Privacy Policy

Dated: 31/01/2020

PLEASE READ THIS POLICY CAREFULLY

Privacy Statement

Your privacy is most important to us. At Publish1st Inc. (“Publish1st”, “we”, “us” or “our”), Publish1st^® shall ensure that it complies with the following privacy notice when processing personal information on behalf of our partners and/or your academic institution or organization. This privacy notice applies to your use of the platform located at www.publish1st.com, (“Platform”, “Website”) and Publish1st Services, as defined in the Terms of Service to which this policy is incorporated into and made a part of. We are adamant about protecting the privacy of our users and subscribers. Our policy is simple: except as noted below we do not sell, share, or provide in any way your personally identifiable information to any person, company or organization without your prior permission.

User Consent to Privacy Policy

Any person accessing, browsing, or otherwise using the Platform, Website, or Publish1st Services shall be considered a "user." All users are bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy. Users consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of personally identifiable user information ("information") pursuant to the terms of this Privacy Policy.  By visiting or using the Platform, Website, or Publish1st Services, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

Information Collection and Use

Publish1st collects registration, authentication, and assessment information from users who use our products and services from our websites and we are the sole owners of the information collected on our sites. We will not sell, share or provide this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this Privacy Policy.

Information Collected Through Account Creation and Registration, Login, and Obtaining and using the Publish1st Platform, Programs and Services:

Following are examples of the types of users and services offered by Publish1st and the type of information that is collected from the user. By providing any such information, the user consents to our Privacy Policy:

• Individual User Accounts:
  Individual Users provide us with their full names, address, telephone number, gender, email address, password, and credit card information. All underage minor users of our products provide us with their email address or user name, gender, grade level, in some cases, birth month and year, and password.

• Author User Accounts:
  Author User Accounts, include anyone working in the platform to produce a publication (hereinafter “author(s)”). Authors are solely responsible for establishing process/compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as well as any privacy policies, or other obligations relating to collection of personal information in connection with the use of the Publish1st Services by Individual Users with whom Authors interact.

• Organizational User Accounts:
  Organizational Users include schools, government agencies, companies, Publish1st partners, or any other organization.  Publish1st processes your personal information in accordance with the instructions given to us by the Organization. Organizational Users are solely responsible for establishing process/ compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as well as any privacy policies, or other obligations relating to collection of personal information in connection with the use of the Publish1st Services by Individual Users with whom Organizational Users interact.

Personally identifiable information collected during the account registration process, use of our Publish1st Services, including publications on the Publish1st Platform, users choosing to receive certain email communications, and participation in electronic events, may be used to:

• Provide, improve, promote and enable your access to the Publish1st Services;
• Process transactions and send receipts and invoices;
• Generate statistical studies and conduct research related to our professional work;
• Identify, develop, and offer existing and new products and services; and
• Provide customer services and support, and send updates, notices and administrative messages.

Log Files:

We use IP addresses to identify trends, administer the site, track users’ movements within our sites and gather broad demographic information for aggregated use. We will not share this information with any other third party. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifying information.

Portfolios:

The portfolios on our websites are intended for storage of progress, results, artifacts and access to authorized products and are protected by users’ passwords. The contents of each portfolio can be viewed by the portfolio creator, Author and, in the case of an Organizational User account, site practitioner(s) or Professional(s), manager or supervisor, Parents or Guardians in the case of Individual User accounts.

Newsletters and other Communication Tools:

If you wish to subscribe to any newsletter or other electronic communication tools we produce, we ask for contact information, such as your name and e-mail address. Your e-mail address will be used to deliver these communications and information from the Publish1st websites. The personal communication information users provide us with will NOT be distributed to any other third party for any reason whatsoever.

