Last Updated Date: October 18, 2024

Thank you for visiting CACollegeGuidance.org (“the Website”), which houses information about the California College Guidance Initiative (“CCGI” or “We” or “Us”), a program of the Foundation for California Community Colleges, and CaliforniaColleges.edu, the State of California’s official college and career planning platform. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit the Website or Contact Us. This privacy policy does not apply to any third-party websites to which our website links.

Scope

• This policy applies only to data and information We collect on the Website.

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

Information We Collect

• Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
  • If you submit an inquiry through the Website’s Contact Us form We may request PII and other information such as your name, address, email address, phone number, county of residence, school site name, school district name, general place of work, and reason for contacting CCGI.
  • If you send communications to a CCGI team member using email information listed on the Website, We may save your contact information in our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
  • If you reply to a job posting on our website and submit your application and resume, Curriculum Vitae (CV), cover letter, and responses to interview-related assignments to us, We will collect, store, and utilize your data to assess your job qualifications.
  • When you visit the Website, We collect persistent identifiers, such as an internet protocol address (“IP Address”)
• Non-Personal Information.
  • When you visit the Website, we collect the following information:
    • Usage data, collected by Us and third-party analytics services to collect visitor data (e.g., pages visited, browser type, interactions with website elements, date and time details per visit, location, and other parameters) and monitor potential security breaches.
    • Information from cookies or similar technologies collected to report site usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors.

How We Collect This Information 

• Directly from you when you provide it to Us.
• Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP address, and information collected through cookies, and other tracking technologies. 
• From third parties, including but not limited to third-party data analytics platforms, tools, and other service providers. 

How We Use the Information We Collect

• We may use PII you provide to Us through the Website’s Contact Us form, job application forms, other forms, and emails to provide customer service and support for visitor inquiries, assess job applicants’ qualifications, and/or send consenting visitors mass communications with information relevant to CCGI.
• We use aggregated non-personal information to help Us identify usage trends and visitor behavior, as well as gather visitor demographic information, to improve our administration of and content on the Website. This information cannot and will not be used to identify visitors individually.

Who We Share Information With

• Vendors and service providers that We employ to collect contact information and Website usage data from visitors. Under no circumstances will CCGI sell your data to vendors, service providers, or third parties.
• Public authorities, as necessary, in order to comply with court orders, exercise legal rights, defend against legal challenges, or cooperate with public law enforcement.
• The public, only in instances where the visitor has provided Us information and consent to post it publicly on the Website (e.g., testimonials about CCGI).

Security

• CCGI places the utmost priority on the security and privacy of data collected from visitors.
• We rely on a third-party web hosting and managed open-source platform, to ensure “enterprise-grade website security” for the Website, including:
  • Denial of Service (“DDoS”) protection.
  • Automated site monitoring of network, server, and application resources.
  • Fully managed, dedicated Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (“HTTPS”) certificates.
  • High-grade encryption with Transport Layer Security (“TLS”) 1.3.
  • Automated backup and retention.
  • Other security measures as provided by our web-hosting platform.
• The Foundation for California Community Colleges is the legal home of CCGI maintains an incident response plan to respond rapidly to any security issues and will inform affected part(ies) and any individuals legally required to be notified within one business day upon discovery of a breach.

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. The Website uses cookies to remember you and personalize your web-viewing experience by keeping track of your session when signed in to the Website. Cookies enable you to maintain continuity as you move from page to page on the Website 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. 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 can turn cookies off and still have access to all functionality on the Website.

Do Not Track Notice

• CCGI does not track its users over time and across third party websites to provide targeted advertising and, therefore, does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals. However, some third party sites may keep track of your browsing activities when they serve you content, which enables them to tailor what they present to you. If you are visiting such sites, some browsers allow you to set the DNT signal on your browser so that third parties (particularly advertisers) know you do not want to be tracked.

Links

• The Website hosts links to other sites or resources, and you may choose to select one of those sites or resources for a variety of purposes, such as visiting other higher education system websites. These sites and resources have privacy policies that may differ from that of the Website, 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.
• CCGI is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any websites to which the Website links or for the conduct of persons operating those websites. CCGI and the colleges, the associations of colleges and the agencies represented on the Website do not have control over, and do not endorse such external sites and resources. CCGI and the colleges, the associations of colleges, and the agencies represented on the Website shall not be liable for any content, advertising, products, or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. In addition, CCGI and the colleges, the associations of colleges, and the agencies represented on the Website 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.

Data Retention

• CCGI will retain the aforementioned data We collect from you, including PII, as long as required by the purposes for which We utilize that data or by law.

User Obligations

• By using the Website, you signify your consent of the Website Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use the Website. Your continued use of the Website following posting of changes to this Privacy Policy or when you visit our website or provide Us with PII, you consent to our Privacy Policy.
• If you accept this Privacy Policy, which is indicated by your continued use, you must always comply with the terms of the then-current Privacy Policy and any other terms of use posted on the Website.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

• CCGI will occasionally update this Policy to reflect organization and customer feedback, as well as to maintain compliance with various laws and regulations. CCGI encourages you to periodically review this Policy. When this Privacy Policy is updated, the “Effective Date” will be updated and reflected at the beginning of the Policy.

Contact Us

• If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please Contact Us.