Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is effective as of January 1, 2021. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will notify the school district in writing and provide further communication as required by law.

Our Commitment to Privacy

Affinety Solutions, Inc. (“Affinety Solutions”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is the owner and operator of this website. Your privacy is important to us. Our services provide schools and school districts with payment solutions for their food service, fees, activities, transportation, before-and-after-school programs, and other similar programs. Affinety Solutions, its affiliated partners, and their respective products and services, represent a unified solution to manage online payment, point-of-sale, online free-reduced lunch applications, and powerful reporting. We are committed to protecting personally identifiable information that you may provide us through our website. We have adopted this Privacy Policy to explain what information may be collected on our website, how we use this information, and under what circumstances we may disclose the information to third parties. This Privacy Policy applies to all visitors to our website, our customers who create an account, and anyone else who accesses or uses our products and services. WHEN YOU ACCESS OUR WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY, OR TO ANY CHANGES WE MAY SUBSEQUENTLY MAKE, IMMEDIATELY STOP ACCESSING OUR WEBSITE.

What information do we collect?

Personally Identifiable Information. When you register on the website, you must set up an account with us. We collect and store personally identifiable information about you – such as your name, address, e-mail address, phone number, and data associated with your payment method (credit card or bank account information) – as part of the account set-up process. We also collect personal financial information where required as part of our services. We collect transaction and experience information, such as information necessary to any transactions with us, webinars or tutorials viewed, or documentation about our products and services you have downloaded, as well as information about our communications with you. We need this information to provide the products and services that you request from our website and to let you know of additional products and services about which you might be interested.

Non-personally Identifiable Information. We automatically collect certain nonpersonally identifiable information when you visit our website, such as the following: Log data: Our servers automatically record information when you use our website, such as your IP address, the type of browser you are using and its settings, the third party website you visited immediately prior to accessing our website, the operating system you are using, the domain name of your Internet service provider, the search terms you use on our website, the specific website pages you visit, and the duration of your visits.

Cookie data: Like many websites, we use “cookies” to obtain certain types of information when your web browser accesses our website. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers’ systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. Some of the cookies we use are associated with your account with us (including personal information about you), and other cookies are not. We may use “session cookies” (cookies that last until you close your browser) or “persistent cookies” (cookies that last until you or your browser delete them). Examples of the information we collect and analyze from cookies include your activity on our website, including the URL you come from and go to next (whether this URL is on our site or not). Remember that the cookies that we use do not contain and are not tied to personally identifiable information. We use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart. If you prefer, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still place orders over the telephone or by contacting customer service.

Experience data. We may collect other information that is voluntarily provided by you from time to time if you respond to surveys, polls or questionnaires, and/or website registration forms. Such information may include personal preferences, opinions and experiences with our products and services, and may be provided anonymously.

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in the following ways:

1. To personalize your experience.
   Your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs.
2. To improve our website.
   We continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you.
3. To improve customer service.
   Your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs.
4. To process transactions.
   Your information, whether personally identifiable or non-personally identifiable, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested.
5. To send periodic e-mails. The email address you provide may be used to send you information, respond to inquiries, offer promotions, and/or respond to other requests or questions. We will use your contact information to contact you regarding your interest in our products and services, and to provide administrative notices and communications relevant to your use of our website and our products and services.
6. Improvement of the website. We use non-personally identifiable information in a variety of ways, such as to analyze website traffic (such as aggregated information on the pages visited by our users), which allows us to improve the design and content of our website. We may use your non-personally identifiable information by itself or aggregate it with information we have obtained from others to analyze our products and services. We may also link your IP address to your personal information but only if there are issues relating to the origin of a payment transaction.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information: When you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information.

We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. Login and password protection, multiple firewalls, multiple layers of data encryption and an intrusion detection system are all used to protect your data. We cannot, however, guarantee or warrant the security of any information you disclose or transmit to us online and are not responsible for the theft, destruction, or inadvertent disclosure of your personally identifiable information. We recommend that you take steps to protect the privacy and security of your personal and payment information and your activity while using the internet, as well as your account access information.

After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be stored on our servers.

When do we disclose information to other parties?

With your consent. By using our services, you consent to our sharing your personally identifiable information with our service providers, partners, and affiliates, as necessary, to complete your payment transaction or for other services you have registered for.

With Schools, School Districts, and our other Institutional Customers (“collectively “Customers”) and as may be directed by such Customers. We partner with our Customers to deliver our services. We have entered into a separate agreement with our Customers for this purpose. We will share your personally identifiable information with our Customers to fulfill our legal and contractual obligations to them. In addition, we will share your personally identifiable information as directed by such Customer. In some cases, our services may work with non-Affinety Solutions software and services that are used by our Customers (“Non-Affinety Software”). When Non-Affinety Software is operated by a third party on a Customer’s behalf, we may disclose your personally identifiable information to that third-party software provider at the Customer’s request. For example, our services have been designed to work with several third party data management systems. If the Customer requests, we will send and receive data (which may include your personally identifiable information) to the provider of that data management system so that our services and that system can operate together.

