Purpose

The success of our websites, in part, relies on the trust visitors place in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to respect the privacy of personal information that may be gathered in the course of a web visit.

This web privacy statement informs you of the ways in which we may collect information, the uses to which that information may be put, and the ways in which we will protect any information you choose to provide us.

There are four types of information that this site may collect during your visit:

• network traffic logs,
• web visit logs,
• cookies, and
• information voluntarily provided by you.

Network Traffic Logs

In the course of ensuring network security and consistent service for all users, the Institute employs tools to do such things as monitor network traffic, identify unauthorized access to information or network resources, detect computer viruses and other software that might damage Institute computers or the network, and monitor and tune the performance of the Institute network. In the course of such monitoring, these tools may detect such information as e-mail headers, addresses from network packets, and other information.

Information from these activities is used for the purpose of maintaining the security and performance of the Institute’s network and computer systems. Personally identifiable information from these activities is not released to external parties without your consent unless required by law or necessary to protect the legal rights of the Institute.

Web Visit Logs

Institute web sites routinely collect and store information from online visitors to help manage those sites and improve service. This information is used in conjunction with Google Analytics to gather metrics on the pages visited on the site, the date and time of the visit, the Internet address (URL or IP address) of the referring site, the domain name and IP address from which the access occurred, the version of browser used, the capabilities of the browser, and search terms used on our search engines. This site makes no attempt to identify individual visitors from this information. Any personally identifiable information from these activities is not released to external parties without your consent unless required by law or necessary to protect the legal rights of the Institute.

Cookies

Cookies are pieces of information stored by your web browser on behalf of a web site and returned to the web site on request. If you prefer not to receive cookies, you may turn them off in your browser, or you may set your browser to ask you before accepting a new cookie. Some pages may not function properly if the cookies are turned off.

This site may use cookies for two purposes: (1) to carry data about your current session at the site from one web page to the next, and (2) to identify you to the site between visits. Unless otherwise notified on this site, we will not store data, other than for these two purposes, in cookies. We do not use cookies to track your movement among different web sites and do not exchange cookies with other entities.

Cookies are stored on your computer, and accordingly we neither store cookies on our computers nor forward them to any external parties.

Information Voluntarily Provided by You

In the course of using Rensselaer's websites, you may choose to provide us with information to help us serve your needs. For example, you may send us electronic mail (through a mailer or a web form) to request information, you may sign up for a mailing list, or you may send us your address so we may send you an application or other material. Any personally identifiable information you send us will be used only for the purpose indicated. Requests for information will be directed to the appropriate staff to respond to the request, and may be recorded to help us update our site to better respond to similar requests. We will not sell, exchange or otherwise distribute your personally identifiable information without your consent, except to the extent required by law or as necessary to protect the legal rights of the Institute. We do not retain the information longer than necessary for normal operations. Each web page that requests information discloses the purpose of that information. If you do not wish to have the information used in that manner, you are not required to provide it. Please contact the person listed on the specific page, or listed below, with questions or concerns on the use of personally identifiable information.

Institute web sites provide links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. We do not control these sites and resources, do not endorse them, and are not responsible for their availability, content, or delivery of services. In addition, external sites are not bound by the Institute’s web privacy policy; they may have their own policies or none at all. Often you can tell you are leaving an Institute web site by noting the URL of the destination site.

Further Information

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, you can contact:

Division of Strategic Communications and External Relations (SCER)
1000 Troy Building
110 8th Street
Troy, NY 12180
webcomm@lists.rpi.edu

The Rensselaer website contains links to other independently run websites within the Rensselaer network and to some sites outside the “rpi.edu” domain. Rensselaer is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. See the Privacy Policy for the Rensselaer Alumni Association Website.