Privacy Policy

The Professional Aptitude Council understands that privacy is important. This Privacy Policy applies to any and all services, applications, platforms, websites, or other affiliated ventures offered by the Professional Aptitude Council. Throughout this Policy, “PAC” and “We” refers to the Professional Aptitude Council and its affiliates. “You” or “Users” refers to you, our users – everyone who uses, subscribes to, publishes through, joins, or visits PAC. The “PAC Service” refers to the applications, platform, web site and services controlled, operated or produced by PAC.

By using the PAC Service, you expressly consent to the information handling practices described in this notice. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and is subject to the PAC Service Terms of Use. Your use of the PAC Service and any personal information you provide through the PAC Service are subject at all times to this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use.

Table of Contents

1. The Information PAC Collects
2. The Way PAC Uses Information
3. When PAC Discloses Information
4. Your Choices
5. Advertisers
6. Data Security
7. Children’s Privacy
8. International Visitors
9. In the Event of Merger or Sale
10. Third Parties
11. Changes and Updates to this Privacy Policy
12. Effective Date, Date Last Modified
13. PAC Contact Information

1. The Information PAC Collects

• Information You Provide. You may provide to PAC what is generally called “personally identifiable” information (such as your name, education history, email address, postal mailing address, and telephone numbers) if you use certain services or products from the PAC Service, enter contests or sweepstakes, or otherwise use the features and functionality of the PAC Service.
• Assessments. You may take certain assessments (“Assessments”) on the PAC Service in order to complete your profile and apply for certain positions. By taking such Assessments, which PAC reserves the right to review and score in its sole discretion, you acknowledge that PAC may store, use and disclose such Assessment and your performance in such Assessments at PAC’s sole discretion on the PAC Service in connection with your profile and the PAC Service.
• “Automatically Collected” Information. When you access the PAC Service (including through your computer or your mobile device) or open one of our emails, we may automatically record certain information from your system by using different types of tracking technology. This “automatically collected” information may include Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”), a unique user ID, version of software installed, system type, the content and pages that you access on the PAC Service, and the dates and times that you visit the PAC Service. While tracking technology is used to record certain information, no tracking technology is directly linked to your Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
• “Cookies” Information. When you access the PAC Service, we may send one or more cookies – small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters – to your computer. PAC may use both session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie disappears after you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the PAC Service. Persistent cookies can be removed. Please review your web browser “Help” file to learn the best way to modify your cookie settings.
• “Pixel Tags” or “Clear Gifs” A pixel tag, also known as a clear GIF or web beacon, is an invisible tag placed on certain pages of our Afinos Service but not on your computer. When you access these pages, pixel tags generate a generic notice of that visit. They usually work in conjunction with cookies, registering when a particular computer visits a particular page. If you turn off cookies the pixel tag will simply detect an anonymous website visit.

2. The Way PAC Uses Information

• PAC uses the information that you provide or that we collect to operate, maintain, enhance, and provide the various features and services found on the PAC Service as well as to track user-generated content and Users to the extent necessary to comply as a service provider with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other applicable laws.
• We may use your email address, without further consent, for administrative communications such as notifying you of major PAC Service updates, for customer service purposes, and to send privacy or security related notices.
• PAC uses the information that we collect to understand the usage trends and preferences of our Users, to improve the way the PAC Service works and looks, to create new features and functionality. PAC may use “Automatically Collected” information and “Cookies” information to: (a) automatically update the PAC application on your system; (b) remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you access the PAC Service; (c) provide customized third-party advertisements, content and information; (d) monitor and report on the effectiveness of third-party marketing campaigns; (e) monitor and report aggregate usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages accessed; and (f) track your entries, submissions, and status in any promotions or other activities.

3. When PAC Discloses Information

• PAC does not share your personally identifiable information with other organizations for their marketing or promotional uses without your prior express consent. Please be aware, however, that any personally identifiable information that you voluntarily choose to display on any publicly available portion of the PAC Service becomes publicly available and may be collected and used by others without restriction.
• In order to enable potential hiring parties to find and hire you, the PAC Service allows recruiters, employers, hiring managers, headhunters, and human resources professionals to view and search user profiles on the PAC Service. The information shared with such entities includes the information you have provided to us and any Assessments you have taken on the PAC Service.
• PAC may disclose Automatically Collected and other aggregate non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous usage data, referring / exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.) with interested third parties to assist those parties in understanding the usage and demographic patterns for certain content, services, advertisements, promotions, or other functionality on the PAC Service.
• We may disclose some limited User information to affiliated companies, contractors or other businesses or persons to: provide web site hosting, maintenance, and security services; fulfill orders; conduct data analysis and create reports; offer certain functionality; and assist PAC in improving the PAC Service and creating new services features. We contractually require that these parties process such information in compliance with this Privacy Policy, we authorize only a limited use of such information, and we require these parties to use reasonable confidentiality measures.
• PAC may disclose User information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. copyright or trademark law) or respond to a court order, subpoena, judicial or other government requirement, or warrant in the manner required by the requesting entity.
• PAC also reserves the right to disclose User information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to take precautions against liability; enforce our Terms of Use; protect PAC from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; to initiate, render, bill and collect for amount owed to PAC; to investigate and defend ourselves against third-party claims or allegations; to assist government enforcement agencies; to protect the security or integrity of the PAC Service; or to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of PAC, our Users, or others.

