Skip to Content

Privacy Policy

Educational Credit Management Corporation (“ECMC”), a nonprofit corporation, is the sponsor of ECMC College Nights (“ECMC College Nights”) and we value the privacy of our Website users and the importance of the information they entrust to us. This Privacy Notice is part of our Terms of Use and is designed to inform you of our policies for the collection, use, and disclosure of the information we may gather from you when you visit our website. This Privacy Notice explains when and how such information is collected, used, disclosed, and safeguarded on our Website. By using this Website, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Notice. If you do not agree with the information and practices described in this Privacy Notice or our Terms of Use, please exit from this Website.

Introduction
ECMC is the sponsor of this website: www.collegenights.org “Website”). ECMC and ECMC College Nights are owned by ECMC Group, Inc. (for more information, please visit www.ecmcgroup.org). ECMC is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your Personal Information (as further defined below). This Privacy Notice covers the website www.collegenights.org (“Website”)—along with the online forms on this Website used to collect Personal Information. It does not cover third-party sites that are linked to or from the Website. This Privacy Notice does not apply to other entities that we do not own or control, or persons that are not our employees or within our control. By accessing or using this Website, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the Privacy Notice periodically for updates.

Information We Collect

Data You Provide Yourself
We collect your Personal Information when you voluntarily provide it to us (or our third-party vendors) when you seek access to specific resources, seek more information about certain programs, or other similar purpose. We collect this information predominately to provide you with relevant information, verify your identity, communicate with you, or evaluate your requests. For example, you may voluntarily choose to give us your name, phone number, address, email address, or other information reasonably linked to you (“Personal Information”) when you choose to fill out our web forms requesting information about hosting events, requesting free resources about college, or when claiming a scholarship from us. We use this information to identify you and communicate with you concerning these events, when processing a scholarship for you, for providing resources, and for our everyday business purposes. You may always choose whether or not to provide us with this Personal Information for these purposes, but it could impede or prevent your ability to participate in these programs.

We may also use or share your Personal Information with certain third-party service providers we contract with to help us organize our contact information, improve our ability to respond efficiently to your requests, and other similar business purposes. These third-party service providers are required contractually to only use your Personal Information for our express purposes and no other.

For example, we use Survey Monkey to assist us in collecting information by linking to it on our website:

  • Survey Monkey. Our website links to Survey Monkey to facilitate the collection of your Personal Information in two primary ways:
    • We collect information via Survey Monkey when you request to host a College Night event. The information collected includes the school’s name, the name and email of the person requesting the event and completing the survey, as well as other details about the event.
    • We collect information via Survey Monkey when you are attempting to claim an ECMC College Nights scholarship award. The information collected here are identifiers such as your full name, email address, phone number, parent/guardian email address, college student ID number, along with the college you are attending, academic year, high school where you won your award, and proof of enrollment, which might have additional Personal Information.

The responses to these surveys are collected by Survey Monkey and then sent to us for further processing of the requests. You can read more about Survey Monkey’s privacy practices here.

We do not share your personal data with any third party (including our service providers) for marketing purposes. If you believe the Personal Information you provided to us is being misused by a third party, please contact us right away.

In addition to the information you voluntarily provide on our Website, we also collect additional information automatically as you navigate through the site. See below under Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Tools for a more detailed explanation of the tools we use for this.

Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Tools
When you interact with our Website, certain information about your use of the site is automatically collected. The tracking technologies employed when you use our Website may be first-party or third-party. Our primary goal in collecting the information described within is to provide you, the user, with a better experience on our Website, and to understand more about our website visitors.

Umbraco is our third-party website hosting servicer, and as part of its hosting services it automatically logs certain information in its server log, such as error logging, along with a few other things. Umbraco may share this aggregated information with us and with other certain trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website or conducting our business, and who agree to keep the information confidential. This information helps us to track users’ movements around our site, to understand trends, and to test updates on various types of browsers and devices. We may also use cookies to collect information that tracks your use of our Website and enables us to customize our services. We may use this data, in the aggregate, to better understand the needs and interests of visitors to our Website and provide more relevant content.

ECMC uses cookies and other similar technologies on our Website for a variety of purposes, including to improve our Website and serving our Website users better. A “cookie” is a small file that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive to remember your preferences. We may use cookies to track general information about our users (e.g., pages viewed, time spent on our Website, and the websites visited just before and just after our Website) for statistical and market research purposes. We also use cookies when you fill out a webform in order to help prevent spam, fraud and abuse. The information is collected on an aggregated and anonymous basis.

