Last Updated: September 7, 2023
Watermark Insights, LLC, and its affiliates (“Watermark”, “we” or “us”, or “our”) has prepared this Privacy Statement (the “Privacy Policy”) to describe its practices regarding personal information that may be collected from users of its websites, applications, and other related services (collectively, the “Services”).
OVERVIEW
The use of personal information collected through our Services is limited to the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Our products and services, as well as our privacy policies, are regularly audited and inspected by both employees and external consultants to ensure that we meet privacy expectations and requirements. This Privacy Policy describes how Watermark collects and uses the personal information you provide. Personal data is information that relates to you and may identify you as an individual. We use your personal data in line with all applicable laws. Our Privacy Policy also describes the choices available to you regarding the use of your personal information, and your ability to access, update, and correct your personal information.
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR USERS
This Privacy Policy does not govern the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information through the Service by the educational institution which has given you access to the Services, or which is providing a course evaluation or survey you are taking via the Services. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION TO BETTER UNDERSTAND ITS SPECIFIC PRIVACY PRACTICES. Remember that your use of the Watermark website and/or Watermark Services is at all times subject to the Terms of Service currently available at https://www.watermarkinsights.com/legal/terms/ (the “Terms”).
CHILDREN AND SENSITIVE DATA
Watermark products and services are not intentionally directed at children under 13 in the U.S., and under 16 years of age in the EEA/UK. If we determine upon collection that a Site Visitor, a User, or a Business Partner is under 13 in the U.S., or under 16 in the EEA/UK without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian as required by law, we will not maintain his/her personal data and will make reasonable efforts to delete such information from our records.
WATERMARK STUDENT (PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS AVISO STUDENT)
Using the Watermark Student Success & Engagement (SS&E) product and service (previously known as the Aviso Application or Aviso Enterprise)is, in addition to this Privacy Policy, subject to following subsections a-f.
a. When you register and use the SS&E Services, you provide information about yourself. Depending on how you use the Services, such information that you provide to use includes: (a) your first and last name, gender, email address, age (to comply with legal requirements), address, phone number, transcript information, account balance with the institution, password and other registration information; (b) your interaction with the Services; (c) information you provide us when you contact us for help; (d) information you enter into our system when using the Services, such as communications with your Advisor; and (e) any information or photographs you choose to provide. In addition, your institution may populate your account with additional personal information related to your use of the Services. In addition, we collect certain information, which cannot be used to personally identify any user, and which may be provided to third parties. Such non-personal data ordinarily includes aggregate, summary, or other usage data, and may include, by way of example, statistics regarding total users, information regarding types of Internet browsers used by users, and widget usage patterns. We also collect non-personal data about each user’s IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer our Services. There are three types of Users on the Services: “Students”, “Advisors”, and “Managers”. In order for the Services to fulfill its purpose, some other types of Users may have access to your data through the Services. Student information will be available to each Student’s Advisor and Manager. Advisor information will be available to their Manager. The Manager will also have access to all communications between Managers and Students.
b. We track usage data and user traffic patterns throughout our Services to improve the content of our Services and the quality of our Services. We may use your information (a) to deliver the Services and features desired by you, (b) to improve our services to you, (c) to personalize content and offers that may be of interest to you, (d) to respond to your inquiries, and (e) to fulfill your request for products or services.
c. We may collect anonymous or aggregate user information and disclose such data only in a non-personally identifiable manner to:
d. In no event will such information identify you personally; however, we also track your location when you use the SS&E mobile app to check into a classroom, by using your phone’s GPS data. We collect this data, and use it as part of a two-part verification system to validate that you are in the classroom when you check in.
e. Watermark and its affiliates may use Google Analytics Advertiser Features to optimize our business. Advertiser features include:
By enabling these Google Analytics Display features, we are required to notify our visitors by disclosing the use of these features and that we and third-party vendors use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) or other first-party identifiers, and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to gather data about your activities on our Services. Among other uses, this allows us to contact you if you begin to fill out our check-out form but abandon it before completion with an email reminding you to complete your order. The “Remarketing” feature allows us to reach people who previously visited our Services and match the right audience with the right advertising message.
f. You may opt out of the automated collection of some information by third-party ad networks for the purpose of delivering advertisements tailored to your interests, by visiting the consumer opt-out page for the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ and edit or opt-out your Google Display Network ads’ preferences at http://www.google.com/ads/preferences. Because those opt-out and preference control pages are specific to the individual browser used to visit it, and because that page is not operated by Watermark, we are unable to perform the opt-outs on your behalf.
