Website Privacy Policy and Guidelines

Privacy

  1. This Website Privacy Policy and Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) set forth the privacy policy and guidelines for the website and the FightOnline Online Community of the Alumni Association of the University of Southern California (the “Association”, “we”, “us” and “our”) located at the uniform resource locator, https://alumni.usc.edu (the “Website”) and (the “Online Community”). By accessing or using the Website and the Online Community you (“you” and “your”) agree to the terms of these Guidelines.
  2. In order to demonstrate our sensitivity to your concerns about the Association’s collection and use of information you may submit to us through your use of the Website or Online Community, we want to inform you of our information use and collection practices when visiting our Website or using our Online Community. Specifically, we will inform you:
    • What particular personally identifiable information may be collected from your use of our Website (or Online Community);
    • That only we and affiliated third parties may collect information you submit when you express an interest in any of their services available through the Website or Online Community;
    • How the information you submit may be used by us or our affiliated third parties;
    • With whom we share the information you submit to us;
    • The choices available to you regarding opting out of these information collection, use and sharing practices;
    • The security procedures in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information submitted to us and under our control;
    • How you can correct or update information you have submitted to us during your use of the Website or Online Community.
    • If you feel that we are not abiding by these Guidelines, please contact alumni@usc.edu. If you do not receive any acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact us directly at 213-740-2300 so we may address your concerns.
  3. We reserve the right to contact visitors to our Website or Online Community regarding their status as an alumni, any account status and changes to the Website, these Guidelines or any Terms and Conditions of Use or any other policies or agreements relevant to visitors of the Website or Online Community. You may access such documentation through the Legal Notices Page on the Website.

View the full Privacy Notice for the USC Alumni Association and USC Advancement Services for more information.

Information Collection and Use

  1. We, the Association, are the sole owner of the information submitted to us or collected from visitors of the Website and Online Community. We will not sell, share or rent this information to any unaffiliated third party.
  2. When you perform a search on the Website by use of our search engine, we record no information identifying you or linking you to the search performed. As necessary to provide this service, we do record limited information for every search request and use that information only to solve technical problems with this service and to calculate overall usage statistics.
  3. We do not currently accept any information submitted to or posted at the Website from children under the age of 13. No information should be submitted to or posted at the Website by children under 13 years of age without the consent of their parent or legal guardian. Since the Website and Online Community are directed to alumni of the University of Southern California, we do not allow children under 13 to register at the Website or Online Community or to receive direct marketing communications arising from their use of the Website or Online Community and, therefore, we do not provide any personally identifiable information from children under 13 to any third party.
  4. Unless you follow the procedures described in Section 15 (18) below, we reserve the right, directly or indirectly or through one or more affiliated third parties, to use the information you submit to send you information about the Association, the services and products available on or through the Website or Online Community and other topics in which you may have expressed an interest.

Content Guidelines for Digital Alumni Benefits (FightOnline, Alumni Gmail, etc.)

  1. You are able to post messages, comments, photographs, and other content (“Content”) to the Online Community. You may not post any content that:
    • contains language that could be deemed offensive;
    • may upset, annoy or embarrass another person;
    • is obscene or pornographic;
    • is abusive, insulting or threatening;
    • is defamatory;
    • promotes or encourages bigotry, racism, or sexism;
    • encourages illegal activity;
    • infringes any third party’s rights (including intellectual property rights and privacy rights);
    • relates to commercial activities (including, without limitation, sales, competitions and advertising, links to other websites or premium line telephone numbers) (except with regard to members that are our third party affiliates);
    • involves the transmission of “junk” mail or “spam”;
    • contains spyware, adware, viruses, corrupt files, worm programs or other malicious code to interrupt, damage or disrupt any software, hardware, telecommunications, networks, servers or other equipment;
    • is designed to damage, interfere with, or wrongly intercept any data or personal information from the Online Community or otherwise.
  2. Digital alumni platforms may not be used for the storage or distribution of any content that:
    • encourages illegal activity;
    • infringes any third party’s rights (including intellectual property rights and privacy rights);
    • relates to commercial activities (including, without limitation, sales, competitions and advertising, links to other websites or premium line telephone numbers) (except with regard to members that are our third party affiliates);
    • involves the transmission of “junk” mail or “spam”;
    • contains spyware, adware, viruses, corrupt files, worm programs or other malicious code to interrupt, damage or disrupt any software, hardware, telecommunications, networks, servers or other equipment;
  3. All use is subject to the terms and conditions of each individual platform hosting the services as well as USC’s Code of Ethics.

