Your privacy is critically important to us. At the University of St. Francis, we have a few fundamental principles governing our use of personal information:
- The primary purpose of our website and other online resources is to inform our staff, faculty, students, and the public about the events, programs, and educational offerings of the University of St. Francis. USF’s websites are created and maintained by USF personnel.
- We are thoughtful about the personal information we ask you to provide and the personal information that we collect about you through the operation of our services.
- We store personal information for only as long as we have a reason to keep it.
- We aim for full transparency on how we gather, use, and share your personal information.
Below is the University of St. Francis’s privacy policy, which incorporates and clarifies these principles.
Who We Are and What This Policy Covers
The University of St. Francis is a comprehensive, private university in Joliet, Illinois, offering on-campus and online bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs. As a Catholic university rooted in the liberal arts. the University of St. Francis is a welcoming community of learners based on Franciscan values, engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, faith, wisdom, and justice.
This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect about you when you use:
- Our websites (including StFrancis.edu, myusf.stfrancis.edu, learn.stfrancis.edu, and gofightingsaints.com);
- Our mobile applications; and
- Other services that are available on or through our websites (including the MyUSF portal and Canvas learning management system).
Throughout this Privacy Policy we’ll refer to our website, mobile applications and other products and services collectively as “Services.”
Information We Collect
We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so – for example, to facilitate online learning, to provide University information to you, to communicate with you, or to make our Services better.
We collect information in three ways: if and when you provide information to us, automatically through operating our services, and from outside sources.
Information You Provide to Us
The primary way we gain information about you is by asking you to fill out information requests about the university, contact forms, alumni updates, or an online application to the university. The amount and type of information depends on the context and how we use the information. Here are some examples:
- Basic Student Information: We ask for basic information from you in order to set up future communication with you.
- Tuition and Billing Information: If you pay fees, tuition, or housing payments–you will provide additional personal and payment information that is required to process the transaction and your payment, such as your name, credit card information, and contact information.
- Academic and Athletic Information: You may also provide us information when you respond to surveys, communicate with our coaches, or engage with us in academic and scholarship competitions.
- Alumni Information: You may provide us information about your current employment, profession, and personal achievements.
Information We Collect Automatically
We also collect some information automatically:
- Log Information: We collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. Most of this is public information but we want you to know we use this information to help plan for future online offerings.
- Usage Information: We collect information about your usage of our Services. For example, we collect information about the time you are logged in to the main website, the university portal, and learning management system along with information about your device (e.g., mobile screen size, name of cellular network, and mobile device manufacturer). We use this information to, for example, provide our Services to you, as well as get insights on how people use our Services, so we can make our Services better.
- Location Information: We may determine the approximate location of your device from your IP address. We collect and use this information to, for example, calculate how many people visit our Services from certain geographic regions. We may also collect information about your location via our mobile apps (when, for example, you post a photograph with location information) if you allow us to do so through your mobile device operating system’s permissions.
- Information from Cookies & Other Technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and e-mails. The University of St. Francis uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help us identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for our Services, as well as track and understand e-mail campaign effectiveness and to deliver targeted ads.
Information We Collect from Other Sources
We may also get information about you from other sources. For example, we may gather information about you through testing services like College Board’s SAT and PSAT data via the authorization procedures used by that service. The information we receive depends on which services you authorize and any options that are available.
How We Use Information
We use information about you as mentioned above and as follows:
- To inform you about specific degree, program, scholarship, and athletic recruitment Services we provide.
- To further develop our Services–for example by adding new features that we think our students, alumni, staff, and faculty will enjoy or will help them to create and manage their websites more efficiently;
- To monitor and analyze trends and better understand how users interact with our Services, which helps us improve our Services and make them easier to use;
- To monitor and protect the security of our Services, detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities, fight spam, and protect the rights and property of the University of St. Francis and others;
- To communicate with you about offers and promotions offered by the University of St. Francis and others we think will be of interest to you, solicit your feedback, or keep you up to date on the University of St. Francis and our educational services; and
- To personalize your experience using our Services, provide recommendations and serve relevant updates.
Sharing Information
How We Share Information
We do not sell our users’ personal information.