We also use third-party analytics vendors to collect information about the use of our site, including:

  • Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a third-party analytics provider, which collects information about the use of our site. Google Analytics records things like the time of visit, pages visited, type of device accessing the site, referring site details, the length of your visit, the type of web browser and operating system, document downloads, network location and IP address, clicks on videos and external websites, flash version, screen resolution, and screen color processing ability, along with a few other things. Google Analytics, however, does not identify individual users. Google Analytics use cookies on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site. You can learn more about how Google uses cookies here . We use the reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand website traffic and usage. You may read more about what methods and technologies are used by Google Analytics here . The information generated by Google Analytics is transmitted and stored by Google and will be subject to Google’s privacy policy found here , which you may read more about at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites . You may also opt out of Google Analytics tracking software by installing and using the browser plugin found here.
  • Matamo: Matamo is a web analytics service that tracks and generates information about the use of our Website, including things like your time of visit, pages visited, type of device accessing the site, referring site details, the length of your visit, the type of web browser and operating system, document downloads, network location and IP address, clicks on videos and external websites, screen resolution, and screen color processing ability, along with a few other things. Matamo uses this information to help evaluate your use of our Website and internet usage to help us. The information generated by Matamo is governed by its privacy policy, which can be found here. You may opt out of Matamo Analytics there and find more information on opting out here.
  • Google Tag Manager: We use Google Tag Manager, a tag management system offered by Google, Inc. to manage tags used for tracking and analytics on websites (including, for example, Google Analytics). Tags are small code elements that, among other things, are used to measure traffic and visitor behavior and to test and optimize websites. Google Tag Manager (“GTM”) only implements tags and does not itself process personal user data. The GTM triggers other tags, which, in turn, may collect data under certain circumstances. You may read more about GTM here. GTM’s privacy practices can be found here.

Our navigation information collection practices on our Website will continue to operate as described in this Privacy Notice regardless of any “Do Not Track” signals that may be sent by certain browsers. Because these features are not yet uniform, we are not currently set up to respond to any “Do Not Track” signals. For more information about “Do Not Track” signals, please visit https://allaboutdnt.com/.

How We Use Your information
We use the information you provide, including any personal information, so that we may provide you with information or services that you request or that we believe will be beneficial to you. For example, we may use your personal information to:

  • Provide you information or services that you request from us;
  • Authenticate your identity and authorize access;
  • Communicate with you;
  • To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;
  • Customize the content you see on our Website;
  • Facilitate your use of our Website or manage your preferences;
  • Analyze the use of our Website to improve it and related services;
  • Identify and protect against fraudulent transactions and other misuses of our Website; and
  • Enforce our Terms of Use.

Sharing Practices
As described above, we may share your information with our employees, agents, representatives, advisors, and affiliates with a business reason to know. We may also share your Personal Information with third-party service providers who are under contract with us who provide specific services to us. If you believe any third party is misusing the information you provided to us, please contact us promptly via the contact information below.

We will not sell, share, or trade personal information about our website visitors to any third party for marketing or commercial purposes without your consent. We may share your information with our employees, agents, and affiliates with a business need to know. We may also, as described above, share your Personal Information with: our third-party service providers to process or use it for our business purposes based on our instructions; your educational institution in certain circumstances; and with third-party partners that collaborate with us to host events. We contractually prohibit third parties who receive your user information from using or sharing this information for any purpose other than providing services to us or for the benefit of our Website users. We do not allow third-party advertising companies or ad networks to display advertisements on our Website.

Social Media Features and Links
Our Website may contain links to other websites, including some third-party social media sites and/or websites that provide you with additional ways in which you can learn about or discuss the activities of ECMC. Please note, unless otherwise indicated, that we have no affiliation with any of these other websites that you may visit. These third-party websites are governed by their own terms of use and privacy policies, which you should read. We are not responsible for the security or privacy of any information collected by other websites or other services or any other content or information on these other websites. You should exercise caution and read the third-party privacy policies to understand how the third parties collect, process, share and store your information.

Disclosures Required by Law
We may disclose your information to third parties when permitted by law, including when we have a good faith belief that such action is necessary to (i) protect the legal rights and security of our company, affiliates or business partners; (ii) respond to an audit or investigate a complaint; or (iii) comply with applicable law, court order, subpoena, request for cooperation by a governmental entity, or other legal process or investigation.

Your Choices
You may choose to:

  • Not provide personal information, although that may result in your inability to obtain or use certain features of our Website; and
  • Delete or decline cookies by changing your browser settings, although if you do so, some of the features of our Website services may not function properly.
  • You may have other choices and rights described below in Your Rights and Choices.

Security and Personal Information
We take commercially reasonable precautions to protect the Personal Information we collect from our Website users and visitors. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and verify the appropriate use of information, we have put in place physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, alteration, use or disclosure. We may also allow our service providers to store and access your Personal Information as described in this notice, subject to contractual provisions with us. While we do our best to protect your information, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable and thus the transmission of information sent over the Internet, whether by email or by using our online system and Website, is not completely secure against interception. As a result, although we utilize such measures, we cannot guarantee you against interception, loss, misuse, or alteration of your information and you provide such Personal Information to us at your own risk. You should take care how you handle and disclose your Personal Information.

