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## That’s why we’ve created Next Voice.

Next Voice is an online platform for teens in the US, where you can see what others across the nation are saying about the issues that matter to you and so you can take action.
 
Whether you want to learn to write and speak powerfully about causes you care about, find allies and organizations with decision-making power, or start a community, we’re here for you.
 
You can trust us to help you:
 
-  Find and understand unbiased, credible information.
-  Learn what other people your age are saying about issues you care about - like climate change, life after high school, mental health, racial justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, and gender equality.
-  Develop the skills you’ll need to make an impact.
-  Find resources you can use to put your voice into action.
 
You have the power to make a difference and to create change.

## Your voice matters.

 
**About American Student Assistance**
 
 American Student Assistance (ASA) is a national non-profit organization that’s passionate about giving you, and all teens, helpful tools to learn about possible education paths and careers you’ll love. We know that planning for your future is a lot to take on. But we’ll give you all the information to allow you to explore all the options and make the best choice for you, no matter your goals, interests and needs.
 
We’ve got you.

About

Get the tools and resources you need to make a difference in topics you care about.

Develop the skills you need to make change and learn how to participate in your community.

See trending issues across the U.S. and learn what people are saying about Mental Health, Life After School, and more.

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See what's going on in the world today and learn how to make a difference in the issues that matter most to you.

### Introduction

Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation, d/b/a American Student Assistance® (“ASA” or “we” or “us”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through our compliance with this privacy policy (“Policy”).

This Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you (“you”) or that you may provide to us when you visit our “Next Voice” website available at nextvoice.asa.org (the “Website”). As used in this Policy, “Website” includes all of its pages, functionality and features, and all services, content, information, links and other materials made available on or through the Website, but does not include any third-party websites, services, interfaces or functionality.

This policy applies to information we collect: 
- On the Website; and
- In any email(s), text(s), and other electronic messages between you and the Website.

It does not apply to information collected by any third-party website when you click on links to external content or when you interact with a third-party feature on the Website, such as a [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com) or [TikTok](https://tiktok.com) video.  Further, please note that the Website uses certain third-party API services, which may include API services made available by YouTube and TikTok.  The Policy also does not apply to any information collected by these API services. The handling of the collection, use, and disclosure of information about you by third parties or third-party API services can be found in the privacy policies governing these third-party services.

Please read this carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, you may choose not to use the Website. By accessing or using the Website, you agree to this Policy. 

This Policy may change from time to time (see “Changes to Our Privacy Policy,” at the end of this Policy). Your continued use of the Website after we make changes represents your acceptance of those changes.

### Children Under the Age of 13

We designed the Website to avoid collecting Personal Information (defined below) from children under 13 years of age and therefore do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children who identify as being under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age, do not register on the Website, do not use any of the interactive features of the Website, and do not provide any Personal Information about yourself including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn that we have collected or received Personal Information from a child under 13 years of age without parental consent, we will delete that information in accordance with applicable law. If you believe that we might have collected personal information from or about a child under 13 years of age, please contact us as soon as possible at support@nextvoice.asa.org.  

### Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We may collect several types of information from and about you when you visit the Website, including information:
- By which you may be personally identified, such as your name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, or any other identifier by which you may be contacted online or offline (collectively “Personal Information”);
- That is about you but individually does not identify you, such as information about your age, gender, or ethnicity;
- About your activity on the Website, such as pages visited, links clicked on, duration of your visit, and other usage details; and
- About your internet connection and the equipment you use to access the Website.

We collect this information in two ways:
- Directly from you when you provide it to us; and
- Automatically as you navigate through the Website. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies, as further detailed below.

### Information You Provide to Us
  
The information we collect from you on or through the Website may include:
- Information that you provide on the Website, including information that you provide at the time you register to use the Website. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with the Website;
- Records and copies of communications between you and ASA (including email addresses) if you contact us; and
- Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.

### Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with the Website, we, and our business partners and vendors, may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:
- Details of your visits to the Website, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data, and the resources that you access and use on the Website; and
- Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

The information we collect automatically helps us to improve the Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:
- Estimate our audience size and usage patterns;
- Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize the Website according to your individual interests;
- Speed up your searches; and
- Recognize you when you return to the Website.

