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Online Privacy Policy

Stanford University provides the following information relating to your privacy when using websites in the Stanford.EDU domain. This privacy policy covers all Stanford.EDU websites unless otherwise indicated on a specific website.

Online Privacy Notice

This Online Privacy Notice applies to the information that we collect when you visit Stanford University’s main website (www.stanford.edu) and other websites that we own or control and link or refer to this Privacy Notice (together, the “Sites”). This Notice describes how this information is processed, as well as the choices that are available to you regarding the use of the information you provide.

Unless otherwise indicated on a specific Site, Stanford University (“Stanford”) is the data controller for all information collected under this Notice. Contact information for Stanford is listed at the end of this Notice.

This Notice does not apply to information collected from or about current or former employees, contractors, volunteers, post-doctorate fellows, and other workers of Stanford University (“Workers”) as part of their employment or working relationship with Stanford.

Personal Information we collect and process:

When you access or use the Sites, we may collect and process the following types of information from you:

“Personal Information” is any information that we can reasonably use to identify you. If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), Personal Information includes all Personal Data as defined under EEA laws.

“Sensitive Personal Information” includes special categories of Personal Information (e.g., racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health, and data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation) for which applicable law provides enhanced protections.

The table below describes the Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information that we collect, why we collect it, and our legal basis for processing it.

Purpose of Processing Categories of Personal Information Legal Basis
As part of the graduate and undergraduate admissions process, we collect applicant Personal Information to evaluate applications. We also may obtain Personal Information from third parties, such as other schools, references, family members, and education partners (e.g., The Common Application, Inc., Law School Admissions Council, The College Board, etc.) as part of an application package. Name, address,
contact details, race/ethnicity,
demographic information, educational history, reference letters, and other relevant information as part of the application package.		 Legitimate Interest: Personal Information collected through the graduate or undergraduate application is necessary to evaluate candidates for admissions and for our internal statistical and analytics purposes.

Consent: Processing of Sensitive Personal Information for purposes stated above
To evaluate and determine whether financial aid opportunities are available to an applicant Name, address, contact details, demographic information, salary history, tax forms and other relevant information to evaluate financial aid eligibility and opportunities. Legitimate Interest: Personal Information collected through the financial aid application is necessary to evaluate whether the applicant is eligible to receive financial aid and for our internal statistical and analytics purposes.

Consent: Processing of Sensitive Personal Information for purposes stated above
To support course registration Name, Stanford Unique ID, contact information Legitimate Interest: Personal Information collected for matriculated students, staff, faculty and members of the public, as appropriate for the course, to register in courses or classes
To process requests for housing and dining services Name, Stanford Unique ID, contact information Legitimate Interest: Personal Information collected to facilitate housing requests and for available meal plans
To provide online/hybrid training, online/hybrid academic courses, and other online/hybrid educational programs Name, Stanford unique ID, contact information, demographic information, platform usage and interaction, student-provided data and content Legitimate Interest: To facilitate provision, administration, instruction, and quality improvement of platform use, courses, learning, and teaching/instruction to matriculated students, staff, faculty, and members of the public, as appropriate for the course
To enroll interested individuals in research opportunities Name, contact information Legitimate Interest: Upon request from the individual, inform registrants about research opportunities
To enroll in wellness programs Name, Stanford Unique ID Legitimate Interest: For eligible individuals interested in participating in a variety of wellness programs, courses, activities, facilitate enrollment and communications about the programs

Contract: If there is a contract for participation in wellness programs, Personal Information is processed pursuant to that contract
To process employment applications Name, Stanford Unique ID (if available), demographic information, resumes Legitimate Interest: For individuals interested in employment opportunities, processing applications
To process visa applications Name, demographic information, financial information, passport number Legal Requirements
To request and receive donations, and assess donor and prospective donor giving activities Name, contact information, demographic and biographic information, affiliation to Stanford, giving history, payment information Legitimate Interest: To collect and process donations/gifts and donor and prospective donor information
To receive brochures or other information Name, contact information Legitimate Interest: To send brochures or other requested information
To purchase tickets to events Name, Stanford Unique ID (if available), contact information Contract: To process ticket payment for a variety of events
For event registration Name, Stanford Unique ID (if available), contact information Legitimate Interest: To process registration for sports, cultural, educational and other university events
To purchase parking passes and permits Name, Stanford Unique ID, contact information Contract: To facilitate payments for parking passes and permits
To submit requests for services (e.g., IT, help desk, help line, CAPS, etc.) Name, Stanford Unique ID, contact information Legitimate Interest: To process service requests from students, staff and faculty

Contract: If there is a contract that governs your use of such services, Personal Information is processed pursuant to that contract
Website account registration Name, contact information, alumni status Legitimate Interest: For websites that require registration for access, to facilitate the registration
Travel sites Name, Stanford Unique ID, contact information, passport number, loyalty membership information, emergency contacts Legitimate Interest: To facilitate travel arrangements and coordination for students and affiliated travellers through Stanford programs

Contract: If there is a contract that governs your use of travel sites, Personal Information is processed pursuant to that contract

This Cookie Policy applies to the cookies we use when you visit Stanford University’s main website (stanfordhs17.wpengine.com) and other websites that we own or control and link or refer to this Cookie Policy (together, the “Sites”).

