Privacy Policy
Free Essay values the privacy of the users, subscribers, publishers, members, and others who visit and use the Free Essay Platform (collectively or individually, "You" or "Users").
By using the Free Essay Platform, you expressly consent to the information handling practices described in this notice.
This Privacy Notice is incorporated into and is subject to the Free Essay Platform Terms of Use. Your use of the Free Essay Platform and any personal information you provide through the Free Essay Platform are subject at all time to this Privacy Notice and the Terms of Use. Terms for "Free Essay" and the "Free Essay Platform" apply to any site or mobile application owned and operated by Free Essay.
- The Information Free Essay Collects
- The Way Free Essay Uses Information
- When Free Essay Discloses Information
- Your Choices
- Third-Party Advertisers
- Data Security
- Children's Privacy
- International Visitors
- In the Event of Merger or Sale
- Changes and Updates to this Privacy Notice
- Free Essay Contact Information
1. The Information Free Essay Collects
- User-provided Information: You may provide to Free Essay what is generally called "personally identifiable" information (such as your name, email address, postal mailing address, home/mobile telephone number) if you log in to the Free Essay Platform, or otherwise use the features and functionality of the Free Essay Platform. You may also provide other information to Free Essay, including your age, location, and gender, through use of its functionality and features, such as by creating a user profile.
- "Cookies" Information: When you access the Free Essay Platform, we or one of our advertising partners, may send one or more cookies - small text files that contain a string of alphanumeric characters - to your computer. Free Essay may use both session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie disappears after you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the Free Essay Platform. One type of persistent cookie that may be installed on your computer when you use Free Essay is called a "Flash cookie" or an "LSO." Persistent cookies can be removed. Please review your web browser's "Help" file to learn the proper way to modify your cookie settings. For more information on how to manage Flash cookies, you can go here. For more information about cookies and how they are used, you can go here.
- "Automatically Collected" Information: When you access the Free Essay Platform or open one of our HTML emails, we may automatically record certain information from your system by using different types of tracking technology. This "automatically collected" information may include Internet Protocol address ("IP Address"), a unique device or user ID, version of software installed, system type, the referring search query used to locate content and pages on the Free Essay Platform, the content and pages that you access on the Free Essay Platform, the dates and times that you visit the Free Essay Platform, and information from your Facebook account that you make publicly available, which is provided to us by Facebook via the Facebook APIs.
2. The Way Free Essay Uses Information
- Free Essay uses the information that you provide or that we collect to operate, maintain, enhance, and provide all of the features and services found on the Free Essay Platform as well as to track user-generated content and Users to the extent necessary to comply as a service provider with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
- Free Essay may also use the information that you provide or that we collect to serve you with advertisements.
- We will use your email address, without further consent, for administrative communications such as notifying you of major Free Essay Platform updates, for customer service purposes, to address copyright infringement or defamation issues, or to contact you regarding any content that you have posted to or downloaded from the Free Essay Platform.
- Free Essay uses all of the information that we collect to understand the usage trends and preferences of our Users, to improve the way the Free Essay Platform works and looks, and to create new features and functionality.
- Free Essay may use "Automatically Collected" information and "Cookies" information to: (a) automatically update the Free Essay application on your system; (b) remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you access the Free Essay Platform; (c) monitor aggregate site usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages accessed; (d) provide such metrics to Users as they pertain to such User's uploaded content; and (e) track your entries, submissions, and status in any promotions or other activities.
3. When Free Essay Discloses Information
- Free Essay does not share your personally identifiable information with other organizations for their marketing or promotional uses without your prior express consent, except that if you have provided us with an email address, Free Essay may provide a hashed version of it to its advertising partners, RapLeaf, Bizo, and LiveRamp, to enable better targeted advertising where RapLeaf, Bizo, and LiveRamp already possesses your email address. If RapLeaf, Bizo, or LiveRamp do not already have your email address in their records, they cannot use the hashed version that we provide. For more information on RapLeaf's privacy practices, and to opt out, please visit https://www.rapleaf.com/privacy. For more information on Bizo's privacy practices, and to opt out, please visit http://www.bizo.com/businessProfessionals/index. For more information on LiveRamp's privacy practices, and to opt out, please visit http://liveramp.com/data-privacy-policy/.
- Free Essay may disclose aggregated or other types of non-personally identifiable information to third parties for various purposes, including marketing or promotional uses. For example, Free Essay may disclose non-personally identifiable information to interested third parties to assist them in understanding the usage, viewing, and demographic patterns on the the Free Essay Platform.