The technologies we, and our business partners and vendors, use for this automatic data collection may include:

- Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer that allows us to understand how users interact with the Website. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may not be able to access certain parts of the Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to the Website;

- Tracking Pixels. The Website may contain embedded HTML code snippets that permit ASA to track user visits to the Website pages and behavior on those pages, which allow third-party advertising partners to display ASA content and advertisements on those third-party websites and services; and

- Web Beacons.  The Website may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit ASA, for example, to count users who have visited those pages and analyze other related statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain content and verifying system and server integrity).

We retain Personal Information pursuant to our records retention program for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy, unless a longer period is required or permitted under applicable law or is needed to resolve disputes or protect our legal rights.

### How We Use Your Information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any Personal Information:

- To present and provide you with access to the Website, including its interactive features, where applicable;
- To evaluate the use, results, and effectiveness of our Website;
- To provide you with information or services that you request from us;
- To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;
- To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising out of this Policy, the Website’s Terms of Use, which are accessible here [●], and any other legal terms applicable to use of the Website;
- To notify you about changes to the Website or any products or services we offer or provide;
- To protect the rights, property, or safety of ASA, our customers, or others;
- To advertise our services to you, including through third-party websites and services.
- In any other way we may describe when you provide the information; and
- For any other purpose with your consent.


### Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose information without restriction that does not identify an individual, including information in aggregated or de-identified form.  This may include aggregated information gathered via cookies, web beacons, and tracking pixels.  

We may disclose Personal Information that we collect for the following purposes:
- To vendors, contractors, and other third parties that support our business and who are bound by contract to keep Personal Information confidential and use it only for the business purposes for which we disclose it to them;
- To third parties that are providing a feature, functionality or service that you have requested;
- As part of a change in business structure or ownership of ASA.  We may disclose Personal Information to the buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of ASA’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by ASA about the Website users is among the assets transferred;
- To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it;  
- For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information;
- To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request;
- To enforce or apply this Policy, the Website’s Terms of Use, or any other terms that apply to the use of the Website;
- If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of ASA, our customers, or others; and
- For any other purpose with your consent.

### Interest Based Advertising and Your Choices

We do not sell your Personal Information, and ASA does not display any targeted advertising on the Website. 

However, we participate in interest-based advertising and use third-party advertising companies to serve you targeted advertisements on other websites, apps, or services, including on Facebook, Snapchat, various Google services, and other social networks, or on other devices you may use. These third-party ad networks use tracking technologies to recognize your browser or device and to collect information about your visit to the Website to provide you customized content, advertising, and commercial messages, including from ASA, which may be more relevant to your interests, as well as to provide advertising-related services such as reporting, attribution, analytics, and market research.

Per the above, please note that we use our best efforts and take multiple steps to avoid the collection of information for targeted advertising purposes from children under 13 years of age, including by prohibiting children under 13 years of age from creating a user profile on the Website. In addition, we prohibit certain areas of the Website by children under 13 years of age in this Policy. 

To learn about interest-based advertising and how you may be able to opt-out of some of this advertising, you may wish to visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (NAI’s) online resources, at http://networkadvertising.org/choices, and/or the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) resources at http://www.aboutads.info/choices. You may also be able to limit interest-based advertising through the settings on your mobile device by selecting “limit ad tracking” (iOS) or “opt-out of interest-based ads” (Android). You may also be able to opt-out of some – but not all – interest-based ads served by mobile ad networks by visiting http://youradchoices.com/appchoices and downloading the mobile AppChoices app.
Please note that opting-out of receiving interest-based advertising through the NAI’s and DAA’s online resources will only opt-out a user from receiving interest-based ads on that specific browser or device, but the user may still receive interest-based ads on his or her other devices. You must perform the opt-out on each browser or device you use.

In addition, you may have the option under local law to opt-out of the processing of your Personal Information for targeted advertising.  To exercise this right, please contact us at support@nextvoice.asa.org.

### Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the Personal Information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information: 

Tracking Technologies and Advertising.  You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent.  If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Website may then be inaccessible or not function properly.