Exceptions to the Privacy Policy

As noted above, we do not share or provide in any way your personally identifiable information to any person, company or organization without your prior permission, except as noted below:

• When required by law to comply with any valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, regulation or court order, Publish1st will supply such information as, based on the advice of counsel, Publish1st reasonably determines it is legally required to supply.
• Publish1st may release specific information relevant to special cases, such as, to protect the rights, property or personal safety of  you or others or in the case of an attempted breach of security on our websites, suspected fraud or violations of our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy.
• Publish1st may disclose information to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.
• For users who access Publish1st Services provided to them by schools, government agencies, independent counselors, companies, or any other organization (hereinafter collectively “Organizations”) that purchases services from Publish1st Inc., whether or not the user pays for the Publish1st Services directly, Publish1st will share user information with authorized personnel at those Organizations who we consider site practitioners (example: faculty, teachers, counselors, supervisors, etc.). Since those Organizations are responsible for assigning access to user information it becomes the responsibility of the user to determine whom in the said Organizations has access to their information. Publish1st is not responsible for the actions, practices, or policies of those Organizations and their use of user information.
• Some users of Publish1st products are underage minors. Publish1st will provide access to these users information as described in the above paragraph. Publish1st will also share underage minor user's information with parents or guardians if requested.
• Publish1st Inc. may disclose or transfer user information to a third party in the event that Publish1st Inc. enters into a merger or enters into bankruptcy, or a third party acquires Publish1st Inc. or its assets.

Use of Cookies

Our Platform and Publish1st Services use session cookies for session management to distinguish you from other users. This helps us provide you with a good experience when you use our Website and Publish1st Services. The cookie is a text string stored by a user’s web browser. It consists of one or more name-value pairs containing bits of information, which may be encrypted for information privacy and data security purposes. The cookie is used for authentication, storing site preferences, shopping cart contents, the identifier for a server-based session, or anything else that can be accomplished through storing textual data. For example, our session cookies allow users to log in to our Publish1st Services. The web server will first send a cookie containing a unique session identifier. Users then submit their credentials and the web application authenticates the session and allows the user access to Publish1st Services.

As text, cookies are not executable files. Because they are not executable, they cannot replicate themselves and are not viruses. Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether to accept cookies, and the time frame to keep them, but rejecting cookies makes our Publish1st Services unusable. Session cookies used by Publish1st are deleted by the user's computer when the browser is closed, when the computer is turned off, or when the session automatically times out.

Publish1st does not place cookies permanently on the user's hard drives to track user activity in any way.

Service Providers

Publish1st uses third parties to process credit card transactions.  Publish1st does not store credit card numbers except the last four digits required for refunds should they occur. Publish1st will not be held responsible for data breaches by these credit card processing companies.

Publish1st uses third parties to anonymously monitor traffic on our Websites, and Publish1st Services to identify trends, administer the site, track users’ movements within our sites and gather broad demographic information for aggregated use. We will not share this information with any other third party. These programs record visitors’ host, domain names, pages visited, length of user sessions, browser type and/or IP addresses. The programs track the number of times the site(s) are visited, how many visitors come to the site(s), which parts of the site(s) are frequented, and the length of time of each visit. This information is not linked to and does not contain personally identifiable information.

Some of our third party service providers use cookies on our websites; we have no control over those cookies, and this Privacy Policy does not cover them.

Communication Options from Publish1st Inc. websites

We communicate electronically with our users through three types of emails: mandatory system-generated emails, optional emails, and promotion emails. System-generated emails are a direct response to a user’s action on the site(s). Examples include: confirmation of a purchase, adding a staff person or program administrator to an Organizational User Account, and username and password reminders. Optional emails are selected by the user based on specific Publish1st Services chosen. Examples include email newsletters and user product updates. Promotion emails are determined by Publish1st to promote other useful products to our users and to get user opinions about our products and services. Examples include product promotions, alerts, and surveys. If you do not want to receive promotional emails from us, please let us know by sending an email to customersuccess@publish1st.com.

