Torus Networks’ Privacy Policy
Effective August 1, 2016
We know you care about how your personal information is collect, used and shared. We are fully committed to protecting this information and have created our privacy policy and terms of use to reflect this commitment. Please let us know if you have any questions about these policies: .
Torus Network, Inc. (“Torus Network”, “Torus Teens”, “us”, or “we”) is committed to protecting your privacy while providing young people with access to learning and developmental opportunities outside of the classroom. This privacy policy addresses the online privacy practices of Torus Network, Inc. and is applicable to all Torus Network, Inc. products and services available online (the “Properties”).
This privacy policy describes what information Torus Network collects, how it is collected and how the information you provide on our Properties is used. It describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update this information. By visiting or using our Properties, you consent to the information handling practices described in this privacy policy.
What information do we collect?
Personal Information
When you register for, browse and use our Properties, you may provide to us what is generally called “personally identifiable information”, such as your full name, email address, phone number, areas of interest, etc. (“Personal Information”).
Information from Integrated Services
If you register for our Properties through third-party social networking or an integrated service (“Integrated Service”), such as Facebook Connect or Google, we may also collect Personal Information that is already associated with your Integrated Service account. You may also have the option of sharing additional information with us through an Integrated Service. If you choose to do this, you are giving us permission to use, share, and store the information in a manner consistent with this privacy policy.
Information about your use of our Properties
We may collect detailed technical information about your interactions with our Properties. This includes IP addresses and related IP information (web browser used, operating system used, time zone set on the computer you are using) and the timing, frequency, and patterns of interaction with different content and different areas of our Properties.
Information obtained from other Users
Certain features on our Properties allow other Users to provide us information about you. This information may include Personal Information. Generally, this occurs when another user recommends Torus Network to you via email or third-party Integrated Services.
Location Information
We may collect and use information about your location (such as your state, city and zip code) to provide you with tailored recommendations for your region. You may be able to change the settings on your computer or mobile device to prevent it from providing us with any location information.
Information from Other Sources
In certain situations, we may obtain information, including Personal Information, from third party sources. For example, if you make a monetary payment or contribution to us via an online payment processor, we may obtain your name and mailing address to send a thank you note, or if you apply for a job or internship with us via an online recruiting site, we will obtain the information you provide in your application. If we combine information from other sources with the Personal Information we collect through our Properties, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information in accordance with this privacy policy.
How we collect information
We collect direct information from registered users, via a series of questions, quizzes, polls, and the like.
Whether or not you are a registered user, we engage in the common practice of setting cookies so that we are able to recognize when a visitor to our Properties is a returning user or is a returning user currently logged in to their account. A cookie is a data file sent to a browser from a web server. It is stored on the user’s computer's hard drive and allows us to recognize that browser when the user returns to our Properties. To learn more about browser cookies, including how to manage or delete them, look in the Tools, Help or similar section of your browser, or visit .
Like most online services, when you use our Properties, whether you are registered or not, we automatically collect and store details of how you engaged with our Properties. This can include your patterns of activity on our Properties, and the frequency and duration of your visits.
We use a variety of third-party service providers, such as Google Analytics to understand our Property usage. We may allow third-party service providers to place and read their own cookies and similar technologies to collect information through our Properties. This information is directly and automatically collected by these third parties. We do not participate in these data transmissions.
We (or our email service providers) may place a tiny image, known as a pixel tag, in the emails we send. The pixel tag tells us if and when you have opened the email, information we use to improve the emails we send to you.
We will, wherever feasible, contractually obligate our third-party service providers to abide by the terms of this privacy policy.
By using our Properties you agree to our use of these information collection technologies. We do not track our users across third party websites, and therefore do not honor “do not track” signals transmitted by users' web browsers.
How do we use this information?
We use the information we collect to improve the design, content and performance of our Properties so we can better serve you as a user. We also use the information we collect to analyze Property usage so we can improve the way Properties work and look, and to build new features and functionality.
Our Properties provide certain features that allow you to make select bits of your information public and/or to share your information with other users. As with most online services, once you elect to make your Personal Information available to others in any of these ways, it may be collected and used by the recipients without restriction.
We may use email addresses for marketing purposes relating to our Properties, e.g., sending emails about new features.
Some of our users will choose to connect their Torus Network account with social networks. If you have elected to do this, we may disclose your personal information through a social network or similar service (like Facebook or Google). To control the information that you share, you can modify your Torus Network or social network settings. You may also disconnect your social network account from your Torus Network account.
We will not share personal information we collect in any way not described by this privacy policy. We do not share any personal information with third parties for advertising, marketing or other purposes without your ability to opt-in or out. There is no third-party advertising on our Properties.
You may in some cases grant us permission to share your Personal Information with certain third parties such as authorized partners or not-for-profit organizations. In these cases, third parties only receive access to the information you have authorized or asked us to share, e.g., when submitting an application to a program provider.
We may from time to time send information or offers to you on behalf of these third parties. For example, if we partner with a not-for-profit organization running a contest in your region, we may send you an email notifying you of the opportunity. In this case, we would only share your minimum necessary information with the third party if you opt-in to participate in the contest.
We may provide information to other third parties in the following additional scenarios:
- where required by law or in response to legal process (for example, a court order)
- if we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, or
- to investigate and act upon violations of our terms of use.
Information may be included in the sale of Torus Network’s assets or in a merger of Torus Network with another company. This information would be protected by the then-applicable privacy policy.
For users who choose to stop using our Properties, we will delete any personal information we have collected upon request.
Third parties
Our Properties include a sizeable number of links to other Websites. We are not responsible for the data collection practices on those other sites. We advise you to carefully review those sites' privacy policies before submitting personal information there.
Third-party application developers and service providers (“App Developers“) may build complementary services for our Properties. You may allow us to share your information with App Developers by connecting to the application or service and approving access to your Torus Network account. We require App Developers to comply with our API Terms of Service and this privacy policy.
To improve our services and learn more about our users, we may share automatically collected and aggregated non-Personal Information to authorized business partners.
Data retention
Unless we receive a deletion request, we will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as is reasonably useful for operational purposes.
Your options in our information collection and use
You may always decline to share your Personal Information with us. Registration is not required to access most of our content.
If you register on our Properties and provide us with personal information, you may update, correct, or delete your account and information at any time on your account settings page.
You may revoke our access to your account on any Integrated Service, such as Google or Facebook, at any time by updating the appropriate settings in the account preferences of the respective Integrated Service.
Security practices
We have put in place physical, electronic and administrative procedures to safeguard and to help prevent unauthorized access to and maintain the security of personally identifiable information collected through our Properties.
We take industry-standard measures to protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of personal information collected on our Properties. This includes the use of encryption and other security technologies to prevent access to the data from unauthorized parties. When you enter sensitive information, we encrypt the transmission of that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL) or similar technologies. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any or all of the information you transmit to Torus Network, and you do so at your own risk.
Registered accounts are protected by passwords. Please keep these passwords secret to prevent unauthorized access. If you think someone has gained unauthorized access to your account, please contact us immediately.
Only employees who need to access user information in order to perform their job are granted access to that information.
While we have taken all steps to protect the personal information we collect, no system is 100% secure. If we believe that the security of your personal information has been compromised, we will notify you as soon as possible, and you consent to our use of email as a means of such notification.
Changes and updates to this privacy policy
If we make changes to this privacy policy, we will post the changes here with a new effective date. We will not change how we use any personal information in any material way without also providing notice of the change via email to you or through our Properties.
For more information
Please let us know if you have any questions or comments regarding our privacy policy. You can contact us at .