Effective Date: November 9, 2026
Last Revised: November 9, 2026
Santa Clara University (“SCU,” the “University,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is committed to safeguarding the privacy of personal information collected when you access our campus website www.scu.edu and affiliated digital platforms (collectively, the “Site”). This Privacy Statement applies to the Site unless a separate privacy notice or policy applies to a particular SCU website, subdomain, or platform. This Privacy Statement serves to give you notice about the types of personal information we collect, how we use it, and who we share it with and why (“Privacy Statement”). We describe these matters in detail in the pages that follow. We encourage you to read this Privacy Statement carefully.
We use the words “you” and “your” to mean each individual user accessing and using our Site who is, in all cases, over the age of 13. This age requirement is discussed in more detail later in this Privacy Statement here. When we refer to “personal information” we mean any information, data, or data element that, alone or in combination with other elements, can be used to distinguish, trace, or discover your identity. Certain data privacy laws include specific data elements or defined terms for what they consider to be personal information (sometimes also referred to as “personal data”). Where such data privacy laws apply, then the term “personal information” includes those specific data elements and defined terms as required by such laws.
The effective date listed above indicates the date on which this Privacy Statement was last updated. The English language version of this Privacy Statement is the controlling version regardless of any translation you may attempt.
Please note that use of our Site is also governed by our Terms and Conditions of Use (the “Terms of Use”), which contain a class action waiver and mandatory arbitration clause governing all privacy related complaints and disputes. We encourage you to read the Terms of Use carefully.
Navigating Through This Privacy Statement
You can use the links below to navigate to areas of this Privacy Statement that apply specifically to you, or which may otherwise be of interest:
When And to Whom Does This Privacy Statement Apply
How Do We Collect Your Personal Information?
What Types of Personal Information Do We Collect?
How Do We Use the Personal Information We Collect?
When/With Whom Do We Disclose or Share Personal Information?
Your Privacy Choices; Unsubscribing
When And To Whom Does This Privacy Statement Apply?
Our Site collects personal information from visitors to, and users of, our Site. We may also receive general information from users who interact with ads and content we display on third-party sites. This Privacy Statement applies to our processing and sharing of your information collected by those means.
The types of information we collect may vary depending on the specific SCU site you visit or application you use. Accordingly, this Privacy Statement is intended to be a general statement and may be supplemented by more specific privacy notices that pertain to personal information exclusively associated with a specific department, unit, or function, or privacy laws that pertain to certain protected categories of data or to individuals in certain jurisdictions.
If we have legal obligations to other categories of data subjects, such as our students, faculty and staff, or vendors, we provide them with separate legally required notices or other terms in confidential contracts, policies, and other similar documents.
How Do We Collect Your Personal Information?
We collect and otherwise obtain your personal information in the following ways: (a) via our Site when you choose to give it to us by voluntary submission; (b) via our Site through automatic collection by technical means when you visit or use our Site; and (c) when it is provided to us by external sources such as social media companies or companies that provide services on our behalf who, in each case, may have previously and separately collected elements of your personal information without our involvement and then shared it with us as part of a service for which we engaged that source.
Voluntary Submission.
Here are some ways you voluntarily give us your personal information:
- Using University Resources. You may provide information to us when it is needed to access and utilize University services, portals, and other online resources via the Site.
- Signing up for Newsletters. We collect some voluntarily submitted information if you sign up to receive a newsletter or other informational or marketing material we publish.
- Responding to University Outreach. If you respond to communications from the University, including admissions, alumni, fundraising, research, or other outreach initiatives, we collect the information you choose to provide.
- Registering for Events. If we host or sponsor an event or program that you register for, you will be submitting certain identifiers. Please note that for certain events, we may provide a separate privacy notice relevant to that specific event or program.
- Messaging our Chat Feature. We may offer an interactive chat feature on the Site to assist you with navigating the Site and for other purposes. When you participate in the interactive chat, the contents of the chat may be captured and kept as a transcript.
- Sending Emails and Texts. If you choose to send us an email from the “Request Information” or “Connect with Us” pages of our Site or through a similar link you will be giving us your email address and any other personal information that may be in your message or attached to it. The same is true if you send us a text message.
- Alumni Networking Features. Our Site may allow alumni to create profiles and provide contact, professional, and other information to connect and network with other alumni. Information you choose to make available through these features may be visible to other members of the alumni community.
- Using Community Features. Our Site may offer social media-like community features letting users post messages and comments, and/or upload image or other files and materials. If you choose to make use of these features, the information you post, including your screen name and any other personal information, will be in the public domain and may not be covered/protected by this Privacy Statement.
- Applying to Work. If you apply to work with us, you may choose to submit your resume, cover letter, list of professional references, and other relevant information through our careers page or otherwise, including through third-party recruiters.
- Applying to Volunteer. If you apply to volunteer with the University, we may collect information such as your contact information, qualifications, and other information relevant to evaluating and coordinating volunteer opportunities.
- Making Donations. If you make a donation or other financial contribution to the University, we may collect identifiers, payment information, and related information necessary to process and acknowledge your contribution.
- Other Methods. Any other means by which you voluntarily submit personal information to us.
Your use of our Site is strictly your choice. If you prefer that we not receive the above-described voluntarily submitted personal information, please don’t submit it. This means you shouldn’t participate in the applicable activities on, or use the applicable features available from, our Site. By not participating in features that require voluntary submission of personal information, you may limit your ability to take full advantage of our Site, but most of the content will still be available to you and we never discriminate on the basis of how much information you provide.
Automatic Collection.
