Last updated 01-18-13

1. Introduction
Questions. If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, contact our privacy team by emailing support@thenextdds.com. You may also contact us by mail at 1000 Wyckoff Avenue, Mahwah, NJ, 07430.

Scope. This privacy policy covers all of THE NEXT DDS. It does not, however, apply to entities that Next Media Group, Inc. does not own or control, such as websites using the platform. By using or accessing THE NEXT DDS, you agree to the privacy practices outlined herein.

No information from children under age 18. If you are under age 18, please do not attempt to register for THE NEXT DDS or provide any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a user under age 18, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from a child under age 18, please contact us by emailing support@thenextdds.com.

Parental participation. We strongly recommend that minors 18 years of age or older ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet and we encourage parents to teach their children about safe internet use practices. 

 

2. Information We Receive
Information you provide to us:Information About Yourself. When you enroll in THE NEXT DDS you provide us with information such as your name, email, and projected graduation date. During the registration process, we give you the opportunity to connect with your classmates, schools, and other dental students from around the country. You will also be able to add a picture of yourself. In some cases we may ask for additional information for security reasons or to provide specific services to you. Once you register, you can provide other information about yourself by connecting with, for example, your fellow students, groups, networks, and communities. 

Content. One of the primary reasons dental students use THE NEXT DDS is to access educational materials and to share such content with others. Examples include when you upload or take a photo, upload or record a video, share a link to an instructional article or animation, create an event or a group, make a comment, or send someone a message. If you do not want us to store metadata associated with content you share on THE NEXT DDS (eg, photos), please remove the metadata before uploading the content.

Information we collect when you interact with THE NEXT DDS:
Site activity information. We keep track of some of the actions you take on THE NEXT DDS, such as adding connections (including joining a group or adding a classmate), creating a photo album, commenting on an article, blog, or forum, rating a content feature, or attending an event. In some cases, you are also taking an action when you provide information or content to us. For example, if you share a video, in addition to storing the actual content you uploaded, we might log the fact that you shared it.

Access Device and Browser Information. When you access THE NEXT DDS from a computer, mobile phone, or other device, we may collect information from that device about your browser type, location, and IP address, as well as the pages you visit.

Cookie Information. We use "cookies" (small pieces of data we store for an extended period of time on your computer, mobile phone, or other device) to make THE NEXT DDS easier to use, to improve the quality of the educational contents shared herein, to make our advertising better, and to protect both you and THE NEXT DDS. For example, we use them to store your login ID (but never your password) to make it easier for you to login whenever you return to THE NEXT DDS. We also use them to confirm that you are logged into THE NEXT DDS, and to know when you are interacting with our widgets and Share buttons and site advertisements. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases that may impact your ability to use THE NEXT DDS.

Information from other websites. We may institute programs with advertising partners and other websites in which they share information with us:

• We may ask advertisers to tell us how our users responded to the ads we showed them (and for comparison purposes, how other users who didn’t see the ads acted on their site). This data sharing, commonly known as “conversion tracking,” helps us measure our advertising effectiveness and improve the quality of the advertisements seen by dental students.
• We may receive information about whether or not you’ve seen or interacted with certain ads on other sites in order to measure the effectiveness of those ads.

If in any of these cases we receive data that we do not already have, we will “anonymize” it within 180 days, meaning we will stop associating the information with any particular user. If we institute these programs, we will only use the information in the ways we explain in the “How We Use Your Information” section below.

Information from other users. We may collect information about you from other THE NEXT DDS users, such as when a connection tags you in a photo or video, or provides details regarding a group you share.

 

3. Sharing information on THE NEXT DDS. 
This section explains how your privacy settings work, and how your information is shared on THE NEXT DDS.  You should always consider your privacy settings before sharing information on THE NEXT DDS.

Name and Profile Picture.  THE NEXT DDS is designed to make it easy for you to find dental education content and connect with other dental students.  For this reason, your name and profile picture do not have privacy settings. If you are uncomfortable with sharing your profile picture, you should delete it (or not add one). 

Contact Information. Your enrollment form--accessible through the "My Settings" icon--enables you to control the notifications and preferences associated with your user profile.

Other.  Additional points to consider: 

• Some of the content you share and the actions you take will show up on your connections’ home pages and other pages they visit.
• Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others, it was otherwise distributed pursuant to your privacy settings, or it was copied or stored by other users.
• You understand that information might be re-shared or copied by other users.
• Certain types of communications that you send to other users cannot be removed, such as messages.
• When you post information on another user’s profile or comment on another user’s post, that information will be subject to the other user’s privacy settings.

