High Point University Website Privacy Policy (download pdf)
Last Updated: November 10, 2020
1. Overview
High Point University operates the http://www.highpoint.edu/ website and other websites linking to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Website”).
This Privacy Policy describes the personal information we collect via the Website, how we will use such personal information, who we may disclose it to, and your rights and choices in relation to your personal information.
When we use the term “personal information,” we use this term to describe information that may be used to identify you.
2. What Personal Information Do We Hold About You?
Information You Provide to Us
We collect personal information about you in the course of providing the Website to you. You may provide personal information to us in a variety of ways, such as when you request information from us, schedule a campus tour, submit an application, donation or tuition payment, apply for scholarships, or participate in our blogs or discussion boards. The categories of personal information we collect will depend on how you interact with our Website, such as whether you visit as an applicant for admission or as a former student. The types of personal information we collect are described in more detail below.
Students, Prospective Students and Applicants
If you are an applicant for admission, certain required and optional information is collected from you when you provide this information via the online application. You will be redirected to the third-party application platform website for completing your online application. Any information provided will be subject to the privacy policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of the third-party application platform. Third-party application platforms may share this information with us. We maintain the application information for our enrolled students.
If you make a deposit for your application or make tuition payments, you will be directed to our third-party payment processors. We do not store payment information. The privacy policies of those processors will apply to any information you submit.
If you are a prospective student and complete a “Contact Us” or “Request More Information” form, such as to request information from us or to schedule a campus tour, we may collect certain required and optional information from you, including your name, email address, birth date, intended enrollment date, your areas of academic interest, your phone number (including mobile number), your address, gender, race/ethnicity, your interest in athletics, request for accommodations for a tour, your parents’ names and email addresses, and whether you are related to a High Point University graduate.
If you share news with us about your accomplishments, we may collect certain information you provide us about your internship, career, graduate school plans, etc. We may collect your name, HPU email address, major, minor, class year, hometown, move-in day experience, and other career information you share with us, as well as pictures you upload.
Parents and Families
If you are a family member of a High Point University student, we may collect and hold certain personal information about you, including contact information (e.g., name, email, phone number, address, username). We may collect this information when you sign up for our online community.
Alumni and Other Supporters
If you are an alumna or alumnus, we may collect and hold certain personal information about you, including contact information (e.g., name, email address, mailing address). We also retain a copy of your student records if you studied here. If you make a donation via our Website, you will be directed to our third-party payment processors. The privacy policies of those processors will apply to any information you submit. Our service providers may share certain of your personal information with us when you make a donation. When we receive this information, we will treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Job Applicants
If you apply to a job at High Point University via the links available on our Website, you will be required to create an account. In addition to creating a username and password, you must also provide your full name and email address. The online job application process is administered through a third-party service provider, who will share the information you provide with us. You will also be required to provide us with your phone number and address in order to submit an application. As part of the job application process, you will be asked to tell us about your employment and education history, job and salary requirements, work authorization, and certain information about criminal offenses. You may also submit information to us that would ordinarily be contained in a resume. If you provide us with references, you agree that you have permission from the reference to provide us with such information and for High Point University to contact the reference.
Volunteer
If you sign up for volunteer opportunities, then we may collect and hold certain personal information about you, including your contact information (e.g., name, email, phone number, city, state, zip code, your company/organization, position, your HPU affiliation, and types of volunteer opportunities you are interested in learning more about.
All Website Visitors
You can generally navigate our Website without providing contact information. If you correspond with us by Website form, Website chat feature, email or other form of communication, we may retain such correspondence and information contained in it and use it to respond to your question, comment, or complaint.
Information We Collect About You
We, or our service providers, may also collect personal information about you through your use of the Website. This information includes online activity information and technical information about your usage activities.
We collect technical information automatically through your electronic device, such as your IP address (i.e., your computer’s address on the internet), operating system type (Windows or Mac) and version, internet browser type and version, and the web address of the website from which you liked directly to our Website. We also collect information about your use of our Website, such as the date and time you access the Website, time spent on pages and the pages read and images viewed, and the content you download from the Website. We use this information to ensure that the Website functions properly and to personalize your experience. Some of this information may be collected through the use of cookies; please also see additional information on our cookie usage in Section 3 below.
Information We Receive from Third Parties
In addition to information we collect from you, we may receive your personal information from our third-party service providers, such as our payment processors, loan processors, government entities, such as Federal Student Aid information from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) via the U.S. Department of Education, and groups such as The Common Application and The College Foundation of North Carolina who collect college applications for us.
We also may receive your information from third parties that you have permitted to release to us, such as The College Board (e.g., Advanced Placement (AP) test scores, Preliminary SAT (PSAT)/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test scores, demographic information, academic information). We also collect information from publicly available sources, such as from social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Canto). Please note that any information provided with any social media platform is also subject to the social media platform’s privacy policy.
