General

MOSafely.org (this "Website" or the "Site") is intended as a forum to connect academics, industry professionals, policy makers, and government officials who are jointly dedicated to the on-line safety and well-being of youth and young adults.

This Website was created in February 2021 in performance of a grant funded by the National Science Foundation and awarded to the University of Central Florida ("UCF" or "we", "our", "us") in collaboration with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Boston University for a research project titled, "Using a Human-Centered Approach to Improve Algorithms for Detecting Adolescent Online Risks."  Generally, the research project intends to "…examine, build, evaluate, and bring to market state-of-the-art technologies to detect adolescent (ages 13-17) online risk behaviors (e.g., cyberbullying, sexual solicitations and grooming, exposure to explicit content …and other imminent risks)." The information provided and collected from users and visitors of this site will be used in pursuit of designing and developing tools that address the problem of adolescent online risk exposure and to improve adolescent online safety.

MOSafely.org collects only the minimum amount of personal and confidential information necessary to support the research project mission and will protect that information when it is in our possession and according to the approved Institutional Review Board protocol and data security measures. With new methods of sharing, processing, and storing all forms of data emerging at unprecedented rates, we put forth a consistent effort to limit the access of data to only those authorized individuals that need this access to carry out the mission of this website.

It is imperative that we all recognize that threats to the privacy and security of individuals' personal data remain on the rise. MOSafely.org has and will continue to reasonably and appropriately secure its systems and applications, maintain and follow our policies to properly guide our site users and members and investigate all issues involving suspected or actual data-related issues.

Use of Data Collected from this Site

Software developed from the research project is intended to be co-owned with the creators and contributors and made available to the public under an open-source license model through a Github repository to be established.  The ethical, privacy, confidentiality, security, and standards for the protection of human subjects used in research shall be reviewed and monitored by UCF's Institutional Review Board for the protection of human subjects including requiring parental consent for minors taking part in the research studies or data being collected. Researchers participating in the project are required to complete ethical training. Human subjects' data collected from interviews, surveys, images, or text will be anonymized prior to publication or dissemination.

Use of Cookies and Similar Technologies

A cookie contains a small amount of visitor and website information stored on an individual's computer. These files interact with the visitor and the Site to provide a webpage tailored to the user through its awareness of information held within the file. Cookies also have the ability to carry all or parts of the information stored within the file to other websites that the individual may visit or to third parties.

To disable the use of cookies, which could negatively impact your web browsing experiences, please visit AllAboutCookies.org and locate your browser to adjust the settings within.

Your personal information will be retained and/or disposed of in accordance with Florida Statutes and UCF's records management policies and practices.

The following describes the types of cookies used by the Site

• Required or Strictly Necessary Cookies are essential to enable you to navigate the Site , interact with the content and use the features of the Site. Without these cookies, services you may ask for, such as registering for membership, cannot be provided.
• Functionality Cookies allow the Site to remember choices you make and provide more personal features. For instance, a functional cookie can be used to remember the volume level you prefer to use when watching videos on our websites. The information these cookies collect may be anonymized and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.
• Social Media Cookies may be set by third parties such as YouTube and Facebook to collect information about your social media experience.
• Analytics Cookies collect information about how visitors use the Site, for instance which pages visitors go to most often or how long they spend on a page. This information is used to improve the Site and to aid us in investigating problems raised by visitors or members. Analytics cookies do not collect information that identifies a visitor; they are utilized to assess patterns of usage, rather than the behavior of a single person.

If you have questions about the Site's use of cookies and similar technologies, please feel free to contact UCF's Data Protection Officer .

Electronic Mail (E-Mail) Communications

Under Florida law, most emails sent to UCF are considered public record. If you do not want your email address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to UCF. Instead, contact the office you wish to reach by phone or in person as appropriate.

Children's Online Privacy Protection

If you are under the age of 13, you are not permitted to use this website. If you are a minor between the ages of 13 and 18, you may only use the site under the supervision of your parent, legal guardian or another responsible adult. We impose these age restrictions to ensure compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). For details see 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501—6506 (Pub.L. 105—277, 112 Stat. 2681—728, enacted October 21, 1998.)

Use of Third-Party Services

The Site may share your personal information with third party service providers for the purposes of communicating with you regarding the research project or educational programs and services or to facilitate improvement of services, the website and our marketing efforts, or to help us provide services to the community (e.g. software/information technology providers).

Some pages within the Site may contain content that is provided by external third parties (graphics, logos, scripts or similar). When you visit one of the Site pages that contains this third-party content, information such as IP address, date, browser and device type, and requested page may be transmitted to that third party. Some pages may contain links to external third parties in order to provide services or products to you. UCF is not responsible for the privacy practices of these external third parties. While we request these third parties to protect your information, we do not make any representations about their practices and policies. These third parties are not subject to this Privacy Notice.

Individual Rights under the GDPR and Similar Laws

UCF is based in Florida, operates primarily in Florida, and its primary place of business is the State of Florida. The administration of UCF is based in Orange County, Florida, and that is UCF's home venue. Thus, UCF follows U.S. federal and Florida state law, as well as UCF Regulations and Policies.

However, there are occasions when a particular foreign law may apply to UCF, such as the GDPR.

The GDPR applies to any person who is located within the EU (regardless of citizenship or permanent residency).

The GDPR applies to entities wholly located outside of the EU:

if they process personal data of anyone located within the EU.
or if they offer goods and services or monitor behavior in the EU.
or if they transmit personal information to the EU for any purpose.
For example: cloud server, payroll processor, or vendor.
GDPR applies to all different types of entities.

Although UCF may be subject to a foreign law (e.g. GDPR) under limited circumstances, if there is any conflict between such foreign law and any U.S. federal and Florida state law, as a state entity of the State of Florida, UCF will resolve that conflict in favor of U.S. federal and Florida state law.

GDPR provides individuals who are covered by the GDPR the right to request, from UCF, access to and rectification or erasure of your personal data, restriction of processing, objection to processing, the right to portability of your personal information, and the right to opt out of receiving communications for the purpose of marketing; however, the foregoing is specifically subject to U.S. federal and Florida state law and in the event of a conflict between the GDPR and the rights afforded individuals thereunder and U.S. federal and Florida state law, UCF will follow U.S. federal and Florida state law. That means, for example, that if you request erasure of your personal data, which is a right granted under the GDPR, but this right conflicts with UCF's obligations under Florida Statute, UCF will follow Florida Statute and it may not be possible to erase your personal data, if Florida Statute requires for that data to be retained for a longer period of time.

Any individual who wishes to exercise any of the aforementioned rights may do so by filing such request with the UCF Data Protection Officer as instructed above.

Personal Data Transfers To/From Countries Outside the USA

UCF is a metropolitan research university located in the United States of America ("USA"). In order to provide you with the services and otherwise fulfill our obligations to you, it is necessary for your personal data to be transferred to, and processed within, the USA. Data protection laws differ around the world and the USA may not provide the same level of protection for personal data as your jurisdiction of residence.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

The agent designated by UCF to receive and act on copyright violations under the DMCA can be reached by sending an e-mail to dmca@ucf.edu.

Learn more about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Questions / More Info

If you have questions or requests involving your data privacy or similar, please contact us via postal or electronic mail:

UCF Data Protection Officer
University Compliance, Ethics, and Risk
Millican Hall — 3rd Floor
4365 Andromeda Loop N.
Orlando, FL 32816
Contact us online

Updates to this Privacy Notice

Updates to this Privacy Notice occur periodically; this page was last updated March 22, 2021.