MentorNet Privacy Statement

Information Collection and Use
Registration
Cookies
Log Files
Sharing
Links
Surveys
Security
Email Options
Site and Service Updates
Correcting/Updating/Removing Personal Information
Notification of Changes

Information Collection and Use:

MentorNet is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. MentorNet collects information from our users at several different points on our web site.

Registration:

To participate in the MentorNet Community, a user must first complete the registration form. On this form users are required to provide their first name, last name and a valid email address, and to choose a unique username. This information is collected to allow MentorNet to establish a user as a community member and to be able to contact the user. At their first sign in, users are requested to provide some demographic information (such as ethnicity and gender). MentorNet collects this demographic data about its participants both for MentorNet internal use and in some cases, for release to our partners (please see the Sharing section of this document for detailed information on when personal data is shared).

To participate in the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program, users are required to create a mentor/protégé profile and provide some additional personal information such as enrollment status and institution, so their eligibility for this program can be confirmed and for matching purposes. Users must also provide supplemental information such as certain preferences and their comfort/interest in discussing certain issues. This information is used to match mentors and protégés as best as possible.

Cookies:

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's hard drive containing information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. Once the user closes the browser, the cookie simply terminates, unless the user has chosen to have her/his username and password remembered for one-click sign-in purposes, in which case a cookie resides on the user's computer. Cookies are used on our site when participants login to the Community or Partners Resource Center password protected sections.

If a user rejects the cookie, she/he may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will have limited access to some areas of our site. For example, the user will not be able to access any of the Community features.

Log Files:

We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Sharing:

We will share aggregated demographic information with our partners and post it on our web site. This aggregated data is not linked to any personally identifiable information.

There are instances where we will share personally identifiable information with our sponsoring organizations:

We have outside evaluation firms evaluating the MentorNet program and we may provide them with your name and contact information.

If you are participating in the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program, and your employer is a MentorNet sponsor, or becomes a MentorNet sponsor, we provide your name, email, position, location, and match status to a representative at your company so that it can see how many of its employees are participating.

If you are participating in the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program, and you associate yourself with a professional organization that is a MentorNet partner or becomes a MentorNet partner, we provide your name, email, location, and match status to a representative at that organization so that it can see how many of its members are participating

If you are participating in the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program, and you are a student at a participating campus or student member of a participating professional society, or your campus or professional society becomes a partnering organization with MentorNet, we provide your campus or professional society representative with your name, email, professional society membership number (if applicable), major/intended major, degree program, and match status so that they can see how many of their students/members are participating and verify your eligibility for the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program (if applicable).

If you are matched as a mentor in the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program, we may provide your employer, position and location (but not name) to the campus representative of the school that your protégé attends.

If you are matched in the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program as a protégé and your mentor is an employee of a MentorNet sponsor, we provide your school, major/intended major and degree program to a representative of that company.

If you give permission in your profile to be identified by your alma mater(s), we provide your name, email, field, employer, location, and whether or not you are participating in the One-on-One Programs to a representative at your alma mater(s).

If you indicate in your profile that you are willing to be interviewed by reporters interested in interviewing MentorNet participants, we may provide them with your name, email address and phone number.

There are also disclosures of information to other participants associated with participation in the One-on-One E-Mentoring Program:

The matching process utilizes a complex matching algorithm that takes into account the information from each mentor and protégé to create the best matches. The final match, however, is chosen by the protégé from amongst the profiles of those available mentors who best fit her/his preferences. Protégés are initially presented with the profiles of up to 5 potential mentors, from which they can choose one as a match. When viewing the profiles of potential matches, the students will see the following information:

Field

Careers

Degree(s)

Employment status

Employer

Sector

Years of work experience

Position

Alma Mater(s)

Gender

Location (city, state, country)

Citizenship

Ethnicity

Statement / Additional Information

Answers to questions on discussing certain issues

Mentors have the option to hide their One-on-One E-Mentoring Program profiles from protégé view or to remove them completely any time.

Protégés have the option to remove their One-on-One E-Mentoring Program profiles at any time.

If you are a mentor matched with a protégé, we show your protégé the above information as well as your name, email address and (where provided) your nickname, and alternate email.
If you are a protégé matched with a mentor, we show your mentor (where provided) your name, email address, nickname, alternate email, gender, school attended, degree program, major and personal statement.

Links:

This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we (MentorNet) are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Surveys:

From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys. Survey information will be used for the purpose of evaluating the MentorNet program. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary. Contact information may be used to follow up with nonrespondents.

Security:

This web site takes every precaution to protect our users' information. When users submit sensitive information via the web site, their information is protected both online and off-line.

The user has the choice to submit information via the web site by either a standard connection or through SSL. With either method, information is recorded directly to the secure database. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information in the database. All employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices.

For more information about security, please see our security page.

Email Options:

We send all new members a welcoming email with their temporary password. Established members may occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option not to receive these types of communications. Users may opt out at the time of registration or at any subsequent time by editing their profile or contacting MentorNet staff by phone, email, fax or postal mail. Users may also opt in again at any time by editing their profiles or contacting MentorNet staff by phone, email, fax or postal mail.

There are, however, three types of emailings that users agree to receive when they become MentorNet community members and they do not have the option to opt out of receiving these emails while a community member. These emails are invitations to participation in MentorNet evaluation; MentorNet fundraising solicitations; and site and service updates. Therefore, users who request not to receive any email from MentorNet have their community membership rendered inactive.

Site and Service Updates:

We also send the user site and service announcement updates. Members are not able to unsubscribe from service announcements, which contain important information about the service. We communicate with the users to provide requested services and about issues relating to their accounts via email or phone.

Correcting/Updating/Removing Personal Information:

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as email address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we will endeavor to provide a way to correct, update or remove that user's personal data. This can usually be done through editing the user's profile or by contacting staff by email, phone, fax or postal mail.

Notification of Changes:

If we decide to change our privacy statement, we will post those changes on our web site so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under which circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy statement under which the information was collected.