

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is an intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program for American students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities. The CLS Program is part of a wider government initiative to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to national security and economic prosperity. CLS plays an important role in preparing students for the 21st century's globalized workforce and increasing national competitiveness.
The CLS Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government.
American Councils advances scholarly research and cross-border learning through the design and implementation of educational programs that are well grounded in key world languages, cultures and regions. We contribute to the creation of new knowledge, broader professional perspectives, and personal and intellectual growth through international training, academic exchange, collaboration in educational development, and public diplomacy. With a presence in the U.S., Russia and Eurasia for nearly four decades, in addition to representation in over thirty countries across Asia, the Middle East and Southeastern Europe, American Councils strives to expand dialog among students, scholars, educators and professionals for the advancement of learning and mutual respect in the diverse communities and societies in which we work.
Since 2010, American Councils has supported the implementation of the CLS Program. Since 2012, American Councils has supported the implementation of recruitment and selection for the CLS Program, including administration of the https://www.clscholarship.org website and online application forms.
Application forms for the CLS Program are hosted on a platform called AIS Forms, which has been developed by American Councils expressly for this purpose.
This Privacy Policy applies to personally-identifiable information, also known as personal data, collected through the AIS Forms platform at the domains https://ais.americancouncils.org and https://www.aisforms.org for the administration of the CLS Program. In this document, the CLS application and related activities are referred to as our services, and CLS Program institutes in each country are referred to as our programs. Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of American Councils’ programs or services unrelated to the CLS Program.
We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so–for example, to facilitate the administration of our programs and services, to communicate with you, or to improve our programs and services.
We collect information in three ways: 1) if and when you provide it to us; 2) automatically through the operation of our services; and 3) we also may collect limited information about you from outside sources.
We collect a variety of information from you when you voluntarily provide it to us, such as when you register on the AIS Forms website or complete an application for our programs. The amount and type of information we collect depends on the context of why it is collected and how we intend to use the information.
We collect personal data from you when you register with AIS Forms and when you enter information into the CLS Program application form and other forms on the AIS Forms website.
You may anonymously browse some limited information about the CLS Program available on the AIS Forms' login pages. AIS Forms login account registration is required, however, to view, complete, and submit online forms for the purpose of voluntarily applying or registering for programs and other activities. During registration you are required to give us personal data that includes your name and email address, and to designate your AIS Forms login username and password. Registration helps us to ensure the security and privacy of the information that you choose to share with us through our online forms. You should not share your AIS Forms login username or password with anyone. We will not ask you for your password.
When you complete and submit the CLS Program application and other forms via AIS Forms, you will be asked to share some personal data with us, including:
We may also ask for personal data about your parents, legal guardians, emergency contacts, and recommenders. This may include their names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, and other information.
You may choose not to submit your personal data or that of others to us via AIS Forms. In some cases, however, doing so will prevent us from providing certain services. For example, not providing required information such as your name can prevent the processing your program application. Questions on forms to which responses are required in order to process your information are clearly marked with an asterisk (*).
You may provide us information when you respond to surveys, communicate with our staff about a question or inquiry, or post a question about our programs and services in a public forum.
We also collect some information automatically, including:
We may also get information about you from other sources. We may combine personal data that you provide to us with other information that is publicly available or that we receive from other sources, such as grade transcripts, or information provided by your recommenders.
It is our practice not to collect your personal data unless we need it or intend to use it. We use the information we collect through the AIS Forms platform to manage your registration and application process, evaluation and selection of applications, your program and alumni activities participation, as well as to fulfill our legal responsibilities to provide monitoring, evaluation and reporting on behalf of our program funders.
We use information about you as mentioned above and for the purposes listed below:
Our use of your personal data is made on the following bases:
We rely on several legitimate interests in our use and sharing of your personal data, including:
American Councils does not sell your personal data.
We may share your personal data with various American Councils' offices, affiliated organization, and third-party business partners. Our third-party business partners may include program funders, service providers, and others located in the United States of America and throughout the world that work with us to process your application or request, and to deliver our program and other services to you. All third-party business partners that we share your personal data with are required to comply with applicable regulations and privacy requirements.
We share information about you in the limited circumstances spelled out below and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy:
We keep the personal data that you share with us via AIS Forms and other sources for as long as it is necessary for us to provide you with our program services, for as long as it is necessary for us to administer alumni and other outreach activities, and for as long as it is required for us to meet our oversight and reporting requirements and responsibilities.
Your personal data is retained for as long as there is a basis for its collection and use, until such time as consent it withdrawn (if the legal basis for its use is consent), or until effective opposition to data processing is filed in cases where the legal basis for its use is the legitimate interest of American Councils. The Data processing period may be extended if the processing is necessary to establish and assert any claims or defend against them, and after that time only if and to the extent required by law.
We take precautions to protect your personal data both online and offline when it is submitted to us via AIS Forms.
All information that we collect from you via AIS Forms is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for "https" at the beginning of the address of the web page. The database in which all the information you submit to us via AIS Forms is stored is also encrypted for additional security.
While we use encryption to protect personal data transmitted online, we also protect your personal data offline. Only employees and business partners who need your personal data to perform a specific job, such as program staff, program recruiters, and travel administrators, are granted access to your personal data and only to your personal data that is needed to complete their jobs. Access to data stored in AIS Forms and the database is subject to authentication with unique username and password. Users are only allowed to access information that relates to their areas of responsibility. The computers and servers on which we store personal data are kept in a secure environment.
American Councils' employees, third-party business partners, and others that have access to personal data are also provided with guidance in its use and protection. They will use the information exclusively for American Councils' activities and the management of American Councils' program and other operations.
You can do the following at any time by using the contact information given on AIS Forms or below:
Under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 ("General Data Protection Regulation" or "GDPR"), each resident of the European Economic Area (EEA) whose personal data is processed by American Councils has the following rights to:
The nature of American Councils' business and operations as an international exchange organization requires us to process and transfer your personal data to our offices, business partners, and data centers that may be located in countries outside of your own. The computer servers that operate AIS Forms, the database that stores your personal data, and American Councils' headquarters office are all located in the United States of America. We may process and transfer your personal data in and to countries other than the country in which the information was originally collected. Although the data protection and other laws of these various countries may not be as comprehensive as those in your own country, American Councils will take appropriate steps to protect your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws.
AIS Forms may contain links to other affiliated and unaffiliated websites or be linked to by such websites for your convenience and information. Please be aware that we are not responsible or liable for any content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personal data.
If you have any questions or concerns about this policy or our privacy and data security practices, if you want to submit a request, or if you feel that we are not abiding by this Privacy Policy, please contact us immediately, as follows:
aisoperations@americancouncils.org
(+1) 202.833.7522
ATTN: CIO
American Councils for International Education
1828 L St NW Ste 1200
Washington DC 20036-5136
US
American Councils is the controller for all of the processing activities across all of our services and programs.