Privacy Policy

The Polyphonic.org Privacy Policy

Hi. Thanks for reviewing our Privacy Policy. The Polyphonic.org Website is maintained by the Eastman School of Music (“Eastman”, “we” or “us”). We are committed to respecting your privacy online, but please read our Policy to understand how your personally identifying information (“Personal Information”) will be treated as you use the Polyphonic.org Website. Please also note that this Policy may change from time to time, so check back periodically to review it.
This Policy will let you know:

1. What Personal Information we collect from you
2. What cookies are and how they are used
3. How your Personal Information is used
4. Who collects your Personal Information
5. With whom your Personal Information may be shared
6. What are your choices regarding collection, use, and distribution of your Personal Information
7. How you can access, update or delete your Personal Information
8. Security precautions that are in place to protect the loss, misuse, or alteration of your Personal Information
9. How we protect children’s privacy
10. What else you should know about your online privacy

1. What Personal Information do we collect from you?

We collect Personal Information in several ways from the Polyphonic.org Website. If you register with us, we will ask for your name, e-mail address, primary instrument, and how you found out about us. We will also ask whether you are a student or orchestra member, the name of your organization, and to create a user name and password as well as sign off on our Polyphonic.org Website Disclaimer. There may be other requests for certain types of Personal Information. The more Personal Information you volunteer (and the more accurate it is), the better we may be able to help you and customize your experience. Once you register you are no longer anonymous to us – you are able to take full advantage of the features of the Polyphonic.org Website, and we may transfer that information to our third-party service providers. If you are a resident of a European Member State, your use of the Website constitutes your express permission for us to use your “personal data”, as such term is defined in Directiv 94/46/EC (24 October 1995) of the European Parliament and Council, in accordance with this Policy, and such data shall be deemed “Personal Information”. You also acknowledge that the Website is associated with a non-profit-making body as contemplated by Article 8 Paragraph 2 of the Directive. Of course, you may generally visit the Polyphonic.org Website without revealing any Personal Information.

We may also ask you for Personal Information at other times, e.g., if you contact Polyphonic.org we may keep a record of that correspondence. Polyphonic.org also occasionally asks users to complete surveys that we use for research purposes. Wherever Polyphonic.org collects Personal Information on the Website, we try to include a link to this Privacy Policy on that page

2. What are cookies and how do we use them?

As part of offering and providing customizable and personalized services, Polyphonic.org uses cookies to store and sometimes track information about you. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. All areas of Polyphonic.org where you are prompted to login or that are customizable require that you accept cookies. You may set most browsers to notify you if you receive a cookie, or you may choose to block cookies with your browser, but please note that if you choose to erase or block your cookies, you will need to re-enter your original user name and password to gain access to certain parts of the Polyphonic.org Site. (See “What are your choices regarding collection, use and distribution of your information?” for more information on cookies.)

Generally, we use cookies to:

(1) Remind us of who you are and to access your account information (stored on our computers) to deliver to you a better and more personalized service. This cookie is set when you register or login and is modified when you log-out of Polyphonic.org.

(2) Estimate our audience size. Each browser accessing Polyphonic.org is given a unique cookie which is then used to determine the extent of repeat usage, usage by a registered user versus by an unregistered user, and to help us communicate with you. This information collected by cookies is sometimes called “clickstream” or “click trail” and may also describe which pages you have seen.

(3) Measure certain traffic patterns, which areas of the Polyphonic.org Website you have visited, and your visiting patterns in the aggregate. We use this research to understand how our users’ habits are similar or different from one another so that we can make each new experience on Polyphonic.org a better one. We may use this information to better personalize the content that you and other users will see on our Site.

Polyphonic.org also collects IP addresses for system administration and to report aggregate information to our sponsors.

3. How do we use your Personal Information?

Our primary goal in collecting Personal Information is to provide you, the user, with a customized experience on the Polyphonic.org Website. This includes personalized services, interactive communications, and other types of services including the latest news in the arts, interviews on hot topics, the ability to provide feedback and interact with your colleagues on those topics, and job search features. By knowing a little about you, Polyphonic.org is able to deliver more relevant content, and hence better service, to you.

Polyphonic.org does research on our users’ demographics, interests, and behavior based on the Personal Information provided to us upon registration, during promotions, your use from our server log files, and from surveys. We do this to better understand and serve you and our other users. This research is compiled and analyzed on an aggregated basis, and we may share this aggregated data with business partners or sponsors.

4. Who collects information?

When you are on the Polyphonic.org Site and are asked for Personal Information, you are sharing that information with Polyphonic.org and its contractors who help us maintain this Site (but they’re under a confidentiality agreement), unless we specifically state otherwise. Also, some Polyphonic.org services, like job search features, are offered in conjunction with a partner company. To provide this co-branded service to you, it is necessary for us to share your Personal Information with our partner company. If data is being collected and/or maintained by anyone other than Polyphonic.org or ESM, you will be notified before the time of the data collection or transfer. If you do not want your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service.

