Privacy

Information Gathering

Protection of your personal information is of prime importance to askON. We collect only the minimum amount of information necessary to provide effective and efficient service. We will not disclose any of the information we collect from you to any party, in any manner that would identify you, except in order to fulfill your information request. Here is the kind of information we may ask for when you request a chat:

Name
we require a first name so we can differentiate you from other users. If you are not comfortable providing your real name, you can enter a nickname or made-up name.

Profile/Status /Location
are you a student? A member of the general public? Where are you accessing the service from? This information provides useful context in answering your question.

Institution
indicate the library with which you are associated.

Question
tell us how we can help you. askON staff will never ask you to provide personal information (phone, email, address, library/student card number etc.) during a chat session and we strongly discourage you from offering it.

As with other web-based services and sites askON logs the IP address and browser type of each visitor. This information is also kept strictly confidential. If necessary, askON administrators can block individual IP addresses to prevent abuse of the service.

Data Transmission and Storage

All personal data gathered during an askOn chat transaction is encrypted using a Triple DES algorithm prior to transmittal and storage. The Triple DES algorithm is a well-accepted encryption method used by leading companies, including financial institutions. Chat transaction data from askON is stored on a LivePerson (www.liveperson.com) server in the United Kingdom. askON chat transaction data is automatically deleted from the servers after 13 months.

Transcripts and Exit Surveys

Transcripts

Chat transaction transcripts are only used for service evaluation and analysis. Transcripts can be:

• e-mailed to you as a record of the session and a reminder of resources consulted only if you choose to provide us with your email address
• used to monitor and improve the overall quality of service
• mined for aggregated statistical data such as the number of questions received or the average length of sessions
• referred to in research papers, articles, and presentations (in which cases, any personal information inadvertently contained will be stripped from the transcripts before use)

If you do not wish to provide an email address you can choose to print your transcript before you exit your session by choosing the 'print' icon at the top of the chat box.

Exit Surveys

In order to improve the service and better understand your needs and experience we conclude each session with a voluntary exit survey. You may choose to ignore the survey. As with the transcript data, exit survey information is encrypted for transmission and storage and is used only by the ask Ontario project team to review service quality and identify training needs. Exit survey data is also encrypted and stored and subject to the same deletion schedule as other chat transaction data.

Read more about LivePerson’s privacy and security features at: (liveperson.com/about/privacy.asp)

Ask Ontario is a project
of Knowledge Ontario.
© 2008 Ask Ontario/Knowledge Ontario.