Privacy Policy

Last Updated: September 27, 2021

Saving For College, LLC, a Florida corporation (“SFC”), owns and operates the Web site located at the URL www.savingforcollege.com, and portions of other Web pages and Web content through which you have accessed this Privacy Policy (collectively, “savingforcollege.com”). By visiting, using and/or submitting information to savingforcollege.com, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy and the terms and conditions of SFC’s Agreement of Terms of Use located at https://www.savingforcollege.com/terms_of_use/ (the “Terms of Use”).

SFC takes your privacy seriously, and has published this Privacy Policy to explain how SFC treats all information you may submit to savingforcollege.com, except that information which is submitted pursuant to a sweepstakes entry. Refer to the Official Rules and Privacy Policy for each individual sweepstakes for SFC’s specific policies regarding information sharing and disclosure pursuant to sweepstakes entry.

Collection of Personally Identifiable Information

We and our service providers collect information that you provide when you use our services. For example, to access certain parts of our services, you may have to register for an account. During registration we may collect your name, address, username, password, and email address. You may also provide us with information when you post a message on our services; sign up to receive communications from us; register for contests; participate in surveys; purchase a subscription; provide an email address for access to content or tools; or contact us with a question, comment, or request. The information that you may provide us includes but is not limited to:

  • Name
  • Mailing address
  • Email address
  • Date of birth
  • Telephone number
  • Username
  • Password
  • Payment information, including account or card number
  • Gender

When you use social media platforms, applications or tools that enable features like audio or video content (sometimes known as “plugins”), or other features that are operated or offered by other companies (sometimes known as “third parties”) and are integrated into our services or allow you to connect to our services, we may collect information from those third parties. Please refer to the privacy settings of the social media platforms or third-party features you use to manage how information is shared.

If you wish to forward an article or other information to a friend using our services, we will ask you to provide your friend’s name and email address. We may collect statistics on which articles are forwarded. We do not sell, rent, or market information about the friends to whom you forward articles or information, and we use your friends’ names and email addresses only for purposes of forwarding articles or other information subject to your request. We may also add them to our mailing list to send them email newsletters and announcements on topics related to college savings.

Like most companies that offer online services, we and our service providers may automatically collect certain technical information from your computer or mobile device when you use our services or interact with us. The information we may collect includes:

  • IP address
  • Operating system
  • Device type
  • Device manufacturer
  • Device identifier
  • Browser type
  • Content viewed on our services
  • Pages viewed immediately before and after you access our websites
  • Which ads or content from us or our affiliated companies you view, access, or click on
  • Whether you open our electronic communications and where you click within them
  • Features of our services that you use
  • Name and location of your Internet Service Provider
  • Amount of time spent on our pages and how many pages you viewed during your visit
  • For more information about how we collect this information, see Use of Web Beacons, Cookies and Other Technologies

We, our service providers, and other third parties with which we do business may collect information about you from publicly available sources (e.g., social media platforms) and commercially available resources. We may combine that information with the information described above and will handle the combined information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Location Information – Our mobile applications may collect precise information about the location of your mobile device via your device’s GPS or cellular connectivity, but only with your express consent. Once you have consented to the collection of such precise location information via your mobile device, you may adjust this consent by managing your Location Services preferences through the settings of your mobile device. We may also be able to infer your location from other information that you provide or information that we collect passively, such as the known locations of nearby WiFi networks.

Many of the features of savingforcollege.com are available to you without your providing personally identifiable information. Personally identifiable information generally includes information that could be used to determine your identity, such as your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and birth date. The following are certain situations in which SFC may collect personally identifiable information from you:

  • Registration for Newsletters and Sweepstakes. SFC collects personally identifiable information from you if you register online for one of SFC’s newsletters and when you enter SFC’s sweepstakes. When you register online with SFC, SFC asks for personally identifiable information like your name, e-mail address, birth date, gender, ZIP code, occupation, industry, personal interests and other demographic information.
  • Use of Forums. If you choose to transmit, submit or post information through SFC’s chat rooms, bulletin boards or other forums (the “Forums”), SFC will collect that information you provide. SFC retains this information as necessary to resolve disputes, provide customer support and troubleshoot problems as permitted by law and pursuant to SFC’s Terms of Use.
  • Forms. SFC may collect personally identifiable information from you if you choose to fill out any forms, profiles, or surveys on savingforcollege.com.
  • Correspondence. If you send SFC personal correspondence, such as emails or letters, or if other users or third parties send SFC correspondence about your activities or postings on savingforcollege.com, SFC may choose to collect such information into a file specific to you.
  • Business Partners. SFC may receive your personally identifiable information from one of SFC’s business partners.

