At NorthWest Student Exchange (NWSE), we are committed to maintaining the trust, confidence, and safety of our online visitors, applicants, and program participants. NWSE collects personal information only to provide our services. NWSE does not share, sell, rent, or trade your personal information with other companies and businesses for marketing purposes. Please review our privacy policies below for details about when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it, the limited conditions under which we may disclose it to others, and how we keep it secure.

Types of data we collect

Website Cookies

Like most websites, NWSE websites use cookies.  Cookies are small data files which are placed on your computer or other devices (such as smart phones or tablets) as you browse or log into our websites.  Cookies are used to “remember” when your computer or device accesses our websites.  Cookies are essential for the effective operation of our websites, as for many other websites you may use.

Some cookies collect information about browsing behaviour when you access our websites via the same computer or device.  This includes information about pages viewed and your journey around a website.  We do not use cookies to collect or record information on your name, address or other contact details.  Please review the next section of our privacy notice for information about our use of Google Analytics.

The cookies stored on your computer or other device(s) when you access our websites are designed by:

1. NWSE, or on behalf of NWSE, and are needed to allow you to log into our various websites and online portals.
2. Google Analytics (see section below).

Cookies on our websites are used for:

1. For technical purposes essential to effective operation of our websites, particularly, for example, in relation to online registration, account access, etc.
2. To enable NWSE to collect information about your browsing patterns on our websites, and monitor the success of email campaigns, important programmatic notifications, communications, contests, etc.

If you want to disable cookies you need to change your website browser settings to reject cookies.  How you can do this depends on the website browser you use.

NWSE websites may not operate properly if cookies are disabled. If you only disable third party cookies, you will not be prevented from logging into our websites and online portals.  If you disable all cookies, you will be unable to log in and update information on our websites/online portals.

Google Analytics

When someone visits our websites, we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behavior patterns via Google Analytics. We do this, for example, to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of our website. Information collected via Google Analytics is presented to NWSE in a way which does not personally identify anyone. NWSE does not attempt to find the identities of those visiting our website.

Mailing Lists

We use a third-party provider, Vertical Response, to deliver some of our newsletters and announcements to you. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter content and communications. For more information, please review the Vertical Response privacy policy. You can unsubscribe from NWSE communications that do not relate directly to your NWSE program at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our general emails you may receive, or by emailing us at unsubscribe@nwse.com.

Program/Application Data

When you register for one of our programs and provide personal information, we use this information: to get you registered for the program of your choice; to collect required participant information and communicate with you in a manner compliant with program regulations; to tell you about stuff you’ve asked us to tell you about; to provide you with program-related information of your specific NWSE program; to contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information; to tell you about relevant NWSE programmatic opportunities available to you; to check if our records are accurate and to check every now and then that you’re happy and satisfied with your program. We don’t share, sell, rent, or trade email lists with other organizations and businesses without your consent.

When you register for a program through NWSE, your data is stored in NWSE-owned online and offline database and file systems in the USA. Your data is shared only with government entities and third parties (host families, area coordinators, schools, NWSE partner agencies, insurance providers, SEVIS, etc.) directly involved in the application and administration processes of your NWSE program. Your data may also be uploaded into government databases as required to allow you to apply for your visa. Outside of what’s required for the application process and administration of your NWSE program, NWSE does not share your personal details with any other company or entity without your consent.

How We Protect Your Data

NWSE is committed to keeping your personal data safe and secure.

Our security measures include and may not be limited to: encryption of passwords stored in our online systems; regular cyber security assessments of all service providers who may handle your personal data; security controls which protect our IT infrastructure from external attack and unauthorized access; internal policies setting out our data security approach and training for employees; and security measures employed by third-party service providers.

Access to your personal information

You are entitled to view, amend, or delete the personal information that we hold unless otherwise required by government entities. Email your request to dataprotection@nwse.com.

Terms of Use

By choosing to use this, or any NWSE website or service in any capacity or to any extent, you agree to at all times hold NWSE harmless for any and all security/data breaches that may occur as a result of NWSE’s use of commonly subscribed/contracted internet and technological services with which NWSE may contract to provide services to you and/or other clients, and further agree not to and shall not seek remedy or damages from NWSE and/or its employees or directors for the real or potential results from any such security/data breaches that may occur.

Changes to this Notice

NWSE may from time to time amend our terms of use and privacy policies. When we do, we will update our websites to reflect these changes.

UPDATED: 05/2018