Linked Internet Web Sites

The Publish1st platform, websites, products and services may provide hyperlinks, which are highlighted words or pictures within a hypertext document that, when clicked, take you to another place within the document, to another document altogether, or may take you to a third party website not controlled by Publish1st These hyperlinked third party websites may collect and disclose Information differently than the Platform, Website and, Publish1st Services, and if you visit these third party websites we recommend that you read their privacy policy statements. Publish1st is not responsible for the collection, use, or disclosure of information collected through these websites, and Publish1st expressly disclaims any and all liability related to such collection, use, or disclosure.

Security

The security of your information is important to us.  Publish1st has and will maintain reasonable security measures to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control.  Our website, products and services uses Secure Sockets Layer technology (SSL), which encrypts all sensitive information users' input before it is sent to us. Thus, we have taken steps to protect the information we collect from you from unauthorized access, use, and disclosure. Publish1st makes no representations or warranties with regard to the sufficiency of these security measures. Publish1st shall not be responsible for any actual or consequential damages that result from a lapse in compliance with this Privacy Policy because of a security breach or technical malfunction.

Applicable Law/International Issues

Information that is submitted to Publish1st websites, products and services will be collected, processed, stored, disclosed and disposed of in accordance with applicable U.S. law. If you are a non-U.S. user, you acknowledge and agree that we may collect and use your information, as discussed above, outside your resident jurisdiction. In addition, such information may be stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction. U.S. law may not provide the degree of protection for information that is available in other countries. By providing us with your information, you acknowledge that your have read this Privacy Policy, understand it, agree to its terms and consent to the transfer of such Information outside your resident jurisdiction. If you do not consent to the terms of this Policy, please do not use Publish1st websites, products and services.

Compliance with Privacy Laws

Publish1st complies fully with the requirements of the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g (“FERPA”), the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act, Assembly Bill No. 1584 codified in Education Code Section 49073.1, and all other federal, state & Provincial guidelines applicable and adopted in accordance therewith. Personally identifiable information received by Publish1st will be used solely for legitimate interests.

Pursuant to AB 1584, student records entered into accounts on the Website by students of the Local Educational Agency (“LEA”) shall continue to be the property of, and under the control of, the LEA. Students may retain possession and control of or transfer such accounts to personal accounts upon by following instructions from within their account. In the event of an unauthorized disclosure of records, we will promptly notify the affected parent, legal guardian, or eligible pupil and LEA and take appropriate mitigation efforts. Pupil records shall not be retained upon completion of the terms of the contract.

Further, in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 6501-6506 ("COPPA") and consistent with the Privacy Policy of the Website, children under thirteen should not create accounts on Publish1st Products. The only exception is when Publish1st™ has agreements in place with schools, districts and or partners who have obtained consent to usage from parents /legal guardians on behalf of the student.

Amendments to Privacy Policy

Publish1st reserves the right to modify our Privacy Policy from time to time. You should review our Privacy Policy statement periodically. If we make significant modifications to the policy we will post, on the home page of the Publish1st website, for 7 days prior to the effective of the new policy, a notice that we have a new privacy policy. Continued use of the Website, Platform and/or Publish1st Services indicates that you are agreeing to this Privacy Policy and any modifications.

Access to Personally Identifiable Information

You can change your personally identifiable information in any of these ways:

• Sign in to your account and change your personal information through the program software
• In the case of organizational account access, contact an administrator, course facilitor, faculty member, counselor, or other staff person that has authorized access to our products
• Contact Publish1st Inc. at info@publish1st.com

You can request deletion of your personally identifiable information that is maintained by us by contacting Publish1st at info@publish1st.com; however, this information may be retained if you maintain an account for Publish1st Services or to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes and/or to enforce the terms of agreements.

Parents and/or guardians may review underage minor user's information and request deletion of such information by emailing a request to info@publish1st.com.

To close or deactivate your account, you must:

Email Customer Service at customersuccess@publish1st.com.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site or your dealings with Publish1st websites, please contact info@publish1st.com.