Texas State Technical College System, an institution of higher education and an agency of the State of Texas (“TSTC,” “We” or “Us”) is committed to respecting the privacy rights of visitors to the websites operated by TSTC, including without limitation www.SKILLSENGINE.com and all subdomains (collectively, the “Site”), and all of the C4EO systems, applications and services, including without limitation, its SKILLSENGINE and SKILLS LIBRARY offerings (collectively, “Services”) made available or provided from the Site. TSTC has adopted the privacy policies outlined below (this “Privacy Policy”), which serve as the basis for our use of personal information in our business relationships. This Privacy Policy is intended to comply with privacy laws applicable to TSTC and the operation of the Site and the Services. This Privacy Policy, however, does not cover TSTC’s offline privacy practices.
We collect three types of information about users: (1) “Personal Information” (such as name, email address, IP address, location, social media account user name or ID, phone number, personal preferences, personally identifiable information resumes, job postings, employment or education records, and other account-related information); (2) “De-Identified Information” (such as statistical information on job skills, requirements or qualifications); and (3) “Aggregate Information” (such as information about how many users log on to the Site on a daily basis):
We will establish minimum and maximum retention periods based upon the type of information collected (i.e. sensitivity), the intended purposes and as otherwise may be legally required.
Personal Information shall NOT include any personal information posted or sent by or to you in any public forum (such as a comment box on a particular blog or social media account) on the Site. Participation in these public forums requires the public release and dissemination of such information, and thus TSTC cannot commit to treating such information confidentially in the same manner that other personal information will be treated under this Privacy Policy. Participation in these features of the Site is voluntary and thus your consent to certain terms is required before participation is allowed.
TSTC maintains commercially reasonable safeguards to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of the Personal Information provided by you. Such security safeguards are intended to be appropriate to the sensitivity of the Personal Information collected. To the extent that TSTC transfers any Personal Information to third parties, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to assure that such third parties to whom we may transfer any Personal Information have knowledge of our Privacy Policy and provide sufficient protection of such Personal Information. TSTC is committed to properly securing the Personal Information collected online. To help us accomplish this, we take the following steps:
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), and certain privacy and security regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement certain provisions of HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, as modified by the Final Omnibus Rule (collectively the “HIPAA Requirements”), The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), as well as applicable state privacy and security laws and regulations, regulate and limit the use and disclosure of your protected health information. TSTC is committed to protecting the privacy and security of protected health and educational information gathered by or through the Site in conformance with the HIPAA Requirements, FERPA, and applicable state laws. However, TSTC will not collect any HIPAA or FERPA information and you represent to TSTC that you will not (and you will not permit a Named User to) load or process any data comprising (i) FERPA or FERPA-related information, (ii) any protected health information (“PHI”) as such term is defined in HIPAA, or (iii) any personally identifiable information, including name, address, phone number, e-mail address, date of birth, social security number, credit card information, driver’s license number, passport information, account numbers, and any other information that could reasonably identify a person, and any breach of the foregoing representation shall be material.
Please note that Personal Information stored on the Site will be collected, stored and processed in the United States of America. By this Privacy Policy, TSTC has intended to abide by the safe harbor principles published by the United States Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of data from the European Union and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from Canada. For more information on the safe harbor framework, please visit the U.S. Department of Commerce’s website at http://export.gov/safeharbor/.
The Site may utilize a standard technology called a “cookie” to collect information about how the Site is used. A “cookie” is a small text file placed on your hard drive by our web page server. These cookies do not collect Personal Information, only Aggregate Information.
Your browser is probably set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our Site or the Services will not function properly when you view them.
We do not combine Aggregate Information collected through cookies with other Personal Information to determine who you are or your e-mail address. The Site can access the Aggregate Information only from a cookie sent by the Site. We cannot access other cookies sent by other website or the information contained in those other websites. Additionally, we cannot learn your email address through the use of a cookie.
You must specifically submit Personal Information to TSTC via the Services or the Site. For example, in order to set up an account, you must voluntarily submit your name and email address to TSTC and, if you wish to participate in the social media elements of our Site (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube), your social media user account name. We use cookies to track usage of the Site and the Services and further customize your experience when you are visiting the Site or using the Services. By tracking usage, we can best determine what features of the Site and the Services best serve the users. Without cookies, the features would “forget” items that may be stored. The session information used by the Site is deleted when your browser is closed. We may use cookies to track banner advertisement usage.
When you visit the Site, we automatically collect Aggregate Information about your visit. We can tell the type of computer, browser, and web service that you are using. We also know the date, time, and pages that you visit on the Site and the geolocation of the device that you are using. Collecting this information helps us design the Site and the Services to enhance your experience during access. We may use Aggregate Information for internal purposes, such as tracking demographic data and providing targeted content to make the Site or the Services more useful to our visitors. The gathering of this Aggregate Information may be accomplished by the use of cookies. In particular, TSTC may collect an IP Address from all visitors to the Site. An IP Address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. We use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, administer our Site, analyze trends, track users’ movement on the Site, gather broad demographic information for aggregate use in order for us to improve the Site, and deliver customized, personalized content. IP addresses will be linked to Personal Information for purposes of authentication and access key verification.
