Privacy Policy

1. ABOUT HSCRED

We are HSCred, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“HSCred”, “we”, “our” or “us”). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.

2. ABOUT THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) applies to the personal information and other information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit our website https://hscred.app (together with https://hscred.com and https://hscredjp.org) (the “Site”) which includes our software-as-a-service platform (the “Software”), and all other related sites, platforms, applications, and services provided by us (together with the Site and Software, the “Services”). It explains, among other things, how and why we collect data about you when you use our Services, what data we collect, what we do with that data, how we look after it, and what your rights are in relation to it.

PLEASE READ THIS POLICY CAREFULLY TO UNDERSTAND OUR POLICIES AND PRACTICES REGARDING YOUR INFORMATION AND HOW WE WILL TREAT IT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH OUR POLICIES AND PRACTICES, YOUR CHOICE IS NOT TO USE OUR SERVICES.

By accessing our Site and/or using our Services, or (if applicable) by permitting your minor child (who is at least 14 years old) to use our Services, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the accompanying Terms of Use. Capitalized terms not defined in this policy have the meaning ascribed to them in the Terms of Use. This policy may change from time to time (see Section 12 - Changes to This Privacy Policy). Your continued use of the Services after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

THE SERVICES ARE NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN UNDER 14 YEARS OF AGE. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 14, and no one under the age of 14 may use or register for the Services. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 14, we will take steps to delete such information as soon as possible.

If you are under 18, certain features may require confirmation or consent from your parent or legal guardian, as described in our Terms of Use or the applicable feature legal terms.

3. DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

The personal information we collect via or in relation to the Services can be split into three broad categories:

• information you provide to us;
• information collected automatically; and
• information we obtain from third parties.

3.1 Information you provide to us

We may ask for and collect the following information when you use the Services:

Identity and profile information: We require you to provide certain personal information to create an account on the Services. The personal information we may require includes name, grade, school, school address, telephone number, date of birth, demographic data, avatar, and email address.

We may also collect information such as work, volunteering, or internship experiences, certifications, personal statements, personal projects, values, personality attributes, interests, and skills. Students can upload a profile image to their profile.

Submissions and User Generated Content: Students may upload media files, including video or audio presentations, as part of their academic submissions.

Communications: When you communicate with us by email, mail, telephone, or through/via the Services, we collect information about your communication and any information you choose to provide.

Information for payments: If you are eligible to receive payments through the Services (for example, as an evaluator), we and/or our payout processors may collect information necessary for onboarding and compliance (such as identity verification information and tax documentation).

3.2 Information we collect automatically

We may use automatic data collection technologies and collect certain information automatically when you use the Services. This information includes:

Interaction information and history: Information about your interactions and history with the Services, including the pages that you visit and links you click on, search history, logs and location data, the time, frequency and duration of your Site visits and Software uses, and what features you used; Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

Cookies: Like many websites on the Internet, when you visit the Services, we may assign your device one or more cookies to facilitate access to the Site and to personalize your online experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on the Services, such as the web pages you visit, the time and date of your visits, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on the Services. We may use this data to better understand how you interact with the Services, to monitor aggregate usage by our users and web traffic routing on the Services, and to improve the Site and our Services. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, please note that you may not be able use some of the interactive features offered on the Services. In addition, please be aware that other parties may also place their own cookies on or through the Site and/or Services and may collect or solicit personal information from you. Other cookies may reflect de-identified demographic or other data linked to the registration data you have submitted to us in hashed, non-human readable form. No personally identifiable information is contained in these cookies.

Web Beacons: Our Services and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

We do not support Do Not Track (“DNT”). Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked. You can enable or disable Do Not Track by visiting the preferences or settings page of your web browser. For further details, visit donottrack.us.

The information we collect automatically may include personal information. It helps us to improve our Services and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to: estimate our audience size and usage patterns; store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Services according to your individual interests; speed up your searches; recognize you when you return to our Services.

3.3 Information we receive from other sources

Service providers and business partners: We may also receive information about you from our service providers and business partners, including companies that assist with analytics, data processing and management, account management, customer and technical support, hosting, and other services which we use to personalize your HSCred experience. We explain in more detail why and how we use this information below.

When we receive information from other sources, we rely on them having the appropriate provisions in place telling you how they collect data and who they may share it with.

