Responsive Support Privacy Policy

October 3, 2023

Welcome!

This Privacy Policy describes how uAspire, Inc. (“uAspire,” “we,” “us,” “our”) provides college affordability support for high school and postsecondary students who reach out for support (“the Service”). The Service is free for students, and may in some situations be conducted through a partnership with other organizations focused on college access and success. By contacting the Service via Google Form, email, or text messaging and using the features made available to you through the Service, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy only applies with respect to our responsive college affordability support program. If you interact with us through other means, including through our website, you would be subject to our general Privacy Policy. Please see below for a FAQ about our privacy practices. 

WHAT TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND MAINTAIN ABOUT YOU?

• In order to provide financial aid counseling, we collect personal information that you voluntarily choose to submit to us, such as name and date of birth. We may also collect demographic information about race, ethnicity, gender, and financials, if you choose to provide that information to us.  
• We also collect feedback or correspondence information from you, such as when you contact us with questions, feedback, or otherwise correspond with us via text.
• We take your privacy seriously and only want to receive the minimum information necessary for us to provide you with counseling.  Please do not send us any social security number, bank account information, credit card information, driver’s license, passport information or any other similarly sensitive pieces of information.
• We do not collect device data or location information from your mobile device.
• In certain cases, you may need extra support that we are unable to address via email or text messaging. If so, we may offer to discuss the issue over a telephone call or Zoom call with you. As part of this process, we may ask you to use Zoom’s screensharing features to show us your FAFSA application, school financial aid portal, or other materials related to financial aid counseling. If you choose to participate in a Zoom call and use the screensharing feature, we will not record the screensharing or take screenshots of the call for our own records unless we have your express permission.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

• We use your personal information to help provide financial aid counseling by connecting you with a uAspire staff member. You can ask them questions about the financial aid application process. Our goal is to help you navigate the financial aid process.
• We also collect your personal information for internal research purposes so that we can improve the program. 
• We may store certain information you provide to us via text message, email, and Google Form in our databases, which are managed by Salesforce and Google. 
• We do not sell or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third parties, other than our own service providers.
• We may collect general statistics to publicly report aggregate outcomes about the Service that do not identify you. We may also share de-identified text messaging exchanges between you and your uAspire advisor, including when we communicate with our funders and partners about the Service. If so, we will always remove name and any other information that could be used to identify you.

WITH WHOM AND WHY DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

• We will never share your personal information except in the following limited circumstances: We may share your personal information with third party companies and individuals that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Service (such as hosting, analytics and database management services). In addition, if we have partnered with a school or another college access and success organization you have a relationship with in order to provide these services to you, we may share your personal information with that entity. These third parties may use your personal information only as directed or authorized by us and in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy, and are prohibited from using or disclosing your information for any other purpose.

HOW SAFE IS MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

• uAspire maintains organizational, technical and administrative measures consistent with industry standards that are designed to protect against unauthorized access, misuse, loss, disclosure, alteration and destruction of personal information. Nevertheless, transmission via text messaging, through Zoom or other channels is not completely secure and we cannot fully guarantee the security of your information.  Because of this, please do not send us any highly sensitive information.  In the event that uAspire is required to notify you about a situation involving your data, we may do so by telephone to the extent permitted by law.  If we do interact with you through a third party communication channel (e.g. Zoom, Google), please note that we would both be subject to the third party’s terms of service and privacy policy.

CAN I ACCESS AND CORRECT MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

• Yes, you can contact us at dataprivacy@uaspire.org to access and correct your personal information.

CAN I REQUEST DELETION OF MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

• Yes, you can contact us at dataprivacy@uaspire.org to request deletion of your personal information.

FOR HOW LONG DO YOU STORE MY DATA?

• We retain personal information in accordance with all applicable laws and for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, to establish or defend legal claims, or for fraud prevention purposes.
• When we have no ongoing legitimate need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.
• As noted above, you can request that we delete your personal information at any time.

WILL THIS POLICY CHANGE?

• We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time by posting a new version online. You should check this page occasionally to review any changes. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by text, a notice on this website or another method that we believe is reasonably likely to reach you.

HOW DO I CONTACT YOU WITH QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?

• You can reach us at dataprivacy@uaspire.org