Instepwithdata.org

Privacy Policy/Terms of Service

approved 2/6/2023

The InSTEPwithData.org [“InSTEP”] professional learning platform is created and run by the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at the NC State University College of Education [“Friday Institute”] and RTI International is responsible for administration of the InSTEP platform.

In consideration for your enrollment and participation in InSTEP you agree to the Privacy Policy/Terms of Service below. The Friday Institute reserves the right to modify the Privacy Policy/Terms of Service at any time without advance notice. Any changes to the Privacy Policy/Terms of Service will be effective immediately upon posting on this page, with an updated effective date. By accessing or enrolling in InSTEP after any changes have been made, you signify your agreement on a prospective basis to the modified Privacy Policy/Terms of Service and all of the changes. Be sure to return to this page periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version of the Privacy Policy/Terms of Service.

Privacy Policy

We respect your privacy. Except where required by applicable law, any personally identifiable information you provide, including your name and email address, will not be sold or rented to any entities or individuals outside of the Friday Institute. We will use your contact information only for Friday Institute activities and to send you information about other related resources, research studies, and professional development opportunities.

InSTEP may contain links to other websites. These websites may have privacy policies different than this Privacy Policy. InSTEP may also contain certain social media icons or widgets. Although you can view the material we have linked to, you may have to create an individual account or register to use these third-party social media sites to use interactive features. Any interaction on social media websites is governed by the terms of use and privacy policy of the particular platform.

What Information Is Collected?

We collect, retain and use information voluntarily provided by you through your use of InSTEP. For example, the information we may collect and retain includes, but is not limited to, the following categories of information:

  • Your contact information, such as your first and last name, occupation, business title/position, company name (including school district and school name), home and mobile phone number, e-mail address, home and employer address, unique device identifier of your devices that connect to or access InSTEP, demographic information;
  • Your email address and password in order to register to create an account;
  • Your education history and specialty areas in order to provide relevant services;
  • Your responses to any surveys or assessments, including micro-credentials, embedded within the site;
  • Information you may post in discussion portals, forums, playlists, message boards or chat rooms, including those postings, pictures, file attachments, and videos;
  • Information regarding your browser and other technical specifications required to use our site;
  • Computer data or files, often called “cookies,” including web beacons, pixels, gifs, widgets, tags or similar technologies, which may be sent by your web browser and stored on an individual computer to allow our server to “recognize” you through the navigation of the site and to perform certain functions, such as saving your passwords and your personal preferences regarding the use of the site, evaluating the popularity of those links or the information contained in emails or on third-party sites;
  • Other information regarding your use of InSTEP such as, usage statistics, time stamps, IP address, browsing history, saved and downloaded resources, playlists, clickstream data, general geographic location, successful and unsuccessful login attempts, types of device you use to connect to the site, type of computer operating system you use (e.g., Microsoft Windows, Google Chrome OS, Mac OS, Android or iOS), the type of browser you use (e.g., Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari) and the domain name of your internet service provider. We use this information to measure our website traffic, diagnose problems with our server, administer InSTEP, analyze trends, improve InSTEP, and to help provide a more personalized experience.

Posted/submitted information is not confidential

We cannot ensure the confidentiality of anything posted on any part of InSTEP, including comments in the discussion forum. Since many participants will have access to InSTEP, it is your responsibility to avoid posting information that you do not wish or consider to be public. IF YOU CHOOSE TO MAKE ANY OF YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE OR OTHER INFORMATION PUBLICLY AVAILABLE IN A FORUM OR OTHERWISE ON THIS SITE, YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Access, Control and Correction of Your Information

InSTEP respects your right to access, correct, request deletion, and request restriction of InSTEP’s usage of your personal information. Depending upon your location/residency, you may have the right:

  1. To request access to or transfer of your information;
  2. To ask about the methods in which your information is maintained and processed;
  3. To request information about the organizations with whom your information may be disclosed;
  4. To ask InSTEP to delete or restrict how the university uses your information, but this right is determined by applicable law and may impact your access to and participation in InSTEP activities and services;
  5. If you believe your information is incorrect or incomplete, you can request corrections or updates to any inaccuracies, and for those corrections to be made if it is deemed inaccurate by InSTEP;
  6. To object to the collection, processing, retention or use of your information; and
  7. To lodge a complaint with the appropriate authorities, including United States and European Union Governmental Bodies.

