PRIVACY AND COOKIES POLICY

NCS Pearson has adopted the following Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy (hereinafter “Policy”) applicable to personal information that it may receive related to certification, credentialing, licensure, and academic admission testing received on all websites and web pages that provide a link to this Policy (collectively this “Site”). All references to ‘our’, ‘us’, or ‘we’, in this Policy and within the opt-in notice are deemed to refer to NCS Pearson.

By visiting and/or providing information to us on this Site, you are accepting the practices described in this Policy and agree that we may collect, use, and disclose your personal information as described herein. If you do not agree to this Policy, please do not provide your personal information to us. This Policy is incorporated into, and part of, the Terms of Use, that govern your use of this Site in general. We will use your personal information only for the purposes set forth below.

CERTIFICATION, LICENSURE, AND ACADEMIC ADMISSION TEST SERVICES

We provide testing services as a service provider to test sponsors. The test sponsor is the company or organization that offers certification, licensure, or academic admission testing and controls the test(s) that must be taken to secure such certification, licensure, or academic admission. We collect or receive personal information from certification, licensure, and academic admission testing candidates. We use this information in order to perform services relating to certification, licensure, and academic admission testing on behalf of the test sponsor. This includes test registration, collection of payment for testing services requested, and communicating with candidates about certification, licensure, and academic admission testing and the results of such testing. Providing personal information is voluntary, but necessary if the candidate wishes to receive licensure, certification, or academic admission testing. We will handle and treat all personal information collected and received by us in connection with certification, licensure, and academic admission test registration and administration in the manner outlined in this Privacy Policy.

SAFE HARBOR AND DATA COLLECTION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES

We adhere to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Safe Harbor principles for personal information collected in the member states of the European Union in connection with the delivery of certification, licensure, and academic admission testing services. As such, we use reasonable precautions to protect personal information from unauthorized use, access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. These precautions include appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures. For further information, see www.export.gov/safeharbor. This means that we are dedicated to provide a high level of privacy protection, as defined by European Community law, for this information. We are also committed to compliance with the decisions of the European Community Data Protection Authority in collecting and handling this information. Unless we provide specific notice and obtain your consent, NCS Pearson does not collect or process any sensitive information, as defined by the Safe Harbor scheme, in connection with certification, licensure, or academic admission testing services.

PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED

The personal information that we collect or receive in registering a candidate (“you”) for certification, licensure, or academic admission testing services include: name, address, email address, phone number, fax number, credit/debit card information, company and title. We may also collect or receive the following additional information at registration or in the testing process, as necessary or appropriate: language, date of birth, employment information, previous examination history, education information, and source of financing for the examination. For candidate verification and identification purposes, we may collect all or part of a government-issued identification number and mother’s maiden name. At the test center we may also collect your fingerprint and/or palm vein image digitally for the purposes of identity verification and to protect the security and integrity of the test. When a certification test is administered to you, we may collect and score your test responses and then derive a test score and generate a report about your certification test results. Depending upon the test sponsor and/or test security requirements, we may collect your signature, photographic image, fingerprint, and/or palm vein image digitally when you arrive at a test center to take a certification, licensure, or academic admission test and you may be audio- and video-taped while taking the test. We may also collect your fingerprint and/or palm vein pattern when your ID does not meet the requirements of identity verification.

AGGREGATION OF NON-PERSON-SPECIFIC DATA

We may statistically aggregate in non-person-specific form test responses and other information collected in the certification, licensure, and academic admission test registration and delivery process and transfer this information to test sponsors and to independent testing centers. Such aggregated non-person-specific information may be used for quality control, operations management, security and marketing purposes and to enhance, develop or improve licensure, certification, and academic admission testing processes, testing services, tests and related products and services. By registering for a test through us, you give your consent to this non-person-specific data aggregation and the use and transmission of this aggregated statistical data as outlined above.

EMAIL NEWSLETTERS

We may use your email address to send you an email newsletter about certification, licensure, or academic admission testing. You may opt out of receiving the newsletter at any time by notifying us by email at PVMarketing@pearson.com or following the opt-out instructions in the email newsletter.

TRANSFER OF INFORMATION TO TEST SPONSORS (IF APPLICABLE)

By registering for a test through us, you give your consent for your personal information (with the exception of your debit/credit card information) to be transmitted by NCS Pearson to the test sponsor from whom you seek certification, licensure, or academic admission. The test sponsors require this personal information so that (a) tests can be correctly administered; (b) certification, licensure, or academic admission can be processed and administered; and (c) candidates can receive further information about licensure, certification, or academic admission testing. For further information about how the sponsor may use your personal information, please contact the sponsor.

OTHER TRANSFER OF INFORMATION

In addition to transmitting certain personal information about you to a test sponsor, we may disclose personally identifiable information in the following situations: (a) in response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted and required by law; (b) to protect your security, or the security of other persons, consistent with applicable law; (c) to address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities; (d) in connection with a sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of the assets of NCS Pearson, Inc.; (e) to our contractors or agent, including independent testing centers, who are committed or obliged to protect your privacy in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy. For purposes of validating test and user integrity and security, we may supply audio- and video-tapes of test candidates in a testing center at a particular time to any test sponsor whose test was being administered at that time in such test center. By registering for a test through us, you give your consent for your personal information to be transmitted in the situations outlined above.