4. HOW YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS USED

This section explains how we use and process your personal data:

4.1 Information you provide to us

We will use this information to:

• Carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the Services, including to generate and maintain digital academic credentials and transcripts based on submissions, which may be shared with you, educational institutions, and other authorized parties for evaluation and admissions purposes;
• Better understand our users;
• Respond to your enquiries or to process your requests in relation to your information;
• Notify you about your account and important changes or developments to our Services;
• Ensure that the Services are being presented in the most effective manner for you, making the Services easier for you to use and to provide you with a smooth, efficient, safe and tailored experience;
• Detect and protect us against error, fraud and other criminal activity, and enforce our agreements;
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information; and
• For any other purpose with your consent.

4.2 Information we collect automatically

We will use this information to:

• Administer the Services and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, and statistical purposes;
• Improve the Services and user experience to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you;
• Allow you to participate in interactive features of our Services, when you choose to do so; and
• Keep the Services safe and secure.

4.3 Information we receive from other sources

We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the information we receive).

4.4 Payment Information

We do not collect or store any credit card or other direct payment information ourselves. All payments made in connection with the Services are processed through our third-party payment processor, Stripe, Inc. (“Stripe”). Any payment information you provide is submitted directly to Stripe and is subject to Stripe’s privacy policy. We do not have access to your full payment details, though we may receive limited information from Stripe, such as confirmation of payment, transaction ID, and the last four digits of your payment card, solely for record-keeping and customer support purposes.

4.5 De-Identified Data; Research

We may create, use, and commercialize de-identified, anonymized, or aggregated data derived from Student Submissions, Published Works, evaluations, and Platform usage (“De-Identified Data”) for research, analytics, product development, platform improvement, credential-quality insights, and related purposes. As between you and us, we own all De-Identified Data and all right, title, and interest in and to such De-Identified Data, including all intellectual property and other proprietary rights. We will never sell De-Identified Data. We may use De-Identified Data internally for research, analytics, product development, platform improvement, and credential-quality insights, may publish aggregate statistics, and may provide access to De-Identified Data, at no charge, to academic researchers and evaluation partners under written agreements that prohibit re-identification and commercial use. We will not attempt to re-identify De-Identified Data and will contractually require service providers and research counterparties not to do so.

5. SHARING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The following describes the ways we may share your personal information in the normal course of business and in order to provide our Services.

With your consent: We will disclose your personal information when and if you have agreed that we may do so. We will make this clear to you at the point at which we collect your personal information, including the purpose(s) for which we will use the personal information.

Intended purpose: We will use your personal information to fulfil the purpose for which you provide it, or for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information. This includes sharing with authorized academic evaluators (including Experts and Partners) student submissions for the purpose of evaluating academic work, assigning credit, and maintaining the integrity of the credentialing process.

Student metadata (including personally identifiable information and social history) will be displayed or shared in connection with a Published Work only if the student affirmatively elects to include it through the Services’ controls. If the student does not affirmatively elect to include such metadata, the Published Work may be viewable with academic data and without student metadata, subject to Channel-specific requirements enabled by the Platform.

Student-directed sharing. You may direct us to share certain categories of information associated with your transcript of Published Works with designated recipients through the Services. Such sharing requires an affirmative, dated consent captured through the Services that specifies the recipient(s) and the categories of information to be disclosed. The Services may also offer an optional “Recipient View” feature that allows you to generate a limited, guest-viewable link for a specific disclosure purpose (e.g., admissions review) without requiring the recipient to create an account. Recipient View links may be subject to access controls (such as expiration, view limits, password/PIN, or recipient verification). We may apply watermarks, recipient identifiers, timestamps, and other audit-trail measures to help deter unauthorized redistribution and to maintain an audit trail.

Service providers: We use contractors, service providers, and other third parties to facilitate or outsource some aspects of our Services (including analytics providers, cloud storage and computing services, payment processing, software development and maintenance, and technical support and IT services) and some of these service providers will process your personal information.

Third Party Authenticators. We may share information with third parties that you authorize, access, or use to authenticate yourself on the Platform (such as Google Single Sign-On (SSO) or other integrated identity providers). These third parties may receive limited information necessary to authenticate your identity or enable access to the Services, and their use of your information will be governed by their respective privacy policies.

If required by law: We may be required to disclose your personal information by law, in response to a valid order of a court or other authority, or to respond to regulatory requests or requests relating to criminal investigations.