Access to Your Information by Other Online Community and Fight Online Mobile Application Users

  1. In “My Profile” you can control what is visible in your public profile in the “Directory” to other registered users by toggling the shown/hidden feature for existing profile information.  This will automatically change what is visible to others. If you make a change to any information, it will appear in red until processed. Once processed, “shown” information will also populate to your public profile.

Registration with the Online Community

  1. If you did not receive a FightOnline invite from alumni@usc.edu you can register, and to further personalize your experience when using our Website and Online Community, complete the registration form available by accessing the “FightOnline Login” tab on the Website’s homepage and clicking the “Register” link.
  2. During the registration process you are required to submit certain information as indicated by asterisks on the form.
  3. Your submitted information is used to contact you about services available on or through our Website for which you may have expressed an interest

Alumni Email Account

  1. In order to receive an @alumni.usc.edu Gmail account you must be registered for the FightOnline online community. Once logged in, navigate to the “My Alumni Email” tab in “My Profile” to activate your alumni email.
  2. If you’d like to receive emails from the USC Alumni Association at this email address, select the “My Profile” tab, navigate to the “Contact” section, and add it as your primary email address.
  3. Access your alumni.usc.edu account via Google mail www.google.com and click on “Gmail.” Your username is your full @alumni.usc.edu email address.
  4. For security reasons, 2-Step verification is required for all @alumni.usc.edu accounts. Setting up 2-Step Verification will also allow you to reset your password should the need arise. For more information on how to set up your Google 2SV, click here.
  5. If you wish to reset your @alumni.usc.edu password and don’t have a 2-step verification enabled, please submit a help request form to have your password reset. For security reasons, include your full name, date of birth, degree information, and @alumni.usc.edu email address.
  6. Please note: all alumni gmail account holders are subject to the rules of Google’s Terms of Service and USC’s Code of Ethics.

Cookies

  1. When visiting the Website, we place Internet “cookies” on your computer’s hard drive for session information, including information needed to operate certain features available on the Website. Once your browser is closed, the session cookie is not saved.
  2. Although you can set your browser to reject “cookies” and still use the Website, you may have a more limited experience when visiting the Website, since the cookies placed on your hard drive enable us to track and target your interests in the features or services which may be available on the Website.
  3. Generally, cookies placed on your computer’s hard drive contain a string of numbers and letters to help us identify the user to the Website and do not contain personally identifiable information you have submitted to us.

Log Files

  1. We use Internet Protocol or “IP” addresses to analyze trends impacting the use of the Website, administer the Website, track your movement when visiting the Website. Your IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information you may have submitted to us.

Sharing of Information with Third Parties

  1. We do not share any of your personally identifiable information you submit to us with any unaffiliated third parties.
    • When ordering products or services available on or through the Website, you may access certain third party websites which are framed within our Website and, accordingly, you may be requested to provide your name, shipping address and valid credit card number to a third party shipper or credit card processor in to process your order. Prior to submitting this information, we encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third party websites. However, in allowing these third party websites to be framed within the Website, we require the operators of such websites to limit any use of such information to the purpose for which it was submitted.
    • Additionally, we have established relationships with a variety of third party vendors to provide specific services or products you request. Upon your submission of the requested information when purchasing any of these services or products, we will require your name or other necessary contact information be disclosed to the vendor in order to provide you with the requested service or product.
    • These third party vendors are not allowed to use your personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services. In addition, these parties are not permitted to use aggregated demographic information.