3. Cookies
We use third-party service providers to collect usage analytics and to set and track cookies on our behalf, such as Google Analytics. Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the device you are using. Cookies allow us to recognize your device and to collect information such as internet browser type, time spent using Website, and pages visited. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse the Website and also allows us to improve the Website. Cookies further allow us to present to you the information that will most likely to appeal to you based on your activity and preferences. We may also use cookies to track your responses to our advertisements and we may use cookies or other files to track your use of other websites.
You can refuse to accept the cookies we use by adjusting your browser settings. However, if you do not accept these cookies, you may affect your use of the Website and ability to access certain features of the Website. You can find out more about how to manage cookies here: www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies.
4. How Do We Use the Personal Information We Collect About You?
Your personal information may be used by us for the following purposes:
- To communicate with you, including to respond to your requests for information from us
- To send you informational publications (e.g., our alumni magazine or newsletters)
- To provide our services (e.g., admissions, networking and ongoing career services)
- To prepare for a campus tour (individual or group visit)
- To evaluate an application for enrollment in our course offerings and degree programs and to carry other administrative functions related to admissions and enrollment
- To evaluate and award financial aid and scholarships
- To engage with you via blogs and/or discussion boards
- To provide you with information about High Point University, including information about scholarships and degree programs, or information about events you might be interested in attending or volunteer opportunities
- To process and assess your job application
- To process donations
- To provide you with volunteer information
- To notify you about any changes to our Website or services.
We may use your information to audit and monitor the Website, including for security purposes, to facilitate navigation of the Website, to resolve any technical issues, to display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience while using the Website. In addition, we may use such information to gather statistical information about the usage of the Website to understand how it is used and to continually improve the Website.
We may also use your information, including personal information, to comply with legal obligations, to prevent or investigate fraud or other unlawful activity, and to protect the security and integrity of the Website and other systems.
5. How Do We Share Your Personal Information?
We may share your personal information with our service providers (e.g., our payment processors, job platform provider and online store providers), our professional advisers (e.g., accountants, lawyers, and other professional advisers that assist us with carrying out activities), your financial institutions and funders (e.g., for securing loans, scholarships, and other funding), and government authorities and private organizations with oversight over High Point University, such as accreditation organizations.
We reserve the right to disclose any personal information as needed if that information is requested by law enforcement agencies or if we are required to do so by law, treaty, regulation, subpoena, court order, or by a government entity. We also may disclose your personal information to third parties if we have reason to believe that disclosing such information is necessary to conduct investigations of possible breaches of law, to cooperate in any legal investigation, or to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be violating any agreement with us. We may also disclose your personal information to other third parties, for example, in connection with a sale or transfer of assets.
6. For How Long Will We Keep Your Personal Information?
We will retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for purposes for which it was collected. The precise period will depend on the reason why it was collected. Those periods are also based on the requirements of applicable data protection laws, applicable legal and regulatory requirements and periods relating to the commencement of legal actions.
7. Notice to Individuals Outside the United States
We are located in the United States and we will process your personal information in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, your personal information will be transferred and stored in the United States.
8. Changes to Personal Information; Opt-out
You may contact us using the contact information provided at the end of this Privacy Policy if you have any questions. If you wish to update, correct or amend your personal information, then you may contact us as follows:
If you are a student or an employee, then please visit: https://www.highpoint.edu/safety/emergency-mass-notification/.
If you are a member of our alumni community, then please visit: https://engage.highpoint.edu/contact-us.
Please note that we may not be able to correct or update your personal information previously provided to us by third parties.
As mentioned above, we may use your personal information to contact and correspond with you and to respond to your inquiries. We may send you email or other communications regarding our programs or to alumni, supporters and other members of the High Point University community, such as newsletters, event invitations, and fundraising information. We will provide you the opportunity to “opt-out” or unsubscribe from these emails (e.g., email we send you will tell you how to decline future emails from us).
9. Links to Third-Party Websites
The Website may contain links to third-party websites that are not controlled by us. These links are made available to you as a convenience, and you agree to use these links at your own risk. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices or content of such third-party websites. If you navigate to a third-party website from the Website, we encourage you to review and become familiar with such third-party website’s privacy policy and statements.
10. Notice to California Residents
California law permits California residents who provide us with personal information to request certain information regarding our disclosure of such information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not, at this time, disclose such information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. If we change this policy, we will update this provision and provide instructions on how you may make a request for details. If any other state enacts a similar law as the California law, then this provision will also apply to such state.
11. Do-Not-Track Disclosure; Third-party Tracking
Certain mechanisms may allow you to send web browser signals, known as “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) signals, indicating your choice to disable tracking on the Website. We do not respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals at this time. We may not be aware of or able to honor and respond to every such mechanism. More information about “Do Not Track” is available at www.allaboutdnt.org concerning such information.
Third parties, other than our service providers (such as our website analytics provider), do not have our permission to track which websites you visited prior to and after visiting the Website. That said, we cannot control third-party tracking and there may be some third-party tracking that occurs without our knowledge or consent.
12. Changes to Our Privacy Policy
Any changes we make to this Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on the Website. The updated Privacy Policy will take effect as soon as it has been updated or otherwise communicated to you.
13. Contact Us
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or the way we use your personal information, you can contact us via e-mail at webteam@highpoint.edu.