Change of control: We may transfer your personal information to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of HSCred's assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by HSCred about our Services users is among the assets transferred. If this happens, you will be informed of this transfer.

Enforcing our terms of use: We may disclose your personal information to enforce or apply our terms of use (https://terms.hscred.com) and other agreements.

Protecting our rights: We may disclose your personal information if we feel this is necessary in order to protect or defend our legitimate rights and interests and/or to ensure the safety and security of the Services.

We do not disclose your personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. For clarity, this does not restrict our use of De-Identified Data as described in Section 4.5; we never sell De-Identified Data.

6. DATA SECURITY

HSCred (either itself or through third party service providers) maintains a variety of commercially reasonable electronic and procedural safeguards designed to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure. For example, HSCred uses accepted tools and techniques to protect against unauthorized access to HSCred’s systems. You should be aware that HSCred has no control over the security of other sites on the Internet that you might visit or with which you might interact even when a link may appear to another site from one of the Services. You must play your part in the safety and security of your information. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential and thus must not to share your password with anyone. HSCred wants you to feel confident using the Services, but no system can be completely secure. Therefore, although HSCred takes steps to secure your information, HSCred does not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information or communications will always remain secure. In the event of a breach of the confidentiality or security of your information, including your personal information, HSCred will notify you as required by applicable law so you can take appropriate protective steps. HSCred may notify you under such circumstances using the e-mail address(es) that HSCred has on record for you. You also should carefully handle and disclose your personal information.

7. UPDATING AND RETENTION OF YOUR DATA

For instructions on accessing or correcting your information, or to request a copy of the information we hold about you, please contact us by email (see Section 11 for contact information). Please note that we may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect. For clarity, certain content and records may persist even if you delete your account or change profile/metadata settings. For example, Published Works and related credential/transcript records may be maintained to preserve the integrity and persistence of the credentialing/publication process, subject only to limited takedown as described in our Terms of Use.

We retain your personal information for as long as we are providing the Services to you and as necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. We may also retain certain information after we cease providing Services to you (including if you delete your account) to the extent necessary to: fulfil your requests (for example, maintaining suppression lists so we do not contact you); comply with legal and regulatory obligations; conduct fraud monitoring, detection, and prevention; comply with tax, accounting, and financial reporting obligations; enforce our agreements; and satisfy our contractual commitments to partners. For clarity, account deletion does not necessarily result in deletion of Published Works or related credential/transcript records, which may be retained as described above and in our Terms of Use. Where we retain data, we do so in accordance with applicable limitation periods and records retention obligations. Even if we delete information from our active systems, deletion by our third-party providers may not be immediate and information may persist in backups for a reasonable period of time.

8. VISITING THE SITE AND SERVICES FROM OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES

HSCred offers the Services in the United States and to users in Japan (including through hscredjp.org). Wherever you use the Services from, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where HSCred’s servers are located and HSCred’s central database is operated. By using the Services, you understand that your information may be transferred to HSCred’s facilities and those third parties with whom HSCred shares it as described in this Privacy Policy. You are responsible for ensuring that information you share conforms to all local data protection laws.

9. CHILDREN

The Services are not intended for use by children. Individuals under the age of 14 are not permitted to use the Services and must not attempt to register an account or submit any personal information to us. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from any person who is under the age of 14, allow them to register an account. If it comes to our attention that we have collected personal information from a person under the age of 14, we will delete this information as quickly as possible.

If you are a parent or guardian and you learn that your child (under the age of 14) has provided us with personal information, please notify us immediately at info@hscred.com.

10. LINKS

The Services may contain content, services and other materials that link to websites operated by third parties. We have no control over those other sites, and this Privacy Policy does not apply to them. Please refer to the privacy policies of those sites for more information on how the operators of those sites collect and use your Personal Information.

11. CONTACT; MORE INFORMATION

It is our goal to make our privacy practices easy to understand. If you have questions or concerns about this privacy policy or if you would like more detailed information about our privacy practices, please contact us at:

HSCred, Inc.
244 5th Avenue, Suite N269
New York, NY 10001
info@hscred.com

12. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy may change from time to time and, if it does, the up-to-date version will always be available on our Services. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the revised Privacy Policy on the Services and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Please be sure to periodically check this page to ensure that you are aware of any changes to this Privacy Policy. Any material changes to this Privacy Policy will be communicated to registered users by a notification to their account and/or by posting a notice of the change on the Services. Please understand that your continued use of our Services following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.