ACT Privacy Policy
Main Notice
How ACT Uses Personal Information
Information Sharing and Disclosure
International - Onward Transfer of Personal Information
Access, Correction, and Deletion of Personal Information
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Scope of this Notice
At ACT Education Corp. (“ACT,” “we,” “us”) we recognize the importance of protecting the privacy of your personal information.
This Notice explains how ACT collects, uses, maintains, and shares your information when you:
- Visit ACT websites that reference or link to this Privacy Notice (collectively, the "Site");
- Provide your personal information to us through use of the Site; and/or
- Register for or participate in ACT’s assessments, programs, and services (collectively, “Products” or “ACT Products”).
Please note that when your information is shared with others as described in this notice, it may be subject to the additional privacy terms of those third-parties with whom the information is shared.
Main Notice
Information ACT Collects
Personal information is information that can identify you, or that could be used in combination with other available data to identify you. ACT collects personal information from different sources as described in this notice, and the categories of personal information ACT collects include the following:
- Contact information, such as your name, home address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, and gender.
- Education and job information, such as year of high school graduation or equivalent grade in school, high school academic information, intended college major and occupation, college plans, extracurricular plans, and job title.
- Test administration information, such as photograph, disability information, and whether you are right- or left-handed.
- Payment information, such as credit card number, bank account information, and tax identification number.
- Device information, such as internet protocol address, device geolocation information, and information from cookies and web beacons.
- Sensitive information, including your race/ethnicity and personal information from children under 13.
Personal Information Provided by You
In connection with collecting this information, ACT will indicate information that is mandatory and information that is optional. If you do not provide mandatory personal information, such as your contact information, you may not be able to use, access or benefit from ACT’s Products.
- Use of ACT Products. When you register for or use an ACT Product, we ask you to provide certain personal information, including contact information, education and job information, test administration information, sensitive information and payment information.
- International: If you are taking an assessment outside the United States, some of the information ACT requests could be classified in your home country as sensitive or special personal information according to your country’s data protection laws. This may include your age, gender, biometric data, race, ethnicity, health data such as a physical or learning disability, credit card information, and/or information related to your background, including political and religious affiliations.
- Site visitors. When you visit the Site, ACT may collect and store your device information. Additionally, if you request materials or information from ACT, we may ask you to provide your contact information and education and job information, as well as an explanation of your need for the requested materials or information. If you are purchasing a Product, ACT may ask for your payment information.
- Test Security. During administration of a secure ACT assessment, you may be asked to provide personal information including test administration information, and your test session may be captured by video and/or audio to ensure test security.
- Suppliers of services and goods to ACT. If you are a supplier of services or goods to ACT, such as a test proctor, ACT may request a variety of personal information, including contact information and payment information.
- Job applicants. If you are applying for employment with ACT, we will request a variety of personal information, including your contact information and education and job information.
Personal Information Provided by Other Sources
- Schools, school districts, and educational institutions. When you use an ACT Product through your school or educational institution, ACT may receive personal information from that school or educational institution, including your contact information, education and job information, test administration information, and sensitive information.
- Automated means. ACT uses the following automated means to collect personal device information about you:
- Cookies. Cookies are small text files that a website can send to a user's browser and store on the user’s hard drive. Cookies can make your use of the Site easier by saving user information such as status and preferences. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of the Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, ACT will issue cookies when you use your browser to visit the Site.
- Web Beacons. The Site also uses Web beacons, which are small strings of code that deliver a graphic image on a Web page or in an email message for the purpose of transferring data. ACT may use Web beacons to count users who have visited a page or opened an email, or for other similar website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity). You can disable Web beacons from capturing information by blocking cookies.
- Third-party Analytics Services. The Site uses third-party service providers for analytics purposes. These providers collect information about you and report website trends that may be linked to you. These providers use their own cookies to track site visitor interactions. ACT does not control the cookies used by these third-party service providers and their use may be governed by the service providers’ own privacy policies. These service providers create reports for ACT that contain aggregate information about visitor interactions with ACT’s website, in order to help ACT improve the website. To learn more about your choices regarding online tracking, please visits these sites: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/; https://www.usa.gov/optout-instructions.
- Tracking Technologies. ACT.org and MyACT.org conduct conversion tracking with other websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to track your interaction with ACT advertisements on those websites. We also target ACT’s advertisements on social media websites. This means that after visiting ACT.org and MyACT.org, if you later log into, for example, Facebook or Twitter, an ACT advertisement may appear. To learn more about your choices regarding online tracking, please visit these sites: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/; https://www.usa.gov/optout-instructions.
- The Site does not respond to Do Not Track signals.
