How we use your information

Information Collection and Use
Bethany Lutheran College is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. Bethany Lutheran College collects information from our users ("you") at a number of different points on our web site. Whenever you are asked to provide personal information, we will tell you why the information is needed and who will use the information.

Registration
In order to use certain features of our web site, you must first create an account on the web site. During registration, you are required to give basic contact information, such as your name and email address. This information is used to identify you to when you wish to contact a Bethany employee or use a service on the Bethany web site. We will also collect certain other information from you, the type of which will depend on the relationship you have with the college (e.g. student, alumnus, prospective student, etc.).

Prospective Students
If you wish to apply for admission to the college using our online application form, we require your Social Security Number in order to process your application. Additionally, if you apply for financial aid or request a financial aid estimate, we may require your Social Security Number and personal financial information.

Alumni
If you wish to be represented in our online alumni directory, we will collect information such as the year of your graduation and other information which you may wish to share with your classmates. We cannot post your postal address or phone number on our web site, but ask that you provide this information to allow the college to contact you for alumni-related matters. Other alumni may send a message to you through our web site, but your e-mail address will not be disclosed unless you reply to the message.

Current Students, Faculty & Staff
If you are a current member of the student body, faculty, or staff of the college, your web account is already established. You can sign in using the same username and password as you do for computer and e-mail access at Bethany. Unless you request otherwise, your name, address, and other personal information will be posted in the online directory on a restricted area of the Bethany web site. Only other Bethany students, faculty, and staff will be able to access this information. The office, phone number, job titles, and departments of Bethany faculty and staff will be posted in a public directory.

Surveys & Giveaways
From time to time we may conduct surveys or special promotions and request personal information in connection with these surveys or promotions. Participation is completely voluntary, meaning that you have a choice as to whether or not you wish to disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information such as name and mailing address, and demographic information such as zip code or age level. In connection with each survey or promotion, we will tell you what information we will collect and what we will do with that information.

Tell-a-Friend
If you wish to use our referral service for telling someone about our site, we will ask you for that individual's name and email address. We will send a one-time email on your behalf to the individual with an invitation to visit the site. After this e-mail has been sent, the name and e-mail address you provided will not be retained by us.

Third-party Services
We may partner with another party to provide specific services, such as payment processing. In connection with these services, we will share your name and other information about you that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. Before we send your information to a third party, we will tell you that we are about to do so and give you the opportunity to stop transmission of your information. We have entered into privacy agreements with these parties stating that they are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.

Site Management

Visitor Tracking and Analysis
We use IP addresses to analyze site usage trends and track users' movement around the site. Your IP address is not linked to any personally identifiable information. Additionally, we retrieve certain information about your web browser and computing platform in order to generate web pages optimized for your viewing. Web page hit counts, IP addresses, browser statistics, and platform information are used in aggregate to help us develop this site in accordance with our users' needs.

Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on your computer containing non-personal information about the user. When you sign in to your web account or use other services on the Bethany web site, our web server may place a cookie on your computer in order to identify you as a user or hold in your computer's memory certain information relating to the service(s) you are using. Because of the complex nature of these web applications, cookies are required to assure proper data is entered. Cookies on your computer from the Bethany web site will be removed when you close your web browser. In connection with certain services on our web site, you will have the option to have our web site "remember" you by placing a cookie on your computer that will not be removed when you close your web browser.

Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Bethany Lutheran College is not responsible for the privacy policies of these sites. All links from this web site to other web sites will open in a new window. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of all web sites that collect personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.

Bethany Lutheran College is not responsible for content on linked sites. This includes sites created by students, faculty, staff, or friends of Bethany Lutheran College.

Information Security

Information Security
We take every precaution to protect your personal information.

If we ask you to provide sensitive personal information such as your Social Security Number, credit card information, or other financial information, we will establish a secure (SSL) connection with your computer to prevent unauthorized interception of the information you provide. The address (URL) of all secured web pages on our site begin with https://www.blc.edu the instead of the normal http://www.blc.edu/.

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect your information offline. All of our users' personally identifiable information is restricted in our offices. Our employees have access only to that information which they require to provide a service to you. All employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices and strive to protect the confidentiality of your information. Also, the computers that store your information are located in a secure environment and regularly updated to include new electronic security measures.

Please remember that no employee of Bethany Lutheran College will ever ask you for your username or password, and you should not provide this information to anyone. Also, before sending sensitive personal information to Bethany, make sure that you are on a secured Bethany web page.

Do not use the same password on this site that you use for your e-mail account or on other web sites. Using the same password in more than one location greatly increases the risk that your information will be stolen or misused.

What You Can Do

Updating Personal Information
If you need to update the personal information (such as your e-mail address) associated with your account, you can do so by signing in to your account on the Bethany web site and making the necessary changes.

If you would like us to remove from our databases all personally identifiable information about you, please contact us.

Opt-out
When you provide information that may be posted on the Bethany web site, such as for inclusion in a directory, you will have the option to prevent that information from being published.

If you wish, you may tell us not to write to you, call you, and/or send e-mail to you by signing in to your account and opting out of these services.

You may also request to be removed from our mailing lists by sending a written request to: Bethany Lutheran College; 700 Luther Drive; Mankato, MN 56001

Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our home page so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. In general, we will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected. If we wish to use information in accordance with the then-current privacy policy instead of that in effect when the information was collected, we will first obtain the approval of the individual to use the information in that manner.

If you have any questions about the security or privacy of your information on our web site, please send an email to the BLC webmaster.