If promotions are run on the Polyphonic.org Site, they may be sponsored by someone other than Polyphonic.org or may be cosponsored by Polyphonic.org and another entity. Some or all data collected during a promotion may be shared with the sponsor. If data will be shared, you will be notified before the time of data collection or transfer. You can decide not to participate in the promotion if you don’t want your data to be shared. Currently, most Polyphonic.org promotions are limited to U.S. or North American residents.

Please be aware that Polyphonic.org advertisers, sponsors, or websites that have links on our Site may collect Personal Information about you. Our Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices of websites linked to Polyphonic.org, and you must check their privacy policies to see how they might use your Personal Information.

5. With whom does Polyphonic.org share your information?

As a general rule, Polyphonic.org will not disclose any of your Personal Information except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or under one or more of the circumstances described below.

Business Partners & Sponsors: Polyphonic.org may disclose your Personal Information to business partners or sponsors, but this is specifically described to you prior to data collection or before transferring the data. Some or all data collected during an Polyphonic.org promotion may be shared with a sponsor. If personally identifying data about you will be shared, we will tell you before we collect or transfer the data.

Third Party Data & Data in the Aggregate: Polyphonic.org may disclose aggregated user statistics, e.g., that 45% of our users are female, to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes.

Other: Polyphonic.org may also disclose Personal Information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be violating the terms governing the use of the Polyphonic.org Website or may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) Polyphonic.org’s rights or property, other Polyphonic.org users, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. Polyphonic.org may disclose or access Personal Information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain and improve our products and services and to serve you better.

6. What are your choices regarding collection, use, and distribution of your information?

Polyphonic.org may, from time to time, send you email regarding our services and perhaps, down the road, even some products. In addition, if you indicated upon registration that you are interested in receiving offers or information from Polyphonic.org and our partners, we may occasionally send you direct mail about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. Only Polyphonic.org (or third parties working on our behalf and under confidentiality agreements) will send you these direct mailings and only if you indicated that you do not object to these offers. If you do not want to receive the mailings, simply tell us when you give us your Personal Information. Or, at any time you can easily edit your Polyphonic.org Account Information so you no longer receive such offers and mailings. You will need your Polyphonic user name and Password to access your Polyphonic.org Account Information.

Polyphonic.org does not sell or rent Personal Information to anyone. We will notify you at the time of data collection or transfer if your Personal Information will be shared with a third party, and you will have the option of not permitting the transfer. If you do not wish to allow your data to be shared, you can choose not to use a particular service or not to participate in certain promotions or contests.

7. What is Polyphonic.org’s policy on allowing users to update, correct, or delete personally identifiable information?

You may edit your Polyphonic.org Account Information at any time by using your Polyphonic.org user name and password. If you have forgotten your password, please click here to request a new password. For all other problems signing in to Polyphonic.org, contact us.

Your Polyphonic.org account can be deleted or deactivated, but doing so will result in not being able to access any members-only area of the Polyphonic.org network. If you saved the confirmation email you received when you first created your Polyphonic.org account, you can use the URL provided in that message to delete your account at any time. Please contact info@polyphonic.org for further instructions about deleting or deactivating your Polyphonic.org account. Residual information will remain within our archive records.

8. What security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse, or alteration of your information?

Your Polyphonic.org Account Information is password-protected so that you and only you have access to this information. You may edit your Polyphonic.org Account Information by using your Polyphonic.org user name and password.

We strongly recommend that you do not divulge your password to anyone. Polyphonic.org will never ask you for your password in an unsolicited phone call or in an unsolicited email. Also remember to log-out of your Polyphonic.org Account and close your browser window when you have finished your work. This is to ensure that others cannot access your Personal Information and correspondence if you share a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place like a library or Internet cafe.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your Personal Information, Polyphonic.org cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or from our online products or services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we will take reasonable efforts to ensure its security on our systems.

9. What about children’s privacy?

Polyphonic.org is not directed at and does not knowingly collect information from individuals under the age of 14. If you are under 18 years of age, but are at least 14 years of age, we ask that your parent or guardian establish an account for you as part of their Polyphonic.org Account Information. This will allow the parent or guardian to access her child’s Polyphonic.org account, edit account information and better control her child’s Personal Information.

Children should always ask a parent for permission before sending Personal Information to anyone online.

10. What else should you know about your privacy?

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose Personal Information online – for example on message boards, through email, or in chat areas – that information can be collected and used by others. In short, if you post Personal Information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return.

Ultimately, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any Account or other Personal Information. If you voluntarily disclose it other than in accordance with our policies, it will not be protected. So please be careful and responsible whenever you’re online.

By using the Polyphonic.org Website, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy and to our processing of Personal Information for the purposes given above as well, if applicable, as those explained where we collect Personal Information on our Site. If this Policy changes, we intend to take reasonable steps to ensure that these changes are brought to your attention by posting changes prominently on our Website for a reasonable period of time.

Additional Information

Questions regarding this Policy should be directed to info@polyphonic.org.

If you feel that we are not abiding by our Privacy Policy, you should first contact the Polyphonic.org Project Manager at info@polyphonic.org or 585.274.1113. If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact iml@esm.rochester.edu.