4.  Information You Share With Third Parties.
Connecting with an Application or Website.  When you connect with an application or website it may have access to General Information about you.  The term General Information includes you and your connections’ names, profile pictures, year of graduation, and content you shared.  We may also make information about the location of your computer or access device and your academic concentration available to applications and websites in order to help them implement appropriate security measures and control the distribution of age-appropriate content.  If the application or website wants to access any other data, it will have to ask for your permission.

You should always review the policies of third-party applications and websites to make sure you are comfortable with the ways in which they use information you share with them. We do not guarantee that they will follow our rules. If you find an application or website that violates our rules, you should report the violation to us by emailing support@thenextdds.com and we will take action as necessary.

Pre-Approved Third-Party Websites and Applications.  In order to provide you with useful social experiences from THE NEXT DDS, we occasionally need to provide General Information about you to pre-approved third-party websites that use THE NEXT DDS at the time you visit them (if you are still logged in to THE NEXT DDS). You can also block a particular pre-approved website or application by clicking "No Thanks" in the user window when you visit that application or website.  In addition, if you log out of THE NEXT DDS before visiting a pre-approved application or website, it will not be able to access your information.

Exporting Information. You (and those you make your information available to) may use tools like RSS feeds, mobile phone address book applications, or copy and paste functions, to capture, export (and in some cases, import) information from THE NEXT DDS, including your information and information about you. 

Advertisements. Sometimes the advertisers who present ads on THE NEXT DDS use technological methods to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. You may opt-out of the placement of cookies by using your browser cookie settings to limit or prevent the placement of cookies by advertising networks.  

Links. When you click on links within THE NEXT DDS you may leave our site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites, and we encourage you to read their privacy statements.

 

5. How We Use Your Information
Next Media Group uses the information collected through THE NEXT DDS to try to provide an educational, efficient, and customized experience. Here are some of the details on how we do that:

To manage the service. We use the information we collect to provide our educational services and features to you, to measure and improve those services and features, and to provide you with customer support. We use the information to prevent potentially illegal activities, and we use a variety of technological systems to detect and address anomalous activity and screen content to prevent abuse such as spam. These efforts may on occasion result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users.

To contact you. We may contact you with service-related announcements from time to time. We may include content you see on THE NEXT DDS in the emails we send to you.

To serve personalized advertising to you. We know how important focus is on your university studies, and while you're pursuing your degree we will not share your information with advertisers without your consent. (An example of consent would be if you asked us to provide your mailing address to an advertiser to receive a free sample.) We allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements and we may use any of the non-personally identifiable attributes we have collected (including information you may have decided not to show to other users, such as your graduation year or other such personal information or educational preferences) to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. For example, we might use your interest in operative dentistry to show you ads for adhesive products, but we do not tell the advertiser/manufacturer who you are. As a dental student, we do not share your information with advertisers without your consent, but when you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and note that it meets the criteria they selected.

To supplement your profile. We may use information about you that we collect from other THE NEXT DDS users to supplement your profile (such as when you are tagged in a photo or mentioned in a status/group update). In such cases, we generally give you the ability to remove the content (such as allowing you to remove a photo tag of you) or limit its visibility on your profile.

To help your connections find you. We allow other users to use contact information they have about you, such as your email address, to find you, including through contact importers and search.  You can prevent other users from using your email address to find you using the search section of your privacy settings.

 

6. How We Share Information
THE NEXT DDS facilitates the sharing of dental education content and such information with others — connections and educators in your communities — while providing you with privacy settings that you can use to restrict other users from accessing some of your information. We share your information with third parties when we believe the sharing is permitted by you, reasonably necessary to offer our services, or when legally required to do so. For example:

When you invite a classmate to join. When you ask us to invite a classmate to join THE NEXT DDS, we will send your fellow dental student a message on your behalf using your name.  The invitation may also contain information about other users your classmate might know.   We may also send up to two reminders to them in your name. 

When you choose to share your information with marketers. You may choose to share information with dental manufacturers through offers on THE NEXT DDS. This is entirely at your discretion and while you are enrolled in THE NEXT DDS as a dental student we will not provide your information to such marketers without your consent.

When we share your information with marketers. Your contact information may only be shared with sponsors of THE NEXT DDS after you have graduated from dental school. On certain occasions, information may be shared in advance of your graduation to designated sponsors who offer job opportunities and/or special services that we believe will be of interest and benefit to you prior to graduation. The information we share will be limited to the following; your dental school, year of graduation, intended dental specialty (if any), and your contact information.

To help your classmates find you. By default, we make certain information you have posted to your profile available in search results on THE NEXT DDS to help your classmates find you. You can control who can see some of this information, however, as well as who can find you in these searches, through your privacy settings. 

