Security - Connect Our Kids

Security is our strength

The safety of children and their data is our priority. We use data encryption, automation, and robust security policies to protect our users and tools.

Our Privacy Policy

Connect Our Kids
Online Privacy Policy Agreement
September 17th, 2019

Connect Our Kids (A Virginia 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation), is committed to keeping any and all personal information collected of those individuals that visit our website and making use of our online facilities and services accurate, confidential, secure, and private. In addition, we are committed to keeping the private information contained about 3rd party persons accurate, confidential, secure, and private. Our privacy policy has been designed and created to assure those affiliated with Connect Our Kids of our commitment and realization of our obligation not only to meet but to exceed most existing privacy standards.

THEREFORE, this Privacy Policy Agreement shall apply to Connect Our Kids, and thus it shall govern any and all data collection and usage thereof. Through the use of connectourkids.org and its associated Services, you are herein consenting to the following data procedures expressed within this agreement.

Collection of Information

This website collects various types of information, such as:

Information automatically collected when visiting our website, which may include cookies, third-party tracking technologies, and server logs.
We may also gather information about the type of browser you are using, IP address, or type of operating system to assist us in providing and maintaining superior quality service.
Information you may submit about others
Information you submit about yourself

It is highly recommended and suggested that you review the privacy policies and statements of any website you choose to use or frequent as a means to better understand the way in which other websites garner, make use of and share information collected.

Use of Information Collected

Connect Our Kids may collect and may make use of personal information to assist in the operation of our website and to ensure the delivery of the services you need and request. At times, we may find it necessary to use personally identifiable information as a means to keep you informed of other possible products and/or services that may be available to you. Connect Our Kids may also be in contact with you with regards to completing surveys and/or research questionnaires related to your opinion of current or potential future services that may be offered.

Connect Our Kids does not now, nor will it in the future, sell, rent or lease any of our customer lists and/or names to any third parties. Connect Our Kids may deem it necessary to follow websites and/or pages that our users may frequent in an effort to gleam what types of services and/or products may be the most popular to customers or the general public.

Connect Our Kids may disclose your personal information, without prior notice to you, only if required to do so in accordance with applicable laws and/or in a good faith belief that such action is deemed necessary or is required in an effort to:

Remain in conformance with any decrees, laws, and/or statutes or in an effort to comply with any process which may be served upon Connect Our Kids and/or our website;Maintain, safeguard and/or preserve all the rights and/or property of Connect Our Kids; and
Perform under demanding conditions in an effort to safeguard the personal safety of users of connectourkids.org and its Services, and/or the general public.

3rd-Party Person’s Information

Connect Our Kids provides the connectourkids.org website and its services specifically for the use case of our users of gathering and organizing publicly available information on 3rd party persons. In addition, this information may be used by our users, but not by Connect Our Kids, its employees, officers, or subcontractors, to contact and communicate with 3rd party persons. Under no circumstances will Connect Our Kids review or share this 3rd party data with anyone other than those expressly identified inside the website that has access to the information.

From time to time, Connect Our Kids may access 3rd party personal information only for the purposes of providing services to the account owners. Connect Our Kids will never sell or transfer 3rd party persons’ information to any parties not directly permitted access inside the connectourkids.org site and its Services.

Case Information

In the regular course of business, you may enter “case information” about a person for whom you are providing services. You, not Connect Our Kids, are in control of what information you do and do not submit. If sensitive information has been submitted in error to connectourkids.org or its Services, and you are not able to self-remove that sensitive information, you may contact [email protected] to have the information removed manually. The process of this removal may require Connect Our Kids personnel to temporarily access the information to remove it from our systems.

Connect Our Kids personnel will never share case information with any party, even the account owner, and even when we are expressly asked to do so. You agree that under no circumstances will Connect Our Kids be considered a system of record for your case information, and under no circumstances can Connect Our Kids help you recover lost case information – except through the regular use of connectourkids.org and its Services. You agree that Connect Our Kids may collect and maintain anonymized information about the status and outcomes of each case you submit to connectourkids.org and its Services. Further, you agree that Connect Our Kids may report anonymized aggregate case status and outcome information for the purposes of advertising our services, and reporting information to our funders. Connect Our Kids shall make every effort to dissociate all reported anonymous and aggregate case information – except when you expressly request that we support you with non-anonymous or non-aggregate information.

Children Under Age of 13

Connect Our Kids does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen (13) without verifiable parental consent. If it is determined that such information has been inadvertently collected from anyone under the age of thirteen (13), we shall immediately take the necessary steps to ensure that such information is deleted from our system’s database. Anyone under the age of thirteen (13) must seek and obtain parent or guardian permission to use this website.