This cookie policy provides you with more information about cookies, what types of cookies we use and how we use them. Our Sites use cookies with the intention of providing you with a user experience that best suits your needs, while concurrently allowing us to improve the design and functionality of our Sites. Cookies can be adjusted or disabled, and this policy provides you with instructions to do so.

Cookies

A cookie is a file designed to contain a small amount of user and website information stored on a user’s computer. The file interacts with the user and the website to provide a webpage tailored to the user through its awareness of information held within the file. Cookies also have the ability to carry all or parts of the information stored within the file to other websites that the user may visit or to third parties.

Types of Cookies

A third-party cookie is placed by a domain other than that of the website the user is visiting.

A session cookie is temporary, linking the actions of a user during the any given browser session. When the browser is closed, the cookie is deleted.

A permanent cookie, also known as a persistent cookie, is stored for a specific period of time and activates each time the user visits the website that created the cookie.

Our Use of Cookies

We use third-party, session and persistent cookies and similar technology to collect aggregate (non-personal) information about Sites usage by all of our visitors and to help us remember you and your preferences when you revisit the Sites. These cookies may stay on your browser into the future until they expire or you delete them. We also use technology to remember you the next time you log in. Some of these cookies are erased when you close your browser window and some persist for a period of time. Further general information about cookies and how they work is available at www.allaboutcookies.org.

We may allow selected third parties to place cookies through the Sites to provide us with better insights into the use of the Sites or user demographics or to provide relevant advertising to you. These third parties may collect information about a user’s online activities over time and across different websites when he or she uses our Sites.

The cookies used on our Sites may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Description Cookie Name Category
These cookies expire when the browser is closed. The purpose of these cookies is to temporarily retain information related to the user’s visit to a Site, such as the number of visits, average time spent on the Site, and what pages have been loaded. _atrfs
_lorid
__lotl
_lo_u
AWSELB
BIGipServerab15web-app_https
cas_user
cas_cookie_test2
CMDD
CMPS
CMRUM3
CMSC
CMST
gig_hasGmid
gsbstanford_1_init
pgn_new_browser
pgn_rta2
remote_sid
requests
rlas3
su-homesite-show-alert
symfony
TS0115db8a
TS01e902af
TS01fc008b
TS01ba2ef2
TS015271e5
lo_session_in
nextId
ma_hash
UserMatchHistory
xtc
YSC		 Session
These cookies remain in operation, even when the browser is closed. The purpose of these cookies is to retain information to help the user avoid retyping data. cas_perm2
pgn_user2
webauth_at
WMDsecureLogin		 Permanent
Third parties install these cookies to collect certain information for statistical purposes and conducting research into behavior, demographics, and similar topics about our users. __atuvc
__atuvs
__cfduid
__gads
_gig_llp
_gig_llu
APISID
AWSALB
Blaze
DSID
DV
FormSpringFormSession21642262
FormSpringFormView214262
fr
gmid
hasGmid
HSID
lang
LOGIN_INFO
metrics_token
PHPSESSID
PREF
SAPISID
SID
SSID
tfw_exp
ucid
uvc
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE		 Third-party
These cookies help us understand how our visitors engage with our Sites. These cookies collect information and report website usage statistics. Some of these cookies are used to see how people use our Sites, which helps us improve it. __adroll
__ar_v4
__gat_Destiny
_A_time
_ceg.s
_ceg.u
_ceir
_gat
_gat_exec
_gat_rollUpTracker
_gat_UA-17324310-1
_gat_UA-5950986-19
_gd_svisitor
_gd_visitor
_gid
_ivu
_litra_id.dc12
_unam
_utma
_utmc
_utmt
_utmv
_utmz
_uuid
AMCV_
bcookie
buid_1038693605
buid_1830491566
buid_2015930208
buid_692015568
buid_741299734
C3UID
C3UID-312
cto_lwid
demdex
dextp
dpm
DST
DSTJS
gpv_pn
JSESSIONID
mbox
MentAdUserID
s_cc
s_fid
s_invisit
s_lv
s_lv_s
s_nr
s_ppv
s_ppvl
s_vnum
sess
t_gid
uuid2		 Analytics
These cookies allow our Sites to remember information that changes the way the site behaves or looks for you, such as your preferred language or the region you are in. For instance, by remembering your region, a website may be able to provide you with local weather reports or traffic news. These cookies can also assist you in changing text size, font, and other parts of web pages that you can personalize. Loss of the information stored in a preference cookie may make the website experience less functional but should not prevent it from working. has_js
khaos
put_2760
put_3644
rpb
tuuid
tuuid_last_update
Drupal.tableDrag.showWeight		 Preferences
We use security cookies to authenticate users, prevent fraudulent use of login credentials, and protect user data from unauthorized parties.

