WCTE Web Privacy Policy

The Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English (WCTE) respects your privacy. We will make every reasonable effort to ensure that any personal information you provide to us is used only for the purposes stated below.   The policy presented here emphasizes information collected by the WCTE website, but it also applies to personal information submitted by other means (mail, fax, phone, sign-up sheets, and so on).

Several areas of the WCTE website may require that you send us personal information:

• Membership application
• Convention registration
• Convention session applications
• Information requests
• Award, grant, and contest applications
• Book purchases

In addition to the primary purpose stated or implied at the time the information is collected, we may use your postal mailing address to send you information about WCTE programs or projects. We share information about members, such as mailing lists, with other professional organizations (e.g., NCTE, WSRA) upon request. However, we DO NOT provide our member mailing list or convention attendee data to commercial entities. WCTE does not make its e-mail lists available to any third party.

If you supply an e-mail address, we use it to confirm your order, follow up on a request, etc., as the context determines. We may also use it to keep you informed about WCTE programs and initiatives. On occasion we may use your e-mail address for a purpose indirectly related to the original context (e.g., e-mailing a survey to those who have registered for the state convention).

WCTE members

Because of the special relationship we seek to maintain with our members, WCTE may send periodic updates and announcements by e-mail. We may also make an occasional phone call (e.g., to clear up a problem or inquire about a lapsed membership

“Anonymous” information collected online

Generally speaking, you can visit the WCTE website without revealing any personal information about yourself. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, which currently hosts the site, does keep a record of all server activity, which means that every page, image, or other type of file requested by your browser is written into a log file. Each entry in the log contains, among other things, information about the computer you’re using to connect to the Internet (its “IP address”) and about your browser (e.g., which version of Internet Explorer you’re using). It does not, however, tell us anything about you personally. We may use aggregate data from the web logs to determine how the site’s resources are being used and to refine its navigational structure. If the need arises, we may use the logs to trace the source of abusive or illicit activity. We do not share our web logs with any outside party.

Material submitted online

Convention handouts submitted to WCTE remain the property of the author, who provides permission to WCTE to post the information for one year. Some areas of the WCTE website allow you to submit questions (i.e., contact WCTE) or express your opinions (for example, a discussion board, currently unavailable). All submissions become the property of WCTE. Keep in mind that any information you post on any WCTE Discussion Boards are immediately available to anyone with a web browser. Don’t give out more information than what you would like everyone in the world to know. You can, of course, edit or delete the messages you post there. It should be noted that the e-mail address you submit as part of the registration process for the Discussion Board is not visible and cannot be retrieved by a member of the public. That person can e-mail you, but the system hides your e-mail address; in fact, you will learn that person’s e-mail address without revealing yours.

Links to other websites

The WCTE website contains links to other websites. WCTE is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. Check the privacy policy of a website before revealing any personal information.

Exceptions

In certain circumstances, and as an exception to this privacy policy, we may, without notice to you, release information to comply with any valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute or court order, or in other special cases, such as, for example, suspected fraudulent or criminal activity, or an attempt to breach the security of WCTE or its website.

Privacy policy updates

We have tried to create a privacy policy that is comprehensive, readable, and durable. Despite our best efforts, we may find it necessary to revise it. Any changes will be made without prior notice. The current WCTE privacy policy will continue to be posted at www.WCTEonline.org.  If you have questions or comments about our privacy policy, please email zbikowsj@uww.edu

Adapted with permission from the National Council of Teachers of English