CUNY Academic Commons Privacy PolicyDraft # 3 12/9/09

[The version below is very different from the original one, which was attached to a forum in the CUNY Academic Commons SubCommittee group.  The revisions were in response to comments made by at the members of this committee at our meeting on June 24th.  Note that there are several places where text is missing; please add the appropriate, accurate information. PLEASE EDIT THIS ASAP!   Karen Greenberg

(Sylvie Richards’ Draft)

The CUNY Academic Commons (“Commons”) is restricted to members of the City University of New York.   The Commons allows members only to create personal profiles, groups, blogs and wikis,  and to send messages to other members.   As part of the registration process, the Commons collects some personal contact information from prospective members for the purpose of authentication.  It is the policy of the Commons not to share members’ personal information with third parties.

In addition, the Commons collects and stores personal information that members voluntarily include on their member profiles.  Members may review and change this profile information at any time, including their sharing settings.  When an update is made to a member’s profile, the Commons retains a copy of the original version of the profile for a reasonable period of time to enable reversion to the prior version.  

DIFFERING LEVELS OF PRIVACY

Any member may, at his or her discretion, allow any or all content created by that member to be made public to all members of the Commons and the general public, or to restrict access to specific users.  However, individual control of privacy settings varies on different areas of the Commons:

Your personal profile:
Beyond the required fields requested to create a membership account, each member is free to include any and all personal information in the member’s profile, including pictures, and to limit access to the personal profile by changing the Profile Privacy Settings. 

The Commons is not responsible for any inaccuracies or false statements contained in a member’s profile.  In addition, the Commons disclaims responsibility over misuse of any photo or likeness contained in a member’s profile.  

Furthermore, the Commons disclaims all responsibility for any unauthorized third-party disclosure of any personal information set as restricted by a member if that member allows access to another third-party member and that party copies and pastes the restricted personal information into a public site.

Your wire:
[Fill in]

Your blog:
[Fill in]

Group forums:
[Fill in]

Group wire:
[Fill in]

Group blog:
[Fill in]

The Academic Commons wiki:
Publication of any kind on CUNY Academic Commons wiki is a public act and subject to all applicable federal and state laws.  Any member making a contribution on a Coommons wiki is identified publicly as the author. This includes, but is not limited to, anything written or edited on “Talk” and “Discussion” pages.   Members are hereby notified that anything written or edited on a Commons wiki is permanently retained and viewable.  An act of removing content from a wiki will not permanently delete it. A history of prior versions is viewable at any time by any Commons members.  Commons administrators have access to “moved” or “deleted” pages in perpetuity, even if the page was removed from public view.

EXTERNAL LINKS
The CUNY Academic Commons contains links to sites outside the Commons.  The CUNY Academic Commons is not responsible for the privacy policies and/or practices on other sites. This privacy policy only governs information collected on the CUNY Academic Commons.

COOKIES
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. The Commons uses session cookies to make it easier for a member user to navigate the site. A session ID cookie expires when a member closes the web browser. The Commons also uses persistent cookies, which remain on a member’s hard drive for an extended period of time. If a member user reject cookies, the use of some areas of the Commons may be limited.

CHANGES
The administrators the CUNY Academic Commons reserve the right to change or remove this privacy policy. All changes will be posted here. Members are encouraged to refer to this Privacy Policy on an ongoing basis to remain apprised of current privacy practices.

CONDITIONS AND QUESTIONS
By accessing the CUNY Academic Commons, you acknowledge and agree to all the terms and conditions described in this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions, please email us at CUNYCommons@gmail.com.