Hope College Privacy Statement

Overview

This privacy statement (“The Statement”) applies solely to identifiable information about you (“Your Information”) collected via www.hope.edu (“ The Site”). Any data collected or provided outside www.hope.edu is not covered.  The Statement will notify you of:

• How Your Information is used and with whom it may be shared;
• What choices are available to you regarding Your Information;
• The security procedures in place to protect Your Information.

By using The Site you acknowledge an understanding of The Statement and all its contents.

Information Collected

Hope College (the “College”) is the sole owner of Your Information collected on The Site. The only people with access to Your Information are College employees and designates of the College that are fulfilling specific and defined business objectives. The College will not sell or rent Your Information.

In general, you can visit The Site without identifying to the College who you are or revealing any identifiable information about yourself. However, your web activity may be linked with Your Information voluntarily provided on the admissions applicant portal or collected by engaging with emails or web forms from the College.

The College will use Your Information to respond to you regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share Your Information with any third party outside of Hope, other than as necessary to fulfill your request. And, unless you ask us not to, the College may contact you via email, SMS/text, social media phone, or other methods in the future to tell you about events, news, services and/or changes to The Statement.

Your Access to and Control Over Your Information 

You can do the following at any time by contacting the College via the methods detailed at the conclusion of The Statement: 

• Inquire as to the specifics of Your Information gathered via The Site, if any.
• Request changes or corrections to Your Information gathered via The Site.
• Request that the College delete Your Information gathered via The Site if Your Information no longer necessary to the purpose for which it was collected or there is no compelling reason for its continued retention.
• Express any concern you have about how the College uses Your Information.

Use of Third Party Services

The Site is provided using numerous third-party services that may collect data consistent with the terms of those services’ individual privacy policies. The data collected by third-party services could include (but is not limited to) device-specific details, location data, credentials, and cookie-related items.

Because The Site uses third-party services, those providers will have access to Your Information and may use Your Information to provide and improve those services. College staff may use Your Information via third-party services to better understand use of The Site and to enhance the personalized user experiences offered by the College.

Cookies 

HTTP cookies (“Cookies”) are used on The Site. A Cookie is a piece of data placed by a website on the visitor’s local storage to improve that individual’s access to the website and to identify repeat visitors. For instance, the College may use Cookies to minimize the number of times an individual’s password must be entered on The Site. Cookies can also enable the College to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on The Site. Cookies may be linked to Your Information for admissions purposes. You have the option to turn off Cookies in your browser settings.

Links 

The Site contains links to other websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those other websites. We encourage visitors to be aware when they leave The Site and to understand the privacy policies of any other websites they visit regardless of whether such websites were accessed via The Site.

Security 

The College has reasonable physical, technical, and procedural mechanisms in place to protect Your Information both online and offline.

Servers associated with both The Site and Your Information will reside in secure locations and will be accessible exclusively by individuals with an assigned role in providing or maintaining that hardware.

Your Information will be collected and electronically transmitted in an encrypted and secure manner. You can verify this by verifying a lock icon and "https" appear at the beginning of the page’s address/URL.

Your Information is provided to College employees only when required to perform a specific duty or task.

Despite these measures, the College does not represent or warrant that Your Information will be protected against access, alteration, misuse or deletion by The College or third parties.

Contact Us

If you have a question about The Statement, its implementation or a related concern, you may contact us web@hope.edu or 616-395-7860.

Revised June 30, 2020