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Privacy Notice

Thank you for visiting this website, which is operated by the Purdue University College of Liberal Arts and exists only to further the mission of Purdue University. Your access to and use of this website is subject to the following Privacy Notice. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information is held and how it is used.

We understand your concerns about privacy and assure you that we take privacy matters seriously. Therefore, we are providing this Privacy Notice to explain our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information, including your Personally Identifiable Information, is collected and used. If you have questions regarding this Privacy Notice, you may direct them to PurdueOWL@purdue.edu.

By submitting information to us and/or by using our website, you give your consent that all information that you submit, including your Personally Identifiable Information, may be processed as described herein. If you do not agree to be bound by this Privacy Notice, you may choose to not access or use this website.

For those users who are subject to European Union governance, please see the section below for additional information relative to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This Privacy Notice applies only to the public website https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html.

This policy explains our practices concerning the collection, use, and disclosure of visitor information. Visitor information we collect will be used only as outlined in this Privacy Notice.

Any arrangement to share your data with a third party in support of a Purdue-approved activity will be subject to a formal agreement between the Purdue affiliate engaged in the activity and that organization to protect the security of your data. We reserve the right to review and approve all such agreements as stated in its internal Data Access and Compliance Policy.

Purdue websites may collect and use visitor information in different ways. Therefore, visitors to university websites should review the privacy policies for the particular sites they visit. The English Department is not responsible for the content of other websites or for the privacy practices of websites outside the scope of this policy.

Because internet technologies continue to evolve rapidly, we may make appropriate changes to this Privacy Notice in the future. Any such changes will be consistent with our commitment to respecting visitor privacy and will be clearly posted in a revised Privacy Notice.

Data We Collect and Hold

When you view pages on our site, the web server automatically collects non-personally identifying technical information from your computer and about your connection and may include:

  • IP address
  • Domain name from which you visit our site
  • User-specific information on which pages are visited
  • Aggregate information on pages visited
  • Referring website
  • Date and time of visit
  • Duration of visit
  • Browser type
  • Screen resolution

Continued use of our website indicates consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of this information as described in this policy.

Active/Manual/Voluntary Collection

Other than automatically collected technical information about your visit (described above, or cookies, described below), we may ask you to provide personal information voluntarily, such as through forms or other manual input. This information is generally retained as long as you continue to maintain a relationship with us. Providing this information to us is wholly voluntary. However, not providing the requested information (or subsequently asking that the data be removed) may affect our ability to serve you or your ability to use a particular service or feature on the website. Providing the requested information indicates your consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of this information as described in this policy. Information we may request includes, but is not limited to:

  • Your name, telephone number, email address, and/or postal address,
  • Information volunteered by the visitor, such as preferences, survey information, and/or site registrations

Information Usage

Generally, we use the information we collect through our website to:

  • Provide the information, products, and services you request
  • Provide you with an effective and pleasant web experience
  • Contact you with information we believe will be of interest to you or to invite you to participate in surveys and provide feedback to us (in accordance with any communication preferences you have expressed to us)
  • Invite you to events or to participate in volunteer opportunities
  • Improve the content, functionality, and usability of our website
  • Improve our services to you
  • Improve our marketing and promotional efforts
  • Internal record keeping, including the management of any feedback or complaints
  • Administrative purposes (e.g. in order to process a donation you have made or to administer an event you have registered for or attended)
  • For any other purpose identified in an applicable privacy policy, click-through agreement, or other agreement between you and us.

Information Used for Contact

If you provide us with your email address as part of a purchase transaction on our website, or if you choose to receive communications from us, we may periodically send you newsletters and other email. Our communications provide opportunities to opt out of future messages.

