This User Privacy Policy is applicable to the IELTS-related services provided by the National Education Examinations Authority of the Ministry of Education (hereinafter referred to as "the Authority"). We are fully aware of the importance of personal information to you and will make every effort to protect your personal information according to law so as to obtain your trust in the Authority. We always adhere to the following principles to protect your personal information: the principle of consistent rights and responsibilities, the principle of clear purpose, the principle of informed consent, the principle of minimum necessity, the principle of ensuring safety, the principle of subject participation, and the principle of openness and transparency. Moreover, we promise that we will take corresponding security measures to protect your personal information according to the generally accepted security standards in this sector.
Please read and understand the User Privacy Policy carefully before using our services. This Privacy Policy will provide you with the following information:
1. How do we collect and use your personal information
2. How do we entrust to handle, share, transfer and publicly disclose your personal information
3. How do we store your personal information
4. How do we use Cookies and similar technologies
5. How do we protect your personal information
6. How do we protect children's personal information
7. Your rights to personal information
8. Overseas transmission of personal information
9. How is this User Privacy Policy updated
10. How to contact us
To ensure the smooth progress of examination business and the related services, the Authority may collect your personal information. The scenarios and fields that your personal information may be collected are detailed in the following table:
|
Examination |
Collecting scenarios |
Detailed fields |
|
User registration |
Name, Salutation, gender, country/region, certificate type, certificate number, date of birth, mobile phone number, e-mail, place of birth, mother tongue, etc. |
|
|
Examination registration |
Minor guardian's name, date of birth, certificate type, certificate number, mobile phone number, mailing address, reason for applying for the examination, the destination of studying abroad, test preparation method, years of English learning, the institution recommending you take IELTS, whether taking any other international examinations or not, whether intending to take other international examinations or not, etc. |
To ensure the safe operation of our examination service and prevent our website, system, and platform from instability due to attack by viruses, Trojans and hackers, your IP address, browser version, operating system version and other similar data may also be collected, and necessary recording, audit, analysis, and disposal measures may be taken according to law.
If your information needs to be used for our website, system, platform, etc. beyond the stated purpose and scope of collection, we will inform you again to obtain your authorization and consent before using your personal information.
Your personal information may be used for the organization and implementation of IELTS, verification of examinee identity, score query, generation, and production of the Test Report Form, etc.
According to relevant laws, regulations, and national standards of the People's Republic of China, collecting your personal information in the following circumstances does not require your authorization and consent:
1）Related to the performance of our obligations under relevant laws and regulations.
2）Directly related to the national security and national defense security of the People's Republic of China.
3）Directly related to public safety, public health, and major public interests.
4）Directly related to criminal investigation, prosecution, trial and decision of the court.
5）For the purpose of protecting life, property or other legitimate rights and interests of you or other people, while it is unable to obtain your consent in a timely manner.
6）The personal information collected is disclosed to the public by yourself.
7）Where it is necessary for the conclusion, signing and performance of contracts according to your requirements.
8）Your personal information is collected legally from disclosed information, such as legitimate news reports, government information disclosure and other such channels.
9）To maintain the safe and stable operation of the services provided, such as finding and handling service failures.
10）When it is necessary for an academic research institution to conduct statistical or academic research for the public interest and provide the results of academic research or description externally, and the personal information contained in the results has been anonymized.
We will sign a strict confidentiality agreement with the companies and organizations entrusted by the Authority to process personal information and require them to process your personal information in accordance with our requirements, personal information protection policies and other relevant confidentiality and security measures.
To ensure the smooth implementation of examination and safeguard your rights and interests, we may share your registration information with companies and organizations which support us in the organization and implementation of examination, printing and mailing of certificates (Test Report Form), etc.
Other scenarios when your personal information may be shared according to the relevant national requirements on data sharing, the Authority may share your personal information for compulsory public welfare purposes such as contribution to national government information projects, information projects benefiting the people and national data sharing platform.
We will sign a strict confidentiality agreement with the companies and organizations with whom we share your personal information, requiring them to process your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and other relevant confidentiality and security measures of the Authority. The companies and organizations cooperating with the Authority shall not use the shared personal information for any other purpose. If it is necessary to change the purpose of your personal information usage, we will obtain your authorization and consent once again.
We will not transfer your personal information to any company, organization or individual, except for the following circumstances:
1）After obtaining your explicit consent, we will transfer your personal information to other parties.
2）If the transfer of personal information is necessary in the transfer of examination business, we will ask the new company or organization holding your personal information to continue to be bound by this Privacy Policy, otherwise we will ask such company and organization to receive your authorization and consent again.
