Privacy Policy

The Parsons Institute for Information Mapping (PIIM) takes your privacy very seriously. Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we want to help you understand the terms and conditions surrounding the collection and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses the types of information we gather, how we use it, and how to correct or change it. These privacy practices apply only to the website that you are currently viewing if operated directly by PIIM or one of its affiliates.

What information does PIIM collect?

Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with the best and most useful content and services. Several of the services and features that we offer on our sites require you to provide us with information as a condition of usage. These include access to subscription and registration required areas, the ability to post, upload, or contribute other content, and subscriptions to print and email newsletters and content.

We collect personally identifiable information, such as your name, and email address as you provide it to us. From time to time, we may also collect other sensitive information such as your job title, username, and password. We may also receive information about you from other sources and add it to the information you provided to us.

What is PIIM’s practice regarding cookies?

Your Internet browser has a feature called cookies, which supports the ability to store small amounts of data from a website you are visiting. PIIM websites may set cookies via your Internet browser when accessing our websites. You do not need to have cookies turned on to visit most of our sites, although active participation in certain areas of our sites may require cookies. Cookies alone tell us nothing about who you are unless you specifically give us personally identifiable information, in which case we use the information to enhance your services in the ways described below. By adjusting your settings on your browser, you may elect not to allow cookies to be collected. PIIM cannot guarantee that all websites will work equally well if you restrict cookies from being set via your internet browser.

We also use technologies, including electronic images (sometimes referred to as “beacons”) that allow us to track general user-traffic patterns from our websites or from our electronic mailings. We also automatically receive and record information from our servers and from your browser, including your IP address, the time of your visit to pages on our site, and information about pages you visited. Unless you have registered for one of our products or services, the information we gather through the use of tracking technologies cannot be matched with any personally identifiable information about you.

We use cookies and tracking technologies in a variety of ways, including:

  • Keeping count of return visits to our site or our advertisers’ or partners’ sites
  • Accumulating and reporting anonymous, aggregate (data collected in mass), statistical information on website and advertisement usage
  • Determining which features our overall user population likes best
  • Saving your password so you don't have to re-enter it each time you visit our sites
  • Displaying the most appropriate advertising or content based on your interests

We allow other companies that are presenting advertisements on our sites and, sometimes, in our newsletters to use tracking technology on your computer. We do not give any personally identifiable information to them as part of this relationship. Unless you visit the website of these companies and provide them with personally identifiable information about yourself, these tracking technologies tell those advertisers nothing about who you are. Our advertisers’ use of tracking technology is subject to their own privacy policies.

How does PIIM use the information?

As a convenience to you, PIIM may provide, on this site, links to websites operated by other entities. If you use these sites, you will leave this site. If you decide to visit any linked site, you do so at your own risk and it is your responsibility to take all protective measures to guard against viruses or other destructive elements. PIIM makes no warranty or representation regarding, and does not endorse, any linked websites or the information appearing thereon or any of the products or services described thereon. Links do not imply that PIIM or this site sponsors, endorses, is affiliated or associated with, or is legally authorized to use any trademark, trade name, logo or copyright symbol displayed in or accessible through the links, or that any linked site is authorized to use any trademark, trade name, logo or copyright symbol of PIIM or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries.

External Links to the Site

We use the information we gather for four general purposes:

  • To customize the content you see
  • To enhance the user experience in our network of websites. We use tracking information to determine how well each page performs overall based on aggregate user demographics and traffic patterns to those pages. This helps us continue to build better services for you
  • To fulfill your requests for certain products and services, such as sending out electronic newsletters
  • To send you information you agreed to receive about topics we think will be of interest to you

Aggregate information

We may aggregate personally identifiable information and disclose such information in a non-personally identifiable manner to advertisers and other third parties for marketing, promotional, and other purposes. We do not disclose to these entities any information that could be used to identify you personally.

What are my options?

Users who would rather not provide any of the user data requested by our registration process do not need to register with us. You can opt not to provide certain personal information when registering for a site, provided, however, that you may not be able to use some of our products or services without providing us with certain information.

Links to third-party sites

We may provide links to third-party websites as a service to our users. Please be aware that we cannot control and are not responsible for the information collection practices of such third-party websites, which may differ from those of this website. We encourage you to review and understand the privacy policies on these websites before providing any information to them.

How can I review and update my personally identifiable information?

You can review, correct, or change the information collected during registration for any of our websites of electronic products. The instructions for doing this can be found in designated locations on our websites. Users may change information at any time and as often as necessary. Users who are experiencing problems with our services or who have questions about how our services work can contact us by calling (212) 229-6825.

How will I know if the privacy policy is changed?

Any modifications to our privacy practices will be reflected first within this area of our network of websites. If there is a material change in our privacy practices, we may indicate on our sites that our privacy practices have changed and provide a link to the new privacy statement. If we are going to be using the information collected from users in a manner materially different from that stated at the time of collection, we will send affected users written notice of the change by email.

Security

PIIM has implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personally-identifiable information from loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. Only authorized PIIM personnel are provided access to personally-identifiable information, and these employees are required to treat this information as confidential. Despite these precautions, PIIM cannot guarantee that unauthorized persons will not obtain access to your personally-identifiable information.

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

PIIM strictly adheres to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act). We do not distribute electronic content for commercial purposes or to sell products or services. PIIM does send electronic content to subscribers of its electronic mailings and these are for informational purposes. For more information on the CAN-SPAM Act please visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm

Questions, Comments

Questions regarding this privacy statement or any other aspects of PIIM should be sent to our offices at 68 Fifth Avenue, Room 200, New York, NY 10011. We read every message submitted and try to reply promptly to everyone. We may also file your comments to improve our websites, or review and discard the information.

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