FSEC Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting the Florida Solar Energy Center’s Web site. Your privacy is very important to us. The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) is a research center of the University of Central Florida (UCF) and makes every attempt to comply with the university’s privacy policies. Our policy is to collect no personal information about you when you visit any of our Web sites unless you affirmatively choose to make such information available to us.

Visitor Metrics

When you visit any of our Web sites, our Web server automatically recognizes the Internet domain and IP address from which you access our site. This process does not identify your email address or other personal information. In addition information such as what operating system your computer is using, what browser software (e.g., Internet Explorer, Netscape, or other) your computer is using, your screen size and monitor’s color depth, and the Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) of the Web site from which you just came and the URL to which you go next.

Cookies

As is standard practice on many public and private Web sites, FSEC’s Web sites may use “cookies” and other technologies to help us understand which parts of our Web sites are the most popular, where our visitors are going, and how much time they spend there. We use cookies and other technologies to study traffic patterns on our Web sites, to make it even more rewarding as well as to study the effectiveness of our customer communication, and we use cookies to customize your experience and provide greater convenience each time you interact with us.

Aggregated General Information

The general information that we gather about you may be aggregated with general information of all users to help us better understand how our site is used. Our Web server compiles statistics regarding the volume of timing of access to our Web sites, such as the time and pages accessed. We do this so that we can improve the content and structure of our Web sites.

In addition, we may share aggregated general information about our site with our business partners or the general public. For example, we may share information regarding the daily number of unique users to our site with potential partners or others. Aggregate data does not contain any information that could be used to contact or identify you.

If members of the general public choose to share personal information with us by sending us a message or filling out an electronic form, we will use the information only for the purposes authorized. Some of the information may be saved for a designated period of time to comply with the state of Florida’s archiving policies. We will not share your personally identifying information with other third parties without your consent, except for the following limited purposes.

We are compelled to do so by law or by an order of a court or governmental authority.
In order to cooperate with law enforcement authorities or governmental regulatory bodies.
As necessary to complete a transaction for you.
As we deem necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of the Florida Solar Energy Center or the University of Central Florida.

If we are required to disclose information by law, we will make every effort to notify any affected parties in advance.

From time to time, we may ask you to complete questionnaires or surveys, which we use to obtain additional demographic information about our users, to measure and improve the quality of our service and to better assess your interests and needs. If we ask you to complete a survey or questionnaire, we will explain how we intend to use the information that you provide to us. You always have the option of not responding to any questionnaire or survey.

Forums

If you use a bulletin board or chat room on an FSEC Web site, you should be aware that any information you share is visible to other users. Personally identifiable information you submit to one of these forums can be read, collected, or used by other individuals to send you unsolicited messages. FSEC is not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit to that person or through this medium.

COPPA Compliance

In an effort to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we will not knowingly collect personally identifying information from children under the age of 13.

Third Party Sites

We may publish links to other sites from some of our Web sites. Please note that FSEC does not control the content, practices or policies of any other site, including what information those sites collect about you. Accordingly, we do not endorse or hold ourselves responsible for the privacy policies or information gathering practices of any site that you may link to from one of our sites.

Security of Information

The Florida Solar Energy Center uses the highest security standard available (SSL) to encrypt all of your credit card and personally identifiable information while it is in transit to us. In order to use any of our SSL enabled sites and have the protection described above, you must use an SSL-enabled browser such as Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later, Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox. All data stored on the Florida Solar Energy Center server is protected by a secure “firewall” so that no unauthorized use or activity can take place. Although FSEC will make every effort to safeguard your personal information from loss, misuse or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk that thieves may find a way to thwart our security system or that transmission over the Internet will be intercepted.

Amendments to Our Privacy Policy

We may, from time to time, amend our Privacy Policy. If we do, then we will post such amendments to this document so that you may always have access to our most recent policy. We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of our Privacy Policy at any time and from time to time. If at any point we decide to disclose personal information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by email or telephone. You will be given the choice at that time to “opt-out” for any disclosures of your personal information that you made available to us prior to the change in our policy.

Acknowledgement and Acceptance of Our Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the Terms and Conditions Agreement contained on this Web site (the “Agreement”). As you know, your use of any of FSEC’s Web sites is subject to the Agreement, including this Privacy Policy. Your continued use of our Web sites constitutes your continued agreement to the terms of the Agreement, including this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the terms of our Privacy Policy, you should cease using any of our Web sites.

Privacy Questions

If you have any questions about FSEC’s Internet Privacy Policy, please feel free to email the webmaster or contact us by telephone at (321) 638-1000.