We will publicly disclose your personal information only under the following circumstances:
1）With your explicit consent or based on your active and declared wish, we may publicly disclose the personal information designated by you.
2）We may publicly disclose your personal information under the mandatory requirements of laws, legal procedures, litigation, or competent government departments. To comply with laws and regulations, when we receive the above request for information disclosure, we will require corresponding legal documents, such as a subpoena or investigation letter.
According to relevant laws, regulations and national standards of the People's Republic of China, the following circumstances require no prior authorization and consent of you for sharing, transferring and publicly disclosing your personal information:
1）Related to the performance of our obligations under laws and regulations.
2）Directly related to the national security and national defense security of the People's Republic of China.
3）Directly related to public safety, public health, and major public interests.
4）Directly related to criminal investigation, prosecution, trial and decision of the court.
5）For the purpose of protecting life, property or other legitimate rights and interests of you or other people, when we are unable to obtain your consent in a timely manner.
6）The personal information collected is disclosed to the public by yourself.
7）where it is necessary for the conclusion and performance of contracts according to your requirements.
8）Your personal information is collected from legally disclosed information, such as legitimate news reports, government information disclosure and other channels.
According to the laws of the People's Republic of China, sharing and transferring the anonymized personal information to ensure that the information receiver cannot recover and re-identify the subject of the personal information is not an act of sharing, transfer, and public disclosure of personal information. It is unnecessary to inform you to get your consent for the preservation and processing of such information.
The user information collected and generated by the Authority within the territory of the People's Republic of China will be stored within the territory of the People's Republic of China.
We will only store your user information for the period necessary for the purpose stated in this Privacy Policy and within the time limit specified by laws and regulations. After the period of storage has expired, we shall delete your personal information or anonymize it according to applicable laws.
The Authority may collect and use your information through Cookies (data stored on the user's local terminal) and other relevant technologies. Specific uses of Cookies include:
1.Remembering your identity. Cookies can help to identify your identity as a user of our website, system, or platform.
2.Providing you with better services. It can analyze your use of our website, system, and platform services, to provide you with better services.
3.You can reject or manage Cookies through the setting of browser. However, please note that if you stop using Cookies, you may not be able to fully utilize the best possible service, and the availability of some functions may be affected.
1.The Authority has taken reasonable and feasible security measures in line with legal requirements and industry standards to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, public disclosure, use, modification, damage, or other loss.
2.We have established a special security team, management system and processing flow to ensure the security of data, strictly limit the scope of personnel accessing data, and require data processors to abide by the confidentiality obligation and conduct regular audits.
3.We regularly carry out an evaluation of network security level on the information system, security risk assessment on personal information, and hold seminars on personal information security, and audit the security status, management system and protection measures of personal information, to continuously improve the ability and level of personal information protection.
4.We shall take all reasonable and feasible measures to avoid collecting irrelevant personal information.
5.As the Internet environment is not completely secure, we will take all possible measures to ensure or guarantee the security of the information you send to us. If our physical, technical, or managerial protective facilities are damaged, resulting in unauthorized access, public disclosure, tampering with, destruction or other incidents of personal information leakage, we shall initiate the emergency plan to mitigate and minimize the impact of such incidents and inform you of the relevant information in the form of messages or notifications. Meanwhile, we shall also report the disposal of such incidents in accordance with relevant requirements.
If you are a child under the age of 14, please read this Privacy Policy carefully in the presence of and with the help of your parent or guardian and use our services or provide information for us with the consent of your parent or guardian. In cases where personal information of a child is collected with the consent of its parent or guardian, the information shall only be used, shared, transferred, publicly disclosed, or entrusted to be processed with the permission of laws and regulations, the explicit consent of its parent or guardian, or the necessity for the protection of the child.
For children's personal information, the Authority will further take the following measures:
1.In addition to abiding by the provisions of this Privacy Policy, the Authority shall also uphold the principles of legitimate necessity, informed consent, clear purpose, safety and legal utilization, and strictly abide by the requirements of laws and regulations such as the Regulations on the Protection of Children's Personal Information on the Internet for the storage, use and disclosure of the collected personal information of children, which will not exceed the period necessary to achieve the purposes of collection and use. Upon expiration, the children's account information will be deleted or anonymized by the Authority.