Non-Personal Information and De-identified Information
- Non-Personal Information is information that does not identify you. In addition to collecting personal information by Automated Means (explained above), ACT may also use automated means to collect anonymized technical and internet data, such as your browser type, the date and time you access the Site, which web pages on the Site you visited, your referring website Uniform Resource Locator (URL), how long you spent on each page of the Site, your operating system, and your screen settings. This information can be used by ACT to administer and improve the Site, enhance security, and inform statistical analyses.
- De-identified Information. ACT also uses personal information that has been de-identified. ACT takes reasonable steps to ensure that this data cannot be associated with an individual and we will not attempt to re-identify data that has been de-identified.
How ACT Uses Personal Information
Each category of personal information collected by ACT may be used to:
- Administer, review, or improve ACT’s Products and communicate with you about the same, which may include the following activities:
- Process a request for an ACT Product and communicate with you about the same;
- Maintain your account, verify your identity, process payments, and collect debts you owe us;
- Administer, review or improve the Site;
- Invite you to participate in surveys consistent with ACT’s mission, including surveys about ACT Products;
- Provide you with marketing information about ACT Products or special offers from ACT;
- Comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements;
- Investigate, prevent, act on, or respond to suspected or actual test security or score validity concerns;
- Conduct internal research and analysis, including to inform public policy and advocacy; provided that if such research is published or reported, for example to educational institutions, state agencies, or businesses, this use only includes information that ACT maintains in an aggregate or de-identified form, such that it does not constitute personal information.
ACT only processes your sensitive data to administer, review, or improve ACT’s Products and communicate with you about the same, for its internal operations, and to conduct internal research and analysis, including to inform public policy and advocacy.
Marketing
ACT uses your contact information, education and job information, and device information to contact you regarding ACT Products. If you receive a marketing email from ACT, you will be provided instructions on how to opt out of receiving further marketing communications by email. If you opt-out of receiving marketing communications, you will still receive transactional communications by email about your use of ACT Products, for example, confirmation of your registration and receipt of your scores.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
It is important and consistent with ACT’s mission to share information with those who can provide educational or career opportunities to you or who have another legitimate purpose to use your information. ACT will not license your personal information for this purpose without your express consent, and will only disclose personal information as set forth below.
ACT may disclose personal information as follows:
- EOS. ACT’s Educational Opportunity Service (“EOS”) is an optional program that provides you with information from colleges, universities, financial aid and scholarship agencies, government agencies, and organizations that offer educational, community involvement, extracurricular, and career opportunities, products and services (Participating Organizations). When you opt-in to EOS, ACT may share your personal information with its affiliate Encoura, LLC (f.k.a. NRCCUA), who may provide that information to Participating Organizations, who may then pay for a license to use the information to contact you about opportunities. The personal information shared may include your contact information, education and job information, and sensitive information. Your ACT test score range (not your specific scores but a range they fall within) may be disclosed to Participating Organizations and used to identify candidates for opportunities. Personal information shared through the EOS program is also subject to Encoura’s privacy policy, available here: https://encourageme.com/privacy-policy/. All EOS Participating Organizations have agreed to use your information only for the purpose of sharing information about their programs. If you previously opted-in to the EOS program but now wish to opt-out, you may do so by visiting: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/opting-out-of-eos.html (California law (Civil Code Section §1798.83) permits residents of California that use the Site to opt-out of sharing of their information with other organizations for those organizations’ marketing purposes, which can be done using this link.)
- Test Security. As necessary to investigate, prevent, act on, or respond to suspected or actual test security or score validity concerns.
- Educational Institutions. To schools, school districts, state entities and/or their agents or representatives for educational, research, and reporting purposes.
- Others. To others who pay for you to use ACT Products or who receive certificates of achievement or credentials you may have earned by using ACT Products.
- Parents. To parents or legal guardians of minors under the age of 18.
- Government Agencies. To certain state and federal scholarship and recognition programs and agencies, as further described in the Terms and Conditions you agree to in connection with using ACT Products.
- Third Party Researchers. To certain third-party researchers conducting research consistent with ACT’s mission. Researchers who receive any personal information are required to protect the confidentiality and security of the information.
- Subsidiaries and Affiliates. To our subsidiaries and affiliates, including for their own direct marketing purposes.
- An Acquirer. To another company that acquires ACT or its assets, at which point that company will have responsibility for your personal information, as described in this Privacy Notice.
- Third Party Service Providers. To third parties providing services to ACT or as necessary to deliver ACT Products. This includes information needed to verify an individual’s identity or for security purposes.
- Legal Compliance. As required by law, for subpoena or other legal processes, and as necessary to investigate, act on, or prevent suspected or actual illegal activities, fraud, or potential threats to personal safety.