4. Your Choices and Access to your Personal Information

You may, of course, decline to share your personally-identifiable information with PAC, in which case PAC will not be able to provide to you some of the features and functionality found on the PAC Service. You may view, update, correct, or delete your user information and preferences by contacting us at privacy@proaptitude.com. PAC reserves the right to retain and use the information that we collect in a way that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to take precautions against liability; enforce our Terms of Use; or protect PAC or its users from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses.

To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you account access or making corrections to your information. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information at all times.

5. Advertisers

PAC allows other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to serve advertisements within the PAC Service. These third-party ad servers or ad networks may use technology to send, directly to your browser, the advertisements that appear within the PAC Service and they automatically receive your IP Address and other log file information when this happens. Such third-party ad servers may also use other technologies (such as cookies, javascript, or web beacons) to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to personalize their advertising content.

PAC does not provide your personally identifiable information to these third-party ad servers or ad networks without your consent. However, please note that if an advertiser asks PAC to show an advertisement to a certain audience or audience segment and you respond to that advertisement, the advertiser or ad-server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience that they were trying to reach.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers or ad networks. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites. PAC reserves the right the add or remove third-party ad networks or ad servers in its discretion and PAC may not at all times list such updated ad network or ad server partners in this Privacy Policy.

6. Our Commitment to Data Security

PAC uses commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personal information. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to PAC, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission of information, PAC makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

If PAC learns of a security systems breach, then we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. PAC may post a notice on the PAC Service if a security breach occurs. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive a free written notice of a security breach you should notify us at privacy@proaptitude.com.

7. Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy

You must be over the age of 18 to use and/or access the PAC Service.

If you are under 18 years of age, then please do not use or access the PAC service at any time or in any manner.

Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, PAC does not knowingly collect or maintain personally identifiable information from persons under 13 years-of-age. If PAC learns that personally-identifiable information of persons less than 13-years-of-age has been collected on or through the PAC Service, then PAC will take the appropriate steps to delete this information.

If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child under 13 who has become a PAC Service member, then please contact PAC at privacy@proaptitude.com. to have that child’s account terminated and information deleted.

8. International Visitors

For Users visiting the PAC Service from the European Union or other non-U.S. territories, please note that any data you enter into the PAC Service will be transferred outside the European Union or such other non-U.S. territory for use by PAC and its affiliates for any of the purposes described herein. In addition, because PAC operates globally, we may make information we gather available to worldwide business units and affiliates. By providing any data on the PAC Service, you hereby expressly consent to such transfers of your data to the United States or other countries.

9. In the Event of Merger or Sale

In the event that PAC is acquired by or merged with a third-party entity, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer or assign the information that we have collected from Users as part of that merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control.

10. Third Parties

Except as otherwise expressly provided otherwise, this document addresses only the use and disclosure of information we collect from you or that you disclose to us. If you disclose your information to others besides PAC, whether they are users of the PAC Service or on other sites or services, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them. PAC does not control the privacy policies of third parties, and you are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties where applicable. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.

11. Changes and Updates to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be revised periodically. If revised, the changes will be reflected by a “last modified” date below. We will also post material changes to this privacy statement via a prominent notice on the home page or any other place that we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. Please revisit this page to stay aware of any changes. In general, we only use your personal information in the manner described in the Privacy Policy in effect when we received that personal information. Your continued use of the PAC Service constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any future revisions.

For revisions to this Privacy Policy that may be materially less restrictive on our use or disclosure of personal information you have provided to us, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you and obtain your consent before implementing revisions with respect to such information.

12. Effective Date, Date Last Modified

Privacy Policy last modified on September 29, 2009.

13. PAC Contact Information

Please contact PAC with any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, to obtain access to your personal information, and our third-party disclosure practices or your consent choices at: 660 Third Street, Suite 205, San Francisco, CA 94107 or by email: privacy@proaptitude.com. We will respond to your inquiry within 30 days of its receipt.