PRIVACY POLICY

Welcome to the Mélange Information Services, Inc., home of Mélange College and Career Readiness Services website(MyCCR)!  This Privacy Policy discloses our privacy practices and the possible uses of the information that we gather via https://melangeinfo.com/ and via other submissions by you to MyCCR (together, the “Site and Services”).

By accessing, using or submitting information to this Website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

We make every effort to subscribe to the spirit of the federal law, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in terms of member privacy…we will not disclose any member registration and/or directory information or member query/response information to third parties without prior member written authorization unless, otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy or Terms of Use.  You do have the opt-in/opt-out option in terms of your personal information at your initial member registration cycle.

If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy, including having your personally identifiable information (“Personal Information” as defined below) used in any of the ways described in this Privacy Policy, you may be precluded from using much of our Site and Services, including revocation of your membership. MyCCR may update this Privacy Policy from time-to-time in our sole discretion.

It is your responsibility to review the Privacy Policy for any changes each time that you use the Site and Services and you are bound by such changes. Use of the Site and Services by you following us posting a new privacy policy on our Site constitutes your acceptance of the Privacy Policy as modified.

This Privacy Policy applies to the entire MyCCR family of products and services, such as our online services, our print publications, our call center services, and other MyCCR products or services. This Privacy Policy is part of our MyCCR Membership Agreement/Comment Posting Etiquette Policy and all other terms of using our Site and Services.

Information Collected

MyCCR collects information on our users in various ways, such as, by your voluntary submissions, participation in services provided via the Site and Services, from third parties, and through cookie and other tracking technology. MyCCR collects the following information:

