Privacy Policy

UPF cares about the confidentiality and security of your information. UPF operates the Catalog.InterconnectionAcademy.net and Courses.InterconnectionAcademy.net Sites, which consists of content and pages located within the Interconnection Academy.net web domain. DE-CIX operates the www.InterconnectionAcademy.net Site.

The Interconnection Academy Site allows you to:

• Browse courses offered by Interconnection Academy;
• Create a Interconnection Academy account;
• Sign up to receive more information about some courses and programs on the Interconnection Academy Site;
• Enroll in some of the courses on the Interconnection Academy Site; and
• Participate in some of the courses on the Interconnection Academy Site, including engaging with course content, taking tests, obtaining your results and any certificates, and providing feedback following a course.

This Privacy Policy describes how Interconnection Academy collects, uses, and shares your Personal Information when you interact with the Interconnection Academy Site or when someone interacts with the site on your behalf. The term “Personal Information” is information that relates to an individual who can be directly or indirectly identified.

This Privacy Policy also describes how Interconnection Academy uses your Personal Information when you interact with Interconnection Academy on certain other sites (e.g., on social media sites). 

If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access, browse, or create an account on the Interconnection Academy Site, enroll in any courses, or complete any form requesting additional information about offerings on the Interconnection Academy Site. Any version of this Privacy Policy in a language other than English is provided for convenience, and the English language version is the authoritative version if there is any conflict.

INFORMATION Interconnection Academy COLLECTS FROM AND ABOUT YOU

Browsing the Interconnection Academy Site and courses, creating a Interconnection Academy account, signing up to receive more information about courses, and communicating with Interconnection Academy

Interconnection Academy collects information from you when you create an Interconnection Academy account and/or sign up to receive more information about courses offered on the Interconnection Academy Site. For example, we require your name, username, email address and country of residence when you create an account. We also require your contact details when you sign up to receive more information about courses, otherwise we cannot send you this information, and we collect information from you when you send messages to us (whether on the Interconnection Academy Site or on other platforms, e.g., social media sites). You may unsubscribe from Interconnection Academy promotional emails at any time by clicking “unsubscribe” on the emails you receive from us.

Interconnection Academy also automatically collects information about your visit to the Interconnection Academy Site when you browse across the courses.

Enrolling in courses/nanomoocs

Interconnection Academy collects information from you when you enroll in courses on the Interconnection Academy Site. For example, if you enroll in any course on the Interconnection Academy Site that requires payment to access the course and/or be eligible for a Verified Certificate of Achievement, we require Personal Information to enable you to pay for that course, so that our third-party vendor can process payment. A Verified Certificate of Achievement (“Certificate”) is a virtual certificate that shows that you have successfully completed your Interconnection Academy course or program or other product or service. You can also provide additional information if you wish to apply for financial assistance to pay for a course.

Note that Interconnection Academy does not itself collect or store financial account numbers or identification issued by a governmental entity, employer, or other authority.

Interconnection Academy also automatically collects information about your visit to the Interconnection Academy Site when you enroll in one or more courses.

Participating in courses/nanomoocs

Interconnection Academy collects information from you when you participate in courses offered on the Interconnection Academy Site. For example, we collect the information that you submit as part of your participation in the course, that you include in messages to Interconnection Academy (including messages to learner support), that you provide in user surveys, or that you provide on public forums, webinars and other interactive experiences on the Interconnection Academy Site.

When you participate in a course, the Member that offers the course will receive Personal Information about your activity and performance in the course.

HOW Interconnection academy USES YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Interconnection Academy uses information, including Personal Information, to carry out the following purposes:

• Operate and improve the Interconnection Academy Site — We use information we collect for this purpose, including creating and improving features that support the Interconnection Academy community and enable Interconnection Academy Site usage at scale. This also includes personalizing the Interconnection Academy Site, so your learning experience is tailored to your interests and needs. We do this to meet our legitimate business interests in offering the most useful and helpful experience for our learners.
• Create, administer, provide, and teach courses — We use information we collect for this purpose, including creating and improving the delivery of massive open online courses and programs on the Interconnection Academy Site. This also includes personalizing courses, so your learning experience is tailored to your interests and needs, assessing your performance, and awarding Certificates. We do this to meet our legitimate business interests in offering the most useful courses possible.
• Offer and improve products and services — We use information we collect for this purpose, including enabling you to navigate the Interconnection Academy Site, to enroll and participate in courses and programs on the Interconnection Academy Site, to learn effectively in such courses and programs, to purchase or obtain products and services on the Interconnection Academy Site such as Certificates, and to invite you to participate in market research. We offer products and services on the basis that it is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you under the Terms of Service and improve our products and services to meet our legitimate interests in offering the highest-quality online courses and programs available.
• Develop and maintain the security and performance of the Interconnection Academy Site — We use information we collect for this purpose, including tracking Interconnection Academy Site outages and creating software solutions, detecting violations of the Honor Code and Terms of Service, and monitoring uses, misuses, and potential misuses of the Interconnection Academy Site. We do this to meet our legal obligations to keep Personal Information secure and to meet our legitimate business interests in keeping the Interconnection Academy Site available at all times.
• Communicate with you — As permitted by law, we use information we collect for this purpose, including answering your course and platform questions and notifying you of course and Interconnection Academy Site maintenance and updates. We do this on the basis of our legitimate interests in keeping learners up to date about our platform and responding to learner questions.
• Promote courses and programs — As permitted by law, we use information we collect for this purpose, including developing and providing promotional and advertising materials that may be useful, relevant, valuable or otherwise of interest to you. We send marketing and advertising to you about course offerings, programs, news, and related products and services of Interconnection Academy. 
• Support scientific research including, for example, in the areas of cognitive science and education — We use the information about your participation in courses for this purpose, including collaborating to enable and conduct research about how learners access and master course materials online, with the goal of improving course outcomes. We do this to meet our legitimate interests in supporting scientific and educational research.
• Track Interconnection Academy Site usage against goals and mission — We use information we collect for this purpose, including performing analytics to evaluate access to and performance in courses and course-related products and services and to report aggregate usage information (not Personal Information) to business partners and external audiences. We do this on the basis of our legitimate interests in completing and furthering our goals and the mission of the Interconnection Academy Site.
• Exercise, enforce, and comply with legal rights and obligations — In some circumstances, we use information we collect for this purpose, including responding to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process; and investigating, preventing, or taking action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, security or technical issues, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Interconnection Academy.