International – Onward Transfer of Personal Information
If you use ACT Products or request information about ACT Products outside of the United States, your personal information may be transferred outside of your home country to the United States, either to ACT or a third-party service provider, and will be subject to use and disclosure under the laws of the United States. It may also be accessible to law enforcement and national security authorities in the United States. If you do not consent to this transfer to the United States, do not participate in or request information about ACT Products.
Links and Websites
The Site may contain links to websites that are not affiliated with ACT. ACT does not control the privacy policies or practices of those websites and you should review the privacy policy of any such website before providing any information through that website. ACT is not responsible for the content or practices of any websites that are not affiliated with ACT and provides links on the Site solely for the convenience and information of Site visitors.
Access, Correction, and Deletion of Personal Information
You can review and change your personal information by visiting your account profile page at MyACT.org. Additionally, you can update your contact information (address, email address and/or telephone number), by contacting ACT Customer Service at 1-800-498-6065 or customerservices@act.org.
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have additional rights regarding your personal information that you may be able to exercise. These rights include the right to request deletion of some or all of your personal information, the right to request access to and receive your personal information in a portable manner, the right to correct your personal information, the right to withdraw your consent to our use of all or some of your personal information, the right to request restrictions on how we use or share your personal information, or the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. If you are a parent of a child under the age of 13, you may review, have deleted, or refuse to permit further collection or use of your child's personal information. For requests of this type, please contact ACT’s Vice President for Data Privacy either via email, at DPO@act.org, or via postal mail at the below address:
Attn: Vice President, Data Privacy
Email: DPO@act.org
Mailing Address:
500 ACT Drive
P.O. Box 168
Iowa City, IA 52243-0168
Your request to exercise data rights must:
- Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information, which may include our verification of your full legal name, date of birth, home address, and ACT ID.
- Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.
We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity, and we will only use personal information provided for identity verification to verify identity. You do not need to create an account with us to submit a request to know or delete.
If you are an EEA resident and you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that ACT has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the appropriate Supervisory Authority. The EU Commission has a list of Supervisory Authorities
here: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm
Retention of Information
ACT will retain your information for as long as necessary to fulfill any of the uses identified in this Privacy Notice or to comply with applicable legal obligations.
ACT may be required to retain personal information, for example for contractual or other legal reasons as described in this Privacy Notice. Please be aware that assessment scores are maintained by ACT indefinitely and closing your account does not delete your assessment scores.
Security and Confidentiality
Protecting personal information by using reasonable administrative, physical and technical safeguards is important to ACT. For example, we use secure sockets layer (SSL) transmission, which is a protocol for establishing a secure connection for transmitting your personal information. ACT also has other security protocols and measures in place to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, and unlawful disclosure. When ACT disposes of personal information, we take reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to the information.
The safety and security of your personal information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password to access certain parts of the Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone and urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Site like message boards. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Site.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Website. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. ACT is not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
ACT respects the rights of copyright holders and complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other applicable copyright laws. We also expect users to respect the rights of copyright holders when using ACT Products and the Site. Uses that infringe the intellectual property rights of others violate ACT’s terms of use.
Making or distributing unauthorized copies of a copyrighted work may infringe on the copyright holder’s rights. If a copyright holder notifies us about unauthorized reproduction and/or distribution of copyrighted works, we reserve the right to disable access to the identified works promptly. We also reserve the right to disable the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. For more information, please visit the ACT DMCA Page.
Changes to this Notice
ACT reserves the right to modify this Privacy Notice at any time. If ACT makes material changes to this Privacy Notice, the changes will be posted on this Site to alert you.
GDPR Notice
ACT collects your personal information so that we can use the information as described in the How ACT Uses Personal Information section of the Main Notice. ACT’s uses your personal information according to the lawful bases of:
- Contract Fulfillment. When you register to use an ACT Product, we collect and use your personal information to provide that Product to you.
- Consent. When you consent to a specific use of your personal information, ACT will collect and use your personal information in accordance with your consent.
- Legal Obligations. ACT is subject to a variety of legal and regulatory obligations and will collect and use your personal information to comply with its legal obligations.
- ACT’s Legitimate Interests. ACT will collect and process your personal information to carry out its legitimate interests to conduct the following, except where your fundamental rights and freedoms override such interests:
- Protecting ACT or you from data security threats;
- Managing test security;
- Improving ACT Products; and
- Conducting corporate transactions, such as a merger or acquisition.
ACT may use automated means to make decisions about you, including scoring assessments, assigning you a testing location, and carrying out test security. ACT will only use such automated means as (1) necessary for the performance of its contract with you to provide the ACT Products, or (2) as explicitly consented to by you.
Last Updated: August 30, 2024