OKcollegestart.org Privacy Policy

Effective as of June 27, 2024

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education ("OSRHE") and XAP LLC ("XAP"), the company that operates OKcollegestart.org, (collectively "us" and "we") have adopted the following privacy policy for information collected on this website.

As OKcollegestart.org evolves, we may update this privacy policy statement to reflect changes in the manner in which we deal with personal information, whether to comply with then-applicable regulations and self-regulatory standards or otherwise. The privacy policy posted here will always be current. We encourage you to review this statement regularly.

WHAT THIS PRIVACY POLICY STATEMENT COVERS:

• The OKcollegestart.org privacy policy and its exceptions
• The personal identifying information we collect
• Reasons we collect personal identifying information
• Creating an account when you are under 13 years of age
• Ways in which personal identifying information may be used
• With whom personal identifying information may be shared
• Security measures to protect information entrusted to OSRHE and XAP on OKcollegestart.org
• Cookies
• Links
• Modifying and deleting your information
• Amending this Privacy Policy
• Questions

OKCOLLEGESTART.ORG PRIVACY POLICY AND ITS EXCEPTIONS

Except as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy Statement, personally identifiable data you enter on OKcollegestart.org are not made available or distributed to third parties, except with your express consent or at your express direction. In particular, OSRHE and/or XAP will not give, sell or provide access to your personal information to any company, individual or organization for its use in marketing or commercial solicitation or for any other purpose, except with your express consent, at your direction, as is necessary for the operation of this site, or pursuant to one of the exceptions listed below.

GENERAL EXCEPTIONS TO THE PRIVACY POLICY

There are limited exceptions to the OKcollegestart.org privacy policy. When required by law to comply with any valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, regulation or court order, OSRHE and/or XAP will supply such information contained in your OKcollegestart.org account as such entity reasonably determines, based on the advice of counsel, it is legally required to supply. In addition, OSRHE and/or XAP may release specific information relevant to special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others or an attempted breach of security on the OKcollegestart.org site.

THE PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION WE COLLECT

OKcollegestart.org collects personal identifying information from you including, but not limited to, your name, date of birth, address, e-mail address, telephone number, grade level, parent's e-mail address, current high school, graduation date, such additional information as you choose to include in your user profile or are required to provide by the college and financial aid applications that you choose to complete, and information associated with activities you have undertaken on OKcollegestart.org.

REASONS WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION

OKcollegestart.org collects personal information from you for three reasons. The first reason is to perform a task on OKcollegestart.org, such as filling out a specific college admission application for or sending a transcript to the colleges, universities or other organizations that you specify. The second reason is to enable you to submit, in a convenient and efficient manner, information that is likely to be needed when you complete college admission, financial aid and other applications and forms made available through OKcollegestart.org or undertake a scholarship search on OKcollegestart.org. The third reason is to enable OSRHE and/or XAP to respond to your questions or contact you when necessary in connection with the functioning of OKcollegestart.org. When the effective functioning of an OKcollegestart.org module does not require personal information, none is collected, and any such module can be accessed without opening an account or providing any personal data.

When you log on to OKcollegestart.org, your browser will automatically transmit to OKcollegestart.org the IP address of your computer and type of browser you are using. Although your browser transmits the IP address of your computer, this IP address is not associated with any personally identifiable information regarding you. OKcollegestart.org does not collect any personally identifiable information other than what users submit and their browsers transmit.

CREATING AN ACCOUNT WHEN YOU ARE UNDER 13 YEARS OF AGE

If you are not yet 13 years of age, OKcollegestart.org will allow you to create an account but will not collect any personal identifying information from you. Some features of OKcollegestart.org, such as the Resume Builder, that require personal information for effective use, will not be available. If you are 13 years of age or older, you are encouraged to create an account on OKcollegestart.org and to utilize all of OKcollegestart.org, which will help you plan, prepare and pay for your future education.

WAYS IN WHICH PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION MAY BE USED

OKcollegestart.org will use your personal identifying information to complete the following forms and surveys, to obtain information for you and to effect transactions on your behalf, in each case only upon your instructions to do so:

• Complete applications for admission.
• Sending transcripts to colleges and universities to which you have applied for admission or other destinations you specify such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or the National Association of intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)
• Complete financial aid applications.
• Complete financial aid calculators.
• Complete a scholarship search.
• Complete Your Plan of Study, which can assist you in selecting courses and otherwise planning to meet college admission requirements.
• Communicate your requests for information or material to colleges or other institutions you have specified.

Your personal identifying information may also be used for the following purposes:

• We may use your identifying information to help diagnose problems with the servers servicing OKcollegestart.org and to administer the OKcollegestart.org website.
• Summary data representing a compilation of aggregate data representing OKcollegestart.org users may be collected by OSRHE and/or XAP and provided to various entities including colleges and other educational institutions utilizing OKcollegestart.org. NO PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION IS MADE AVAILABLE AS PART OF THESE SUMMARY REPORTS. Some examples of summary data are the number of monthly visitors to OKcollegestart.org, the number of admission applications submitted through OKcollegestart.org, and the OKcollegestart.org functions utilized by students in specified age or grade ranges.

WITH WHOM PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION MAY BE SHARED

Any time you request that we perform a task that involves a transfer of data, the data related to the performance of a task will be made available to a recipient you designate or to a service provider assisting us in completing that task. For example:

• If you submit an application for admission to a college or other educational institution, the personal data required to complete that application will be provided on your behalf to the admissions office of the institution to which you are applying.
• When you request that a transcript be sent to a college, university or other organization, the personal data required to be included on an official transcript will be provided on your behalf to the admissions office of the institution you specify.
  • Additionally, your data may be shared with our third party service partner to permit them to provide services on our behalf in sending your transcript(s) to some of the colleges and universities you have selected. (The third party service provider has agreed to handle your information in compliance with this Privacy Policy and may only use the information for the sole purpose of providing the transcript service to you).
• If you request that a college or other educational institution send you material, your contact information will be provided to that institution.
• When you submit a scholarship search your data may be shared with our third party service partner to permit them to provide services on our behalf in displaying available scholarships that correspond to your search criteria. (The third party service provider has agreed to handle your information in compliance with this Privacy Policy and may only use the information for the sole purpose of providing the scholarship search information to you).