Use of Personally Identifiable Information

SFC uses your personally identifiable information as follows:

  • to improve SFC’s marketing and promotional efforts, analyze site usage, improve SFC’s content and product offerings, and customize SFC’s content, layout, and services;
  • to contact you and deliver information to you that, in some cases, is targeted to your interests, such as targeted banner advertisements, administrative notices, product offerings, and communications relevant to your use of savingforcollege.com;
  • to fulfill your requests for certain products and services;
  • for market research, project planning, troubleshooting problems, detecting and protecting against error, fraud or other criminal activity, to enforce SFC’s Terms of Use, for other internal purposes, and as otherwise described to you at the time of collection; and
  • as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy.

You expressly agree to SFC’s use of your personally identifiable information as set forth in this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use.

Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information

Unless you are entering one of SFC’s sweepstakes, SFC does not currently sell your personally identifiable information. The following describes some of the ways that your personally identifiable information may be disclosed in the normal scope of business:

  • Advertisers. SFC may aggregate personally identifiable information and disclose such information in a non-personally identifiable manner to advertisers and other third parties for their marketing and promotional purposes. For example, SFC may aggregate personally identifiable information and disclose it to network advertisers in a non-personally identifiable manner as set forth in the section entitled “Network Advertisers,” set forth below. SFC does not disclose your information in a personally identifiable manner to such third party advertisers without your consent.
  • External Service Providers. There are a number of separate services offered by third parties, including, without limitation, SFC’s affiliates, that SFC refers to as external service providers that may be complementary to your use of savingforcollege.com (e.g. financial institutions, financial planners, legal and tax professionals). If you choose to use these separate services, disclose information to the external service providers, and/or grant them permission to collect information about you, then their use of your information is governed by their privacy policy. With your consent, SFC may provide some of your personal information to the external service provider offering such services, for your convenience. To prevent SFC’s disclosure of your personally identifiable information to an external service provider, you can decline such consent or simply not use their services. You should evaluate the practices of external services providers before deciding to use their services.
  • Internal Service Providers. SFC may use third parties that SFC refers to as internal service providers to facilitate or outsource one or more aspects of SFC’s business, product and service operations that SFC provides to you (e.g., technology, Forums, newsletters/alerts, analytical tools, advertising campaign management) and therefore SFC may provide some of your personal information directly to these internal service providers. These internal service providers are subject to confidentiality agreements with SFC or other legal restrictions that prohibit their use of the information SFC provides them for any other purpose except to facilitate the specific outsourced SFC related operation, unless you have explicitly agreed or given your prior permission to them for additional uses. In some instances, the internal service provider may collect information directly from you. In these cases, you will be notified of the involvement of the internal service provider, and all additional information you provide them and their additional uses will be strictly up to you. If you provide additional information to an internal service provider directly, then their use of your personally identifiable information is governed by their applicable privacy policy.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, SFC reserves the right (and you authorize SFC) to share or disclose your personally identifiable information when SFC determines, in its sole discretion, that the disclosure of your personally identifiable information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against you if:

  • you are or may be violating this Privacy Policy or SFC’s Terms of Use;
  • you are interfering with another’s rights or property, including, without limitation, SFC’s rights or property;
  • you are violating any applicable law, rule or regulation;
  • necessary or required by any applicable law, rule or regulation; and/or
  • requested by authorities in the event of any act of terrorism or instance of local, regional or national emergency.

Personally identifiable information and other personal information collected from you may also be transferred to a third party as a result of a sale, acquisition, merger, reorganization, other transfer or bankruptcy (a “Transfer”) involving SFC and/or its affiliates. SFC specifically reserves the right to transfer personally identifiable information collected from savingforcollege.com, and any of its databases, together with any personally identifiable information contained therein, to a third party in connection with a Transfer, and nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to interfere with the ability of SFC to transfer all or part of its business and/or assets (including savingforcollege.com) to an affiliate or independent third party at any time, for any purpose, without any limitation whatsoever.