  • Personal Information 
    “Personal Information” refers to information that tells us specifically who you are, such as your name, phone number, email, postal address, birthdate and possibly information relating to certain support or customer service issues. In many cases, we need this information to provide to you many of the services that you may have requested.
  • College and Career Advising Questions and Comments                                                                                                                     MyCCR members affiliated with colleges, universities, training programs and the like should seek college and career advice from campus and/or program advisers first before sending an inquiry to MyCCR.  Any member inquiries and responses are held in the strictest of confidence although members should be aware that online communication does occur over unsecured Internet systems.
  • Submission of General Comments
    We collect information that you voluntarily provide as part of our Site and Services, including messages, posts, comments, responses, reviews, and ratings you submit through the Site and Services, (“User Generated Content”). MyCCR may in our sole discretion share your User Generated Content with others. If you do not want information shared with others, you should not submit User Generated Content. Once you have submitted User Generated Content, we reserve the right to publish it in any medium to others.
  • Aggregate Information 
    We may collect general, non-personal, statistical information about the use of the Site and Services, such as how many visitors visit a specific page on the Site, how long they stay on that page, and which hyperlinks, if any, they click on. This information represents a generic overview of our users, including their collective viewing habits, and allows us and other third parties to modify information, promotions, offers and/or discounts on products and services based on user traffic and behavior. We collect this information through the use of technologies such as ‘cookies’ and web beacons, which are discussed in greater detail below. We collect this information in order to help enhance the Site and Services to make for a better visitor experience.
  • Third Party Information
    We may supplement information you provide to us with information from other sources, such as information to validate or update your address, payment card or other demographic and lifestyle information. We use this information to help us maintain the accuracy of the information we collect, to enable us to fulfill our products and services, to target our communications so that we can inform you of products, services and offers that may be of interest, and for internal business analysis or other business purposes consistent with our mission.
  • Cookies
    MyCCR may automatically collect non-personally identifiable information and data through the use of cookies. Cookies are small text files a website uses to recognize repeat users, facilitate the user’s ongoing access to the website and facilitate the use of the website. Cookies also allow a website to track usage behavior and compile site usage information that will allow for the improvement of content and target advertising. Most browsers allow you to control cookies, including whether or not to accept them and how to remove them. You may set your browsers to notify you if you receive a cookie, or you may choose to block cookies with your browser. However, please be aware that some features of our Site and Services may not function or may be slower if you refuse cookies. You may also get cookies from our advertisers or other third parties with links on the Site as described below. We do not control these cookies. The use of advertising cookies sent by third party ad servers is standard in the Internet industry.
  • Other Tracking Technologies
    Tracking technologies may record information such as Internet domain and host names; Internet protocol (IP) addresses; browser software and operating system types; clickstream patterns; and dates and times that our Site and Services are accessed. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the web. Web servers, the computers that ‘serve up’ webpages, automatically identify your computer by its IP address. The Site and Services may also use technology called “tracer tags”. These may also be referred to as “Pixels”, “Clear GIFs” or “Web Beacons”. This technology allows us to understand which pages you visit on our Site and other ways you interact with our Site and Services, such as purchases made through the Site and Services. These tracer tags are used to help us to optimize and tailor our Site and Services for you and other users of our Site and Services. We may link the information we record using tracking technologies to Personal Information we collect.
  • for internal review;
  • to improve the Site and Services;
  • to optimize third-party offers of products and/or services;
  • to verify the legitimacy of comments, reviews and ratings;
  • to notify you about updates to the Site and Services;
  • to let you know about products, services, and promotions that you may be interested in;
  • to get comments, reviews and ratings;
  • for our marketing purposes and the marketing of discounts offered through our Site and Services by service contractors (collectively “Service Providers”);
  • to fulfill and provide products and services, including personalized or enhanced services, requested by you; and
  • internal business analysis or other business purposes consistent with our mission.
  • We have your permission to make the disclosure;
  • The disclosure is consistent with the purpose for which the personal information was obtained;
  • The disclosure is permitted by relevant law;
  • The Personal Information to be disclosed is publicly available;
  • The disclosure is reasonably related to the sale or other disposition of all or part of our business or assets;
  • The disclosure is for our own marketing purposes, or, with your authorization, for the marketing purposes of third parties;
  • The party to whom the disclosure is made controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with MyCCR;
  • The disclosure is in our sole discretion necessary for the establishment or maintenance of legal claims or legal compliance, to satisfy any law, regulation, subpoena or government request, or in connection with litigation;
  • The disclosure is in our sole discretion about users who we believe are engaged in illegal activities or are otherwise in violation of our MyCCR Membership Agreement, even without a subpoena, warrant or court order; or
  • The disclosure is to outside businesses to perform certain services for us, such as maintaining our Site and Services, mailing lists, processing orders and delivering products and services, sending postal mail, processing claims for lost or stolen certificates, providing marketing assistance, and data analysis (“Administrative Service Providers”).

Use of Information

The information MyCCR collects is used in a variety of ways, including

Disclosures and Transfers of Information

We do not disclose Personal Information to third parties without prior member authorization, except when one or more of the following conditions is true:

Prior to sharing of your Personal Information with others, agreements are made between MyCCR and such outside parties to whom we are transferring data. If MyCCR becomes aware that any such outside party is improperly using or disclosing Personal Information, it will notify that outside party and request that it take reasonable steps to cease such use or disclosure.

We may provide certain Personal Information as a service to others for their marketing purposes. We may also disclose your name and address to Service Providers when you submit User Generated Content relating to those Service Providers. If you properly notify us that you no longer want us to share your Personal Information, we will cease sharing your Personal Information. However, except as otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy, we do not control the third parties to which we share such Personal Information and you will need to further notify such third parties directly if you would like them to cease use of your Personal Information.

We may also disclose aggregate visitor data in order to describe the use of the Site and Services to our existing or potential business partners or other third parties, or in response to a government request. We may also share aggregated demographic and preference data with third parties to enable the provision of targeted information, promotions, offers and/or discounts on products and services.

Choice: Opt-in/Opt-out

To help you review, edit, and control how we use much of the information we collect about you, you can visit your “MyCCR Profile” webpage. On the “My CCR Profile” webpage, you can update certain information and unsubscribe from receiving specific types of email messages and telephone calls. You cannot, however, unsubscribe from receiving certain emails, such as account status and billing related emails.

