Kaplan DeVries Inc. (KDI) operates under the assumption that all individuals completing these surveys have given their informed consent to participate in the survey process. This is the fundamental concept that underlies all current and anticipated data protection protocols and legislation. In order for individuals completing the surveys to give their informed consent, they must understand the purpose of the survey, the likely use of the survey data, and how the data are protected. These protocols are described below and are binding on all KDI clients (defined as the individual leaders who are receiving KDI's development services), contractors, and individuals completing the surveys. Failure to comply with any of these safeguards will constitute grounds for termination of any data transfer arrangements between KDI and the person(s) or entity(ies) concerned.
The surveys on the website were created to provide information about personal characteristics, behavior, and performance to be used as feedback provided to and delivered by trained and accredited professionals. These data are primarily used for individual leadership development.
The survey data will only be used by KDI associates or professionals trained and accredited by KDI. The data are intended to only be used for development purposes. KDI will retain raw data until such time as the client requests that the data be destroyed or KDI deems there to be no further value in retaining the data. Data may be used for research by KDI-employed or other trained researchers; however all data used for research will be anonymous and will not be identified as coming from any specific individual or concerning a specific individual—all identifying information will be removed. All KDI clients and sponsored researchers are responsible for complying with national and international protocols covering data use and storage.
KDI will not provide results to individuals providing survey data about KDI clients. Any dissemination of results is the sole responsibility of the requesting client.
In order to safeguard individual results, the website contains only the survey items, not the survey scoring programs (which are held by KDI and its contractors). It is impossible to process results through the website. Results can only be processed by downloading the raw data, decrypting identity codes to link data to a client, and scoring these data with appropriate programs. Until that time, responses to survey items are merely alphanumeric strings that cannot be linked to the client being assessed.
Individuals completing some surveys are provided a username and password to access the website surveys. In addition, the raw data are encrypted any time a client's name accompanies data. KDI uses secure methods to transfer a summary of the survey results to clients after the completion of a survey.
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