Last Updated June 28, 2019
 

These Terms of Use ("Terms of Use") establish the terms and conditions under which Educational Computer Systems, Inc. ("ECSI") will provide access to the Hosted Platform (as defined below) to those customers (each a "Customer") who have executed a Master Hosted Platform and Services Agreement (the "Agreement"). Provision of the Hosted Platform shall constitute one of the Services provided by ECSI under the Agreement. Capitalized terms used herein and not otherwise defined shall have the meaning ascribed to them in the Agreement. ECSI reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use by providing a revised set of Terms of Use to Customer. These Terms of Use were last revised on the date set forth above. If Customer uses the Hosted Platform after an amended Terms of Use has been provided to Customer, Customer will be deemed to have agreed to such amended Terms of Use.

 
  1. Hosted Platform. Subject to the terms and conditions of these Terms of Use and the Agreement, ECSI or its subcontractors will provide Customer with access to its proprietary loan and billing servicing network and system (the "Hosted Platform"). DSL, cable or another high speed Internet connection is required for Customer to properly access the Hosted Platform. Customer and its Users are responsible for procuring and maintaining the network connections that connect the Customer network or User to the Hosted Platform, including, but not limited to, "browser" software that supports protocol used by ECSI, including Secure Socket Layer protocol or other protocols accepted by ECSI, and for following logon procedures for services that support such protocols. ECSI assumes no responsibility for the reliability or performance of any connections as described in this Section. Customer shall not attempt to access any other of ECSI's systems, programs or data that are not made available for public use in connection with the Hosted Platform.
  2. ECSI Technology and Hosted Materials. "ECSI Technology" means all of ECSI's proprietary technology (including software, hardware, products, processes, algorithms, user interfaces, know-how, techniques, designs and other tangible or intangible technical material or information) made available to Customer or its Users by ECSI in providing the Hosted Platform. "Hosted Materials" means the documentation and all other information developed or provided by ECSI or its suppliers under the Agreement to Customer or its Users or made available by ECSI to Customer or its Users in the course of using the Hosted Platform.
  3. Provision of ECSI Technology and Hosted Materials. As part of its provision of the Services to Customer, ECSI shall operate and support the Hosted Platform and hosted environment, including, without limitation, the ECSI Technology, all applicable server hardware, disk storage, server operating systems, management programs, web server programs, and Hosted Materials.
  4. Downtime. Subject to these Terms of Use and the Agreement, ECSI shall use commercially reasonable efforts to provide the Hosted Platform twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week throughout the term of the applicable Service Order Form for the Services. Customer agrees that from time to time the Hosted Platform may be inaccessible or inoperable for various reasons, including (i) equipment malfunctions; (ii) periodic maintenance procedures or repairs which ECSI may undertake from time to time; or (iii) causes beyond the control of ECSI or which are not reasonably foreseeable by ECSI, including interruption or failure of telecommunication or digital transmission links, hostile network attacks or network congestion or other failures (collectively "Downtime"). ECSI shall use commercially reasonable efforts to provide twenty-four (24) hour advance notice to Customer in the event of any scheduled Downtime. ECSI shall have no obligation during performance of such operations to mirror Customer Data on any other server or to transfer Customer Data to any other server. ECSI shall use commercially reasonable efforts to minimize any disruption, inaccessibility and/or inoperability of the Hosted Platform in connection with Downtime, whether scheduled or not.
  5. License Grant/Restrictions. Customer and its Users shall have a non-exclusive license to access the Hosted Platform solely for use of the Services. Customer and its Users are solely responsible for all activities conducted under Customer's User logins and passwords and for its Users' compliance with this Agreement and all applicable laws. Unauthorized use, resale or commercial exploitation of the Hosted Platform in any way is expressly prohibited. Without ECSI's express prior written consent in each instance, Customer shall not (and shall not allow any third party to): reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code form or structure of the Hosted Materials, including the ECSI Technology, or access the Hosted Platform in order to build a competitive product or service or copy any ideas, features, functions or graphics of the Hosted Platform. Except as expressly permitted in this Agreement, Customer shall not copy, license, sell, transfer, make available, lease, time-share, distribute, or assign this license, the Hosted Platform or the Hosted Materials to any third-party. Customer shall not use or knowingly permit the use of any security testing tools in order to probe, scan or attempt to penetrate or ascertain the security of the Hosted Platform. Customer also agrees to be bound by any further restrictions set forth on the Service Order Form. All rights not expressly granted to Customer are reserved by ECSI and its licensors. There are no implied rights. In addition to ECSI's other remedies hereunder, ECSI reserves the right upon notice to Customer to terminate any User's right to access the Hosted Platform if such User has violated any of the restrictions contained in these Terms of Use or the Agreement.
