Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) applies only to the information collected online at the websites (“Websites”) owned and operated by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and/or its affiliate entities (such entities collectively referred to as “MSDF”). These Websites include, but are not limited to dell.org, msdf.org, dellscholars.org, gradsnapp.com, and dellyoungleaders.org.

This Policy does not apply to the information you may submit to us offline or to websites maintained by other companies or organizations to which we may link.

By visiting our Websites, you are accepting the practices described in our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Websites.

Information You Give To Us

We may collect information such as your first and last name, email address, postal address, and telephone number that you provide when you interact with us. Some examples are:

• When you sign up to receive e-mail newsletters from us;
• When you participate in surveys, panels, or research;
• When you register for and participate in our programs, activities, initiatives, and events;
• When you request information or assistance;
• In conjunction with processing your grant applications;
• In conjunction with your employment inquiries or applications;
• When you participate with social media accounts involving MSDF properties;
• When you participate in communities, chat rooms, and other interactive services;
• In conjunction with any verification of your account information;
• In conjunction with investigations into any activity that may violate the law or the Websites’ terms and conditions;
• When you communicate with us through our Websites;
• When you provide user-generated content on any part of our Websites that permits it; and
• In conjunction with any other place on the Websites where you knowingly volunteer personal information.

When you interact with any MSDF page or account on a social media platform, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram or YouTube, we may also collect the personal information that you make available to us on that page or through that account, including your account ID or “handle.”

Information Collected Automatically

Each time you visit the Websites, we may automatically collect certain types of information. Some examples of automatic information we may collect are as follows:

• Your domain name and host for internet access,
• The internet address of the site from which you came,
• The date and time of your access,
• Your computer’s IP address and information about its operating system, browser, and host,
• The date and time you access the site and the pages you visit.

We collect this non-identifying information in order to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer the site. We also use it to gather broad demographic information.

We may use information about you for purposes described in this Privacy Policy or disclosed to you on the Websites. For example, we may use information about you:

• For editorial purposes;
• Responding to your inquiries;
• Communicating with you about your account or transactions with us and sending you information about features on our Websites or about the Foundation;
• Communicating with you about changes to our policies;
• Personalizing content and experiences on our Websites, including providing you with recommendations based on your preferences;
• Sending you newsletters, mailings, and information about programs, initiatives, activities, and events by e-mail or another medium;
• Processing your grant application or employment application;
• Event or program registration;
• Optimizing or improving our programs, services, and operations;
• Detecting, investigating, and preventing activities that may violate our policies or be illegal;
• Performing statistical, demographic, and marketing analyses of users of the Websites and their usage patterns;
• Managing our organization; and
• Such other purpose that MSDF may inform/notify you at the time of or prior to collecting your personal information.

MSDF also may use personal information for purposes that are reasonably related to its charitable purposes or for such other purposes that MSDF may inform / notify you at the time of or prior to collecting your personal information. Such purposes may include disclosure of your personal information to MSDF’s employees and third-party contractors working on behalf of MSDF in support of MSDF’s administrative functions.

A “cookie” is a small text file that is stored on a computer for record-keeping purposes. Our third-party analytics providers use cookies to record information about your activities on the site and to “remember” you when you return to the site. Some cookies remain on your computer until you delete them. Others, like session ID cookies, expire when you close your browser. You may set your browser setting to attempt to reject cookies and you may still use the site, however, certain features of the site may not be available if your browser does not accept cookies. We do not control the use of cookies by third parties. Also see the section on “Third Party Analytics Providers” below.

The “help” portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive new cookies or how to disable cookies altogether. If you reject cookies, you may not be able to participate in certain activities or receive a promotion tailored to you. The Websites do not control and do not guarantee the effectiveness of browser-based tools for managing cookies.

Pixels (aka web beacons/web bugs/javascript). “Pixels” are tiny graphics with a unique identifier that are used to track the online movements of web users. Unlike cookies, which are stored on a computer’s hard drive, pixels are small graphics that are about the size of the period at the end of the sentence that are embedded invisibly on web pages or in HTML-based emails. Our third-party analytics providers may place pixels on the site that track what other websites you visit (both before and after visiting the site). Our third-party analytics providers use information obtained from pixels to help us improve our business and the site. We do not control the use of pixels by third parties.