To give search engines access to publicly available information. We generally limit search engines’ access to our site. We may allow them to access information published by Next Media Group, Inc and user-generated information set to the “everyone” setting (along with your name and profile picture) and your profile information that is visible to everyone.  You can change the visibility of some of your profile information using the customizable sections of your privacy settings. 

To help improve or promote our service. Sometimes we share aggregated information with third parties to help improve or promote our service. But we only do so in such a way that no individual user can be identified or linked to any specific action or information.

To provide you with services. We may provide information to service providers that help us bring you the services we offer. For example, we may use third parties to help host our website, send out email updates about THE NEXT DDS, remove repetitive information from our user lists, process payments, or provide search results or links (including sponsored links). These service providers may have access to your personal information for use for a limited time, but when this occurs we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections to limit their use of that information to helping us provide the service.

To advertise our services. We may ask advertisers outside of THE NEXT DDS to display ads promoting our services. We may ask them to deliver those ads based on the presence of a cookie, but in doing so will not share any other information with the advertiser.

To respond to legal requests and prevent harm. We may disclose information pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests (including criminal and civil matters) if we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law. This may include respecting requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law under the local laws in that jurisdiction, apply to users from that jurisdiction, and are consistent with generally accepted international standards. We may also share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activity or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities.

Transfer in the Event of Sale or Change of Control. If the ownership of all or substantially all of our business changes, we may transfer your information to the new owner so that the service can continue to operate. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy.

7. How You Can Change or Remove Information
Editing your profile. You may change or remove your profile information at any time by going to your profile page and clicking “Edit My Profile.” Information will be updated immediately.

Deactivating or deleting your account. If you want to stop using your account you may deactivate it or delete it. When you deactivate an account, no user will be able to see it, but it will not be deleted. We save your profile information (connections, photos, etc.) in case you later decide to reactivate your account. Many users deactivate their accounts for temporary reasons and in doing so are asking us to maintain their information until they return to THE NEXT DDS. You will still have the ability to reactivate your account and restore your profile in its entirety. When you delete an account, it is permanently deleted from THE NEXT DDS. You should only delete your account if you are certain you never want to reactivate it. You may deactivate your account on your My Profile page or delete your account by emailing us accordingly at support@thenextdds.com.

Limitations on removal. Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others, it was otherwise distributed pursuant to your privacy settings, or it was copied or stored by other users. However, your name will no longer be associated with that information on THE NEXT DDS. (For example, if you post something to another user’s profile and then you delete your account, that post may remain, but be attributed to an “Anonymous THE NEXT DDS User.”)  Additionally, we may retain certain information to prevent identity theft and other misconduct even if deletion has been requested. If you have given third-party websites access to your information, they may retain your information to the extent permitted under their terms of service or privacy policies.  But they will no longer be able to access the information through our Platform after you disconnect from them.

Backup copies. Removed and deleted information may persist in backup copies for up to 90 days, but will not be available to others.

Non-user contact information. If a user provides your email address to us, and you are not a user of THE NEXT DDS but you want us to delete your address, you can do so by emailing support@thenextdds.com. However, that request will only apply to addresses we have at the time of the request and not to any addresses that users provide to us later.

 

8. How We Protect Information 
We do our best to keep your information secure, but we need your help. 

Steps we take to keep your information secure. We keep your account information on a secured server behind a firewall. When you enter sensitive information, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). We also use automated and social measures to enhance security, such as analyzing account behavior for fraudulent or otherwise anomalous behavior, may limit use of site features in response to possible signs of abuse, may remove inappropriate content or links to illegal content, and may suspend or disable accounts for violations.

Risks inherent in sharing information. Although we allow you to set privacy options that limit access to your information, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We cannot control the actions of other users with whom you share your information. We cannot guarantee that only authorized persons will view your information. We cannot ensure that information you share on THE NEXT DDS will not become publicly available. We are not responsible for third-party circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures on THE NEXT DDS. You can reduce these risks by using common sense security practices such as choosing a strong password and using up-to-date antivirus software.

 

9. Other Terms
Changes. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to improve the service of THE NEXT DDS. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy we will notify you by publication here. If the changes are material, we will provide you additional, prominent notice as appropriate under the circumstances. 

Consent to Collection and Processing in the United States. By using THE NEXT DDS, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.

Defined Terms. "Us," "we," "our," and "THE NEXT DDS" refer to Next Media Group, Inc. and its website developed for the education of dental students unless otherwise limited by the context.

Copyright © 2013 Next Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.