Retention Period
We will retain information regarding you, including any Personal Information, until it is no longer needed to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, or as otherwise required or permitted by law. After such time, we will either delete or deidentify your Personal Information or, if this is not possible, we will securely store your Personal Information until deletion is possible. We may dispose of any personal data in our discretion without notice, subject to applicable law.

Links to Third-Party Websites
Our Website may contain links to other websites, including third-party social media sites and/or websites that provide you with additional ways in which you or discuss the activities of ECMC or ECMC Group. Although these additional sites may have privacy policies or notices, all of these websites and their privacy statements are independent of our Website and this Privacy Notice. Please note, unless otherwise indicated, we have no control or affiliation with any of these linked websites of social media. These are governed by their own terms of use and privacy statements which you should read carefully before proceeding. We are not responsible for the security or privacy of any information collected by other websites, social media sites, or any other content or information found on these other websites. You should exercise caution and read the third-party privacy notices to understand how these third parties collect, process, share and store your information.

Your Rights and Choices

Rights
Where applicable under local law, in addition to your choices listed above, you may have certain rights regarding your Personal Information. Depending on which jurisdiction you live in and the type of information processed or collected online, you may have some or all of the following rights: to request information about the processing of your information, to request a copy of your information, to object to the use of your information, to request the deletion or restriction of your information, to access your information, to request to correct or update your information, to request to opt out of “sales” or “sharing” of personal information (as these terms are defined under applicable law) in certain circumstances. The exact scope of these rights vary by state, however. You can exercise these choices by contacting us to request assistance.

Limitations
Your request and choices above, however, may be limited, depending on where you live, the type of information collected, and the applicable law. There are several exceptions where we may not have an obligation to fulfill your request. For example, if you ask us to delete information which we are permitted (or, in some cases, required) by law to keep, or have compelling legitimate interests to keep your information, your request may not be fulfilled. There may be other situations in which we will be unable to complete your request, depending on your particular circumstances, jurisdiction, and request.

Appeals
Where applicable under local law, you may also contact us to appeal any decision we make relating to your request to exercise your rights. Your email should be labeled "Notice of Appeal" and fully describe your concerns or disagreement and include any documentation necessary to validate the claims you are making. We will reasonably investigate the appeal based on the information and documentation you have provided. Following the investigation, we will reach a determination of your appeal, which may include modifying or upholding the original decision in accordance with applicable law.

California Privacy
If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits you to request information regarding the disclosure, if any, of your Personal Information to a third party for the third party’s direct marketing purposes. It is our practice, however, to not share or sell any Personal Information to third parties for marketing purposes. If you have further questions or think a third party is misusing your information collected on this Website, please contact us at the contact information listed below.

International Users
If you are visiting this site from outside of the United States, your connection may be made through and to servers located in the United States. Your entries and information placed through our Website may be fully processed in and from the United States, and all information you provide may be processed and maintained in our web servers and internal systems located within the United States. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, but please be assured that we take steps to ensure that your privacy is protected. By using our services, however, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Notice. By using this site, you authorize the export of your personal information to the United States and its storage and use as specified above when you provide such information to us. This Privacy Notice and our legal obligations are subject to the laws of the United States, regardless of the location of any user.

Minors
Our Website is not intended for, nor designed to attract children under the age of 13 (or other equivalent minimum age depending on jurisdiction). It is our policy never to knowingly collect or maintain personal information about any person under the age of 13. If you are under 13, please do not use or provide any information on this Website or provide any personal information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or username you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will promptly delete that information. If you believe we might have information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at the contact information immediately so that we may promptly address the issue. Minors between the ages of 13 and 18 should only use the Website in conjunction with your parent, legal guardian or other responsible adult.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy
From time to time, we may update our Privacy Notice to reflect changes in our practices and services. If we make material changes in the way we collect, use or share personal information, we will notify you by prominently posting notice of the changes on our Website. The date the privacy notice was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this Policy to check for any changes.

Contact Us
If you wish to contact us about

  • This Website or this Policy
  • Provide feedback and comments
  • Access or correct your personal information you believe we have; or
  • Any other reason concerning our information practices,

please contact us at one of the methods below:

Attn: Legal/Website Privacy Policy Inquiry
ECMC College Nights
111 Washington Avenue South
Suite 1400
Minneapolis, MN 55401
privacy@ecmc.org
800-276-0366, opt. 3

Last updated: August 6, 2025

Find Us

Site Hosts and Volunteers

Download ECMC College Nights Materials

Publications

Order College-Planning Guides

Scholarship Winners

Students: Claim Your Scholarship