Privacy Policy
The Higher Education User Group is very aware of our customer's needs for security and privacy. This Privacy Policy describes how the Higher Education User Group (“HEUG,” “we,” or “us”) processes information about you (“personally identifiable information”) and your organization through www.heug.org, www.psugonline.org, www.alliance-conference.com (“HEUG Sites”) and all other HEUG websites that link to this policy (the “Website”). For the purposes of this policy, personally identifiable information is defined as information, or a combination of pieces of information, that could reasonably allow you to be identified.
In our Privacy Policy we will outline:
- What personally identifiable information HEUG and its service providers collect.
- How HEUG uses personally identifiable information.
- With whom HEUG may share users’ personally identifiable information.
- What choices are available to users regarding collection, use, correction, and distribution of their personally identifiable information.
- What types of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under Socious control.
Please read the following document carefully, and if you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact support@heug.org
1. Information Collection
The HEUG is the sole owner of the information collected on HEUG Sites. The HEUG collects information from our users at several different points on our Website.
Information You Provide
We and our services providers may collect information you provide directly via the Website. In particular, we collect information when you register an account, sign up for membership or a subscription, or otherwise communicate or transact with us through the Website. The categories of information we may collect directly from you include the following:
- Personal details (e.g., name and other demographic information)
- Contact details (e.g., email address, postal address, telephone number, fax number)
- Information about your employment (e.g., job title, company)
- Account details (e.g., username, password)
- Transaction details (e.g., when you purchase membership, or registrations)
- Communications (e.g., when you contact us, post messages, or participate in discussions on our website)
- Payment information (e.g., credit card information)
We may be required by law to collect certain personal information about you or as a consequence of the contractual relationship we have with you when you register on the website, become a member, subscribe to our journal or other publication, or otherwise agree to our terms of service. Failure to provide this information may prevent or delay the fulfillment of these obligations.
Information We Collect About Your Use Of The Website
We and our services providers may automatically collect certain information associated with when you access or use the Website (“Usage Information”). Usage information may or may not be personally identifiable information. Usage information may include:
- Technical information collected from your computer or mobile device (e.g., your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, operating system); and
- Information about your usage of our Website (e.g. the pages you visit when using the Website, what you click on the Website, the search terms you enter on the Website, how often you use the Website, and the pages you access before and after accessing the Website)
Where required by applicable law, and in particular where Usage Information is not strictly necessary for us to provide you with any part of the services you have specifically requested, we may obtain your consent for the use for certain of these automatic collection technologies.
The methods that may be used on the Website to collect Usage Information include:
- Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We generally only use session ID cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates.
- Log Files
Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not usually linked to other personally identifiable information, and are never given to third parties. Aggregate information may be used by the HEUG in order to provide vendor partners with more detailed information on our clients’ usage, and for the HEUG to enhance our services.
2. Information Use
We may use your personally identifiable information for the following purposes:
- Identification and authentication: We use your identification information to verify your identity when you access and use the Website and to ensure the security of your personal information. This is so we can comply with our contractual obligations to you.
- Operating our services: We process your personally identifiable information to provide services, such as our membership dues reminders. This is so we can comply with our contractual obligations to you.
- Communicating with you: We may use your personally identifiable information when we communicate with you, for example if we are providing information about changes to the terms and conditions or if you contact us with questions. It is in our legitimate interests that we are able to provide you with appropriate responses and provide you with notices about the Website.
- Improving our Services: We analyze information about how you use the Website to provide an improved experience for our members. It is in our legitimate business interests to use the information provided to us for this purpose, so we can understand any issues with our Website and improve them.
- Exercising our rights: we may use your personally identifiable information to exercise our legal rights where it is necessary to do so, for example to detect, prevent and respond to fraud claims, intellectual property infringement claims or violations of law or our Terms of Service.
- Complying with our obligations: we may process your personally identifiable information to, for example, carry out fraud prevention checks or comply with other legal or regulatory requirements, where this is explicitly required by law.
- Customizing your experience: when you use the Website, we may use your personally identifiable information to improve your experience of the Website, such as by creating a user profile based on your viewing preferences, and providing interactive or personalized elements on the Website and providing you with content based on your interests. It is in our legitimate interests to provide our members and users with information that is relevant to them.
We may also anonymize your personal information in such a way that you may not reasonably be re-identified by us or any other company, and may use this anonymized information for any other purpose.
