The (“Puget Sound” or the “University”) Office of Admission is committed to safeguarding the privacy of individuals who apply for or inquire about admission. This Privacy Notice outlines the University's collection, use, and disclosure of information provided by prospective students and applicants. When you submit your application to us, or otherwise provide us with information in your application for admission, or use our websites and other services, you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of that information as described in this Privacy Notice.

Information Collected by Puget Sound Admission

Puget Sound collects and processes Information and Sensitive Information from prospective students and applicants that is provided by you either directly or through a third party that you have authorized, such as The Common Application.  For purposes of this Privacy Notice, Sensitive Information is defined as your voluntary response to questions concerning your race, ethnic origin, and history of criminal conviction. Sensitive Information also includes religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health data, or sexual orientation that may be volunteered by you in your personal essay submitted with your application for admission.

Categories of personally identifiable information collected by Web pages managed or maintained by Puget Sound or by other entities affiliated with Puget Sound, may include: your Internet location (Internet domain and IP address), type of browser and operating system used to access our site, date and time our site was visited, pages visited on our site, search terms used on our search engines, along with the information you use to fill out forms such as: name, email address, address, birthday, student ID number, Social Security number, and credit card number. This personally identifiable information is used to respond to user inquiries.

Information you submit voluntarily through our websites, such as your name, email, or other contact information, may be collected by Puget Sound to respond to your inquiries, as well as for internal marketing and development purposes.

Puget Sound websites may use online data entry forms to collect personally identifiable information, including your name and contact information (email, address, telephone number) and other identifiers in order to allow you to provide website feedback, register for events, or use online applications and services.

Use of Information

Puget Sound will use the information that you provide to us and Information we collect about you to administer your application. In addition, we may use your Information to analyze and improve our admissions process, for outreach efforts, and for other University processes and functions related to your admission as a student. We also might de-identify your Information and Sensitive Information to use for research or statistical purposes. We may use and share your Information and Sensitive Information internally with other University offices and units to support your success as a student if you are admitted. We will also share your Information with other University offices to deliver education, advising, residence, athletic, student development, and financial aid services, as well as for fundraising, if you are enrolled as a student of the University.

Cookies

We use cookies and similar technology to collect aggregate (non-personal) information about website usage by all of our visitors and to help us remember you and your preferences when you revisit the websites. These cookies may stay on your browser into the future until they expire or you delete them. We also use technology to remember you the next time you log in. Some of these cookies are erased when you close your browser window and some persist for a period of time. You can decline cookies by adjusting your browser settings but some features of the websites may not function.

We allow selected third parties such as Google and Technolutions Slate to place cookies through the website to provide us with better insights into the use of the website or user demographics or to provide relevant advertising to you. These third parties may collect information about a user's online activities over time and across different websites when he or she uses our website.

For more information about Google Analytics, see Google's  and . You can opt out of Google's use of cookies by visiting Google's . To adjust or opt-out of the collection and use of information for ad targeting on Facebook, please see . For more information about Technolutions Slate, see the Technolutions . For more information about the Common Application, see the Common Application .

Third Parties

We may disclose your Information to third parties as follows:

  • Consent. We may use and disclose your Information to third parties if we have your consent to do so.
  • Parents and Guardians. In some cases, we may share your Information or Sensitive Information with a parent or guardian if necessary to properly complete the admissions process or in the event of an emergency.
  • Service Providers. We may use third parties to support our operations. In such cases, we may share your Sensitive Information and Information with such third parties who are obligated to safeguard it from unauthorized disclosure.
  • School Counselors and Administrators. We may use your Information and Sensitive Information and share it with your school counselors and administrators as we deem necessary.
  • University Affiliated Programs. We may share your Information with third parties that are affiliated with the University for the purpose of providing you with information that may be of interest to you.
  • Research and Studies. We may share your Information with third parties that study admissions or other topics related to higher education. We may also share your Information with third parties that conduct research or develop products or services designed to improve admissions and other higher education functions.
  • Required by Law. We may share your Information with third parties to the extent we are required to do so by law, court order, or subpoena.
  • Emergency Circumstances. We may share your Information with third parties if, in our sole judgment, such disclosure is necessary to protect the health, safety, or property of any person.
  • De-Identified and Aggregate Information. We may collect, use and disclose Sensitive Information or other Information about our applicants in de-identified or aggregate form without limitation.

Security

You must have a secure browser—one that supports secure transmission of data across the Internet—to apply online to Puget Sound. For more information about your browser's security features, use your browser's help feature.

We seek to implement appropriate security measures to protect your Information stored on our systems. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We use industry standard SSL (secure socket layer) encryption to protect your data. Your application account password is protected so that only you can access it and view information through your application portal. We strongly advise you not to share your password with anyone.

Retention and Destruction of Your Information

Your information will be retained by Puget Sound in accordance with the applicable retention periods pursuant to state and federal law. Your information will be destroyed upon your request unless applicable law requires destruction after the expiration of an applicable retention period.  The manner of destruction shall be appropriate to preserve and ensure the confidentiality of your information given the level of sensitivity, value and criticality to the University.

Your Rights

You have the right to request access to, a copy of, rectification, restriction in the use of, or erasure of your information. These rights differ depending upon the location within the world where Information and Sensitive Information was created or shared. The erasure of your information shall be subject to the retention periods of applicable state and federal laws, and to the legitimate interests of Puget Sound to keep necessary records relative to your application to and/or attendance at the university. If you have provided consent to the use of your information, you have the right to withdraw consent without affecting the lawfulness of the University's use of the information prior to receipt of your request. You may exercise these rights by contacting admission@pugetsound.edu.

Information created in the European Union will be transferred out of the European Union to the University. If you feel the University has not complied with applicable foreign laws regulating such information, you have the right to file a complaint with the appropriate supervisory authority in the European Union.

You can choose not to receive certain emails from us by “unsubscribing” using the instructions in any email you receive from us. This will not stop us from sending emails about your account or education with us.

Updates to this policy

We may update or change this policy at any time. Your continued use of this site after any such change indicates your acceptance of such changes.