Note: If you start an application for admission to a college or other educational institution, your name and other data entered on that application may be provided to the admissions office of that institution, even though you have not yet submitted that application to that institution.

If you connect your account to a school or other site using OKcollegestart.org as part of a career and education planning program, then professional staff at that school or site, designated by the administration of the school or site to have access to the OKcollegestart.org Professional Center, will be able to view your OKcollegestart.org portfolio including personally identifying information about you. This access is granted to these professional users so that they may assist you in a guidance capacity with your career and education planning. You have the option of not connecting your account to a school or site and making full use of OKcollegestart.org as an independent user.

SECURITY MEASURES TO PREVENT MISUSE OF INFORMATION ENTRUSTED TO OKCOLLEGESTART.ORG

OKcollegestart.org encrypts the PII you enter when it is in route from your browser to the OKcollegestart.org web servers, and again when your PII is in route from the web servers to the back-end database servers using TLS 1.2. This practice helps prevent unauthorized third parties from intercepting and gaining access to your PII during transmission over the Internet. OKcollegestart.org is WC3 compliant and performs properly on all major operating system platforms as well as all major modern internet browsers specifically including, but not limited to, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, iOS, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer, and the build-in Internet browsers for iOS and Android.

Data residing on the OKcollegestart.org server is password protected, and access is provided only to the account holder who created the password, anyone to whom that account holder entrusted the password, counselors with whom the account holder has authorized to view the data, and those employees of OSRHE and/or XAP who require such access to administer and maintain the OKcollegestart.org system or to provide requested customer support to users of OKcollegestart.org. Each OSRHE and/or XAP employee who has access to the data residing on the OKcollegestart.org server has agreed in writing to respect the privacy of all such personal data.

COOKIES

A cookie is a small file that a website transfers to a user's computer, which may then be stored on its hard drive. OKcollegestart.org uses cookies to remember you and personalize your web-viewing experience by keeping track of your session when logged on to OKcollegestart.org. Cookies enable you to maintain continuity as you move from page to page on OKcollegestart.org and to avoid the nuisance of being asked to provide the same information repeatedly. Cookies also allow us to make sure that only your browser can exchange information regarding your account with our servers. Cookies cannot be used to steal personal information or to gain access to information that you did not directly provide. The cookies we use are set when you log on to OKcollegestart.org and are erased when you log off OKcollegestart.org or completely close your browser.

Don't want cookies?

Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you don't want cookies, you can set your browser to disable or refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being used. You should note, however, that various OKcollegestart.org services might not function properly when cookies are not utilized.

LINKS

OKcollegestart.org hosts links to other sites or resources, and you may link to one of those sites or resources for a variety of purposes, such as visiting an official college website. These sites and resources have privacy policies that may differ from that of OKcollegestart.org, and for your protection, we recommend that you read and understand the privacy policy at any website prior to providing personal information on that website. OSRHE and XAP are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any websites to which OKcollegestart.org links or for the conduct of persons operating those websites. OSRHE, XAP, and the institutions represented on OKcollegestart.org do not have control over, and do not endorse such external sites and resources. OSRHE, XAP, and the institutions represented on OKcollegestart.org shall not be liable for any content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. In addition, OSRHE, XAP, and the institutions represented on OKcollegestart.org shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, advertising, products or materials on or available through any such site or resource.

MODIFYING AND DELETING YOUR INFORMATION

You may update, otherwise modify or delete from the data stored on OKcollegestart.org any personal information you previously provided. To modify personal information, (i) sign in to OKcollegestart.org, (ii) access either your portfolio or an application containing the information you want to change, and (iii) modify that information using standard word-processing techniques. To delete personal information that is not a required field to be completed in your portfolio, (i) sign in to OKcollegestart.org, (ii) access your portfolio, and (iii) delete the information you want to remove from OKcollegestart.org using standard word-processing techniques and (iv) save the change. To delete personal information that is a required field to be completed in your portfolio, you will need to contact XAP at 1-800-GO-TO-XAP and request that your profile to be deleted. XAP will verify your identity prior to deleting your record permanently on the system. Please recognize that if you delete information, it will no longer be available on OKcollegestart.org so that, for example, if a college to which you previously submitted an application were to attempt to retrieve that application from OKcollegestart.org after you made the deletion, the deleted information would no longer be accessible. Similarly, when accessed over OKcollegestart.org, information that has been updated or otherwise modified will appear in its then-most current form, rather than in the form in which it may have been submitted at some earlier time.

AMENDING THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Statement may be amended from time to time. Unless legal obligations require faster implementation, if OSRHE and/or XAP make any substantial changes to this Privacy Policy concerning use of your personal information OSRHE and/or XAP will notify you by posting a message on the OKcollegestart.org homepage for at least thirty days. Thereafter, the new privacy policy will apply to all data previously submitted or subsequently submitted to OKcollegestart.org, unless such use is prohibited by law. If you do not wish to have your information used in accordance with a newly posted privacy policy, you should modify or delete the relevant information in the manner described in the preceding section, "Modifying and Deleting Your Information."

QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions about this privacy statement and the privacy practices on this site, you may contact us at support@OKcollegestart.org.