3. Communications from the Website
- Vendor Mailings
While vendors are never given email addresses, they may request us to send occasional emails to our membership which we may do so consistent with applicable laws. You as a user have a right to opt out of receiving these emails, and may do so by updating your profile online or by using any unsubscribe option that may be included with your email. By selecting 'Prevent vendors from sending email to you' will stop any further mailings. Alternately, you may send an email to support@heug.org and a support representative will handle your request promptly.
- Service Announcements
We send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Members will occasionally receive information from the HEUG and a newsletter. On other occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.
- Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.
4. Disclosures
We may disclosure your personally identifiable information in the following circumstances:
- Service providers and business partners: we may share your personal information with our service providers and business partners that perform business operations for us for the purposes set forth above. For example, we may share members’ names, contact details, and email addresses with a third party organization for the purpose of printing badges for a conference. Service providers will only use your personally identifiable information consistent with this policy.
- Where required by law: we may share your personally identifiable information with law enforcement agencies, courts, other government authorities or other third parties where we believe necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of any third party.
- For purposes disclosed at the time you provide personally identifiable information.
- Otherwise with your consent or at your direction.
- Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable): we share aggregated demographic information with our partners. As shared, this is not linked to any personally identifiable information.
5. Third Party Services
- Links
The Website contains links to other third party websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Website.
6. Public Information
- User and Group Information
Other members of the HEUG may view information you provide about yourself and your organization. This information includes such items as Email Address and other information you provide. At any time you may choose to limit what other users may view this information. By removing the information from the system, other users will not be able to see it. The HEUG does not store this information after you remove it - in order to enable it again you must re-enter the information. Organization pages include basic demographic information about type of institution, location, contact phone number, and contact person. Organization can opt out of some of these pieces of information (contact phone number, contact person) by not providing the information.
- Forum Community
During your use of this Website, you may wish to participate in our Forum Community by asking questions or responding to other users' questions. Any information you provide within this area may be viewed by other members of the HEUG community. It is encouraged that you never provide any sensitive or private information in this area. When these items are displayed for others to see, the HEUG Website will display your name, your message, your signature file, your organization's name and their logo.
- File Library
During your use of this Web site, you may wish to participate in our File Library by downloading or providing files for other users. Any information you provide within this area may be viewed by other members of the HEUG. It is encouraged that you never provide any sensitive or private information in this area.
- Polls and Surveys
During your use of this Website, you may wish to participate in Polls and Surveys that are taken from time to time. The purpose of these, and what will be disclosed from polls and surveys will be communicated as part of the poll or survey. Participation in these areas are optional, and it is encouraged that you never provide any sensitive or private information in this area.
- Blogs / Product Enhancements and Other Site Features
During your use of this Website, you may wish to participate in our Blogs, Product Enhancement Tracker and other features developed over time. Any information you provide within these area may be viewed by other members of the HEUG. It is encouraged that you never provide any sensitive or private information in this area. When these items are displayed for others to see, the HEUG Website will display your organization's name and their logo.
7. Visiting Our Website from Outside the United States
If you are visiting our Website from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By using our Website, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Policy.
If you are located in the European Economic Area, please note that we have put in place appropriate safeguards (such as contractual commitments) in accordance with applicable legal requirements to provide adequate protections for your personally identifiable information.
8. Security and Data Retention
We take reasonable physical, technical, and organizational security measures to help safeguard your personally identifiable information from loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access and disclosure. However, no system can be completely secure. Therefore, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personally identifiable information, searches, or other communications will always remain secure.
9. Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as name, phone, or email), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users' personally identifiable information. This can usually be done on your profile or by emailing our Customer Support at support@heug.org. Or, contact us via contact information listed below.
10. EU Residents
If you are a resident of the European Union, you have certain rights regarding the personal information we hold about you, subject to local law. These may include the rights to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our use of, or receive a portable copy in a usable electronic format of your personal information. You also may have a right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection or privacy regulator.
We encourage you to contact us at the contact information set forth below to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate. Where you have provided your consent to any use of your personal information, you can withdraw this consent at any time.
Please note that we may require additional information from you in order to honor your requests. If you would like to discuss or exercise any rights you may have under law, please contact us at the contact information set forth below.
11. Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the Privacy Policy under which the information was collected.
If, however, we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our Web site notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice we will also email users, who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.
12. Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
Email: support@heug.org