Links and Frames

  1. The Website and Online Community contains links to, or frames, other websites. These links and frames are provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement by us of the contents of such third party websites. We are not responsible for the content or accuracy of materials on such websites. If you decide to access linked or framed third party websites, you do so at your own risk. We encourage you to be aware of this upon leaving our Website and to read the privacy policies or statements of each website that may collect any information from you.

Surveys & Contests

  1. From time-to-time, our Website or Online Community may request you submit personally identifiable information by way of surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary, and you are under no obligation to disclose any information which may be requested. Information which may be requested includes your name, shipping address, age level and other identifying information. The information you submit will be used to notify you in the event you have won any prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of the Website or Online Community.

Security

  1. When you submit information to us through the Website (or the Online Community), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us via a secure sockets layer (“SSL”) connection.
  2. In addition to using 128-bit SSL encryption technology to protect the transmission of this information, access to such information is limited to employees on a need-to-know basis required to perform customer service and other necessary operations.
  3. If you have any questions or concerns about security for our Website (or Online Community), you can submit a help request form for assistance.

Special Offers

  1. Unless otherwise directed by you and in accordance with the [opt-out] procedures set forth below, registrants of the Online Community will occasionally receive information on products, services and special deals, which may be available through the Website in addition to our newsletter. In the event you do not wish to receive such communications, click ‘Manage Subscriptions’ at the bottom of any USC Alumni Association email.

Updates to the Website and Services Available

  1. As an alumnus/a who registers with our Online Community, you will also receive announcements relating to updates to our Website in addition to the services available from time to time.
  2. To manage mail and phone communications, log into FightOnline and click ‘My Profile’ Communication Preferences to select yes or no to particular communications.

Correction/Updating Personal Information

  1. If any of the information in ‘Bio Details’ or ‘Contact’ under “My Profile” requires updating or correcting, edit the field. It will appear in red until processed. Once processed, “shown” information will also populate to your public profile. Please note: To delete contact information that is no longer valid, please submit a help request form.

(Website) Choice/Opt-out

  1. Registrants of the Online Community who no longer wish to receive our occasional email blasts can simply view and follow the instructions at the bottom of the particular email received.
  2. Visitors to the Website will always be notified if their information is being collected by affiliated third parties so that our visitors can choose whether or not to proceed with requesting the services from such third parties.

Notification of Changes

  1. Any changes or updates to these Guidelines or any other policy or practice will be effective immediately upon posting such changes or updates to the Website or Online Community. However, any use of information you submit will be in accordance with the terms of the Guidelines in effect at the time such information was submitted.

No Liability for Acts of Third Parties

  1. Although we will use reasonable efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of the information you submit, transmissions made by means of the Internet cannot be made absolutely secure. We, the Association, will have no liability for disclosure of the information you submit to us due to errors in transmission or unauthorized acts of third parties.

Interactions with Other Members

  1. You are solely responsible with your interactions with FightOnline members. You understand that the “Association” does not conduct criminal background checks on its members. The “Association” also does not inquire into the background of its members or attempt to verify the statements of its members. The “Association” makes no representations or warranties as to the conduct of members or their compatibility with any current or future members. The “Association” reserves the right to conduct any criminal background check or other screenings (such as sex offender register searches), at any time and using available public records.

Limitation of Liability

  1. In no event shall the “Association” be liable for any damages whatsoever, whether direct, indirect, general, special, compensatory, consequential, and/or incidental, arising out of or relating to the conduct of you or anyone else in connection with the use of the website, the online community and any related service, including without limitation, bodily injury, emotional distress, and/or any other damages resulting from communications, events or meetings with other registered users of this service or persons you meet through this service. You agree to take reasonable precautions in all interactions with other members of the service, particularly if you decide to meet offline or in person. You understand that the “Association” makes no guarantees, either express or implied, regarding your ultimate compatibility with individuals you meet through this service. You should not provide your financial information (for example, your credit card or bank account information) to other members.