You can also ask us whether we are keeping information about you; how your information is being used; update or delete your information, or opt-out of the collection and use of certain information by sending an email to [email protected] or by writing us at Customer Service, Melangeinfo.com, 359 Walden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. specifying the nature and scope of your request. If you choose to delete your information or opt-out of the collection and use of your information, you understand that certain services, including revocation of your Membership, may no longer be available to you. Please state in your correspondence the details of your request. We may require proof of your identity before we provide you with the requested information. We allow you to challenge the data that we hold about you and, where appropriate, you may have the data erased, rectified, amended, or completed. Approved requests will be processed within ten (10) days of the date on which we receive the request.

Data Security, Integrity, and Access

The Personal Information you provide and we collect is stored within databases that we control directly or through our Administrative Service Providers. As we deem appropriate, we use security measures consistent with industry standards, such as firewalls, to protect your Personal Information. We also use industry standard encryption technology to protect credit card and password information. However, since no security system is impenetrable, we cannot guarantee the security of our databases, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.

Your information may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state, province, or country where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those where you live. If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to us, please be aware that we transfer Personal Information to the United States and process and store it there. By submitting your Personal Information, you consent to having your personal data transferred to, processed, and stored in the United States.

MyCCR may assign you a user ID and a password when you as part of your participation and access to the Site and Services. Your user ID and password may only be used by you and the members of your household. You may not share your user ID and password with anyone else, and you are solely responsible for maintaining and protecting the confidentiality of your user ID and password. You are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your user ID and password. You can access and update your login information on your “MyCCR Profile” webpage.

Third Party Websites and Links

Please note that you may have cookies placed on your computer by third party websites that refer you to the Site. Although we do not share your Personal Information with these third party websites unless you have authorized us to do so, they may be able to link certain non-personally identifiable information we transfer to them with Personal Information they previously collected from you. Please review the privacy policies of each website you visit to better understand their privacy practices. In addition, MyCCR would like to inform you that anytime you click on links (including advertising banners), which take you to third party websites, you will be subject to the third parties’ privacy policies. While we support the protection of our customer’s privacy on the Internet, MyCCR expressly disclaims any and all liability for the actions of third parties, including but without limitation to actions relating to the use and/or disclosure of Personal Information by third parties.

Our Site and Services may contain links to other sites operated by third parties. MyCCR does not control such other sites and is not responsible for their content, their privacy policies, or their use of Personal Information. MyCCR’s inclusion of such links does not, by itself, imply any endorsement of the content on such sites or of their owners or operators except as disclosed on the Site and Services. Any information submitted by you directly to these third parties is subject to that third party’s privacy policy.

Children’s Privacy

MyCCR does not intend the Site and Services to be used by individuals under the age of 18 without the supervision of a parent or guardian 18 years of age or older. MyCCR relies upon parents or guardians 18 years of age or older to determine if the Site and Services is appropriate for the viewing, access, or participation by such individuals under the age of 18. If an individual under the age of 18 uses the Site and Services, such individual may only use the Site and Services under the supervision of a parent or guardian 18 years of age or older.

We do not seek or knowingly collect any Personal Information about children under 13 years of age. If we become aware that we have unknowingly collected Personal Information from a child under the age of 13, we will make commercially reasonable efforts to delete such information from our database.

Governing Law; Visitors Residing Outside the United States

This Privacy Policy and the privacy practices of MyCCR will be subject exclusively to the laws of Massachusetts, without regard to its conflict of law principles. MyCCR makes no representation that this Privacy Policy and such practices comply with the laws of any country outside the United States.

By accessing, using or submitting information to this Website, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

How To Contact us

All requests, questions or concerns about your Personal Information or this Privacy Policy, please contact our Help Desk by mail or email at the following:

Attn: Customer Services

Mélange College and Career Readiness Services
Mélange Information Services, Inc.

Phone: (617) 354-6269
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: (617) 354-6269

We welcome your questions and comments.