Under no circumstances will we sell or use personally identifiable information for marketing or other commercial purposes.

With Third Party Providers. We will share your personally identifiable information outside of our organization with third party providers to deliver our services, as follows:

• with our agents and contractors to achieve successful completion of your payment transaction;
• in the case of an application we are processing for you, with specially authorized persons within your school or school district; or
• to assist in providing support for our operations.

In addition, we may employ third parties to process personal information on our behalf for the installation of new software or for security testing of our systems based on our instructions and in compliance with this Privacy Policy. Under no circumstances will we share, rent or sell personally identifiable information for commercial purposes.

Email communications. If you send us an email with questions or comments, we may use your email address to respond to your questions or comments, and we may save your questions or comments for future reference. We may email you:

• to process your payments and send you payment receipts,
• if you request a service or sign up for a feature that involves email communications,
• information relating to our products and services that you use (e.g., product updates, customer support, etc.),
• information about our other products and services,
• updates to this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use, or any additional terms that may govern your use of all of part of our Services, or
• where you have consented to being contacted by email.

You may unsubscribe from receiving future commercial email communications from us by clicking the “unsubscribe” link included at the bottom of any marketing emails we send, or by emailing us as provided in the Contact Us section below. However, we reserve the right to send you transactional emails such as customer service communications on the products you have purchased. For security reasons, we do not recommend that you send personal information, such as passwords, social security numbers, or bank account information, to us by email.

Transfer of Assets. As we continue to develop our business, we may sell or purchase assets. If another entity acquires us or all (or substantially all) of our assets, the personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information we have about you will be transferred to and used by this acquiring entity. Also, if any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding is brought by or against us, all such information may be considered an asset of ours and as such may be sold or transferred to third parties.

Where required by law. We reserve the right to disclose any personally identifiable or non-personally identifiable information about you if we are required to do so by law, with respect to copyright and other intellectual property infringement claims, or if we believe that such action is necessary to: (a) fulfill a government request; (b) conform with the requirements of the law or legal process; (c) protect or defend our legal rights or property, our website, or other customers; or (d) in an emergency to protect the health and safety of our website’s customers or the general public.

What Choices Do You Have About Your Account and Our Use of Your Information?

Our goal is to provide you with simple and meaningful choices about how your information is used. If you are a customer, you control your choices by your selections when you set up your account with us, for example to control the email you receive from us. Your account information will be retained in our database and maintained for future orders or transactions and as required under applicable law, rules, and/or regulations. It is your responsibility to ensure that the account information is accurate and you should update the information as necessary. We do retain information concerning transactions other than personally identifiable information. For example, we retain non-personally identifiable data concerning the number, frequency, size and purpose of transactions.

You have a right to inspect and review your account information, including your personally identifiable information. If you request it, we will provide you with a copy of your account information.

Closing your account

If you choose to discontinue your use of the services we provide, you should notify us and we will inactivate your account. Any data concerning your past transactions or account activity will no longer be available and will be stored in a secure manner. We are legally required to maintain a backup copy of such transaction data for 13 months after the transaction was completed. Thereafter, the copies of data you have provided with any transactions you complete through use of our products are removed from our website and securely destroyed. We do not control how our partners retain, store and destroy data that they have obtained access to from third parties in connection with completing your transactions. You should check their websites for more information on their practices.

Children Under 13

We have no way of distinguishing the age of individuals who access our website. The features, programs, promotions and other aspects of our website requiring the submission of personally identifiable information are not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 and believe he or she has disclosed personally identifiable information to us please contact us at info@affinety.com. A parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 may review and request deletion of such child’s personally identifiable information as well as prohibit the use thereof.

Online Privacy Policy Only

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is effective as of the date set forth above. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on the website and provide further communication as required by law. We suggest that you review this Privacy Policy periodically.

Contacting Us

If there are any questions regarding: (a) questions or comments about our Privacy Policy; (b) corrections to any personally identifiable information you have provided; (c) your desire to opt-out from receiving future commercial correspondence, including emails, from us or our affiliated companies; or (d) your wish to close your account, please contact us using the information below. We will respond to your request and, if applicable and appropriate, make the requested change in our active databases as soon as reasonably practicable. Keep in mind, however, that residual information may remain within our databases, access logs and other records for a limited time, as may be required by applicable laws and regulations, which may or may not contain your personally identifiable information. Please also note that we may not be able to fulfill certain requests while allowing you access to certain benefits and features of our website.