STORAGE AND TRANSFER
Watermark retains personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected, or to comply with legal, regulatory, or internal policy requirements. Our servers are currently located in the United States, Canada, Australia and Ireland. We have office locations in the United States and India. Clients located in the EEA will have their data stored in Ireland. Watermark relies upon the Standard Contractual Clauses, in their current form, as the transfer mechanism for transfers of data from the EEA.
THE DATA YOU PROVIDE THROUGH OUR SERVICES
Watermark collects information under the direction of its client educational institutions and has no direct relationship with the individuals whose personal data it processes. Watermark works with its clients to help them provide notice to users concerning the purpose for which personal information is collected. Watermark may transfer personal information to companies that help us provide our service. Transfers to subsequent third parties are covered by the service agreements with our clients.
In order to gain access to our websites and take advantage of the Services, you will need to provide information as part of a registration process. The requested personal information may include, but is not limited to the following: first and last name, username, phone number, email address, physical address, gender, race, date of birth, and which courses a user is enrolled in.
You may ask Watermark to correct, amend, or delete data, or withdraw consent for further contact, by directing a query to the educational institution that is Watermark’s client (the data controller). If you are an individual user who has questions or would like to make changes to your personal information, please contact the educational institution through which you use our Service.
Watermark will retain personal information we process on behalf of its client organizations for as long as needed to provide services and as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
THE DATA YOU PROVIDE ON OUR CORPORATE WEBSITES
We may collect the following personal information from you, including, but not limited to:
USE OF COOKIES AND OTHER TECHNOLOGY
To make our Services more useful to you, our servers or authorized third parties may collect information from you, including browser type, operating system, Internet Protocol (IP) address (a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet, which may vary from session to session), cookies, domain name, unique device identifiers, as well as information about how you use our website and/or Services and/or a date/time stamp for your visit to analyze trends in the aggregate and administer the site. We may use the information we get from Google Analytics to improve our website, our applications, and/or our Services. Please see the following links for more information about Google Analytics:
We may create anonymous data records from personal data by excluding information (such as your name) which makes the data personally identifiable to you. We use this anonymous data to analyze requests and usage patterns so that we may enhance our products and services.
Watermark and our partners use cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. In accepting this Privacy Policy, you consent to our placement and continued use of cookies on your device. To learn more about cookies, including how to delete cookies, please visit https://www.allaboutcookies.org/.
“COOKIES” are small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer’s hard drive while you are viewing a website. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them) to provide you with a more personal and integrated experience with our application. There are two types of cookies: session (exist during an online session) and persistent cookies (remain after you close the browser). We use session cookies to assist in verifying your identity as you move through our website. We use persistent cookies to collect aggregate and statistical information about user activity. If you would like to disable cookies, you may be able to edit your browser to block cookies.
PRODUCT ENHANCEMENT, DATA COLLATION, VERIFICATION, STORAGE, DERIVING INSIGHTS, DISSEMINATION OF INSIGHTS, ANALYTICS, AND SCIENCE RESEARCH
Watermark’s products and service suite offers a digital data-rich environment that provides detailed, timely, and multifaceted insights into client behaviors. Watermark may use your data to evaluate and improve our products and services, create aggregated, de-identified, or other anonymous data or analytics, and to improve and develop new products and services, or features.
Watermark may use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to analyze, interpret, and derive insights from the data we collect from our clients. The purpose of utilizing AI is to improve our services, personalize your experience, provide relevant content, improve recommendations and suggestions, and to improve and develop new solutions. To protect your privacy, we will anonymize and aggregate data before using it for such purposes.
We may engage third-party service providers to assist us in developing, maintaining, and improving our AI technologies. These providers are bound by contractual obligations to handle your data securely and confidentiality.
USE OF YOUR INFORMATION
We use the information we collect from our corporate websites. This collection may include, but is not limited to how we:
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.
DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in our privacy policy. If we transfer personal information to a third party that is acting as our agent, we will require that the third party agree to confidentiality requirements. We do not sell personal information to third parties.
THIRD PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS
We may share your personal information with third party service providers that we work with. These third party services may include, but are not limited to:
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS – END USERS
We may share your information with the educational institution which is linked to your use of the Services. For example, this would apply if your educational institution uses our Services as a course evaluation and survey platform and has given you access to the Services. Remember, your Institution decides how your personal information is used. We provide most of our products and services to end-users of an institution, as a so-called “data processor” on behalf of our clients (e.g., school, district, universities, college). This means that the main responsibility for data privacy compliance lies with your Institution as the “Data Controller.” It also means that your Institution’s Privacy Statement applies to the use of your personal information (instead of ours). Your Institution determines what information Watermark is permitted to collect through our products and services based on how the Institution uses the products and services. Watermark processes your information according to your Institutions instructions and the terms of our contracts with your Institution.
PROMOTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS
We may use your personal information to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about our products AND/OR services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new products AND/OR services. We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal information for promotional purposes (see above “How and why we use your personal information”). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly. We will treat your personal information with the utmost respect and never sell OR share it with other organizations for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional email communications at any time by visiting us at https://go.watermarkinsights.com/UnsubscribePage.html.
To opt-out of non-email related promotional communications e.g., text messages, telephone outreach, or social media posts, please contact privacy@watermarkinsights.com.
LEGAL DISCLOSURE
In certain situations, Watermark may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. We may also disclose your personal information as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena or other legal process, when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request.
USER ACCESS AND CHOICE
Upon your request, Watermark will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal information. You may ask Watermark for access to your personal information, or to request a correction or deletion of your personal information by contacting us at privacy@watermarkinsights.com. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe. In addition, if you are a resident of the EU, you can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information, or request portability of your personal information.
We partner with a third party to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third-party partner may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this website and other sites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests.
If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt-out by clicking here (or if located in the European Union click here). Please note this does not opt you out of being served ads. You will continue to receive generic ads.
If you wish to subscribe to our marketing emails, we will use your name and email address to send the newsletter to you. You may choose to stop receiving our newsletter or marketing emails by following the unsubscribe instructions included in these emails, accessing the email preferences in your account settings page, or you can contact us at privacy@watermarkinsights.com.
Similarly, if we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS
We do not “sell” your personal information.
You may have the following consumer privacy rights under applicable state laws, including California privacy laws:
Submitting a Request
If you have any questions about the type of personal information, we hold about you or if you wish to request deletion of personal information we may hold about you, or exercise any other consumer privacy right as set out above, or would like to provide feedback, report any complaints or unethical behavior, please contact us by:
EUROPEAN TERRITORY VISITORS
In compliance with certain privacy laws, in particular the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Watermark provides specific additional rights for individuals who interact with Watermark such as the right to access, rectification, right to object, to complaint, erasure and blockage. More specifically and under certain circumstances:
In addition to the above, we may reference certain rights for European Territory citizens throughout this Privacy Policy. Pursuant to the GDPR, citizens from “European Territories” mean the European Economic Area (EEA), the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) and Switzerland. For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, the term “European Territories” shall continue to include the United Kingdom, even after the United Kingdom leaves the European Economic Area following Brexit.
For data subjects located in the EU: Unless otherwise stated, Watermark is the data controller of your personal information.
EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework: Privacy Policy available: HERE
SECURITY
The security of your Personal Information is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. While we use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. Our data is hosted in the United States with robust physical, technical, and procedural safeguards to protect your personal information, including the use of firewalls, standard SSL/TLS encryption, and backup servers.
RETENTION
We retain personal information for as long as appropriate to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including but not limited to satisfying legal requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, and the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure. If applicable, we will retain personal information as agreed in an institution’s signed customer agreement.
SUBMIT A REQUEST
If you have any questions about the type of personal information, we hold about you or if you wish to exercise a lawful privacy right, you can email us at privacy@watermarkinsights.com or contact us by mail at:
Watermark Insights, LLC
10900-B Stonelake Boulevard, Suite 350
Austin, TX 78759
Attn: Torie Orton, General Counsel