Some of these cookies may collect the request made by your browser to the server hosting the website which includes the IP address, the date and time of connection and the page you ask for. We use this information to ensure the security of our Sites.

Some of these cookies help make the Sites work and deliver services that the website visitor expects, like navigating around web pages or accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies, the Sites cannot function properly.

 ajs_group_id
ajs_user_id
atlassian.xsrf.token
cloud.session.token
HTML_VisitCountCookie
SimpleSAMLAuthToken
SimpleSAMLSessionID		 Security
We use cookies to make advertising more engaging to users and more valuable to publishers and advertisers. Some common applications of these cookies are to select advertising based on what’s relevant to a user; to improve reporting on campaign performance; and, to avoid showing ads the user has already seen.

We use cookies like NID and SID to help customize ads on Google websites and other online properties, like Google Search. Some uses include remembering your most recent searches, your previous interactions with an advertiser’s ads or search results, and your visits to an advertiser’s website. This helps us to show you customized ads.

 _#sess
_#srchist
_#uid
_#vdf
__atuvc
__gads
__sonar
_ct_rmm
_ga
1P_JAR
anj
APID
BizoID
bku
c
Doubleclick (IDE)
IDE
IDSYNC
KRTBCOOKIE_10
lidc
loc
mus
na_id
na_tc
NID
pgn_eventId
pgn_tparty
pgnData
PUBMDCID
PugT
rpx
ssc
ssh
sshs
taboola_usg
uid
uvccas_perm
 Advertising

Adjusting Cookie Settings

You can change your cookie settings by reviewing your internet browser’s cookie options. The links below to popular browsers may help you understand your cookie options better. Typically, such information can be found under the browser’s ‘Help’, ‘Preferences’ or ‘Options’ menus.

Interest-Based Advertisements

Some of our Sites engage in online interest-based advertising to enhance your experience and show you advertisements that might interest you. Like many organizations, we and our advertising partners display tailored interest-based advertising using information you make available to us when you interact with our Sites.  Interest-based ads, also sometimes referred to as personalized or targeted ads, are displayed to you based on information from activities such as searching on our Sites or visiting websites that contain our content or ads. We do this using a variety of digital marketing networks and ad exchanges, and we use a range of advertising technologies like web beacons, pixels, ad tags, cookies, and mobile identifiers.

To learn more about interest-based ads or to opt-out of receiving third-party interest based ads, please visit http://optout.aboutads.info or www.youronlinechoices.eu. Please note that if you opt out of interest-based advertising, you will still see advertisements – they will just not be tailored to your interests.  Also note that deleting browser cookies can remove the cookie preferences you have made, so you may need to opt-out again in the future.

Blocking Cookies

Should you choose to decline or block cookies by adjusting your browser settings, including cookies essential to the Sites.  Please note that all or parts of our Sites may not be functional or accessible to you. Our Sites will issue cookies as soon you visit the Sites, unless your browser cookie settings are adjusted to prevent such an occurrence. Please review the information provided in this cookie policy on adjusting cookie settings for the browser of your choice.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to help operate our Sites more efficiently, to gather demographic information, and to monitor the level of activity of our Sites. For information on how Google uses data from sites that share information with Google, see https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/ (or other relevant URL that Google may provide from time to time). You can prevent the use of Google Analytics relating to your use of our Sites by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at this link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

Sharing your Personal Information

We share your information internally at Stanford to facilitate and manage the purposes listed above. This includes third parties whom Stanford engages to process your Personal Information on our behalf for the purposes stated above, such as vendors who help Stanford with our marketing, application processing, and web hosting. Stanford may also share your personal data with government and law enforcement agencies or regulators to 1) comply with a legal process, subpoena, order or other legal or regulatory requirement applicable to us; 2) enforce our terms of use or other policies; or 3) pursue available legal remedies or defend against legal claims. Other third parties as you may so request as permitted by this and other Stanford University policies and applicable laws and regulations. Stanford University will not sell any personal information to third parties for their use in direct marketing, advertising, or promotion of their products or services.

International Transfer of Personal Information

Personal information provided to us by users outside of the United States may be transferred to other countries such as the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those of your home country. By providing us with your information you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to the U.S. and processed on servers in the U.S. However, all reasonable steps will be taken to protect your privacy in accordance with the applicable data protection laws.

