Effective Date: April 4, 2018
Abilene Christian University, a top online Christian university, is committed to protecting your privacy while you visit our websites. This policy is designed to explain why we collect information from our visitors and how that information is used and disclosed.
Changes in Privacy Policy
This privacy policy is current as of the effective date set forth above. ACU reserves the right to change this privacy policy from time to time, consistent with applicable privacy laws and principles.
More Information
For additional information about this policy or ACU’s privacy practices, contact us:
Abilene Christian University
1600 Campus Court
Abilene, TX 79699
Type of Information Collected and How it is Used
ACU collects both personally identifiable information (PII) and non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) from its visitors. The information collected is used to help us identify our target market and improve the educational services we offer. The collected information is primarily used for marketing purposes and visitors may expect to receive future communication from ACU.
Non-PII is collected automatically through cookies and other web technology. We also collect certain non-PII when you visit our website, such as the browser you are using (e.g., Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer), your operating system (e.g., Windows XP, Mac OS), the domain name from which you receive Internet access, your IP address and aggregate information regarding ACU web pages you access or visit.
PII is collected when a visitor fills out a Request More Information Form, application or otherwise provides information to our website.
To receive additional information about ACU, you can fill out our Request More Information Form by submitting PII, including name, address, phone number, and email address. This information is collected so that a university representative can contact you. A phone number is also supplied for those who wish to contact ACU by phone.
Our student sites may also require you to provide specific user identification information, such as username, address, email address and student ID number. This information is collected so our university staff can contact you if necessary. Specific user identification data is also necessary to verify your identity prior to allowing access to some of these sites.
Our Office of Alumni Relations subdomain and other web pages allow visitors to order products or make donations. In these cases, we require contact information and credit card numbers. This information is used for the specific transaction, to purchase and send products ordered and any receipts.
It is also possible to apply for employment opportunities through our website. Our online application requests standard employment information, such as your name, address, phone number, email address, employment history, languages you may be fluent in, education, teaching experience, publications, honors or awards you may have received, work-related skills (e.g. technology experience), professionally related community activities and any licensures, certifications, professional memberships or endorsements you may have.
Security
Our websites have reasonable security measures in place designed to protect against the loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction of information under our control.
We take reasonable steps to ensure the data is reliable, accurate, complete and current for its intended use. Personal information collected from visitors is protected in transmission to our websites with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol encryption. ACU abides by all laws concerning the release of personal information and does not sell or rent any personal information to third parties, except as described below.
Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that the PII we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this privacy policy.
Disclosure or Transfer of Personal Information
We may disclose personal information to third parties who perform tasks on ACU’s behalf and to other third parties engaged by ACU in the ordinary course of business, provided that the third party agrees to provide adequate protections for your personal information that are no less protective than those set out in this privacy policy and to use the personal information only for the purposes for which the third party has been engaged by ACU.
We may also disclose PII in response to valid legal processes, such as a court order or a subpoena, in response to a law enforcement agency’s request or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud,situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use or as otherwise required by law.
We work with Google to display retargeted ads to our site prospects, on our behalf, across the Internet. They collect non-PII about your visits to our website and your interaction with our products and services. The anonymous information is collected through the use of a pixel tag, which is industry standard technology used by most major websites. No PII is collected during this process. If you do not want Google to collect this information, you may opt out of their service. Opting out will not affect your use of our site.
To opt out of Google retargeting, visit https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated
Visit the following website to opt out of national campaigns networkadvertising.org/choices
Opt Out
If you do not wish to receive marketing emails from us, click on the opt-out link provided within the email, or you may email the following addresses with the subject line “Opt-Out”
Undergraduate marketing: info@admissions.acu.edu
Residential graduate marketing: gradinfo@acu.edu
Online graduate marketing: acuonline@acu.edu
Limitations
ACU may provide links to other websites; and there are websites that may link directly to ACU. ACU does not endorse these third party websites or the content and has no control over their privacy practices.
This privacy policy only applies to information collected on acu.edu affiliated websites.
Online Advertising
ACU uses Online Advertising Features including Google, Bing, and Yahoo advertising and cookie tracking implemented on acu.edu, gradapply.acu.edu/apply, and apply.acu.edu/apply. ACU also uses some or all of the following Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter cookie tracking, web beacons or similar technologies to collect or receive visitor information. These features allow ACU to track impressions on our website, track demographic and interests of visitors, collect data for remarketing purposes and track rich media assisted conversions. If you wish to opt out of these online advertising features, follow the instructions on the corresponding pages:
Google: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Bing: https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/optout-optimization
Yahoo: https://yahoo.mydashboard.oath.com/lite
Facebook: facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/abilene-christian-university/
Twitter: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170405
SMS Text
By completing a Request Information Form on acu.edu or grad.acu.edu for online graduate programs, you opt in to text communication and consent to receive mobile text from our Enrollment Admissions team. Consent to receive text messages is not required as a condition of purchasing any goods or services.
STOP Information
Text STOP to stop receiving text messages from Abilene Christian University.