Privacy Policy
The following policy applies to users of all Columbia College websites and is intended to identify the types of information Columbia College gathers, maintains, and discloses from users and explain how that information is used.
Information Collected when You Visit the Columbia College Websites
You can explore most of the Columbia College websites without revealing any personal information. The College may, however, collect general information about the way in which you use our websites, including, but not limited to, the time and duration of your visit, type of web browser used, the operating system/platform you are using, your IP address, the websites from which you linked to the College, and your CPU speed. Columbia College also may note whether and how you use the College’s websites by recording site traffic patterns and clickstreams. Columbia College may also perform (or have third parties perform) analyses of visitors’ behavior, and may share aggregated, anonymous data with sponsors and advertisers.
Information Collected When You E-mail Columbia College or Complete a Transaction
During your visit to our websites, you may send e-mail to Columbia College. Your e-mail address and the contents of your message will be collected. The information collected is not limited to text characters and may include audio, video, and graphic information formats included in the message.
In order to register for classes, purchase goods or services, apply for employment or complete other transactions with the College, you may be asked to voluntarily provide personal information. Any personal information you choose to provide the College will only be used to conduct official Columbia College business. The personal information you provide may be used by the College (or third parties engaged by us) to: (1) customize the advertising and the content that you see, (2) fulfill your requests for products and services, (3) contact you, (4) conduct research, (5) respond to subpoenas, court orders or legal process, or (6) establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.
Use of Collected Information
If you are a prospective student and supply us with your postal address online you may receive periodic mailings from us with information on the College’s programs and course delivery methods. If you do not wish to receive such mailings, please let us know by calling us at the number provided below, e-mailing us at the address below, or writing to us at the address below.
Prospective students who supply us with their telephone numbers online may receive telephone contact from us with information regarding the College’s programs and course delivery methods. If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please let us know by sending us an e-mail at the address below, calling us at the telephone number below, or writing to us at the address below.
Prospective students who supply us with their e-mail addresses online may receive e-mail contact from us with information regarding the College’s programs and course delivery methods. If you do not wish to receive such e-mail, please let us know by sending us an e-mail at the address below, calling us at the telephone number below, or writing to us at the address below.
Columbia College does not partner with or have special relationships with any ad server companies. Columbia College will not sell, rent, loan, trade or lease personal information collected on this site.
Cookies
Cookies are small amounts of data that Columbia Colege’s websites may place on your computer’s hard drive. A cookie file contains unique information that our websites can use to track such things as the password you create to access any of our site, lists of webpages you have visited, the date when you last looked at a specific webpage, or to identify your session on our websites. A cookie file allows our websites to recognize you as you click through pages on our site and when you later revisit our site. Columbia College's websites use cookies to “remember” your preferences, and to record your browsing behavior on our websites. Although you can prevent our websites from placing cookies on your hard drive, there may be some features of our websites that will not be available to you and some web pages may not display properly if you disable cookies. No personal data is stored in cookies on your computer.
Links
Columbia College's websites may include links to other websites. We do not control the privacy policies of the destination sites. Once you leave our servers (you can check where you are by checking the URL in the location bar on your browser), use of any information you provide is governed by the privacy policy of the operator of the site you are visiting. That policy may differ from ours. If you cannot find the privacy policy of any of these sites via a link from the site’s homepage, you should contact the manager of that site for more information. Columbia College is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of websites other than the College's websites.
Confidentiality and Integrity of Personal Information
Columbia College is strongly committed to protecting personal information collected through its websites against unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Consequently, Columbia College limits employee access to personal information collected through its websites to only those employees who need access to the information in the performance of their official duties. Employees who have access to this information follow appropriate procedures in connection with any disclosures of personal information.
In addition, Columbia College has implemented procedures to safeguard the integrity of its information technology assets, including, but not limited to, authentication, authorization, monitoring, auditing, and encryption. These security procedures have been integrated into the design, implementation, and day-to-day operations of Columbia College’s websites as part of our continuing commitment to the security of electronic content as well as the electronic transmission of information.
Although the College employs security that we believe to be appropriate to protect your personal information, we do not guarantee that our security precautions will protect against, and we expressly disclaim any liability for, any loss, misuse, or alteration of your personal information.
Changes to Columbia College Privacy Policy
Columbia College may update this policy at any time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the email address that you have provided us or by placing a prominent notice on our website.
From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you of these changes with an opportunity to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check our website periodically.
Visitor Recourse
If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you should contact state or local chapters of the Better Business Bureau; state or local consumer protection offices; or the College at the address or phone number listed below.
We may be reached via e-mail at webprivacy@columbiasc.edu or by telephone at 803.786.3012.
Columbia College
Office of Advancement
1301 Columbia College Dr
Columbia, SC 29203