The Virtual Mentor Project

Privacy and Personal Information Policy

Protecting your privacy is important to Virtual Mentor

We strive to keep your personal information confidential. By ensuring that you are aware of and understand the Virtual Mentor privacy policy, we can provide you with better, more secure service. Please take a moment to read the following policy to learn how we handle your personal information.
 
Why we collect personal information
Virtual Mentor collects and uses personal information to give students a step up and in the right direction when choosing a career. This is done to provide students and their parents or guardians with convenient access to mentors and their nearly limitless life experience in their chosen professional careers. This makes a wider range of choices available to the students and their parent or guardians. In addition, we use your personal information to keep you up to date on the latest career announcements and future careers as they develop in our rapidly changing world. Additionally we provide our user base with other information we think you'd like to hear about. From time to time, we may also use your personal information to contact you to participation in new aspects of career counseling.
 
How we collect personal information
We collect information about you in several ways. For example, we ask for your contact information when you register a new Virtual Mentor account, ask questions of our mentors, or ask to be included in additional Virtual Mentor mailings lists. We keep track of what type of questions students ask, to better guide them to a promising future.
 
Personal information
The Virtual Mentor Project is dedicated to highest student achievement, not commercial interests.

IT IS OUR POLICY TO NOT SELL SHARE OR DISTRIBUTE ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION, PRIVATE OR PUBLIC.

There are three exceptions to this policy.

1. We do provide (with parental permission) student contact information to higher education institutions, such as colleges, universities, vocational or technical schools, only in accordance with, and within areas of interest of a students personal careers goals.
2. We do provide (with parental permission) student contact information to prospective employers, via online resumes, direct contact is handled by proxy via a students VM supervising teacher.
3. At times we may be required by law or by legal process to disclose personal information about individuals if we believe that such disclosure is necessary for the public safety or interest.

How we protect your personal information
Virtual Mentor safeguards the security of the data you send us with physical, electronic, and managerial procedures. We urge you to take every precaution to protect your personal data when you are on the Internet. Change your passwords often, use a combination of letters and numbers, and make sure you use secure web browser software.
 
The Virtual Mentor Project uses industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption on content sensitive web pages where personal information is required. To submit applications to participate in Virtual Mentor, you must use an SSL-enabled browser such as Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later, or Internet Explorer, or Safari (and there are others). This protects the confidentiality of your personal information while it is transmitted over the Internet.
 
Access to your personal information
You always have access to the information we have about you. To review and update your personal contact information, simply log use the 'Account Login' on the right side of the Virtual Mentor home page.
 
Collecting other personal information
When you browse Virtual Mentor's website, you do so anonymously. We don't collect personal information when you browse - not even your email address. Your browser, however, does automatically tell us the type of computer and operating system you are using. Only when you use the your 'Account Login' are activities logged, then even then only if you change something.
 
Like many web sites, the Virtual Mentor website uses "cookie" technology, to assist in security issues. The site contains several databases and it is nessasary to maintain the fact that you are an authorized user of the system as you span across these databases. The only information storedwithin the cookie is: a) who you are, and b) your login session ID number. The cookie 'expires' when you log out, or if you quit your web browser software.
 
In some of our email to you, we use a 'click-through URL'. When you click one of these URLs, you pass through our web server before arriving at the page on our site that is your destination. We track 'click-throughs' to help us determine your interest in particular topics and measure the effectiveness of our efforts. We will never send any email with a 'click-through URL' that takes you anywhere outside this system.
 
Virtual Mentor's commitment to privacy
To make sure your personal information remains confidential, we communicate these privacy guidelines to every Virtual Mentor administrator, mentor teacher and student. In addition, Virtual Mentor participates in industry initiatives-such as the Online Privacy Alliance: http://www.privacyalliance.org to preserve privacy rights on the Internet and in all aspects of electronic network communication.
 
Virtual Mentor does not solicit personal information from anyone or send requests for personal information to anyone not participating or applying to participate in The Virtual Mentor Project.
 
Virtual Mentor's website contains some links to other external web sites
These sites are of an educational or are informational in a career choice respect, but does not share your personal informationin any respect with those external web sites. The Virtual Mentor Project is not responsible for their privacy practices. We strongly encourage you to learn about the privacy policies of any organization you encounter online with whom you share your personal information.
 
If we are going to use your personal information differently from that stated at the time of collection, we will try to contact you via email using the most recent information we have. If you have not given us permission to communicate with you, you will not be contacted, nor will we use your personal information in a new manner.
 
The Virtual Mentor Projects
Privacy Policy, Terms of Participation and Limitations of Usage and Disclaimer and Limit of Liability and Usage documents are always posted publicly on the home page of the website, and are subject to change at any time. We encourage you to review these documents regularly for any changes or updates. Any changes or updates in these documents will be publicly posted on the home page (and dated) should they occur. You are always encouraged to contact us about any concerns you may have about any of the statements or policies, or any other issues you may have concerning The Virtual Mentor Project, by sending us email.