We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising, which you might access by clicking on external links included within the Website.  However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information used in this way. As more fully described above, you can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the NAI on the NAI’s website, and additional resources are available through DAA.

### Accessing, Deleting, and Correcting Your Information

You can review and change your Personal Information by logging into the Website and visiting your account profile page. 

You may also send us an email at support@nextvoice.asa.org to request access to, correct, or delete any Personal Information that you have provided to us.  We cannot delete your Personal Information except by also deleting your user account. We will respond to such requests in accordance with applicable law; however, we may not accommodate a request if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.  You may have rights to appeal our determinations under local law, which can also be exercised by contacting us at support@nextvoice.asa.org.

### Data Security

We have implemented industry-standard security technologies, procedures, and organizational measures designed to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers or with limited third-party partners that comply with our security protocols.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. If you choose or are provided with a user name, a password, or any other information as part of our security procedures, you must keep that information confidential and not disclose it to any other person or entity. You may not provide any other person with access to the Website or portions of it using your user name, password, or other security information. You are responsible for all activity occurring under your account or with use of your user name and password.

You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your user name or password or any other breach of security.  You may report unauthorized access by sending an email to support@nextvoice.asa.org. 

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information transmitted to the Website. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

### Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may revise and/or update this Policy from time to time in our sole discretion. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ Personal Information, we will notify users with an account by email to the email address specified in your account. The date this Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you if you have an account, and for periodically visiting the Website and this Policy to check for any changes, regardless of whether you have an account.

### Contact Information

To ask questions or comment about this Policy and our privacy practices, contact us at support@nextvoice.asa.org.  

To register a complaint or concern, please email support@nextvoice.asa.org.


ASA Next Voice 
Privacy Policy

Terms and
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You are under
13 years old

Raising awareness means bringing a problem or topic to people’s attention and raising its visibility. It also helps people understand the importance of the issue you’re concerned about.

Awareness

Whether it’s for a school assignment, a task at work, or even just making a purchase, knowing how to properly research a topic is an essential skill in life. Research is also a critical feature of any advocacy campaign.

Research

Sometimes a barrier to being an advocate is knowing where to begin. To enact change, it isn’t enough to just share your thoughts on an issue. You need to be strategic, which means developing clear goals, objectives and a plan, and then reassessing as you go along.

Planning

Communication is one of the most important skills you can develop. When it comes to the cause you’re advocating for, good communication is essential for raising awareness, building support and inspiring others to take action. You can communicate your message verbally or in writing, from speeches and presentations to letters, articles, op-eds, brochures, social media posts and so on.

Communication

To grow and learn, people need support and to feel comfortable in their surroundings. Building a sense of community and belonging with the people you surround yourself with is crucial in advocacy work.


Community

Deciding your next steps after leaving high school can be daunting. There are so many options: from going to college or university, to taking a gap year first, to diving straight into a career with maybe an internship or apprenticeship. Exploring what’s out there and having a plan will help you make an informed decision to find something you love.

Life After High School

Earth’s climate is changing. We’re witnessing a rise in temperatures and changes in weather patterns. Climate changes have naturally occurred over the billions of years the planet has been around. But since the 1800s, humans have been the main cause of this change.

Climate Change

Mental health refers to one’s psychological and emotional well-being, which impacts how one feels, behaves, thinks, and interacts with others. Factors that affect mental health include a person’s biology (e.g., genetic composition and family history), lifestyle choices (e.g., substance use, diet, exercise), and life experiences (e.g., abuse, trauma).

Mental Health

Gender equality is when people of all genders have equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities. Gender inequality impacts people of all ages, backgrounds, and genders. To achieve true equality, harmful practices and policies against a particular gender, or genders, must be eradicated.


Gender Equality

Racial justice refers to the systematic fair treatment of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities for all people. Discrimination, prejudice, and racism are examples of actions within society that have a negative effect on a racial group or racial groups.

Racial Justice

LGBTQIA+ rights refer to legal and civil rights that impact lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual people, and those of other sexual and gender identities. One of the primary concerns is the right to be treated without discrimination.

Next Voice

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