Privacy Policy

How Gold Standard/Ruveneco uses your personal information

RUVENECO INC. is the sole owner of the information collected on MCAT-prep.com. RUVENECO INC. collects information from our users at several different points on our website. By using our website, you agree to the terms and conditions that are covered by this privacy policy.

Information Collection

Enrollment

During enrollment a user is required to give contact information (such as name and email address). We use this information to provide the user with an account in order to access the Member's side of the website. Our users automatically receive communications from us in the form of newsletters or announcements.

Order

We request information from the user on our order form. A user must provide contact information (such as name, email, and shipping address) and financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customer's orders. If we have trouble processing an order, the information is used to contact the user. Please note that all order information is collected on a 3rd party payment website and is subject to that 3rd party's privacy statement. A cancellation of an order must be submitted before the renewal date. If this task is completed by a customer service agent a $10 service charge will be in effect. Otherwise please follow instructions on how to cancel by logging into your account and clicking on the Account tab.

Information Use

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user's hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions. By setting a cookie on our site, users would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. For example, the Member's side requires a password. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.

Log Files

Like most standard website servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Online Forum

The website has discussion boards found in the Member’s Area - Lessons and MCAT practice questions. These communications will be logged so students, including yourself, while you are a Member, will have access to academically relevant discussions. If you use the discussion boards, then you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums.

Communications from the Site

Special Offers and Updates

We send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information on announcements and/or a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature. To deactivate your account use the link on your home page, or email help@mcat-prep.com with "Deactivate mailing list" in the subject heading.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with your preference.

Sharing

Legal Disclaimer

Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our website. In other words, Personally Identifiable Information provided to Licensee is subject to disclosure pursuant to judicial or other government, warrants, or others.

Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)

We do not share aggregated demographic information with our partners. We do not share personal information with third parties in ways other than disclosed in this privacy statement.

Third Party Intermediaries

We use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Business Transitions

In the event RUVENECO INC. goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, user's personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified via email and a prominent notice on our website for 30 days prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. If as a result of the business transition, the user's personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection they will be given choice consistent with our notification of changes section.

Choice/Opt-out

Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter and announcement communications may opt-out of receiving these communications by replying with "unsubscribe" in the subject line or email us at learn@gold-standard.com . Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an outside party.

Links

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, RUVENECO INC., are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Website (for example, MCAT Forum, MCAT Blog).

Security

This website takes every precaution to protect our users information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, their information is protected both online and offline. When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when users are just 'surfing'. Please note that the SSL encryption for sensitive data does not occur on our website but we ensure that our service provider has this level of encryption to secure our customers order transactions.

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information offline. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every year, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our users information is protected. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment. If users have any questions about the security at our Website, users can send an email to help@mcat-prep.com.

Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone number, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct or update user's personally identifiable information. This can be done by emailing our Customer Support at help@mcat-prep.com.

Notification of Changes

Users will be notified when there is a material change to the privacy statement. If we are going to use users personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner.

Contact Information

If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:

In the US:

• RUVENECO INC./MCAT-prep.com
• Privacy Department
• 559 - 334 Cornelia Street
• Plattsburgh, NY
• 12901

In Canada:

• RUVENECO INC./MCAT-prep.com
• Privacy Department
• 381 Notre Dame West
• Montreal, QC H2Y 1V2