INDEPENDENT TESTING CENTERS

Certain certification, licensure, and academic admission tests are administered through independent testing centers. These centers may provide unrelated services and may collect and use personal information for other purposes under different terms and policies. If you have any questions or concerns about an independent testing center’s collection or use of any of your personal information, please talk to the independent testing center directly. If you have unaddressed concerns about an independent testing center relating to licensure, certification, and academic admission services supplied by NCS Pearson, please contact us at PearsonVUEContracts@pearson.com.

INFORMATION ACCESS AND CORRECTIONS

To access and correct the personal information that we have collected under this policy, please contact our Call Center or send us an email. To protect your privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making alterations.

PROTECTION OF CREDIT CARD INFORMATION

We provide a secured transmission method for the electronic transmission of credit/debit card information.

RESOLUTION OF CONCERNS

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or how we handle personal information, please contact us at PearsonVUEContracts@pearson.com. If we are unable to satisfactorily address your concerns, you should contact the Data Protection Authority, or other relevant organization, in your area.

INFORMATION FROM CHILDREN

We recognize the importance of protecting privacy where children are involved. We are committed to protecting children’s privacy and we comply fully with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar laws and regulations. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16. If a child under the age of 16 has provided us with personal information, we ask that a parent or guardian contact us at PearsonVUEContracts@pearson.com or 1 (952) 681-3918. If you are under 18, please be sure to read this Policy with your parent(s) or legal guardian(s) and ask questions about things you do not understand.

INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS THROUGH THIS SITE

This Site receives information that is automatically generated by a user’s Internet service provider (ISP). This information may include the IP address (a number automatically assigned to a computer by the ISP), the associated URLs, domain types, the browser type used to access our site, the country, state and telephone area code, the location of the ISP’s servers, the pages of our Site that the user views, any search terms entered on this Site, and the user’s website address and email address. This information may be collected for system administration purposes, to gather broad demographic information and to monitor the level of activity on the site. NCS Pearson does not link IP addresses to personally identifiable information; however, we reserve the right to link IP addresses and other information supplied by the ISP to personally identifiable information in order to protect the integrity of our system and for security purposes.

COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS

Cookies. Cookies are small text files that a web server places on your computer or mobile device. Cookies contain information that can later be read by the web server that originally placed the cookie on your computer or mobile device.

Here is a list of the main types of cookies we use, and what we use them for.

1. Strictly Necessary Cookies: These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the Site and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of this Site. Without these cookies services you have asked for, like shopping baskets or e-billing, cannot be provided.
2. Performance Cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. Some of these are analytics cookies, set using third party web analytics software, which allow us to understand more about how our Site is used. These cookies do not collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how our Site works. We might also use these cookies to highlight our products or services which we think will be of interest to you based on your use of our Site. For example, like many companies we use Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics to obtain web trend information about user interaction with this site. We use this information for system administration purposes and to identify problems and improve service. While Google Analytics collects and reports information on an anonymous basis, Google Analytics uses cookies and collects IP addresses to gather web trend information. For further information about Google Analytics, and for links to Google’s Privacy Policy and an opt-out tool for Google Analytics, go to www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/privacyoverview.html. By using this Site you agree we may place these types of cookies on your device.
3. Functionality Cookies: These cookies allow the Site to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For instance, these cookies can be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customize. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymized and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites. By using this Site you agree we may place these types of cookies on your device.
4. Targeting or advertising cookies: These cookies are used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organizations such as advertisers. Quite often targeting or advertising cookies will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organization. Most of our Sites do not use targeting cookies. By using this Site you agree we may place these types of cookies on your device.

3rd Party Cookies and Social Networks. If you click on a hyperlink from this Site to any third party websites (e.g. if you ‘share’ content from our Site with friends or colleagues through social networks), you may be sent cookies from these third party websites. Third party websites will have their own privacy and cookie policies which we cannot control. Please check the third-party websites for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.

How to manage cookies
If cookies aren't enabled on your computer, it will mean that your browsing or shopping experience on our websites will be limited. Some active content, movies and online shopping baskets, for example, may not work correctly.

To turn cookies on or off for all websites via your web browser, you can follow the instructions provided by the UK Information Commission Office at http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/online/cookies.aspx.

Web Beacons. Web Beacons are small strings of code that provide a method for delivering a graphic image on a web page for the purpose of transferring data.  For example, when you visit a page on this Site, the code for the page being visited may be transferred to us.  The information transmitted to us is used internally, and not shared with third parties, except as provided in this Policy.  We use this information for the following purposes:

• To allow us to better understand the traffic patterns within our websites and, subsequently, to adjust our content to better respond to visitor’s interests; and
• To use the information to suggest materials and resources that may be of interest to you based on your use of this Site.

By using this Site, you agree to the our use of cookies and our use of web beacons for the collections of certain information in order to provide the products or services you have requested and for improvement, as we deem appropriate in our sole discretion, related to our products and services.

TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION

Data collected and received by us may be transmitted to the United States and other countries. NCS Pearson’s computer operations are currently based in the United States. The Internet is a global environment. By using this site and sending information to us electronically, you consent to trans-border and international transmission of any data that you may choose to supply us. Information transmissions to this site and emails sent to us may not be secure. Given the inherent operation and nature of the Internet, all Internet transmissions are done at the user’s own risk.

INFORMATION POLICY RELATING TO TEST CENTER APPLICATIONS

For information submitted by businesses wishing to become Pearson VUE-authorized test centers, please see the Information Policy regarding Test Center Applications.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We reserve the right to change the terms of this Policy from time to time by posting an updated Policy. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically for any changes or updates.

HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have any questions or concerns about this Policy, please contact us at PearsonVUEContracts@pearson.com. You may also contact us at +1 (952) 681-3918.