Privacy Policy

Effective Beginning 14 February 2013

The FellowsCentral website is maintained by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellowships Program, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20005. Featuring science, technology, and policy news and resources, the website provides a mechanism for engaging the fellowship community, and for communicating news and information to current and alumni fellows, partner societies liaisons, agency representatives, and other constituents.

Notice

This Privacy Policy describes how administrators of the FellowsCentral website collect and use the information that users may decide to share. The policy is intended to allow site visitors to make informed decisions when using the website, located at aaaspolicyfellowships.org, and its directly associated domains (collectively, "AAAS" or "website" or “FellowsCentral”). By using or accessing www.aaaspolicyfellowships.org, you accept the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

AAAS S&T Policy Fellowships receives personal information in connection with the management and administration of the program’s functions relating to application, selection and fellowship matters. Fellows Central may collect and use the personal information for various program management purposes of current fellows, including but not limited to, relationship to placement offices and host agencies, partner societies, program and self assessments, stipends and benefits functions, programs and affinity group activities, training and professional development, fellowship travel reimbursements, access to current and alumni fellow directories, program recordkeeping, compliance with guidelines and other fellowship related purposes. Detailed placement and reimbursement data for recordkeeping is only available to each authenticated current fellow. This information is not available in the shared directory.

Upon becoming an alumnus of the program, administrative data is removed from a fellow’s profile. The fellow then has the ability to keep their personal and professional data up to date; and can decide if they would like to share personal information within the directory, with other fellows.

Questions regarding this statement should be directed to our privacy staff at fellowships@aaas.org.

Information We Collect

When you visit FellowsCentral, you provide us with two types of information, both of which are collected by us: personal information that you knowingly choose to disclose, and website use information collected by us as you interact with our Website. When you enter this website we collect your browser type and IP address. This information is gathered for all FellowsCentral website users. In addition, we store certain information from your browser using "cookies." Cookies are pieces of data stored on a user's computer tied to information about that user. For example, we use session identification (ID) cookies to confirm that users are logged in. These cookies automatically terminate once the user closes the browser. By default, we use a persistent cookie that stores your login ID (but not your password) to make it easier for you to login when you come back to Fellows Central. You may block or remove this convenience feature through the settings in your Web browser.

By using this website, you agree and acknowledge that your posting of user content (as defined in the AAAS Terms of Use) on the site is done solely at your own risk. We cannot control the actions of other users with whom you may choose to share information, nor can we guarantee that our security system will not ever be breached. We cannot and do not guarantee that user content you post on the site will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the site. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of user content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other users have copied or stored your user content.

Any improper collection or misuse of information provided on FellowsCentral is a violation of the Terms of Use and should be reported to fellowships@aaas.org.

By using this website, you are consenting to have any data you enter transferred to and processed in the United States.

Children Under Age 18

AAAS does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 18. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at fellowships@aaas.org.

Sharing Your Information with Third Parties

AAAS will share your information with third parties outside of fellowship staff and alumni where such sharing is 1) permitted by you, or 2) legally required. We may also provide information to service providers to help us bring you the services we offer. Where we utilize third parties for the processing of any personal information, we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections limiting the use of that information to the AAAS-specified purposes.

By activating your FellowsCentral account you agree to that you have an existing relationship with the S&T Policy Fellowships and you agree to participate in the S&T Policy Fellows directory. Your information may be shared with other authenticated users through features of the directory which are designed to increase interactivity between fellows, such as providing random displays of other fellows with similar disciplinary and professional experience. Sensitive material is neither gathered nor provided in the fellowship directories features or functions. By activating your account, you also consent to receive from us and/or from any our service providers of information and data we believe may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive such information or data, please contact us at fellowships@aaas.org. We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws.

We may reveal information if we have a good-faith belief that an information request by regulatory or law enforcement officials or from private litigants meets applicable legal standards. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the AAAS service or using the AAAS name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.

Through interactions with third-party sites, we may inadvertently receive some information about you or your use of the third-party site even if you are logged out from FellowsCentral, or that pertains to non-FellowsCentral users, from those sites in conjunction with the technical operation of the system.

If the AAAS ownership were to change, your user information may be transferred to the new owner so the service can continue operations. In any such transfer of information, your user information would remain subject to this Privacy Policy, including its provision for revisions.

Certain information you post to the website may be shared with other users beyond these privacy policies. All such sharing of information is done at your own risk. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information on any information submitted to a Website, such as a blog, comments, messages, photos, videos, or other items, this information may become publicly available.

Links

AAAS may contain links to other websites. We cannot be and are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by AAAS.

Changing or Removing Information

Generally, user submissions may be removed only by AAAS or, if posted to a Group, by a Group Administrator or AAAS.

Security

AAAS takes appropriate precautions to protect our users' information. When you enter sensitive information (such as your password), we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). Because email and instant messaging are not recognized as secure communications, we request that you not send private information to us by email or instant messaging services. If you have any questions about the security of Fellows Central website, please contact us at fellowships@aaas.org.

Terms of Use, Notices and Revisions

Your use of AAAS, and any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Use and all of its dispute resolution provisions including arbitration, limitation on damages and choice of law. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. We may modify this Privacy Policy, effective immediately upon notice to you either by (1) electronic mail or conventional mail, or (2) posting to the site (which shall be deemed constructive notice). Your continued use of the site following notice of any modification to this Privacy Policy shall be conclusively deemed an acceptance of all such modification(s). We encourage you to refer to this policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current privacy policy. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.

Contacting AAAS

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at fellowships@aaas.org. You may also contact us by mail at 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20005.