- Please be aware that any personally identifiable information that you voluntarily choose to display on the Free Essay Platform - such as when you publish attribution credits for documents or profile information - becomes publicly available and may be collected and used by others without restriction.
- We may disclose User information to affiliated companies or other businesses or persons to: provide web site hosting, maintenance, and security services; fulfill orders; conduct data analysis and create reports; offer certain functionality; and assist Free Essay in improving the Free Essay Platform and creating new services features. We require that these parties process such information in compliance with this Privacy Notice, we authorize only a limited use of such information, and we require these parties to use reasonable confidentiality measures.
- Free Essay may disclose User information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright law) or respond to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena, or warrant in the manner required by the requesting entity.
- Free Essay also reserves the right to disclose User information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary: to take precautions against liability; to protect Free Essay from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; to investigate and defend ourselves against third-party claims or allegations; to assist government enforcement agencies; to protect the security or integrity of the Free Essay Platform; or to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Free Essay, our Users, or others.
- Free Essay shows aggregate geographical information about visitors on Free Essay document pages in our analytics section. This information includes the cities and countries of people viewing documents, the document which was viewed, and the time the document was viewed. This information is publicly available to all Free Essay users.
4. Your Choices
You may, of course, decline to share your personally-identifiable information with Free Essay, in which case Free Essay will not be able to provide to you some of the features and functionality found on the Free Essay Platform. You may update, correct, or delete your user information and preferences at any time here.
You may also choose to opt-out of receiving interest-based advertising from many of our advertising partners and others by visiting http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp
To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you account access or making corrections to your information. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTAINING THE SECRECY OF YOUR UNIQUE PASSWORD AND ACCOUNT INFORMATION AT ALL TIMES.
5. Third-Party Advertisers
Free Essay adheres to the Digital Advertising Alliance's Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, available at http://www.aboutads.info. Our advertising partners, such as RapLeaf, Bizo and BlueKai, may use technology to provide the advertisements that appear on the Free Essay Platform and to use data collected through the Free Essay Platform, as described above and in this section, to better target ads shown on Free Essay and other websites. For a list of many of the advertisers that may work with Free Essay please visit http://www.aboutads.info/participating.
Our advertising partners may also use cookies or pixel tags to enable the serving of customized advertisements and content to you both on Free Essay and on other websites and services based on your visits to, and use of Free Essay, as well as based on your visits to third-party sites and services on the Internet. These cookies or pixel tags may contain non-personally identifiable demographic or other data. You may opt-out of receiving interest-based advertising from many of our advertising partners by visiting http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp
6. OUR COMMITMENT TO DATA SECURITY
FREE ESSAY USES COMMERCIALLY REASONABLE PHYSICAL, MANAGERIAL, AND TECHNICAL SAFEGUARDS TO PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY AND SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. WE CANNOT, HOWEVER, ENSURE OR WARRANT THE SECURITY OF ANY INFORMATION YOU TRANSMIT TO FREE ESSAY, AND YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK. ONCE WE RECEIVE YOUR TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION, FREE ESSAY MAKES COMMERCIALLY REASONABLE EFFORTS TO ENSURE THE SECURITY OF OUR SYSTEMS.HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A GUARANTEE THAT SUCH INFORMATION MAY NOT BE ACCESSED, DISCLOSED, ALTERED, OR DESTROYED BY BREACH OF ANY OF OUR PHYSICAL, TECHNICAL, OR MANAGERIAL SAFEGUARDS.
IF FREE ESSAY LEARNS OF A SECURITY SYSTEMS BREACH, THEN WE MAY ATTEMPT TO NOTIFY YOU ELECTRONICALLY SO THAT YOU CAN TAKE APPROPRIATE PROTECTIVE STEPS. FREE ESSAY MAY POST A NOTICE ON THE FREE ESSAY PLATFORM IF A SECURITY BREACH OCCURS. DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU LIVE, YOU MAY HAVE A LEGAL RIGHT TO RECEIVE NOTICE OF A SECURITY BREACH IN WRITING. TO RECEIVE A FREE WRITTEN NOTICE OF A SECURITY BREACH YOU SHOULD NOTIFY US AT PRIVACY@FREE ESSAY.
7. OUR COMMITMENT TO CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
IF YOU ARE UNDER 13 YEARS OF AGE, THEN PLEASE DO NOT USE OR ACCESS THE FREE ESSAY PLATFORM AT ANY TIME OR IN ANY MANNER.