In addition, due to the existing regulatory environment, SFC cannot ensure that all of your private communications and other personally identifiable information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. By way of example (without limiting the foregoing), SFC may be forced to disclose personal information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances or third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. Therefore, although SFC uses industry standard practices to protect your privacy, SFC does not promise, and you should not expect, that your personally identifiable information or private communications will always remain private.

NOTE: If you are submitting personally identifiable information pursuant to sweepstakes entry, SFC reserves the right to share, loan, rent and/or sell the personally identifiable information that you submit with its affiliates and other third parties. Please refer to the Official Rules and Privacy Policy for each individual sweepstakes for the specific guidelines regarding information sharing and disclosure.

International Transfers of Information

By using any of our services, you agree that we may collect, use and transfer your personal information as described in this privacy policy, including transfers outside the country where you live. If you reside in a country in the European Union or other jurisdiction that provides access rights under law, you may access, correct or update the personal information you have provided by going to your account information page for any service provided by us and personally updating the information. Alternatively, you may contact us at support@savingforcollege.com. You may be charged a reasonable fee for access to information.

Notice to California Residents: Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, you have the right to receive: a) information identifying all third-party companies to which we may have disclosed, within the past year, personal information pertaining to you and your family for those companies’ direct marketing purposes; and b) a description of the categories of personal information disclosed. To obtain such information, please email your request to support@savingforcollege.com.

Network Advertising

SFC may use third-party advertising companies for marketing, advertising and promotional purposes, as well as to serve advertisements to you. Using third-party advertising companies helps us and third-party advertisers better determine which advertisements or content to serve to you. For example, the third-party advertisers may use information regarding your visits to savingforcollege.com and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services, that third party advertisers believe will be of interest to you.

The types of information that may be collected by third-party advertising companies include the following:

  • the type of Internet browser you use;
  • the type of computer operating system you use;
  • the domain name of a Web site you visit, as well as information related to Web sites and Web pages you are viewing when an advertisement is requested;
  • whether or not you visit specific pages of savingforcollege.com or other Web sites;
  • the location of your Internet service provider’s point of presence;
  • the date and time of a visit to a Web site;
  • search keywords passed from another server;
  • the number of times you have clicked on an advertisement; and
  • other interactions between you and a Web site.

If you would like to opt-out of third-party advertising companies’ use of such information, please see below. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please see below.

Opt- Out and Changes to Personally Identifiable Information and Use Preferences

You may at any time request a copy or deletion of SFC’s record of your personally identifiable information, change your personally identifiable information or use preferences, or opt-out of SFC’s use of your personally identifiable information by contacting SFC via any of the methods set forth below:

  • Via telephone: (585) 286-5426
  • Via mail: Saving For College, LLC, 444 Brickell Ave., Suite 820, Miami, FL, 33131
  • Via email: use our contact form.

Newsletters and CAN-SPAM Compliance

Savingforcollege.com collects email addresses through single-opt-in forms on the SFC website. Your email address may be collected when you register on our website; post a message on our services; sign up to receive communications from us; register for contests; participate in surveys; purchase a subscription; provide an email address for access to content or tools; or contact us with a question, comment, or request. Email addresses collected through by savingforcollege.com may be added to a subscriber list to receive newsletters and other email communications. Users may unsubscribe from the list at any time by clicking an Unsubscribe link included in emails, or by contacting us at support@savingforcollege.com Savingforcollege.com is fully compliant with the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003.

“Cookies” are alphanumeric identifiers in the form of text files that are inserted and stored by your Web browser on your computer’s hard drive. SFC, its external service providers, internal service providers, and third-party advertising companies, may set and access cookies on your computer to track and store preferential information about you. SFC, and its external service providers, internal service providers, and third-party advertising companies gather anonymous information about you through cookie technology on an aggregate level only. For example, a third-party advertising company may assign a cookie (and a Web beacon, described below) to you, to limit the amount of times you see a particular advertisement or to help better determine which advertisements to serve to you. Please note that most Internet browsers will allow you to stop cookies from being stored on your computer and to delete cookies stored on your computer.