Unsubscribe or Opt-Out

All users and/or visitors to our website have the option to discontinue receiving communication from us and/or reserve the right to discontinue receiving communications by way of email or newsletters. To discontinue or unsubscribe to our website please send an email that you wish to unsubscribe to [email protected]. If you wish to unsubscribe or opt out from any third-party websites, you must go to that specific website to unsubscribe and/or opt out. Links to Other Web Sites

Our website does contain links to affiliates or other websites. Connect Our Kids does not claim nor accept responsibility for any privacy policies, practices and/or procedures of other such websites. Therefore, we encourage all users and visitors to be aware when they leave our website and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. The aforementioned Privacy Policy Agreement applies only and solely to the information collected by our website.

Security

Connect Our Kids shall endeavor and shall take every precaution to maintain adequate physical, procedural and technical security with respect to our offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure or modification of the user’s personal information under our control.

The company also uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) for authentication and private communications in an effort to build users’ trust and confidence in the internet and website use by providing simple and secure access and communication of credit card and personal information.

Changes to Privacy Policy Agreement

Connect Our Kids reserves the right to update and/or change the terms of our privacy policy, and as such we will post those changes at connectourkids.org/privacy, so that our users and/or visitors are always aware of the type of information we collect, how it will be used, and under what circumstances, if any, we may disclose such information. If at any point in time Connect Our Kids decides to make use of any personally identifiable information on file, in a manner vastly different from that which was stated when this information was initially collected, the user or users shall be promptly notified by email. Users at that time shall have the option as to whether or not to permit the use of their information in this separate manner.

Acceptance of Terms

Through the use of this website, you are hereby accepting the terms and conditions stipulated within the aforementioned Privacy Policy Agreement. If you are not in agreement with our terms and conditions, then you should refrain from further use of our sites. In addition, your continued use of our website following the posting of any updates or changes to our terms and conditions shall mean that you are in agreement and acceptance of such changes.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Privacy Policy Agreement related to our website, please feel free to contact us at the following email, telephone number, or mailing address.

Email: [email protected]

Mailing Address:
Connect Our Kids
1069 W Broad St Ste 778
Falls Church, Virginia 22046

Data Collection

Minimal Case Data Collected

Our tools can be used with little or no case data. Because our tools are focused on aggregating public information, our tools do not collect significant amounts of data – unless you or your users enter such data.

Data Security

Encryption everywhere

We use strong browser encryption, encrypt data at every stage of transit, store data only in encrypted storage systems, and implement strong processes and procedures for managing the encryption keys.

Data Sharing

We do not share private or case data

We are a non-profit that operates on the funds provided by our philanthropic partners. We are not incentivized, nor do our internal policies allow for any data sharing outside of the team you have authorized.

For the purposes of demonstrating the value of our services, and to help you understand your own metrics, we may share very limited aggregate anonymized usage data.

Data Portability

Complete data exports and integrations available

Our tools offer complete data exports and automated report generation. Our goal is to support your mission of caring for foster children – and that includes providing complete portability of data into other systems. We encourage you to consider how we can help you automate tedious data entry and sharing processes.

Data Location

All data is in the U.S.

All data collected through our tools are stored in the United States. Family Connections data is stored in Google Cloud Central 1 Region located in Council Bluffs, Iowa. People Search and Impact Dashboard data is stored in AWS US-East-1 Region located in Northern Virginia.

Access Control

You are in control of your access

Each “Team” in Connect Our Kids tools is directly managed by one or more persons in your organization. Team members and their permissions are controlled by the “Team Managers.” Each child’s data is protected by fine-grain security controls, and your Team Managers can grant or revoke privileges instantly.

Advanced Access Control

Integration with your user directory

We can offer your organization direct integration with your user directory servers. This allows your administrators to define their own methods of access control, including integrations with your existing policies and processes. Email [email protected] for more information.

System Monitoring

Automated Systems Monitoring

We leverage advanced systems monitoring tools to ensure the configurations deployed are in compliance with our policies and industry best practices. These tools are automatically updated with the latest rules to ensure our continual advancing security posture at a systems level.

Code Scanning

Automated Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) detection

We leverage advanced code scanning tools to ensure that the code we produce is free of known CVE issues. These tools automatically review every version of the software that we produce, and are regularly updated with the latest vulnerability notifications.

Limited Access

Our tools are specifically designed to limit our own access to your data.

Our policies define “least privilege” access controls that limit cross-system access and the number of our internal operations team members that have the ability to affect access. We will never access your data unless we are directly serving your interests, at your direction.

System Architecture

We scale so you don’t have to

Our tools are specifically architected to achieve extreme scale. You do not have to worry about software security, upgrades, or maintenance. We focus on technology so you can focus on services for children in foster care. We allow all users to review our architecture documents. Simple contact [email protected]