InSTEP does not accept requests to access or delete personal data from third parties, all such requests must come from the individual whose data is involved. You may exercise these rights by contacting InSTEP’s online network support at instep-project@ncsu.edu. In order for your request to be considered, you must identify the law or regulation you believe justifies your request, and you must identify your affiliation with InSTEP. If you choose to exercise these rights, InSTEP may be unable to effectively offer you certain educational services, which may prevent you from being accepted or participating in educational activities offered by InSTEP. Please note that InSTEP may have legal obligations that require it to retain certain information for a specific period of time, which will prevent InSTEP from honoring your request. In such cases, your records will be deleted when those records are eligible for destruction under the applicable legal regulatory scheme. For requesters in the European Union requesting that their personal information be deleted under GDPR, please note that InSTEP has a legitimate interest in retaining records in accordance with applicable records retention laws, and all such records are deleted as such required retention periods lapse.

Terms of Service

Appropriate Use

The purpose of InSTEP is to support the professional development of education professionals. Participants agree that all information and interactions will be toward that goal, and that all interactions will be conducted in a professional manner respectful of the other participants. You also agree that you will not use InSTEP to market, advertise or sell any commercial products. The Friday Institute maintains the right, at its sole discretion, to remove, without notice, any materials or comments in violation of law or the terms of use of this site, and to withdraw access to InSTEP for anyone we consider to have violated the appropriate use of the sites.

Responsibility for Information You Submit

You are solely responsible for content you submit to InSTEP and the consequences of submitting and publishing your content online. You agree to not submit any information that might violate others’ copyright or proprietary rights. Participants submitting original works to this site hereby grant a license to all such works under the Creative Commons license, By Attribution/Share-Alike/Non-Commercial (CC-BY-SA-NC) and warrant that they are authorized to grant this license. You acknowledge that any information, pictures or videos you provide or post may be read, collected, used, shared or reproduced by InSTEP or others who access them.

The Friday Institute does not permit infringement of copyright or other intellectual property rights, and we will remove all content if properly notified that such content infringes on another’s intellectual property rights. The Friday Institute reserves the right to remove content without prior notice. You further agree to indemnify and hold harmless NC State University, its trustees, officers, employees and agents from any liability, losses, costs, damages, claims or causes of action of any kind or nature whatsoever, and expenses, including attorneys fees, arising from or proximately caused by your use of this site.

Password Protection

You acknowledge and agree that any user name, login code, identifier or password is confidential information. You are responsible for any use of your username, user ID, login and / or password. You agree to notify the Friday Institute immediately of any unauthorized use of any password or any other breach of security of which you are aware. If you are using login via a third party provider (e.g. Google, Facebook, Twitter), you are responsible for notifying appropriate parties immediately of any unauthorized use of any password or any other breach of security of which you are aware.

Links to Third Party Websites

InSTEP may contain links to websites and other resources operated by third parties. Such links are provided solely as a convenience to participants. Neither the Friday Institute, RTI International, nor NC State University control such websites, and are not responsible for the content, products, services or other materials offered through such websites. The inclusion of links to such websites does not imply any endorsement of the content, products or services offered through any website, or of any company or person. If you decide to access any third party websites, you do so entirely at your own risk, and you may be subject to the terms and conditions and the privacy policies of such websites.

Disclaimer

InSTEP content, products and services are provided on an ”as is” basis WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS OF ANY SORT OR OTHER KIND. The Friday Institute does not represent or warrant that the information accessible via InSTEP is accurate, complete, current, or that it does not infringe any third party rights. We aim to provide useful professional development resources, but the interpretation and application of these resources is solely the responsibility of the participant who chooses to use them.

Infringement Notification

If you believe that any material on InSTEP infringes your copyright, email copyright@ncsu.edu. If you do not include an electronic signature with your claim, you may be asked to send or fax a follow-up copy with a signature. To file the notification, you must be either the copyright owner of the work or an individual authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner. Your notification must include:

  1. Identification of the copyrighted work, or, in the case of multiple works at the same location, a representative list of such works at that site.
  2. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity. You must include sufficient information, such as a specific URL or other specific identification, for us to locate the material.
  3. Information for us to be able to contact the claimant (e.g., email address, phone number).
  4. A statement that the claimant believes that the use of the material has not been authorized by the copyright owner or an authorized agent.
  5. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and that the claimant is, or is authorized to act on behalf of, the copyright owner.

Governing Law

The Privacy Policy/Terms of Use, and use of InSTEP, are governed by the laws of the United States of America and the laws of the State of North Carolina.