Non-personally identifiable information we collect and process

Standard, non-personally identifiable internet log information such as browser type and navigation to various parts of the Sites, in an aggregated form, is collected for analytical purposes to improve the browsing experience of our Sites, update relevant content and improve the overall design.

Information security

Stanford University takes the security of your personal information seriously. Our minimum security standards can be found at: https://uit.stanford.edu/guide/securitystandards.

Marketing

Personal Information you submit through our Sites, such as your name, address and other contact information, may be collected by Stanford University for internal marketing and development purposes as well as to respond to your inquiry, complete a transaction for you, or fulfill other forms of customer service. You can choose not to receive marketing from us by “unsubscribing” using the instructions in any marketing email you receive from us.

EEA Data Subject Rights

If you are an individual located in the EEA only, to the extent required by and in accordance with applicable law, you will have the following rights with regard to your Personal Data:

  1. Right of access You may request details of your Personal Information that we hold. We will confirm whether we are processing your Personal Information and we will disclose supplementary information including the categories of Personal Information, the sources from which it originated, the purpose and legal basis for the processing, the expected retention period, and the safeguards regarding Personal Information transfers to non-EEA countries, subject to the limitations set out in applicable statutes, regulations and other laws.
  2. Right of correction We will comply with your request to edit and update incorrect Personal Information promptly.
  3. Right to be forgotten At your request, we will delete your Personal Information promptly if:
    • it is no longer necessary to retain your Personal Information;
    • you withdraw the consent which formed the basis of your Personal Information processing;
    • you object to the processing of your Personal Information and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for such processing;
    • the Personal Information was processed illegally; or
    • the Personal Information must be deleted for us to comply with our legal obligations.

    We will inform any third parties we might have shared your Personal Information with of your deletion request.

    We will decline your request for deletion if processing of your Personal Information is necessary:

    • to comply with our legal obligations;
    • in pursuit of a legal action;
    • to detect and monitor fraud; or
    • for the performance of a task in the public interest.
  4. Right to restrict processing of your Personal Information At your request, we will limit the processing of your Personal Information if:
    • you dispute the accuracy of your Personal Information;
    • your Personal Information was processed unlawfully and you request a limitation on processing, rather than the deletion of your Personal Information;
    • we no longer need to process your Personal Information, but you require your Personal Information in connection with a legal claim; or
    • you object to the processing pending verification as to whether an overriding legitimate ground for such processing exists.
  5. Right to notice related to correction, deletion, and limitation on processing In so far as it is practicable, we will notify you of any correction, deletion, and/or limitation on processing of your Personal Information.
  6. Right to data portability At your request, we will provide you free of charge with your Personal Information in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, if: (i) you provided us with Personal Information; (ii) the processing of your Personal Information is based on your consent or required for the performance of a contract; or (iii) the processing is carried out by automated means.
  7. Right to object Where we process your Personal Information based upon our legitimate interest then you have the right to object to this processing.
  8. Right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing You will not be subject to decisions with a legal or similarly significant effect (including profiling) that are based solely on the automated processing of your Personal Information, unless you have given us your explicit consent or where they are necessary for a contract with us.
  9. Right to withdraw consent You have the right to withdraw any consent you may have previously given us at any time. If you withdraw your consent, this will not affect the lawfulness of our collecting, using and sharing of your Personal Information up to the point in time that you withdraw your consent. Even if you withdraw your consent, we may still use your information that has been fully anonymized and does not personally identify you.
  10. Right to complain to a supervisory authority If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to or seek advice from a supervisory authority and/or bring a claim against us in any court of competent jurisdiction.

If you wish to contact us in connection with the exercise of your rights listed above, please email us at privacy@stanford.edu.  We will respond to your written request without unreasonable delay and in accordance with any deadlines imposed by law. Unless we notify you at the time of your request, we will not charge you any fee in connection with the exercise of your rights.

Access and Choice

Stanford students can manage privacy settings for their directory information in Axess. Faculty, staff and other Stanford affiliates can manage their privacy settings in StanfordYou.

You can choose not to receive emails from us by “unsubscribing” using the instructions in any email you receive from us. This will not stop us from sending emails about your account or your transactions with us.

Document Retention

We keep your Personal Information for as long as needed to fulfill the particular purpose for which it was collected. We may also retain your records if legally required or to fulfill a legitimate interest.

Updates to Privacy Policy

Stanford reserves the right to modify this Privacy Notice at any time. Prior to changes to the Privacy Notice, we will provide you notice, which shall be available at privacy.stanford.edu, prior to the effective date of any notice. Your continued use of the Sites after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.

Contact Information

For more information on how we collect and process your Personal Information, or if you have any complaints please contact privacy@stanford.edu. Current Stanford faculty, staff and students should open a case at https://privacyrequest.stanford.edu/.

Effective Date

The effective date of this policy is October 1, 2020.