We do provide third parties with De-Identified Information or Aggregate Information about our users, as more fully set forth in this Privacy Policy. On those pages of the Site not requiring your account login, you may decline to accept cookies sent by the Site by selecting an option on your browser to reject cookies. However, some portions of the Site may require account login or account registration in order to access those areas. In such case, we ask that you provide us with basic information on your account set-up page. Cookies enable our server to know that you are a registered user; therefore, our registration system requires that you accept the cookies from the Site. Other websites linked to the Site also may send cookies; however we do not control such activities.
In certain instances on our Site, you may be asked to opt-in to the use of cookies before you will be given access. You will only be asked to opt-in upon your initial visit to those portions of the Site only. However, if you elect to not opt-in to the use of cookies, you may not be able to access those portions of the Site or your ability to use those Site features will be impacted.
TSTC also may use a unique assigned number located with the Site’s URL to determine each web site from which you navigated to get to the Site. While this number may not be apparent to you, it does not contain your Personal Information.
Your privacy is important to us. We will use the Personal Information provided by you in accordance with good commercial practice and applicable law. If you provide us with your e-mail address (or have done so in the past), we will send notifications or e-mail offers to you in accordance with the user account preferences opted by you. When you set up your user account (and at any time thereafter), you will select and control how Personal Information is shared from your account settings. The default setting will select all types of email notifications offered by TSTC. Your email will be used for notifications only. TSTC does not share your public email address with others in its public forums.
We also may use information provided by you, for example, to provide notifications about certain features of our Site or the Services to measure consumer interest in our various services, and to inform you about various products and services offered on the Site (including both our own products and the products of others). These offers may be based on information provided by you in your account settings, in surveys, from information that may indicate your preferences, as well as information available from external sources. These e-mail offers will come exclusively from TSTC or its affiliates. All offers are carefully developed to ensure that they meet our standards. Our goal is to target offers to Site users who we believe will find them of value. The lists used to send you product and service offers are developed and managed under conditions designed to safeguard the security and privacy of your Personal Information. By providing information using the Site or the Services, you warrant to TSTC that your Personal Information is reliable for its intended uses, accurate, complete and correct, and that you will promptly notify use if such Personal Information is no longer current or correct.
We also may use your Personal Information collected via the Site and each API connected to the Site in the performance of all Services in order to provide, maintain and improve our Services as well as to develop new products and services to be offered as part of the Services. For example, we use information sent to our APIs to analyze data, to improve our product algorithms and to tune our outputs based on a potential employer’s skills data.
As a general policy, TSTC does not share, sell or trade Personal information with third parties without permission from the user. However, we may provide your Personal Information to third parties directly involved in the operation, performance, support and/or maintenance of the Site or the Services and each product or service offered on the Site, including without limitation, our web site designers, hosts, service providers, technical consultants, and business partners. Any Personal Information, however, will be used by such organizations only to perform their functions and/or to provide services in support of the Site or the Services, and as otherwise permitted by law or approved by you in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Aggregate Information or De-Identified Information may at times be shared with TSTC’s business partners and other third parties.
We reserve the right to assign or transfer your Personal Information to any successor in interest to our business associated with the Site or the Services by merger, reorganization, sale of all or substantially all of our assets or equity interests or operation of law. We also may divulge Personal Information if such information is required for us to comply with any valid legal process, such as a subpoena, search warrant, statute or court order, or if we reasonably believe that you have commit unlawful acts or acts that may endanger the health or safety of another user or of the general public.
Notwithstanding any provisions of this Privacy Policy to the contrary, you understand that TSTC will comply with the Texas Public Information Act, Gov’t Code, Chapter 552 as interpreted by judicial opinions and opinions of the Attorney General of the State of Texas. TSTC will notify you of receipt of a request for information related to this Agreement. You will cooperate with TSTC in the production of documents responsive to the request. You may request that TSTC seek an opinion from the Attorney General of the State of Texas; however, TSTC will not honor your request for an opinion if the request is not based upon a reasonable interpretation of the Texas Public Information Act. Additionally, you will notify TSTC General Counsel of any third party requests for information that was provided by the State of Texas for use in conducting this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy and all data and other information generated or otherwise obtained in the performance of its responsibilities under this Privacy Policy may be subject to the Texas Public Information Act. You are required to make any information created or exchanged with the state pursuant to this contract, and not otherwise excepted from disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act, available in a format that is accessible by the public at no additional charge to the state. You agree to maintain the confidentiality of all TSTC confidential information received from the State of Texas during the performance of this Privacy Policy, including information which discloses confidential personal information particularly, but not limited to, social security numbers.
TSTC provides its account users with an easy means to decline receiving notifications or offers by email. We recognize the importance of providing you with the choice to “opt-out.” You can control the number of notifications sent by email by logging into your user account and changing your account preferences. If you prefer, you also can “opt-out” of receiving any email notifications by contacting our Privacy Officer at the Contact Address below. All e-mail offers sent by TSTC will inform you as to how you can “opt-out” or decline receiving further e-mail offers. However, with respect to any Personal Information that is sensitive in nature, we will require you to “opt-in” to having such Personal Information used or shared by TSTC.
