Privacy Policy
Last Updated: October 25, 2010
KnowledgeFunding Ohio, Inc. and its affiliates (together "KnowledgeFunding Ohio" or "we")
respect your privacy. This Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand what information
we collect and how we use it. KnowledgeFunding Ohio may implement new technologies from
time to time. As a result, we may have to revise this Privacy Policy. The date of the most recent
revisions will appear at the top of this page.
This policy discloses the current privacy practices for KnowledgeFunding Ohio, including our
web site. By using this site, you signify your assent to the KnowledgeFunding Ohio Privacy
Policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use this site.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, you should email us.
Personal Information - What Information May We Collect?
In your relationship with us and your use of this site, we may collect your personal information,
including your nonpublic personal information. "Nonpublic personal information" is nonpublic
information about you that we obtain in connection with providing you with a financial product
or service to be used primarily for personal, family or household purposes. For example,
nonpublic personal information includes information regarding your account balance and
payment history.
We may collect other personal information, such as your name, email address and IP address, when you use certain areas of our Web site. We may collect nonpublic personal information about you arising out of the following sources:
• Information we receive when you request a brochure or send an email
• Information we receive about you from others
• Information arising out of your transactions with us, our affiliates, or others
What Information Do We Disclose and Share?
KnowledgeFunding Ohio wants you to know the purpose of the information we collect.
Use of Cookies
As our Web server transmits content, it may also creates a log that records specific information.
This can include the Internet address of the computer or server contacting us, the date and time,
the referring Web site and its URL, and the visitor's browser and operating system.
We may use software to analyze this log, which can reveal information such as the most
frequently visited areas of our site, the busiest days and times, what links visitors follow to reach
us, and what browsers and operating systems they use. (We can't and don't, however, identify
individual visitors.) This gives us a much better understanding of our visitors and how they use
this site. This also helps us improve this site for you.
We use server log data in its entirety and do not analyze information on any particular visitor.
KnowledgeFunding Ohio only uses this information for internal purposes; we don't share it with
other companies.
We may also use session cookies on our secure online applications. These session cookies are
erased when you close your Web browser. The session cookie is stored in temporary memory
and is not retained after the Web browser is closed. We also do not collect personal information
from your computer when using session cookies.
Third Parties
KnowledgeFunding Ohio will not disclose any nonpublic personal information about individual
users, except as described in this Privacy Policy and as otherwise permitted by law.
We may disclose some or all of the information we collect, such as your name, address, social security number, and account information, to certain types of third parties under certain circumstances. For example:
• Financial service providers as necessary or required in connection with the securitization or conversion of your loans into other programs or packages, as well as those providers who purchase loans from our portfolio
• Companies that perform marketing of consolidation loans on our behalf
• Government entities in response to subpoenas or court orders
• Companies that help us process or service your transactions or account(s), including companies that print and mail your account statements; or
• Companies that advise us on student loan activities.
In limited circumstances we may also disclose personal information where we believe in good faith that disclosure is required or permitted under applicable law.
We do not sell or otherwise provide your non-public personal information to other non-affiliated
companies for purpose of marketing other goods or services to you, although we may provide
aggregate information to our advertisers. For example, we might tell third parties that there are
120,000 borrowers in Ohio, but we won't tell them that John Doe is one of them, and we won't
tell them that his email address is johndoe@johnemail.com. We may also disclose aggregate
information (for example, 35 million of our visitors clicked on a particular Web advertising
banner last month) in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other
third parties, and for other lawful purposes.
We may share your nonpublic personal information with companies affiliated with
KnowledgeFunding Ohio. KnowledgeFunding Ohio, its parents, their other subsidiaries, and our
management companies have access to individual account information.
We rely upon third parties for important elements of our operations so we will provide your
nonpublic personal information, such as your name, address, social security number, and account
information to these third parties so that they can do their job, such as servicers, financial service
providers, marketing companies that help us market our products, and consultants that help
advise us on our student loan activities. These contractors are subject to confidentiality and
privacy agreements that restrict their use and disclosure of information they obtain through their
relationship with KnowledgeFunding Ohio. These third parties may have their own privacy policies.
We may disclose nonpublic personal information to a secondary market financial services
provider if they purchase your loan. We, the purchaser, or the servicer will notify you if your
loan is part of a secondary market transaction.
We may disclose nonpublic personal information in some other limited circumstances, but we
will specifically describe them to you when we collect the information.
We may also share information for web site administration, account servicers, and to notify you
of products and services that may interest you.
Security Measures We Use To Protect Your Information
KnowledgeFunding Ohio is committed to protecting your personal information. We maintain
physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with Federal regulations to guard
your nonpublic personal information.
Below are several security precautions that we implement to protect your personal information:
• We store information you provide us on our secure servers.
• We use technological means (such as backup files, virus detection and eradication software, firewalls, and other computer software and hardware) to protect against unauthorized access or alterations to customer data.
• We limit employee and agent access to customer information to those who have a business reason to know this information.
• We maintain policies and procedures covering the proper physical security of workplaces and records.
• We require independent contractors and outside companies who work with us to adhere to strict privacy standards through their contracts with us.
How You Can Protect Your Information
Please do not transmit nonpublic personal information via email because email is not encrypted.
KnowledgeFunding Ohio shall not be responsible for any harm that you or any person
may suffer as a result of a breach of confidentiality in respect to your use of this site or any
information you transmitted to this site.
You may also implement additional precautions listed below to help protect your identity:
• Do not share your personal information, Social Security Number or other confidential information with others that do not have a need to know.
• Do not provide nonpublic personal information by telephone to unknown callers.
• Do not provide nonpublic personal information online unless you initiated the contact, know the party with whom you are dealing, and provide the information through a secure channel. We and our agents will never initiate contact with you to request nonpublic personal information unless we are responding to a contact that you initiated to us.
• When conducting business with us over the Internet always use a secure browser and exit online applications as soon as you finish using them. When finished with our web site or other secured web sites, log off and close your browser, even if you are going onto another web site (simply close and reopen your browser). When supplying or reviewing nonpublic personal information, ensure that the appropriate indicator is shown indicating that your use of the web site is secured (e.g. the lock in Microsoft Explorer).
• If you are using a computer to which others have access, such as one in a computer lab, Internet cafe, or public library, avoid providing nonpublic personal information and always remember to log out and close your browser window when leaving our site.
• Protect and properly dispose of your personal information and records.
While we do our best to protect your nonpublic personal information, Student Lending Works cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. What does all this mean? You must protect yourself. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you are online.
Children's Privacy
KnowledgeFunding Ohio sites are not directed at children under the age of 13. We operate our
sites in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and will not knowingly
collect or use personally identifiable information from anyone under 13.
Other Applicable Laws
The practices described above are in accordance with Federal law. You may have other
protections under your applicable state laws. To the extent these state laws apply, we will
comply with them.
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