SOCS - Simplified Online Communication System

 

Our Privacy Pledge to You

Protecting your privacy is important to the Foundation for Educational Services (FES). We value the trust you have placed in us, and your continued confidence is important to us. As you review our pledge, please remember that:

• We make safeguarding the information we gather about you a priority.
• We maintain security practices to keep personal information about you safe.
• We do not sell or share customer information. We do not market our products or services directly to you, nor do we market the products or services of other companies.
• Personal information captured on the system is used by the schools for which we provide services. FES will not use the information to contact you directly and will not share the information with other entities.
• We will provide you with helpful information about privacy and information security. For example, on our web site, you will find tips to help you protect yourself from identity theft, and limit direct marketing from others.
• The policies and practices described in this privacy pledge may change, but it is our pledge to you never to allow the information on our systems to be used for direct marketing of products.

Preventing Identity Theft

FES is dedicated to protecting your personal information. Strict policies and procedures have been implemented to ensure that your personal information is kept confidential. Every effort is made to protect our customers from fraud. We will never initiate a request for sensitive information from (i.e., Social Security Number, Personal ID, Password, PIN or account number, credit card information, etc.). If you receive an email that requests this type of sensitive information, you should be suspicious of it. We strongly suggest that you do not share your personal ID, password, PIN or account number with anyone, under any circumstances. If you receive a suspicious looking email, please forward it to socssupport@fes.org.

Protecting Children Online

FES feels that it is extremely important to guard the identity and privacy of children, and we encourage parents to supervise their children's interactions online. We do not intentionally market to or solicit personal information from children under the age of 13. For more information on the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), you can visit the Federal Trade Commission site at www.ftc.gov.

Using cookies on SOCS sites

FES does not use cookies to retrieve any data from a user's hard drive, carry computer viruses, capture email addresses or work with online advertisers. A cookie is a small text file that a website can send to a browser which may then be stored on a computer. SOCS sites, like many other websites, use cookies to provide visitors with tailored information from the website. There are two types of cookies used by SOCS:

• Session Cookies:
SOCS sites use session cookies for consistency purposes. Once users access a SOCS website, their browser receives a session cookie which has a time stamp on it. As they move around a website, their browser submits the session cookie whenever the browser requests a new web page. This is how the site knows user preferences so the appearance can remain consistent. Once a person leaves the site, the session cookie placed on his or her computer expires and is deleted from the computer. FES and the SOCS program do not monitor or track any individual's browsing pattern.
• Persistent Cookies:

Persistent cookies help a site remember individuals as a previous visitor and can help a visitor by remembering settings from a previous session. An example is when someone responds to a poll question. A cookie is used to ensure each poll taker votes only once.

Opting out of having cookies placed on a computer

Each user can set their browser to notify them when a cookie is received, giving the user a chance to decide whether to accept it. However, if someone chooses to reject cookies, that person may be prompted to log in multiple times (for those sections that require it) in the same browsing session but retains access to all information. Users can consult their browser documentation to learn how to modify cookie settings.