TSTC has made available the public forums on the Site so that you may have an opportunity to interact with other Site visitors in order to share knowledge and news or participate in social media or group blogs. Since participation in such forums is voluntary, you control what Personal Information may be disclosed to others. In order to avoid your email address or other Personal Information from being gathered and used by others for unsolicited, inappropriate or harmful purposes, TSTC advises that you should be cautious about posting your email address or phone number or other personal information in any public forums, and you do so at your own discretion and risk. TSTC is not responsible and shall not be held liable for information and Personal Information posted in the public forums. In addition, access to Personal Information contained in your account is protected by use of a password so keep your password private and secure.
Additionally, you may request to view the Personal Information collected about you through your use of the Site operated by TSTC by accessing your user account on the Site. If you prefer, you can send an e-mail to our Privacy Officer at the Contact Address below. If you send your request by email, we will likely send such Personal Information (or a summary thereof) to your email address on file for the account name in our database, or we will send the Personal Information to you in another secure manner. If at any time you wish to change, correct or update your Personal Information, or have it removed from our database, you may do so by accessing your user account on the Site. You also may submit a change request to our Privacy Officer by sending an email to the Contact Address below.
We have designated our Privacy Officer, who can be contacted at the following address (“Contact Address”):
By Mail:
Texas State Technical College
3801 Campus Drive, Waco, Texas 76705
ATTN: Tom Hooker, Privacy Officer
By Telephone: 254-867-4897
By Email: tom.hooker@TSTC.edu
Our Privacy Officer is accountable for TSTC’s compliance with this Privacy Policy and applicable federal and state privacy laws. If you have any challenge concerning our compliance with this Privacy Policy, or if you have any questions about TSTC’s purposes for the collection and retention of your Personal Information, then please contact our Privacy Officer at the Contact Address and provide a description of your concerns sufficient in detail to permit the Privacy Officer to investigate your concerns and contact you. It is our intent to make available to you through the Privacy Officer specific information about this Privacy Policy and our management of your Personal Information as may be required by applicable law.
TSTC uses a self-assessment approach to ensure compliance with this Privacy Policy and periodically verifies that this Privacy Policy is accurate, comprehensive for the information intended to be covered, prominently displayed, completely implement and accessible and in conformity with applicable laws, including without limitation the safe harbor principles. We encourage you to raise any concerns using the contact information provided above.
TSTC does not knowingly solicit data from children or knowingly market to children. TSTC is concerned about the safety of children and their use of the Internet. Therefore, in accordance with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, we do not knowingly request or solicit personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. In the event that we receive actual knowledge that we have collected such Personal Information without the requisite and verifiable parental consent, we will delete that information from our database as quickly as is reasonably practical.
You should be aware that other Internet websites to which you hyperlink from the Site may contain privacy statements that differ from our Privacy Policy. TSTC encourages you to read and understand such privacy policies and terms of use of any linked websites accessed by you. If you decide to access such linked websites and/or provide any personal information to such linked websites, you do so entirely at your own risk. TSTC is not responsible for such provisions, and expressly disclaims any and all liability related to such provisions.
No transmission of data over the Internet is guaranteed to be completely secure. It may be possible for third parties not under the control of TSTC to intercept or access transmissions or private communications unlawfully. If you choose to visit the Site or use the Services, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy, including but not limited to limitations of damages and application of the law of the State of Texas and the laws, regulations, ordinances and treaties of the United States of America.
You further should be aware that there may be constitutional and statutory limitations on the authority of TSTC (a state agency) to enter into certain terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy, including, but not limited to, those terms and conditions relating to liens on TSTC’s property; disclaimers and limitations of warranties; disclaimers and limitations of liability for damages; waivers, disclaimers and limitations of legal rights, remedies, requirements and processes; limitations of periods to bring legal action; granting control of litigation or settlement to another party; liability for acts or omissions of third parties; payment of attorneys’ fees; dispute resolution; indemnities; and confidentiality (collectively, the “Limitations”), and terms and conditions related to the Limitations will not be binding on TSTC except to the extent authorized by the laws and Constitution of the State of Texas.
This Privacy Policy was last modified on February 3, 2016. This Privacy Policy has been adopted with the recognition that Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, and that underlying business models are still not established. Accordingly, these policies are subject to change at any time and TSTC expressly reserves the right to modify the terms of this Privacy Policy at any time and in our reasonable discretion, by posting a change notice to the home page of the Site. Your continued use of the Site or the Services following our posting of a change notice will constitute binding acceptance of this Privacy Policy and all changes thereto.
By using the Site or the Services, you expressly consent to the use and disclosure of information, including but not limited to Personal Information, as described in this Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the Site or the Services after the effective date of any modification to the Privacy Policy will be deemed to be your agreement to the changed terms. You agree to review the Privacy Policy each time you use the Site so that you are aware of such modifications.