You may think there’s more to it than that, but essentially we do not sell your information to anyone. We share information about you in the limited circumstances spelled out below and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy:
- Instructors, Employees, and Advisors: We may disclose information about you to our employees, instructors, coaches, and individuals who work with the university that need to know the information in order to help us provide our Services or to process the information on our behalf. We require our subsidiaries, employees, and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Policy for personal information that we share with them.
- Third Party Vendors: We may share information about you with third party vendors who need to know information about you in order to provide their services to us. This group includes vendors that help us provide our Services to you (like payment providers that process your credit and debit card information) and those that help us understand and enhance our Services (like analytics providers). We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them.
- As Required by Law: We may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request.
- To Protect Rights and Property: We may disclose information about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of the University of St. Francis or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
- With Your Consent: We may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction. For example, we may share your athletic or student achievement information (like scholarships and awards) with third parties (like the media) with which you authorize us to do so.
- Aggregated and De-Identified Information: We may share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, we may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our Services as part of internal or Higher Learning Commission reporting.
- Support Requests: And if you send us a request (for example, via a support email or one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish that request in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users.
The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The purpose of the GDPR is to protect EU citizens’ privacy from data breaches by allowing citizens to maintain control of the personal data kept and processed by organizations. USF has alumni all over the world, and the University processes personal data of alumni who are EU citizens for educational and marketing purposes. The GDPR stipulates that consent to process personal data must be freely given in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language. If you are an EU citizen and wish to provide or withdraw consent for USF to process your personal information, please submit the GDPR Consent form (link address).
The University of St. Francis’ data protection officer is Dr. Terry Cottrell, Vice President for Operations and Information Technology. Please contact tcottrell@stfrancis.edu with any questions or concerns regarding GDPR.
Security
While no online service is 100% secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so.
Choices
You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:
- Limit Access to Information On Your Mobile Device: Your mobile device operating system should provide you with the ability to discontinue our ability to collect stored information or location information via our mobile apps. If you do so, you may not be able to use certain features (like adding a location to a photograph, for example).
- Opt-Out of Electronic Communications: You may opt out of receiving promotional messages from us. Just follow the instructions in those messages. If you opt out of promotional messages, we may still send you other messages, like those about your account and legal notices.
- Set Your Browser to Reject Cookies: You can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using the University of St. Francis’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of the University of St. Francis’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Other Things You Should Know (Keep Reading!)
Transferring Information
The University of St. Francis provides educational services worldwide. By accessing or using the Services or otherwise providing information to us, you consent to the processing, transfer, and storage of information in and to the U.S. and other countries, which may have rights and protections that are different from those in the United States or your home country.
Ads and Analytics Services Provided by Others
You may connect to our Services through third party advertising networks. Other parties may also provide analytics services via our Services. These ad networks and analytics providers may set tracking technologies (like cookies) to collect information about your use of our Services and across other websites and online services. These technologies allow these third parties to recognize your device to compile information about you or others who use your device. This information allows us and other companies to, among other things, analyze and track usage, determine the popularity of certain content, and deliver advertisements that may be more targeted to your interests. Please note this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by the University of St. Francis and does not cover the collection of information by any third party advertisers or analytics providers.
Privacy and Reporting
While the University of St. Francis maintains security against breaches on our online Services, we understand these are not foolproof. USF will notify our campus community and users of our online Services of data breaches within 72 hours of our awareness of the breach.
This policy and other public notices will be made readily available to all our USF’s constituents. USF will provide transparent information to users of our Services.
USF will pseudonymize and encrypt personal data where practicable.
USF will quickly respond and take action for any public Services user requesting erasure of personal data unless otherwise covered by record keeping requirements of federal and state government (such as personnel or student records).
Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, the University of St. Francis may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. The University of St. Francis encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the change log below, and, in some cases, we may provide additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or sending you a notification through e-mail or your dashboard).
You have the right to opt out of any or all communication with USF and can do so by filling out this form.
The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The purpose of the GDPR is to protect all EU citizens from privacy and data breaches by allowing citizens to maintain control of the personal data kept and processed by organizations. The GDPR stipulates that consent to process personal data must be freely given in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language. The form below is for EU citizens to provide or withdraw consent to USF to process personal information.
Last edited 11 May 2018
Approved by Cabinet 24 May 2018
Published 25 May 2018