2.When you choose to use our services as a parent or guardian of a child, we may need to collect the personal information of the supervised child from you for the purpose of providing relevant services to you. If the child's personal information needs to be collected from you regarding specific services, we shall obtain your authorization and consent in advance and inform you of the purpose of collection. If you fail to provide the above information, you would be unable to enjoy the relevant services provided by the Authority. As a guardian, you should correctly perform your guardianship duties and protect the safety of the child's personal information. If the child needs to register or use our services, you should correctly guide and supervise your child.
3.Children or their parents and guardians have the right to access, correct and delete their children's personal information.
The Authority has designated a dedicated member of staff to be responsible for the protection of children's personal information. If you have any comments, suggestions, complaints or reports on matters related to children's personal information, please contact us through the contact information listed in this Privacy Policy, and we will help you in a timely and prompt manner.
We attach great importance to your attention to personal information and shall protect your rights to personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China as well as other relevant laws and regulations:
1）After registering your account, you have the right to log in, access and view your account information, unless otherwise stipulated by laws and regulations.
2）When you find that your account information processed by the Authority is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to make corrections or supplements, unless otherwise stipulated by laws and regulations.
You can ask us to cancel your personal account under the following circumstances:
1）If our handling of account information violates laws and regulations.
2）If we collect and use your account information without your consent.
3）If our processing of account information violates the agreement with you.
4）If there is no ongoing exam service in your account.
5）If the Authority no longer provides services for you.
For your safety, you need to make a written request or prove your identity by other means. Please understand that we may ask you to verify your identity before processing your request.
The Authority has the right to refuse to accept repeated and unreasonable requests, such as unreasonable repetition, requests which prove to be too technically complicated, those posing risks to the legitimate rights and interests of others or unrealistic requests, etc.
According to the relevant laws, regulations, and national standards of the People's Republic of China, we shall not respond to your request under the following circumstances:
1)Related to the performance of our obligations under laws and regulations.
2)Related to the national security and national defense security of the People's Republic of China.
3)Related to public safety, public health, and major public interests.
4)Related to criminal investigation, prosecution, trial, and judgment execution.
5)Any personal malice or abuse of power as proven with sufficient evidence.
6)For the purpose of protecting life, property or other legitimate rights and interests of you or other people, if we are unable to obtain your consent in a timely manner.
7)Responding to your request shall cause serious damage to the legitimate rights and interests of you or other individuals or organizations.
8)Involving trade secrets.
To deliver the IELTS test, we may provide some of your registration information to the British Council, an overseas company and organization we cooperate with.
The Authority will, in accordance with relevant legal provisions, conduct security assessment and personal information protection certification for overseas companies or organizations cooperating with us, and sign contracts or agreements with them to require them to handle your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and other relevant confidentiality and security measures.
If you do not consent to the transfer of your registration information to an overseas company or organization, you shall not be able to take the corresponding overseas examination. By agreeing to accept this Privacy Policy, you are deemed to have agreed to transfer your personal registration information to the overseas companies or organizations that cooperate with us.
The contents of this Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time to adapt to the development of laws, technologies, or business. The updated version will be published on all the websites, systems and platforms related to the Authority. For major changes, we will also provide more prominent notices (in the form of website announcements, user SMS and others). Major changes referred to in this Privacy Policy include but are not limited to:
1.Significant changes in the service mode of the Authority, such as the changes of the purpose of processing personal information, the type of personal information to be processed, or the use of personal information.
2.Significant changes in the organizational structure of the Authority, such as the change of the owner caused by business adjustment.
3.Changes in the main objects of personal information sharing, transfer, or public disclosure.
4.Significant changes in your right to personal information processing and the way you exercise it.
5.Changes in the department responsible for the security of personal information, contact information and complaint channels.
6.When the Assessment Report on the Impact of Personal Information Security indicates that there is a high risk.
If you agree to the updated content of this Privacy Policy and continue to use our services, you will be deemed to have fully read, understood and accepted the updated Privacy Policy. We will also archive the old version so that you can consult and understand its modifications.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions on the contents of this Privacy Policy, you can contact us in the following ways.
The dedicated mailbox for personal information protection: privacy@neea.edu.cn
We will accept your request as soon as possible and will normally reply within 15 working days.
The establishment, effectiveness, performance, interpretation, and dispute resolution of this Privacy Policy shall comply with the laws of the People's Republic of China. If there are no express provisions in the law, the prevailing practices in China can be adopted. Matters not covered in this Privacy Policy shall be handled in accordance with laws and regulations, the examination business rules of the Authority and the prevailing practices in China. In case of any dispute between you and the Authority over the content or implementation of this Privacy Policy, both parties shall try to settle it through friendly negotiation. If the dispute cannot be solved, either party can bring a lawsuit to the People's court where the Authority is located.