Web beacons

“Web beacons”, also called single-pixels (1×1) or clear GIFs, are electronic images that allow a Web site to access cookies and help track marketing campaigns and general usage patterns of visitors to those Web sites. Web beacons can recognize certain types of information, such as cookie numbers, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page where the Web beacon is placed. No personally identifiable information about you is shared with third parties through the use of Web beacons.

  • Internal use of Web beacons. SFC may use Web beacons internally to count users and recognize users through cookies. Access to cookies helps SFC personalize your experience when you visit savingforcollege.com.
  • Email. SFC may include Web beacons in HTML-formatted email messages that SFC or its affiliates or agents send. Including Web beacons in email messages helps SFC determine your interest in and the effectiveness of such emails.
  • External use of Web beacons. SFC may also use Web beacons externally. For example, SFC may report aggregate information about Savingforcollege.com users, such as demographic and usage information, to its partners and other third parties. SFC may also include other company’s Web beacons within Savingforcollege.com.

Security

Personally identifiable information you submit to SFC is password-protected for your privacy and security. In certain areas SFC uses industry-standard SSL-encryption to protect data transmissions. In the unlikely event that an unauthorized third party compromises SFC security measures, SFC will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly caused by an unauthorized third party’s ability to view, use or disseminate such information.

Access and Use of savingforcollege.com

Savingforcollege.com is intended to be accessed and used only by adults and is not directed to children under the age of 18. SFC does not knowingly permit registration or submission of personally identifiable information by anyone under the age of 18.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

SFC reserves the right to update, amend and/or change this Privacy Policy at any time in its sole discretion and without notice. Updates to this Privacy Policy will be posted here. Any information SFC collects from you online is subject only to SFC’s most current Privacy Policy. You are encouraged to revisit this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to review any changes that have been made. SFC’s last update was December 17, 2010. Your continued access and use of savingforcollege.com following the posting of any such changes shall automatically be deemed your acceptance of the same.

Questions or Concerns

If you have questions, comments, concerns or feedback regarding this Privacy Policy, submit this contact form.

Governing Law; Arbitration

This Privacy Policy is to be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Florida, without regard for principles of conflicts of laws. Any civil action, claim, dispute or proceeding arising out of, or relating to, this Privacy Policy shall be referred to final and binding arbitration, before a single arbitrator, under the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association in Palm Beach County, Florida. You and SFC shall select the arbitrator, and if you and SFC are unable to reach agreement on selection of the arbitrator within thirty (30) days after the notice of arbitration is served, then the American Arbitration Association shall select the arbitrator. Arbitration shall not commence until the party requesting it has deposited One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) with the arbitrator as a retainer for the arbitrator’s fees and costs. The party requesting arbitration shall advance such sums as are required from time to time by the arbitrator to pay the arbitrator’s fees and costs until the prevailing party is determined or the parties have agreed in writing to an alternate allocation of fees and costs.

Judgment upon any award rendered by the arbitrator shall be final, binding and conclusive upon you and SFC, and your and SFC’s respective administrators, executors, legal representatives, successors and assigns, and may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, in no event shall either you or SFC be entitled to punitive, special, indirect or consequential damages, and both you and SFC hereby waive your rights to any punitive, special, indirect or consequential damages, including, but not limited to, damages for any loss of profit, revenue or business.

Miscellaneous

If any portion of this Privacy Policy is deemed unlawful, void or unenforceable by any arbitrator, this Privacy Policy as a whole shall not be deemed unlawful, void or unenforceable, but only that portion of this Privacy Policy that is unlawful, void or unenforceable shall be stricken from this Privacy Policy.

The headings contained in this Privacy Policy are for convenience of reference only, are not to be considered a part of this Privacy Policy, and shall not limit or otherwise affect in any way the meaning or interpretation of this Privacy Policy.

All covenants, agreements, representations and warranties made in this Privacy Policy, as may be amended by SFC from time to time, shall survive your acceptance of this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use represent the entire understanding and agreement between you and SFC regarding the subject matter of the same, and supersede all other previous agreements, understandings and/or representations regarding the same.

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