. We will communicate back to you, within reasonable timelines, the result of your request. We may not be able to delete or erase your personal information, but we will inform you of these reasons and any further actions available to you.
7. DATA TRANSFER
aerdf.cloud is hosted and operated in the United States, and is not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than that of the United States. Your information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, and by using aerdf.cloud you consent to the transfer of information to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have different data protection rules than those of your country.
8. CHILDREN
Direct use of aerdf.cloud is not directed toward individuals under the age of eighteen (18), and we request that such individuals do not provide Personal Information through use of the publicly available web tools.
If you are the parent or legal guardian of a person under the age of 18 who you believe has provided Personal Information through participation in an AERDF research program, please contact the AERDF representative associated with the project if you have questions regarding such Personal Information.
9. DO NOT TRACK SIGNALS
Currently, various browsers – including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari – offer a “Do Not Track” or “DNT” option that relies on a technology known as a DNT header, which sends a signal to websites visited by the user about the user’s browser DNT preference setting. Please note that at this time we do not honor “DNT” signals or other mechanisms that may allow you to opt out of the collection of information across networks of websites and online services as there is no standard for how online services should respond to such signals. As standards develop, we may develop policies for responding to DNT signals that we would describe in this Privacy Notice in the future. For more information on DNT, please visit www.allaboutdnt.org.
10. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE
We may revise our Privacy Notice from time to time. You can see when the last update was by looking at the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. We will generally provide information regarding the nature and purpose of any updates, access to archived prior versions of the policy, and advance notice when possible. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice from time to time, to stay informed about our collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information through the Site.
11. CONTACT INFORMATION
AERDF welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Notice. You can contact AERDF at help@aerdf.cloud.
APPENDIX
FOR INDIVIDUALS BASED IN CALIFORNIA
This section provides additional specific information for consumers based in California as required by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”).
A.1 Collection and Use of Personal Information
In the last 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information:
Identifiers, such as your name, email address, IP address or other similar identifiers
California Customer Records (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)), such as username and password, company name, job title, business email address and department
Internet/network information, such as your browsing history, log and analytics data, information about the device(s) used to access the services and information regarding your interaction with our websites or services and other usage data
Geolocation data, such as information about your location (at country and city level) collected from your IP address
Sensory Information, the content, audio and video recordings of conference calls between you and us that we record where permitted by you and/or the law
Other personal information, such as personal information you provide to us in relation to a survey, comment, question, request, article download or inquiry and any other information you upload to our application
We collect personal information directly from you, from your browser or device when you visit our websites.
See the section above, “How We Use Personal Information,” to understand how we use the personal information collected from California consumers.
A.2 Recipients of Personal Information
We share personal information with third parties for business purposes. The categories of third parties to whom we disclose your personal information include our service providers, advisors and strategic partners.
A.3 California Privacy Rights
As a California resident, you may be able to exercise the following rights in relation to the personal information about you that we have collected (subject to certain limitations at law):
The right to know any or all of the following information relating to your personal information that we have collected and disclosed in the last 12 months (upon verification of your identity):
The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you
The categories of personal information we have collected about you
The categories of sources of the personal information
The categories of personal information that we have disclosed to third parties for a business purpose, and the categories of recipients to whom this information was disclosed
The right to request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
The right to opt-out of personal information to third parties now or in the future.
You also have the right to be free of discrimination for exercising these rights.
Please note that if exercising these rights limits our ability to process personal information (such as a deletion request), we may no longer be able to provide you with our products and services or engage with you in the same manner.
A.4 How to Exercise Your California Consumer Rights
To exercise your right to know and/or your right to deletion, please submit a request by contacting us at help@aerdf.cloud.
We will need to verify your identity before processing your request.
In order to verify your identity, we will generally require sufficient information from you so that we can match it to the information we maintain about you in our systems. Sometimes we may need additional personal information from you to be able to identify you. We will notify you.
We may decline a request to exercise the right to know and/or right to deletion, particularly where we cannot verify your identity or locate your information in our systems or as permitted by law.
You may choose to designate an authorized agent to make a request under the CCPA on your behalf. No information will be disclosed until the authorized agent’s authority has been reviewed and verified. Once an authorized agent has submitted a request, we may require additional information (i.e., written authorization from you) to confirm the authorized agent’s authority.