1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how Gridline Institute LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, stores, and protects personal information when you visit our website or interact with our services. Gridline Institute LLC is the data controller responsible for your personal data. We are registered in the state of Oregon, United States, and our principal office is located at:
Gridline Institute LLC
811 SW Naito Pkwy, Suite 420
Portland, OR 97204
United States
EIN: 82-4739158
We provide professional development courses and training programs for system administrators. Your privacy matters to us, and we are committed to handling your personal data with care and in accordance with applicable law. By using our website, you agree to the practices described in this policy.
2. What Data We Collect
We may collect the following categories of personal information depending on how you interact with our site:
Information you provide directly: When you fill out a contact form, request a quote, or register for a course, we may ask for the following details:
- Full name
- Email address
- Phone number
- Company or organization name
- Number of users or endpoints in your environment
- Services needed or courses of interest
- Budget range
- Preferred timeline
- Additional notes or messages
Information collected automatically: When you browse our website, we automatically collect certain technical data through cookies and similar tracking technologies. This includes:
- IP address (anonymized where applicable)
- Browser type and version
- Operating system
- Pages visited, time spent on pages, and referring URLs
- Device type and screen resolution
We collect this data through Google Analytics and, where you have given consent, through Google Ads conversion tracking cookies.
3. Why We Collect Your Data
We collect personal information based on legitimate business interest. When you submit a quote request or service inquiry through our website, we need your contact details and project information to respond to your request accurately and in a timely manner. Without this data, we would not be able to provide you with a quote, answer your questions, or deliver the training services you are seeking. We also use analytical data to understand how visitors use our website so that we can improve the content, structure, and overall user experience.
4. How We Use Your Data
We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes:
- Responding to quote requests and inquiries: When you submit a form on our website, we use the information you provide to prepare a response, answer your questions, and follow up with relevant course or pricing details.
- Sending course information: If you have requested details about our training programs, we may use your email address or phone number to share relevant course schedules, enrollment instructions, and related updates.
- Website analytics: We use aggregated and anonymized data from Google Analytics to evaluate site traffic, identify popular content, and measure the performance of our pages. This helps us make data-driven decisions about our website.
- Advertising measurement: If you have consented to marketing cookies, we use Google Ads conversion tracking to measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. This data helps us understand which ads lead to meaningful interactions on our site.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes. We will never use your data for any purpose that is incompatible with the reasons stated above.
5. Third-Party Services
We use a limited number of third-party services to operate and improve our website:
Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to collect anonymized data about how visitors interact with our site. IP anonymization is enabled, which means your full IP address is never stored by Google on our behalf. Google Analytics uses cookies to distinguish unique users and sessions. You can learn more about how Google processes data by visiting Google’s privacy documentation.
Google Ads: We use Google Ads conversion tracking to measure how our advertising campaigns perform. The Google Ads tracking script is loaded on our website only after you have given explicit consent through our cookie consent banner. If you do not consent to marketing cookies, the Google Ads script will not be loaded and no conversion data will be sent to Google.
We do not use any other third-party data processors or share your personal information with additional external services beyond those listed here.
6. Cookies
Our website uses cookies, which are small text files placed on your device by your web browser. We use three categories of cookies:
- Essential cookies: These are necessary for the basic functioning of our website. They enable core features such as page navigation, form submissions, and remembering your cookie consent preferences. You cannot opt out of essential cookies because the site would not function properly without them.
- Analytics cookies: These cookies are set by Google Analytics and help us understand how visitors navigate our site. They collect information such as the number of visitors, which pages are most frequently viewed, and how users arrive at our site. All data collected by analytics cookies is aggregated and anonymized.
- Marketing cookies: These cookies are used by Google Ads to track conversions from our advertising campaigns. Marketing cookies are only activated after you provide consent through the cookie banner displayed on your first visit.
How to disable cookies: You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block all cookies, accept only first-party cookies, or delete cookies when you close the browser. Please note that disabling essential cookies may affect website functionality. You can also withdraw your cookie consent at any time by clearing your browser cookies and revisiting our site, at which point the consent banner will appear again.
7. Data Retention
We retain personal information submitted through our contact and quote forms for a period of 24 months from the date of submission. After this period, your form data is permanently deleted from our systems unless we have an ongoing business relationship with you that requires us to keep it longer.
Analytics data collected through Google Analytics is retained according to Google’s default data retention settings. We have configured our Google Analytics property to retain user-level and event-level data for the standard retention period. Aggregated, non-identifiable reporting data may be kept indefinitely.
8. Your Rights
As a resident of the United States, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Right to know: You have the right to request information about what personal data we have collected about you, the sources of that data, the purposes for which it is used, and the categories of third parties with whom it is shared.
- Right to request deletion: You may request that we delete any personal data we have collected from you. We will comply with your request unless we are legally required to retain certain records.
- Right to opt out: You may opt out of the use of marketing cookies at any time by adjusting your cookie preferences or browser settings.
Additional rights for California residents under the CCPA: If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) provides you with additional protections. You have the right to request disclosure of the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, and you have the right to request deletion of that information. You also have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of your CCPA rights.
“Do Not Sell My Personal Information” notice: Gridline Institute LLC does not sell your personal information. We have never sold personal data to third parties, and we have no plans to do so. Because we do not engage in the sale of personal data, there is no need for a separate opt-out mechanism for data sales.
9. How to Exercise Your Rights
To exercise any of the rights described above, please contact our privacy team by sending an email to privacy@gridlineinstitute.com. In your email, please include your full name and the email address you used when interacting with our website so that we can locate your records. We will respond to all verifiable requests within 30 days. If we need additional time to process your request, we will notify you of the reason for the delay and the expected completion date.
We may ask you to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests. This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to anyone who does not have the right to receive it.
10. Data Security
We take the security of your personal information seriously. Our website is served over TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption, which means that all data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted in transit. We also maintain strict access controls to ensure that only authorized personnel can access personal data stored in our systems. Access to form submissions and customer records is limited to staff members who need the information to carry out their job responsibilities.
While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we continuously review and update our security practices to address new threats and vulnerabilities.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or business operations. When we make changes, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your data. If we make significant changes that affect how your personal information is handled, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you, such as posting a notice on our website.
12. Contact
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please reach out to us using the information below:
Gridline Institute LLC
811 SW Naito Pkwy, Suite 420
Portland, OR 97204
United States
Phone: +1 (503) 276-8134
General inquiries: info@gridlineinstitute.com
Privacy inquiries: privacy@gridlineinstitute.com
We will do our best to address your inquiry promptly and thoroughly.