Privacy Policy

The National Institute for Testing and Evaluation (“NITE”) recognizes the right to privacy. This statement (“the Privacy Policy”) outlines NITE’s policy with regard to the use, disclosure, and protection of information gathered during the delivery of services to examinees and other entities. The Policy applies to information gathered from examinees, third parties, and website visitors (collectively referred to as “users”).

 

Information Collected

The Privacy Policy applies to the following information and data:

(1) Personal information gathered during website registration, e.g., name, identity or passport number, birthdate, and contact details, including telephone number and email;

(2) Personal information gathered from applications for special test accommodations, e.g., answers to personal questionnaires, diagnoses, medical certificates and documents, and information about accommodations approved by NITE;

(3) Personal information related to specific tests, e.g., tests for which the examinee has registered, their dates and locations, scores obtained, performance assessments, and names of institutions that received score reports;

(4) Personal information that external entities (for example, government ministries) have supplied to NITE for purposes of statistical analysis and research, including names, addresses, and identity/passport numbers of examinees; birthdates; responses to items; need for special accommodations or special education; names and identity/passport numbers of examinees’ parents; information regarding the examinees’ socioeconomic status and religious and national affiliations; country of birth of both examinees and their parents; parents’ level of education; number of siblings, etc.;

(5) Information on visitors to the NITE website that is provided by them or collected automatically, such as information about personal computers or mobile devices, IP addresses, operating systems, and geographical locations.

All the aforementioned types of information will henceforth be referred to, collectively and individually, as “the information”.

Examinees and/or users have no legal obligation to provide the information; agreeing to do so is voluntary. At the same time, examinees who wish to avail themselves of services provided by the NITE website must supply certain personal information. The information provided by examinees and/or users will not be transferred to third parties other than those mentioned in this statement.

 

Information Security

NITE follows generally accepted security practices and standards in order to protect personal information at the time it is transmitted and afterwards. NITE makes every effort to protect examinee information; however, since no method of information transfer or storage is entirely secure, there can be no absolute guarantee.

 

How NITE Uses Examinee Information

Personal information is utilized in the provision of services to users, including registration for tests, provision of test accommodations as needed, test validation, and reporting of scores to educational institutions. This information may also be used internally, including psychometric research for the purposes of developing tests and improving the validity, fairness, and other aspects of existing tests. Likewise, the information may be used to diagnose problems with the computer server, improve the NITE website and online services, conduct test research and quality control, and adapt the website to suit the needs of all its users.

Some of the personal information gathered by NITE is used for analysis, research, and control or development purposes, and for the generation of anonymous statistical data pertaining to examinees or users. NITE makes use of such data to understand the needs of those who use its services. Statistical data is anonymous and does not include identifying information about any user.

 

Disclosure of Information to Third Parties

As a rule, NITE does not disclose the personal information of examinees and/or users to third parties without explicit consent. Exceptions include those listed below, as well as cases in which NITE is legally or formally required to do so (these include laws, regulations, subpoenas or court orders, and cooperation with law enforcement investigations), and cases in which NITE is called upon to do so as part of a legal defense of its rights.

NITE provides educational institutions (“institutions”) with information needed for those institutions’ admissions and placement decisions. This includes examinees’ identity numbers, test dates, and scores. Examinees can designate which institutions will receive such data on their test registration form or on the website.

NITE may also provide the institutions with information about an examinee’s test conditions, the propriety of the test administration, and/or the reliability of the score from any test administration. In addition, NITE may provide information about evaluations, medical documents and certificates, special test accommodations approved by NITE, and descriptions of an examinee’s behavior during and after the test to any institution that requires its candidates to sign a medical confidentiality waiver.

NITE may share, at its sole discretion, any statistical information, or any information that does not identify the user, with relevant third parties, including scientific journals, for the purposes of analysis, research, oversight, or development. NITE may also supply anonymous information to Google Analytics for the purpose of analyzing use of its website and services.

NITE cooperates with governmental ministries by processing raw data to provide them with statistical information.

NITE cooperates with law enforcement authorities or any court order that requires or instructs it to reveal the identity, behavior, or any other trait of a user. NITE will provide the details of users to the relevant institutions, law enforcement agencies, or regulatory bodies in cases in which it believes that such an action is required in order to protect its rights and/or intellectual property, or those of a third party, or in order to defend test integrity, confidentiality, completeness, and reliability.

In the course of processing data, NITE may engage the services of subcontractors, including those in other countries, and transmit examinee and/or user data to them. All these subcontractors are subject to nondisclosure and restricted-use regulations. Nevertheless, it is possible that information protection standards in those countries may not meet the information protection standards in the country where examinees or users live or in the country where they were tested.

NITE may share its databases, including personal information of examinees/users, if it decides, or is compelled, to transfer all or some of its activities, including in the case of dissolution. Should this occur, personal information will continue to be subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

In conveying personal information to NITE, the user implicitly agrees to the aforementioned uses and transfers, including transfer of information to a different country.

 

Communication

NITE may use examinees’ and/or users’ contact information to send them emails or other notices pertaining to the tests, unless they expressly object to this when they register for the test. When accepting the terms of the test during registration, users consent to receive these notices; any objection must be explicit. Registered users can elect to stop receiving information and updates indicating their preference on the NITE website.

 

Reviewing, Updating, or Correcting Information

NITE gives all examinees and/or users access to the personal information they provided while registering for tests, as well as the results of those tests. Examinees and/or users can update their information as necessary by logging on to the NITE website. Examinees and/or users who wish to review information they have provided, or which NITE has gathered, and which is not available on the website, may contact the Customer Relations Department via the website.

NITE reserves the right to store the information supplied by users as long as necessary in order to provide the services described above. Users who wish to request that NITE not use their personal information may do so by contacting the Customer Relations Department via the website. Nevertheless, NITE will keep the information and use it as needed to fulfill its legal responsibilities, resolve disputes, and protect test integrity.

 

Third Party Links

Links to the websites of third parties may appear on the NITE website. These links may serve purposes such as payment or access to scientific research. NITE is not responsible for the content of these sites nor for their privacy policies and is hence not responsible for the use they make of information supplied to them by users.

 

Changes to This Policy

NITE’s Privacy Policy may change from time to time. In the event of changes that diminish the rights of examinees and/or users, or that introduce a new use of their personal information, an announcement will be published on the NITE website. Continued use of the NITE website by users despite changes to the Privacy Policy constitutes agreement to these changes.

 

Contact Us

Questions or concerns about NITE’s Privacy Policy should be directed to the Customer Relations Department.