Privacy Policy

At Scholars at Risk (SAR), we understand that privacy is a very important issue. In the course of serving our mission, SAR may receive information which may be considered “personally identifiable,” “personal,” or “sensitive” under relevant laws and regulations. This includes information via websites, forms, emails, correspondence, or personal communication. This policy covers how SAR handles such information. By continuing to use SAR’s services or submitting personal information to us, you are agreeing to the terms of this privacy policy and acknowledging that your information will be handled in accordance with it.

1. Overview

  • SAR may receive and process personal information, including names and contact information,
    • provided to SAR with the consent of the individual
    • for the purposes of providing information or services to them
    • as network members, threatened individuals seeking assistance, participants in SAR events and activities, donors, partner organizations, or other interested persons.
  • SAR takes all reasonable efforts to maintain the privacy and security of such information.
  • SAR does not sell, lease, distribute, or otherwise use such information for any other purpose.
  • SAR respects the right of individuals to manage their information settings and preferences, including the ability to request modification, correction, removal, or deletion of personal information, subject to legitimate public interests and contractual or legal obligations (for example, obligations to retain limited transaction data for legally required audits).

2. Information You Provide to Us

Contact information: You have the option whether to provide any information to us. For online services—including websites, surveys, action alerts, and email lists—you may only need to provide a name and valid email address to access services. You may have the option to provide additional data, such as your job title, organization, geographic location, but you are not required to do so to access those services.

Personal background information: For more involved or personal SAR services, including many services for network members and threatened individuals seeking assistance, you may be asked to provide more detailed contact and background information regarding your circumstances and the types of services or assistance requested. Again, SAR does not sell, lease, distribute or otherwise use any such personally identifiable information for any purpose other than evaluating requests for and/or providing services or assistance. (SAR may aggregate non-personally identifiable data about such requests for the purpose of reporting on SAR services, in furtherance of SAR’s mission.)

Payment information: If you are making a gift, donation, membership subscription payment or other payment through a SAR website or email link, we may require information to help process your transaction. This might include but is not limited to: your name, email address, job title, organization, mailing address, phone number, credit card information, or other information to help process your gift or donation. Credit card information is processed via a secure, third-party payment processor and is not retained, except by consent of individuals selecting a recurring payment option, or except as required for routine recording and auditing of transactions. Again, SAR does not sell, lease, distribute or otherwise use credit card information for any purpose other than your selected transaction(s). Members or donors may contact the Membership or Development Offices of SAR at any time regarding their personal information and to request corrections to such information.

Policy regarding children: SAR sites and services are not directed to children and children are not eligible to use our sites or services. SAR does not knowingly collect or store any personal information about children under the age of 13, except as may be provided by a parent or guardian in relation to securing requested services or assistance. If we learn that a child under the age of 13 has provided personal information to us, we will delete that information from our records to the fullest extent possible.

3. Information We Collect About You

Non-Identifiable Information: Scholars at Risk makes limited use of third-party analytics providers, such as Google Analytics, to monitor and assess website and email traffic. Such systems may collect basic information about your computer (e.g. IP address, location, operating system or browser), pages visited, duration of visits, emails opened or links followed. This information is used to assess SAR network interest in various content or activities, and is not used to identify or track any individual user.

Publicly available information: Scholars at Risk may use publicly available information to improve our understanding of network members, threatened individuals seeking assistance, or others for the purpose of understanding their interest in or suitability for SAR services or activities. Again, SAR does not sell, lease, distribute or otherwise use such information for any other purpose.

Use of cookies: SAR sites and services do not knowingly involve the use of “cookies” (small text files placed on your computer or device that store your preferences), with the exception of certain website forms which may remember you for faster service (such as registration forms for SAR events or when adding your name to SAR scholar appeals). You can modify your cookie preferences via your browser if you wish to change how your computer accepts cookies, or you can disable cookies from SAR or altogether.

External links: SAR websites, forms, emails, correspondence or personal communications may include links to other sites or sources (e.g. media reports, university websites, survey websites). SAR makes no representations concerning the content or security of those sites or sources, which may collect or solicit personal data, and is not responsible for the privacy practices of such sites or sources.

4. How We Use Your Information

We may use your information in one or more of the following ways:

Provide the information or services you requested: This may include, but is not limited to, sending you electronic newsletters, sending you job, media, or advocacy alerts, processing your registration for an event, or providing assistance to network member institutions or threatened individuals seeking assistance. This may also include SAR contracting and sharing information with third-party vendors for managing user accounts, sending emails, and processing payments.

Communicate with you: We may use your information to contact you with regard to the above services, related SAR activities, and in response to your email, phone, or other inquiries. This may include information to inform you about services or activities that may be of interest to you, including upcoming SAR-related events. If you do not wish to receive these messages, or wish to select which kinds of information you receive from us, you may click the link in our emails and adjust your preferences, or you may email us at sarprivacy@nyu.edu.

Share with third parties: SAR will only share your information with third parties at your direction or with your consent, for the purpose of SAR-related information-sharing, activities, services or events, or if required to share your information in response to a legal, regulatory, judicial or other request coming from an authority with jurisdiction to require the disclosure. Sharing with your consent may include, but is not limited to:

  • When seeking positions or other help for threatened individuals
  • When discussing network membership or participation in SAR activities or events
  • When sharing event, workshop or course registration information with co-organizers
  • When sharing action-alert signatures on letters and emails with the identified recipient list

5. Your Right to Information

SAR respects the right of individuals to manage their information settings and preferences, including the ability to request modification, correction, removal or deletion of personal information, subject to legitimate public interests and contractual or legal obligations (for example, obligations to retain limited transaction data for legally required audits). To request such changes, you may click the link in our emails and adjust your preferences, or you may email us at sarprivacy@nyu.edu.

6. How We Retain and Secure Your Data

SAR has put in place appropriate organizational, technical and physical safeguards to help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security and correctly use the information shared with SAR. Information shared with SAR is stored in secure locations, is accessible only by designated employees trained in the proper handling of such information, and used only for the purposes for which the information was shared. Whenever SAR hires or otherwise partners with a third-party to retain SAR-provided data, SAR requires the terms of such agreement to require adherence to SAR security and privacy standards. Information shared with SAR is retained for as long as it is needed to fulfill the purposes for which it was shared with SAR, to provide services or activities, or to comply with regular business operations, record-keeping or applicable laws, or regulations.

Questions, Concerns, or Complaints

If you have additional questions or concerns regarding this privacy policy or if you want to lodge a complaint with us, please email us at sarprivacy@nyu.edu. EU residents may report privacy complaints directly to their local data protection authorities. You may also contact us to be directed to the relevant authorities.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

SAR may amend this privacy policy from time to time. The current version in effect will be available on our website at https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/privacy. If we make any significant changes in the way we receive process or use personal information, we will alert you by posting a prominent notice on our sites, emails, and newsletters.

Questions or suggestions

It is important to SAR to hear what visitors have to say about our services, activities and policies. If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this privacy policy or want to let us know what you think, please contact us at:

Privacy Policy Officer
Scholars at Risk Network
411 Lafayette Street, Room 364
New York, New York, USA 10003
sarprivacy@nyu.edu

Last Updated: 5-24-2018