Privacy Statement

Per Texas State Technology Resources:

Texas State University is committed to protecting your personal privacy. We treat your privacy as we do our own.

This Privacy Statement discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for our website, www.txstate.edu. The statement outlines the information we may collect, how we protect it, how we may use that information, and how you can elect to change your information.

1. Collection of Information

While using our web pages, you do not have to identify yourself or divulge personal information. We may collect general information from you that does not identify you personally. This may include data such as your IP address, the name of the web page from which you entered our site, and which of our web pages you visited and for how long, as well as other general behavioral data. We aggregate this information to help us better focus on the needs and interests of our visitors and improve the overall functionality of our website.

As you use our website, we will not collect any personal information including your name, street address, email address, and telephone number, unless you provide the information to us voluntarily.

2. Cookies

When you view our website, we may store some information on your computer in the form of a cookie. A "cookie" is a small file containing information that is placed on a user’s computer by a web server.

Cookies allow us to tailor our website to better match your interests and preferences. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any of your personally identifiable information while on our site. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience all features and content of our website.

Any information that Texas State University web servers may store in cookies is used for internal purposes only. Cookie data is not used in any way that would disclose personally identifiable information to outside parties unless legally required to do so in connection with law enforcement investigations or other legal proceedings.

Texas State University uses Google Analytics and other tools to gather user-data to improve the performance and use of our website and better tailor the information delivered to our users.

Learn how to disable cookies for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome.

3. Third-Party Content

We may utilize third party services such as Facebook Pixel to better provide you with information, but likewise, will never collect personally identifiable information or transfer it to these companies.

Learn more about remarketing and ads on third party websites at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

4. Logs and Network Monitoring

Texas State University maintains log files of all access to its site and also monitors network traffic for the purposes of site management. This information is used to help diagnose problems with the server and to carry out other administrative tasks. Log analysis tools are also used to create summary statistics to determine which information is of most interest to users, to identify system problem areas, or to help determine technical requirements.

Information such as the following is collected in these files:

IP address: the IP address of the computer requesting access to the site
User-Agent: the type of browser, its version, and the operating system of the computer requesting access (e.g., IE 11 for Windows, Safari/Firefox for MacOS)
Referer: the web page the user came from
System date: the date and time on the server at the time of access
Full request: the exact request the user made
Status: the status code the server returned, e.g., fulfilled request, file not found
Content length: the size, in bytes, of the file sent to the user
Method: the request method used by the browser (e.g., post, get)
Universal Resource Identifier (URI): the location of the particular resource requested. (More commonly known as a URL.)
Query string of the URI: anything after a question mark in a URI. For example, if a keyword search has been requested, the search word will appear in the query string.
Protocol: the technical protocol and version used, i.e., http 1.1, ftp, etc.

The above information is not used in any way that would reveal personally identifying information to outside parties unless legally required to do so in connection with law enforcement investigations or other legal proceedings.

5. Email and Form Information

If a member of the general public sends Texas State University an email message or fills out a web-based form with a question or comment that contains personally identifying information, that information will only be used to respond to the request and analyze trends. The message may be redirected to another person or office that is better able to answer your question. Such information is not used in any way that would reveal personally identifying information to outside parties unless legally required to do so in connection with law enforcement investigations or other legal proceedings.

6. Links

This site contains links to other sites. Texas State University is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

7. Use and Sharing of Information

When you do provide us with personal data, we may use that information to contact you or provide you with information about a Texas State University service, event, or news.

If we use your personal data to contact you, we will provide you with a method allowing you to opt-out of future communication. You can also contact us by email, writing or telephoning, at the below contact information.

We will not sell, share, or otherwise distribute your personally identifiable information to third parties, except as required by law. Texas State University is a public institution, some information collected from our website, server log information, emails, and web-based forms, may be subject to the Texas Public Information Act.

8. Your Consent to This Privacy Statement

By using our website, you signify that you agree with the terms of our current Privacy Statement as posted in this area of the web site. If you do not agree with any term in this Statement, please do not provide any personal information on this site. If you do not provide personal information on this site you may not be able to do certain things, like access particular areas of the site, request certain types of information, or send us email.

9. Our Commitment to Security

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of the information under our control. Safeguards include restricted access to computer systems and paper files, firewalls, encryption and secure authentication methods.

For example, when our online giving form asks you to enter personally identifiable information for online transactions, your information is protected using Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS encryption). Any information you supply is encrypted when you send it from your browser to our server.

Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. If you are uncomfortable sharing your personal data on the Internet, please contact us at the email address below.

10. Privacy Rights

Texas State's Privacy Rights Notice describes your rights with respect to the information you supply to Texas State University via any paper or electronic form(s).

11. Changes to this Statement

We may occasionally decide to change our privacy statement, especially as new features are added to our website. If there are changes to this statement, we will post those changes here so you are always aware of what information we collect, and how we use it. If at any point we decide to use your personal information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we would notify you and it’s your choice as to whether or not we use your information in this different manner.

12. How to Contact Us

If there are any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or dealings with this website, you can contact us by email at webprivacy@txstate.edu.

Effective February 2018