Interconnection Academy may also seek your consent for additional uses of information, including Personal Information, and in such cases will use your Personal Information only for the purpose described to you. All use of Personal Information is subject to applicable law.

HOW Interconnection Academy SHARES YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Interconnection Academy shares the information we collect about you, including Personal Information, with other entities or individuals in the following circumstances:

• With Members — Members receive your Personal Information when you enroll or participate in their courses or programs, as described in Section V below.
• With service providers, contractors, and other third parties that help carry out the uses described above — We share your information with third parties that provide business, professional, or technical support functions for us. These service providers are only given access to your information to the extent necessary to process your information and/or provide services to Interconnection Academy, and they are prohibited from using or sharing your information for any other purposes. They also are required to handle Personal Information in a confidential manner and maintain reasonable security practices. In some cases, the Interconnection Academy Site and individual courses are integrated with third-party services or contain links to websites published by third parties, including other content providers as well as service providers. These third parties are responsible for their own privacy practices, so you should pay attention anytime you are redirected to a third-party website and be sure to review its privacy policy.
• With other learners in courses that you take and with other visitors to the Interconnection Academy Site, to create an interactive learning environment, support class participation, and share course information — This includes sharing comments, coursework, or other information or content that you submit to a portion of the Interconnection Academy Site designed for viewing by other class members or for public communication. This also includes providing opportunities for you to communicate with other users who may have similar interests or educational goals, for instance, recommending specific study partners or connecting potential student mentees and mentors. In such cases, Interconnection Academy may use all information collected about you to determine who might be interested in communicating with you but will only provide others your username (for clarity, no disclosure of your real name or email address).
• With employers, government programs, institutions, or other enterprises that sponsor your enrollment in a course for training or other educational purposes — If an entity pays for or otherwise sponsors your Certificate or course participation, Interconnection Academy will share information with the entity as needed to confirm your enrollment, participation, progress, and completion status in that course.
• For legal or safety reasons — We access or share your information to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request; in connection with an investigation on matters related to public safety; as permitted by law; or otherwise as required by law. We disclose your information to protect the security of the Interconnection Academy Site and our servers, network systems, and databases. We also disclose your information, as necessary, if we believe that there has been a violation of our Honor Code or Terms of Service (including investigation of potential violations thereof), any other legal document or contract related to the Interconnection Academy Site, or the rights of any third party.
• To detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or other technical issues.
• Pursuant to a sale or transfer of business or assets — Interconnection Academy may sell or purchase assets during the normal course of our business. If another entity acquires us or any of our assets, information we have collected about you may be transferred to such entity. In addition, if any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding is brought by or against us, such information may be considered an asset of ours and may be sold or transferred to third parties. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to require that the transferee use your information in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Interconnection Academy may also seek your consent for additional disclosures of information, including Personal Information, and will share it only as described to you or as described in this Privacy Policy. In addition, Interconnection Academy may de-identify or aggregate your Personal Information and share it with the public and with third parties, including, but not limited to, researchers and business partners.

HOW TO MANAGE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You can manage your Personal Information through learner features on the Interconnection Academy Site and requests to the Interconnection Academy learner support team. If your request involves information controlled by a Member, Interconnection Academy will, as applicable, notify the appropriate Member to address your request.

Access and correct your Personal Information

Much of your Personal Information is available in your Interconnection Academy account. Your name, email address, and other identifiable profile information is editable through your Interconnection Academy Account Settings except as noted below. Your account dashboard lists all current and archived courses in which you have enrolled and includes links to any Certificates you may have earned. You may download copies of your earned Certificates directly from your Interconnection Academy account. Please contact Interconnection Academy learner support to request any corrections to your Personal Information.
Please note that usernames cannot be changed. This is an Interconnection Academy system restriction. Because usernames identify you in courses and elsewhere on the Interconnection Academy Site, Interconnection Academy encourages you to use discretion in choosing your username. If you want to protect your identity, do not use your real name or a name identifiable to you as your username. Also, Interconnection Academy does not track or index every time or every place on the Interconnection Academy Site when or where a learner may volunteer Personal Information, so neither Interconnection Academy nor Members will be able to help you locate or manage all such instances. Interconnection Academy encourages you to use discretion before volunteering Personal Information on the Interconnection Academy Site.