Do Not Track (DNT) is a privacy preference that users can set in some web browsers, allowing users to opt out of tracking by websites and online services. At the present time, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has not yet established universal standards for recognizable DNT signals and therefore, MSDF and the Websites do not recognize DNT.

We may provide links to websites or resources outside of the Websites for your informational purposes only. You acknowledge and agree we are not responsible for the availability of such sites or resources, and do not endorse and are not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, goods, services or other materials on, available through or provided by such sites or resources. We are not responsible for the privacy or other practices of such sites and cannot guarantee the security of any of your personal information that you provide or may be collected by such sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies and terms and conditions on those linked sites.

We may combine information gathered from the Websites and information that we have received, gathered, acquired, or stored from other sources, both information collected offline by MSDF and information received from third parties—including information that currently exists in our files—into a single customer record. We also use and/or combine information that we collect offline or receive from third-party sources (e.g., contact information from government funders or grantor information) to edit, enhance, and/or check the accuracy of your customer record.

MSDF adheres to the highest standards of ethical practices in all our operations and is dedicated to protecting the privacy of all visitors to our Websites. Except as disclosed below, we never sell your personal information to anyone outside MSDF. We may share or give access to your personal information as described in this Policy, which includes furthering MSDF’s charitable purposes.

We occasionally use independent contractors and third-party agents, affiliates, and partners to perform functions such as marketing, analytics, providing customer service, etc., on our behalf. These entities have access to the personal information needed to perform their functions and are obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of any personal information collected from the Websites. We will not sell or rent your Personal Information to third parties for marketing purposes and will require our service providers not to use your Personal Information for marketing purposes without your consent.

We may also use or disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on us or the Websites; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, the Websites, or our users; and (c) act under emergency circumstances to protect the personal safety of us, our affiliates, our agents, or the users of the Websites or the public.

We will use reasonable efforts to securely process all personal information and provide you with an option to:

• Access your personal information collected by us;
• Correction of the personal information that we hold;
• Where required by applicable law, withdraw your consent to which your personal information was collected, stored, used, processed, or transferred by MSDF;
• Deletion of your personal information at your request and/or withdrawal of your consent;
• Restriction of processing of your personal information; and
• Transfer your personal information to another party.

We consider that MSDF has a legitimate interest in collecting and processing your personal information. MSDF is committed to investing in charitable endeavors that further our mission of improving the lives of children living in urban poverty. This provides our lawful basis to use your personal information, within the limitations set forth herein.

The Websites are published in the United States and is subject to laws of the United States. If you are located in a country outside the United States and voluntarily submit personal information to us, you thereby consent to the general use of such information as provided in this Privacy Policy and to the transfer of that information to, and/or storage of that information in, the United States. MSDF shall not be liable under any circumstances for damages resulting from use of information collected from visitors to the Websites.

Under Age 13

Our Site is not specifically directed toward children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from persons under the age of 13 on our Site without verifiable parental consent. If we learn that a child under the age of 13 has submitted personally identifiable information online without parental consent, we will take all reasonable measures to delete such information from our databases and to not use such information for any purpose (except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others as required or allowed by law). If you become aware of any personally identifiable information we have collected from children under 13, please contact us at [email protected].

Under Age 18

Minors under 18 years of age may have the Personal Information that they provide to us through the Site deleted by sending an email to [email protected] requesting deletion. Please note that, while we make reasonable efforts to comply with such requests, deletion of your personal information does not ensure complete and comprehensive removal of that data from all systems.

We may change this privacy policy from time to time, including as required to keep current with rules and regulations, new technologies and security standards. When we do, we will post the change(s) on our website. If we change the policy in a material and retroactive manner, we will provide appropriate notice to you. Your continued use of our Websites, following the posting of changes to this Privacy Policy, will mean you accept those changes.

If you have any questions, complaints, grievances or requests regarding this policy or MSDF’s collection, storage, use, or processing of your personal information, or if you would like to change your preferences or if you no longer wish to receive e-mail updates from MSDF, or if you believe MSDF has erroneous or incomplete information about you, please send an e-mail to [email protected].