If you supply us with your postal/mailing address, you may receive periodic mailings from us with information on new products and services or upcoming events. If you do not wish to receive such mailings, or would like to be added to our "do not contact" list, please let us know by:

  • Sending us an email at PurdueOWL@purdue.edu

Information Sharing

We may share aggregate, non-personally identifiable information with other entities or organizations. We may share personally identifiable information with other entities or organizations, such as agents or contractors, under the following circumstances to:

  • To assist in providing support for our internal operations
  • When legally required to do so, at the request of governmental authorities conducting an investigation, to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing our website and applicable laws, or to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our website

We may provide your personally identifiable information to:

  • Purdue University units/departments/schools
  • Contracted agents/organizations
  • Sanctioned volunteers

Subject to restrictions that you communicate to us relative to the use of your personal data, your information might include, but is not limited to:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Other contact information, such as address or telephone number

Cookies

A cookie is a small data file that is written to your hard drive that contains information about your visit to a web page. If you prefer not to receive cookies, you may configure your browser not to accept them at all, or to notify and require approval before accepting new cookies. Some web pages/sites may not function properly if the cookies are turned off, or you may have to provide the same information each time you visit those pages.

To customize the information and services offered to you, our site uses cookies to record session information.

Children

This site is not intentionally directed to children. We do not intentionally or knowingly collect data from children under the age of 13. We encourage parents and teachers to be involved in children’s internet explorations. It is particularly important for parents to guide their children when they are asked to provide personal information online. If you have reason to believe that a child under 13 years of age is providing information to Purdue through our website, please contact PurdueOWL@purdue.edu.

Use of Third-Party Services

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses cookies (described above) to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by such cookies about your use of the website (including, possibly, your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google.

For more information, please visit Google’s Privacy Policy.

Updating Inaccurate Information

In some cases, we will grant visitors the ability to update or correct inaccuracies in the information that we maintain.

Visitors can have this information corrected by sending us an email at PurdueOWL@purdue.edu.

Security

Due to the rapidly evolving nature of information technologies, no transmission of data over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. While we are committed to protecting the privacy of our visitors, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to our websites, and you do so at your own risk. However, once we receive your information, we will use reasonable safeguards consistent with prevailing industry standards and commensurate with the sensitivity of the data being stored to maintain the security of that information on our systems.

In addition, we will comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws regarding the privacy and security of visitor information.

We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site.

Rights for European Union Residents Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Residents of the European Union member countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK) have these rights under GDPR:

  • Access, rectification, and erasure: ask us for access to, correction, or erasure of your data
  • Restrict processing (pending correction or deletion)
  • Be informed – collection and use of your data described herein
  • Data portability – right to obtain a copy of your record in our database
  • Object to communications or direct marketing
  • Not to be subjected to a decision based on automated processing (profiling)

We handle your personal data securely and take proactive measures to minimize its use; primarily, those uses are to process a transaction you have requested, to carry out our responsibilities under a contract, or to pursue Purdue’s legitimate interests, where those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests. In addition, there is no statutory or contractual requirement for you to provide us with any personal data.

Some key facts and information about your data protection rights:

  • Please contact legalcounsel@purdue.edu if you have any concerns or questions about the above information or you wish to ask us not to process your personal data for particular purposes. Where you have specific requests relating to how we manage your data, we will endeavor to resolve these, but please note that there may be circumstances where we cannot comply with specific requests.
  • We will retain your data indefinitely in support of your lifelong relationship with the University or until you request us to do otherwise.
  • We will publish on our website any changes we make to this data protection statement and notify you by other communication channels where appropriate.
  • Where you exercise your right to erasure, we will continue to maintain a core set of personal data (name, subject(s), matriculation and graduation details, unique University identification number, and date of birth) to ensure we do not contact you inadvertently in the future, and to maintain your academic record for archive purposes. We may also need to retain some financial records about you for statutory purposes (e.g. anti-fraud and accounting matters).
  • If you have any concerns about your personal data held by the college or school you attended or from which you graduated, you will need to contact the school directly.

Privacy Notice Changes

We reserve the right to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Privacy Notice at any time and without prior notice by posting the revised version of this Privacy Notice on the website. Your use of our website following any such change constitutes your agreement that all information collected from or about you through the website after the revised Privacy Notice is posted will be subject to the terms of the revised Privacy Notice.

We will post changes to our website and provide you with the ability to opt out. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our website periodically.

Visitors may prevent their information from being used for purposes other than those for which it was originally collected by sending us an email at the listed address.

Contact Information

If you have questions or concerns about this policy, please contact us at PurdueOWL@purdue.edu.

If you feel as though this site's privacy practices differ from the information stated, you may contact us at the listed address or phone number.