I. Commitment to Privacy

Hutchinson Community College (“HutchCC” and/or the “College”) is committed to safeguarding all Private Information entrusted to the College by the public and members of the HutchCC community. This notice describes the College’s general privacy policy as it relates to the collection, protection, and disclosure of such information. (Note: see the “Definitions” section below for the definition of “Private Information.”)

II. Purpose

To set forth requirements regarding information entrusted to the College by the public and members of the HutchCC community.

III. Scope & Application

This Privacy Policy describes College practices in connection with information HutchCC may collect through the use of the College website (“Site”). By accessing this site, visitors consent to the collection and use of the information described in this Privacy Policy. If you are a HutchCC consumer, please read about our policy and practices relating to information the College collects in providing services to you.

IV. Definitions

Private Information: includes all information protected by state and/or federal law or that the College is contractually obligated to protect. Private Information also includes information designated by the College as private (confidential or sensitive) through the creation of standards, procedures, and guidelines. Access to these data must be tightly monitored.

Examples of Private Information include, but are not limited to the following:

• Nondirectory student records as defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the College Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act Policy (Policy 1043)
• Financial aid and scholarship records
• Any identifying information of an individual
• Personal information utilized to verify identify, including but not limited to Social Security numbers (SSN) and HutchCC identification numbers (HutchCC ID)
• Passwords and PINS
• Digital signatures
• Individually identifiable health information protected by state or federal law (including but not limited to “protected health information” as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA))
• Individually identifying information created and collected by research projects
• Credit card numbers and financial transactions covered by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Standard
• Information resources with access to confidential or sensitive data
• Information covered by nondisclosure agreements
• Any information relating to an identified or identifiable person, or personal data, as defined by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

V.  Collection of Private Information

HutchCC will only collect Private Information, such as your name, address, or telephone number, if you provide it to the College voluntarily. Private Information collected on our Site is stored and processed in the United States.

In addition, the College automatically collects certain information regarding visitors to our Site, including information about your equipment, browsing actions, and usage patterns. HutchCC uses this information solely for internal purposes, such as to improve our Site.

The technologies the College uses for this automatic data collection include cookies. A cookie is a small file, placed on the hard drive of your computer, containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to your web browser. The information the College automatically collects is statistical data and does not include Private Information. However, Private Information that the College stores about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

You have the ability to delete cookie files from your hard drive at any time or avoid cookies by configuring your browser to reject them or to notify you when a cookie is being placed on your hard drive.

Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

The College may use cookies for the following purposes:

• Authentication: to identify you when you visit our Site and as you navigate our Site
• Security: to protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and to protect our Site and services generally
• Advertising: to help HutchCC display advertisements that will be relevant to you, including remarketing
• Analysis: to analyze the use and performance of our Site and services

The College, through third party vendors, occasionally uses third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and serve advertisements based on your past visits to our Site. The techniques HutchCC’s third-party vendors employ do not collect any Private Information.

You can visit the Digital Advertising Alliance to identify and opt out of cookie-based targeted advertising. Alternatively, you can opt out of third-party cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out website.

In addition, your browser or device may offer settings that allow you to choose whether browser cookies are set and to delete them. For more information about these controls, visit your browser or device’s help resources.

The College uses Google Analytics. The information gathered by Google Analytics cookies relating to our Site is used to create reports about the use of our Site. Google’s privacy policy is available online.

The College uses Google AdWords. The information gathered by Google AdWords cookies is used to serve you with relevant advertising based on your interests, as determined by your use of our Site and other websites across the web. You can opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting Google’s Ads Settings.

The College uses social media based Advertising (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). The information gathered by social media cookies is used to serve you with relevant advertising based on your interests and use of our Site. You can opt out of seeing online internet-based ads from social media and other participating companies through the Digital Advertising Alliance in the United States, the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada in Canada, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance in Europe.

The College occasionally hires other companies to provide services on its behalf; for example, to process event registrations. HutchCC will provide these companies only with the information they need to deliver services, and they are contractually prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

At any time, while accessing our Site, any visitor may decline participation in any activity that would require providing information (e.g. such as survey email or e-commerce). Your decision not to participate will not affect your ability to use any other feature on our Site.

The College offers you opportunities to engage in blogs, forums, and social media accounts, as well as similar functions within its restricted DragonZone platform, that are designed to be visible to other users, including comments and postings. You should be aware that any private information you choose to submit via those methods can be read, collected, and used by other participants and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. HutchCC is not responsible for the private information you choose to submit when you engage in such activities.

The College does not knowingly collect any information from children under age 13 (“children”) nor does it provide any Private Information collected from children, regardless of its source, to any third-party for any purpose whatsoever. No information collected from children is used for any marketing or promotional purposes, either inside or outside HutchCC. If the College learns that it has collected or received private information from a child without verification of parental consent, it will delete that information.

VI. Appropriate Use of Private Information

Private Information may be collected in a variety of ways, paper or electronic, including but not limited to, websites, surveys, email, information requests, databases, etc., as required to support official College activities.

Private Information collected, regardless of the method of collection or format, may be used only to carry out the authorized business of the College. The College shall make reasonable efforts to limit the Private Information it collects to only that information strictly relevant to accomplish a clearly defined institutional purpose.

Every division of the College is responsible for maintaining the necessary confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the Private Information it handles and for disclosing such information only with recipients officially authorized by the College. Every division is responsible for granting to assigned individuals within the division the reasonable, minimum access to Private Information needed to accomplish the necessary institutional purposes. All College employees are required to abide by state and federal laws and College policies, procedures and guidelines regarding the protection and handling of Private Information.

VII. Disclosure of Private Information

Private Information may be disclosed to external recipients only to the extent that is permitted or required by law and as authorized by the College. Disclosure must comply with applicable requirements regarding consent or authorization for disclosure. Additional College policies, procedures, and guidelines may also apply to specific types of information.

VIII. Security & Protection of Private Information

The College has implemented a number of security features to help prevent the unauthorized release of or access to personal information. Although HutchCC has endeavored to create a secure and reliable environment, the confidentiality of any communication or material transmitted to or from HutchCC cannot be guaranteed.

IX. External Websites

Some hyperlinks and banner advertisement may link to third-party websites. You should be aware that these third-party websites are not controlled by HutchCC and are not subject to this Privacy Policy. You should check the privacy policies of the third-party websites to learn how your Private Information will be collected and used.

X. User Rights

You have a number of rights under the GDPR. These include the rights of access, to be informed, to rectification, to erasure of private data (“to be forgotten”), to restrict processing, to data portability, to object, and rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling. You also have the right to withdraw consent to the use of your private data.

You may exercise these rights by contacting the HutchCC Privacy Officer.

XI. Changes to Policy

The College reserves the right to change this policy at any time by notifying visitors of the existence and location of the new or revised policy. Your continued use of this Site, following the posting of changes to these terms, will acknowledge your acceptance of such changes.