Privacy policy

Mapping Your Future respects your privacy. Following is Mapping Your Future's privacy policy to advise you of our information gathering and information sharing practices.

Note: In the text below, "school" refers to school or school servicer, "lender" refers to lender or lender servicer, and "guarantor" refers to guarantor or guarantor servicer. "Mapping Your Future" includes officers, directors, employees, and contractors.

  1. What information does Mapping Your Future collect about you?

    Mapping Your Future gathers information from you in order to help us design our website to better meet your needs and to make the financial aid process easier for you. Mapping Your Future does not share your personally identifying information with third-party marketers. We gather and retain information in the following ways:

    When you're viewing the site:

    When you view the Mapping Your Future site, we identify which browser you're using, where you linked from and to, and which part of the site you viewed. We keep statistics about the use of our site to determine ways to make the site better. Identifying your IP (Internet Protocol) address helps diagnose problems with the server and to administer the site. An IP address is the numerical address assigned to your computer, based on where and how you are signing on to the Internet.

    We use cookies to keep track of sessions in specific secured areas of the site. Mapping Your Future does not store any personally identifying information in cookies. Recording a cookie makes your online experience easier and more personalized. Mapping Your Future only creates cookies for each session, and those cookies are cleared when your Mapping Your Future session terminates. If you set your browser to reject or prevent cookies, you may limit the functionality we can provide when you visit our site.

    When you're submitting a question or comment to Mapping Your Future:

    When you submit a question or comment to Mapping Your Future, the information is available to Mapping Your Future professional staff and sponsors. Your question or comment may be sent to the appropriate person (such as a customer service representative at a sponsoring agency or to technical staff) for response or to make revisions to the site.

    When you're participating in a voluntary survey:

    When you participate in a survey, the information is available to Mapping Your Future professional staff and sponsors. Your comment may be sent to the appropriate person (such as a customer service representative at a sponsoring agency or to technical staff) for response or to make revisions to the site.

    When you're participating in Online Counseling:

    When you complete an Online Counseling session, you are asked to provide your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, Social Security number, birth date, the name of the school you're attending, and possibly information for your parent, spouse, next of kin, expected employer, and references. This information may be shared with your school, lender, and/or guarantor to verify that you have completed counseling, though for a limited period of time. Those entities may share your information with other organizations as authorized under routine uses in the appropriate system of records and as may be authorized or required by federal regulations.

    If you do not wish to provide this information online, you must contact your school to request an alternative method of fulfilling your counseling obligation.

    When you're participating in MappingXpress:

    When you complete a MappingXpress session, you are asked to provide your name, birth date, and other identifying information your school has selected. This information may be shared with your school to verify you have uploaded documents through the MappingXpress service. Your school may share your information with other organizations as authorized under routine uses in the appropriate system of records and as may be authorized or required by federal regulations.

    When you subscribe to a Mapping Your Future newsletter:

    When you sign up for a Mapping Your Future newsletter, we collect e-mail address, and in some cases, your state, which is added to Mapping Your Future's subscriber database. This information is used to generate a mailing list for the electronic newsletters. Mapping Your Future does not share any of this information with third parties.

  2. What security measures are in place to protect your privacy?

    This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information we gather. When you provide personal data during Online Counseling or other services offered by Mapping Your Future, the information is encrypted prior to transfer. Data is stored in a secured database and is administered with routine backup procedures.

  3. What is the security of the sites to which Mapping Your Future links?

    The Mapping Your Future site contains links to other sites. Mapping Your Future is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. If you link to a non-Mapping Your Future site, you become subject to that site's privacy policy and terms and conditions of use. Mapping Your Future encourages you to become familiar with any external party's privacy policy before disclosing personal information.

  4. What are Mapping Your Future's guidelines for children?

    Mapping Your Future provides some educational information specifically targeted for children, such as information on making career choices. We do not intend to collect personally identifying information from children under 13 years of age. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected such information from a child under the age of 13, we will promptly take all reasonable measures to delete the data from our system. No information collected from children is used for any marketing purposes whatsoever. Mapping Your Future encourages parents and guardians to spend time online with their children and to participate in the interactive activities offered on the site.

    Mapping Your Future doesn't intentionally share personally identifying information obtained from children under the age of 18 with the exception of borrowers under the age of 18 who complete Online Counseling.

  5. How do I correct information I have submitted to Mapping Your Future?

    You may change or modify information you previously provided to Mapping Your Future by contacting us. Please note that any corrections to information submitted via online entrance or exit counseling should be sent directly to your school financial aid office.

  6. How do I contact Mapping Your Future?

    If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this website, contact us.

Mapping Your Future follows applicable laws relating to the collection and use of protected data.

Mapping Your Future engages in ongoing reviews of its privacy policies, procedures, and communications. We reserve the right to change our policies on privacy and the collection and use of information.

This policy was updated on December 1, 2011, with updates to 1 ("When you're participating in MappingXpress"), and 2 above.