Privacy Policy and Disclaimer

Privacy Policy

Your privacy is very important to us. Accordingly, we have developed this policy for you to understand how we collect, use, communicate, disclose, and make use of personal information. The following outlines our privacy policy. It is intended to comply with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), and other policies and regulations.

Before or at the time of collecting personal information, we will identify the purposes for which information is being collected.
We will collect and use personal information solely with the objective of fulfilling those purposes specified by us and for other compatible purposes, unless we obtain the consent of the individual concerned or as required by law.
We will only retain personal information as long as necessary for the fulfillment of those purposes.
We will collect personal information by lawful and fair means and, where appropriate, with the knowledge or consent of the individual concerned.
Personal data should be relevant to the purposes for which it is to be used and to the extent necessary for those purposes Personal data should be accurate, complete, and up-to-date.
We will protect personal information by reasonable security safeguards against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use and modification.
We will make readily available to customers information about our policies and practices relating to the management of personal information.

We are committed to conducting our organization in accordance with these principles in order to ensure that the confidentiality of personal information is protected and maintained. However, no internet connection, website, or e-mail transmission is ever 100% safe and secure. We cannot be held responsible for anything that happens to your information or account due to unforeseen events or circumstances not under our control. In the event of a security breach, we will notify affected customers within a 72 hour time period. We will provide information relating to the security incident as it becomes known or as is reasonably requested.

The data we collect online:

When you visit our website, you may provide us with two different types of information: personal information that is collected on a volunteer basis and website-use information collected on an aggregate basis.

Personal information you choose to provide through our contact form:
You may provide us with your full name, email address, education information, city and country of birth, country of citizenship, citizenship status, permanent address, mailing address (if different than permanent address) and (in some cases) your phone number. You also have the option to submit additional comments or documents regarding your individual interests, personal needs, and academic goals. We may retain the content of all submitted forms and resulting correspondence together with your name and email address in our database.
Personal information you provide to apply for an academic program at the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW):
During the user account creation process, users are prompted to give consent to the website and must take explicit action to authorize the collection and storage of personal information. Any user who does not respond to the consent message will not be permitted to proceed further until consent is granted. Upon admission and confirmation of attendance to the University of the Incarnate Word, the university will have the right to use your personal information for academic, marketing, tracking, and immigration purposes.
Website-use information:
We also use web server logs to collect information regarding how our website is being used. Such collected information may include, but may not be limited to, your IP address, browser type, the date and time of your visit, the pages viewed, and your total time spent on our website. This information will be used to improve our website so that we can maintain our high-quality service as well as provide general statistics related to website usage. This automatically-collected data is used only on an aggregated, anonymous basis and never in conjunction with, or linked to, any information concerning your personal identity.
In order to withdraw your consent authorizing UIW to use your personal information, you must email the UIW Registrar’s Office, at registrar@uiwtx.edu. Please note that processing of personal information is necessary for UIW to provide you with its educational services. Thus, withdrawal of consent to use personal information will result in a withdrawal from the academic program(s) and course(s) in which you are enrolled and loss of access to all associated UIW information systems. Any refund of tuition and fees paid will be subject to UIW policies.

Use of plug-ins:

We may use a variety of social media plugins and widgets. These are provided and operated by third-party companies (e.g. Facebook). Social media plugins may collect information such as the page you are visiting on our website, your IP address, and may set cookies to enable the plugin to function properly.

If you are logged into your account with the third-party company, then the third party may be able to link information about your visit to and use of our website to your social media account with them. Similarly, your interactions with the plugin may be recorded by the third party.

You can manage the sharing of information and opt-out from targeted marketing via your privacy settings for the third party social media platform. Please refer to their privacy policy directly.

The following plugins are used on our website: Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.

Sharing data with third parties:

Your personal information may be stored and processed in any country where we operate or in which we engage with service providers. These include, but may not be limited to, incoming agencies, hotels, airlines, bus companies, and insurance companies that we employ in order to fulfill your program requirements and reservations. By using UIW services, you understand that your information will be transferred and used only in conjunction with your specific academic program and university business and compliance requirements. We only provide these companies with data that they require to perform their specific service.

Your information may also be provided to public authorities such as customs or immigration if required by them, or as required by law. Your information is shared under the jurisdiction of applicable laws and regulations. We do not sell or otherwise market your personal data to third parties.

How you can control your data:

You may request access to all information concerning your personal identity that we collect in our database by emailing us at infosec@uiwtx.edu. You have the right to rectify any information that you find to be inaccurate. You may also request that we delete personal data from our database.

Occasionally, information that you request to be deleted will be retained in certain files for a period of time in the framework of our legal retention. In addition, some types of information may be stored longer or indefinitely on “back up” systems or within log files due to technical constraints, or financial or legal requirements.

How long your data will be retained:

We will retain your personal data for as long as needed or permitted with regards to the purpose(s) for which it was obtained, in consistency with applicable law, and for statutory claims limitation periods where your personal information may be relevant to any possible liability we may have to you.

The criteria used to determine our data retention periods include:

The length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide our services to you;
Whether there is a legal obligation with which we must comply

Security:

We use encryption (SSL) to protect data transmitted to and from our website. Wherever the ESC collects personal data, we seek to use reasonable technical and organizational security measures to protect all information within our organization from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, hacking attacks, destruction or any other problems which may occur.

Confidentiality of processing:

UIW ensures that any person or entity that is authorized to process customer data will do so under an appropriate obligation of confidentiality.

Security Incident Response:

In the event of a security incident, UIW will notify affected customers within 72 hours and will provide timely information relating to the security incident as it becomes known or as is reasonably requested.

Link Disclaimer:

UIW is not responsible for any content linked or referred to from any external websites. If any damage occurs by the use of information presented on external pages, only the author of the respective website might be liable, not the party who has linked UIW to these websites. Furthermore, UIW is not liable for any postings or messages published by users of discussion boards, guestbooks or mailing lists provided on these external pages.

Permission to Use Materials:

UIW grants you a personal license to access and use this website. You may download material from this website for your own personal non-commercial use. You may not, however, otherwise copy, retransmit, distribute, publish or commercially exploit any material from this website without the express written permission of UIW.

Changes to Privacy Policy:

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time without prior notice. Any changes to this policy will be posted on this page. It is your responsibility to review UIW’s Privacy Policy each time you provide personal information to us as the policy may have changed since the last time you used our website.

Contacting the University of the Incarnate Word:

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about our Privacy Policy at infosec@uiwtx.edu.

If you do not agree to these policies and terms of use, you always have the right to mail us your information in paper format.

Last updated: May 2018