  6. Ownership. Customer acknowledges and agrees that (i) as between ECSI and Customer, all right, title and interest in and to the Hosted Platform, the Hosted Materials, including the ECSI Technology and all derivatives thereof (including any and all patents, copyrights, trade secret rights, trademarks, trade names and other proprietary rights embodied therein or associated therewith) are and shall remain ECSI's or its licensors', and ECSI in no way conveys any right or interest in the Hosted Materials, the ECSI Technology or the Hosted Platform other than a limited license to use them in accordance herewith, and (ii) the Hosted Materials, the ECSI Technology and the Hosted Platform are works protected by copyright, trade secret, and other proprietary rights and laws. The ECSI name, the ECSI logo, and the product names associated with the Hosted Platform are trademarks of ECSI or third parties, and no right or license is granted to use them. Customer shall not remove any ECSI or ECSI trademark or logo from the Hosted Platform (without ECSI's consent and only upon the payment of additional fees to ECSI).
  7. ECSI's privacy policy, found at https://efpls.ed.gov/privacy_notice.html, explains how ECSI collects and uses (i) Customer Data submitted by Customer, Customer's employees or agents, and Users; and (2) about Customer or Customer's employees or agents submitted through technological means. Access or use of the Hosted Platform is subject to ECSI's privacy policy.
  8. Handling of Customer Data Upon Termination. Customer acknowledges and agrees that (i) as between ECSI and Customer, all right, title and interest in and to the Hosted Platform, the Hosted Materials, including the ECSI Technology and all derivatives thereof (including any and all patents, copyrights, trade secret rights, trademarks, trade names and other proprietary rights embodied therein or associated therewith) are and shall remain ECSI's or its licensors', and ECSI in no way conveys any right or interest in the Hosted Materials, the ECSI Technology or the Hosted Platform other than a limited license to use them in accordance herewith, and (ii) the Hosted Materials, the ECSI Technology and the Hosted Platform are works protected by copyright, trade secret, and other proprietary rights and laws. The ECSI name, the ECSI logo, and the product names associated with the Hosted Platform are trademarks of ECSI or third parties, and no right or license is granted to use them. Customer shall not remove any ECSI or ECSI trademark or logo from the Hosted Platform (without ECSI's consent and only upon the payment of additional fees to ECSI).
  9. Users: Passwords, Access and Notification. Customer agrees that following termination of the Agreement or the Service Order Form(s), ECSI may immediately deactivate Customer's and its Users' access to the Hosted Platform and that following a reasonable period of not less than thirty (30) days, shall be entitled to delete Customer's account from ECSI's "live" site. ECSI agrees to retain Customer Data and other documents relative to this Agreement for the current fiscal year, plus seven (7) years after final payment.
  10. Transmission of Data. Customer understands that the technical processing and transmission of Customer's electronic communications is fundamentally necessary to Customer's use of the Hosted Platform. Customer expressly consents to ECSI's interception and storage of electronic communications and/or Customer Data, and Customer acknowledges and understands that Customer's electronic communications will involve transmission over the Internet, and over various networks, only part of which may be owned and/or operated by ECSI. Customer acknowledges and understands that changes to Customer's electronic communications may occur (including but not limited to encryption and compression) in order to conform and adapt such data to the technical requirements of connecting networks or devices. Customer further acknowledges and understands that electronic communications may be accessed by unauthorized parties when communicated across the Internet, network communications facilities, telephone or other electronic means. Customer agrees that ECSI is not responsible for any electronic communications and/or Customer Data which are delayed, lost, altered, intercepted or stored during the transmission of any data whatsoever across networks including, but not limited to, the Internet and Customer's local network. Customer acknowledges and agrees that all email messages sent through use of the Hosted Platform may not be received by their intended recipients.
  11. Modifications to Hosted Platform. ECSI may make modifications to the Hosted Platform or particular components of the Hosted Platform from time to time provided that such modifications do not materially degrade any functionality or features of the Hosted Platform. ECSI will use commercially reasonable efforts to notify Customer of any material modifications.
  12. Suspension for Ongoing Harm. Customer agrees that, upon reasonably contemporaneous notice (which may be made by email or telephone), ECSI may suspend Customer's access to the Hosted Platform if ECSI reasonably concludes that the Hosted Platform is being used to engage in denial of service attacks, spamming, or illegal activity, and/or use of the Hosted Platform is causing immediate, material and ongoing harm to ECSI or others. In the extraordinary event that ECSI suspends Customer's access to the Hosted Platform, ECSI will use commercially reasonable efforts to limit the suspension to the offending portion of the Hosted Platform and resolve the issues causing the suspension of Hosted Platform. Customer agrees that ECSI shall not be liable to Customer, Customer's Users, or to any third party for any suspension of access to the Hosted Platform under such circumstances as described in this Section 12.