PROTECTING THE PRIVACY OF YOUNG CHILDREN IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT. FOR THAT REASON, FREE ESSAY DOES NOT KNOWINGLY COLLECT OR MAINTAIN PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION FROM PERSONS UNDER 13 YEARS-OF-AGE. IF FREE ESSAY LEARNS THAT PERSONALLY-IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION OF PERSONS LESS THAN 13-YEARS-OF-AGE HAS BEEN COLLECTED ON OR THROUGH THE FREE ESSAY PLATFORM, THEN FREE ESSAY WILL TAKE THE APPROPRIATE STEPS TO DELETE THIS INFORMATION.
IF YOU ARE THE PARENT OR LEGAL GUARDIAN OF A CHILD UNDER 13 WHO HAS BECOME FREE ESSAY PLATFORM MEMBER, THEN PLEASE CONTACT FREE ESSAY AT PRIVACY@FREE ESSAY TO HAVE THAT CHILD'S ACCOUNT TERMINATED AND INFORMATION DELETED.
THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME RESOURCES THAT MAY HELP PARENTS AND LEGAL GUARDIANS IN MONITORING AND LIMITING YOUR CHILDRENS' ACCESS TO CERTAIN TYPES OF MATERIAL ON THE INTERNET. WHILE FREE ESSAY DOES NOT ENDORSE THESE PRODUCTS, WE PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT THEM AS A PUBLIC SERVICE TO OUR COMMUNITY.
- "OnGuard Online," maintained by the Federal Trade Commission.
- WiredSafety
- Netsmartz.org
- The Child Safety Network
- Control Kids
- Cyber Sitter
- Net Nanny
8. INTERNATIONAL VISITORS
FOR USERS VISITING THE FREE ESSAY PLATFORM FROM THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA OR OTHER NON-U.S. TERRITORIES, PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY DATA YOU ENTER INTO THE FREE ESSAY PLATFORM WILL BE TRANSFERRED OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA OR SUCH OTHER NON-U.S. TERRITORY FOR USE BY FREE ESSAY AND ITS AFFILIATES FOR ANY OF THE PURPOSES DESCRIBED HEREIN.IN ADDITION, BECAUSE FREE ESSAY OPERATES GLOBALLY, WE MAY MAKE INFORMATION WE GATHER AVAILABLE TO WORLDWIDE BUSINESS UNITS AND AFFILIATES. BY PROVIDING ANY DATA ON THE FREE ESSAY PLATFORM, YOU HEREBY EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO SUCH TRANSFERS OF YOUR DATA TO THE UNITED STATES OR OTHER COUNTRIES.
9. IN THE EVENT OF MERGER OR SALE
IN THE EVENT THAT FREE ESSAY IS ACQUIRED BY OR MERGED WITH A THIRD-PARTY ENTITY, WE RESERVE THE RIGHT, IN ANY OF THESE CIRCUMSTANCES, TO TRANSFER OR ASSIGN THE INFORMATION THAT WE HAVE COLLECTED FROM USERS AS PART OF THAT MERGER, ACQUISITION, SALE, OR OTHER CHANGE OF CONTROL.
10. CHANGES AND UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE
THIS PRIVACY NOTICE MAY BE REVISED PERIODICALLY WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE TO YOU AND THIS WILL BE REFLECTED BY A "LAST MODIFIED" DATE BELOW. PLEASE REVISIT THIS PAGE TO STAY AWARE OF ANY CHANGES. IN GENERAL, WE ONLY USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IN THE MANNER DESCRIBED IN THE PRIVACY NOTICE IN EFFECT WHEN WE RECEIVED THAT PERSONAL INFORMATION.YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE FREE ESSAY PLATFORM CONSTITUTES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE AND ANY FUTURE REVISIONS.
FOR REVISIONS TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE THAT MAY BE MATERIALLY LESS RESTRICTIVE ON OUR USE OR DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU HAVE PROVIDED TO US, WE WILL MAKE REASONABLE EFFORTS TO NOTIFY YOU AND OBTAIN YOUR CONSENT BEFORE IMPLEMENTING REVISIONS WITH RESPECT TO SUCH INFORMATION.
11. FREE ESSAY CONTACT INFORMATION
PLEASE CONTACT FREE ESSAY WITH ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT THIS PRIVACY NOTICE, YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION, AND OUR THIRD-PARTY DISCLOSURE PRACTICES OR YOUR CONSENT CHOICES AT: FREE ESSAY. WE WILL RESPOND TO YOUR INQUIRY WITHIN 30 DAYS OF ITS RECEIPT.