When you visit or use our Site, basic information about your internet/electronic activity is automatically collected through your browser and through the systems used to operate, secure, and support our Site. In addition, we use cookies and other tracking technologies, which we describe in greater detail here. Those tools and/or cookies may collect some information about your preferences for using our Site or past actions, such as:
- your IP address and rough location;
- the type of browser and operating system you use;
- the date and time and length of your visit;
- your interactions with the Site, such as clicks, scrolling, and mouse movements;
- the pages visited, graphics viewed, and any documents downloaded; and
- links to other sites you accessed from our Site or used to navigate to our Site.
External Sources.
We may work with companies who provide us with data, including personal information, so that we can better understand and engage visitors to our Site. These third-party companies collect information with their own cookies, pixels, and related tracking technology and then provide that information to us. We are not responsible for their data collection practices.
Further, we maintain a presence on one or more external social media platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn. Our Site may contain connections or links to such social media platforms, or other websites or applications controlled by third parties. We are not responsible for either the content on, or the privacy practices of, social media platforms, or any third-party sites or applications to which we link or otherwise connect to. Those applications, sites, and platforms are not controlled by us and therefore have their own privacy policies and terms and conditions of use. To be clear: neither this Privacy Statement nor our Terms of Use apply to our external social media presence or any third-party sites or apps to which we may link or connect. That means even if you take an affinity action on our external social media presence (such as “following” or “liking” us), any identifiers automatically collected and given to us as a result are governed by the privacy policies and other terms of the applicable social media platform and are not our responsibility.
If you have questions about how those apps, sites, and platforms collect and use personal information, you should carefully read their privacy policies and contact them using the information they provide. In addition, certain coalitions of advertisers allow consumers to opt out of receiving interest-based advertising from members of those coalitions. You can visit the Digital Advertising Alliance and Network Advertising Initiative to opt out of receiving interest-based advertising from members of these coalitions. You will need to exercise these opt-outs on each browser on each device for which you wish to opt out of interest-based advertising.
What Types of Personal Information Do We Collect?
We may collect the following categories of personal information through our Site:
- General Identifiers such as name, email address, phone number, physical address, internet protocol (IP address), social network handle, and other similar identifiers.
- Personal Information such as date of birth, marital status, gender, and parent and guardian information.
- Characteristics of Protected Classifications such as race, gender, ethnicity.
- Internet/Electronic Activity such as browsing history and search history.
- Audio, Video, Electronic or other similar information.
- Professional or Employment Related Information such as occupation, job history, and performance evaluations.
- Education Information such as grades or transcripts.
- Donation and Fundraising Information such as payment information, donation amounts and history, fundraising preferences, and other information related to your financial contributions to the University.
- Analytics and Inference Data drawn using the above-described personal information that could allow us to create a profile reflecting your interests and preferences or to otherwise improve our Site or marketing strategies.
- Any Other Personal Information That You Voluntarily Provide to Us
Deidentified and Aggregated Information.
We may collect aggregated or de-identified data and inferences derived from the categories of personal information described in this Privacy Statement. This data does not identify you in any way. We will not re-identify, or attempt to re-identify, any de-identified information that we collect as described in this Privacy Statement.
How Do We Use the Personal Information We Collect?
We use personal information in accordance with applicable law and for legitimate University purposes. Depending on the circumstances, these purposes may include your consent, operating the University, providing requested services, performing a contract, and complying with legal obligations.
Generally speaking, we use personal information for the following purposes:
- Fulfilling our Legal Obligations – such as fulfilling our duties and exercising our rights under contracts.
- Outreach – such as providing information about the University, admissions, and events or programs we may participate in or sponsor.
- Personalized Communications – such as tailoring communications and content based on user interests.
- Improving Our Resources – such as using your information to operate, improve, and support our website, services, and University resources made available through the Site.
- Physical Security – providing security at our physical locations and for internal or external investigations.
- Technical Security – monitoring our networks and detecting security incidents.
- Support and Inquiries – responding to inquiries, including requests for information.
- Community Insights – understanding the demographics and interests of prospective students, alumni, and other Site visitors.
- Debugging – debugging, identifying, and repairing errors that impair existing intended functionality of our Site.
- Detecting and Preventing Unlawful Acts – protecting against malicious or illegal activity and prosecuting those responsible.
- Verification – verifying users, when necessary.
Retaining Your Personal Information.
We will store and retain your personal information in accordance with the applicable retention periods in the University’s Record Retention Policy. The criteria used to determine the retention periods include:
- how long the personal information is needed in connection with the applicable purposes for which we use it;
- the type of personal information collected; and
- whether we are subject to a legal, contractual, or similar retention obligation (e.g., mandatory data retention laws, government orders to preserve personal information relevant to an investigation, or personal information that must be retained for the purposes of litigation or disputes).
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.
When/With Whom Do We Disclose or Share Personal Information?
We may disclose the categories of personal information described in this Privacy Statement to the following categories of third parties for the educational, administrative, and operational purposes described below:
- University Affiliates – affiliated schools, institutes, departments, alumni networks, and other University-affiliated entities who will use such information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Statement.
- Service Providers – we use third parties to support our operations and legitimate educational interests and may share your information with such third parties, who are obligated to safeguard it from unauthorized disclosure. For example, we may share your personal information with third parties engaged in information processing and storage. These may include providers of data hosting, analytics, financial aid, payment processing, event planning, and marketing services, in each case on behalf of SCU.
- Software and Technology Vendors – various service providers may have access to, or will be provided with, some of your personal information in connection with the tasks they perform on our behalf such as maintaining portions of our networks or the software applications that run on them.
- Communications and Engagement Providers – we may disclose your personal information to third parties, including social media networks, who support recruitment, communications, conversion tracking, social media engagement, and other outreach efforts.
- Analytics and Marketing Providers – third-party providers who assist us in analyzing our web traffic and support our advertising and marketing activities, including targeted advertising.
- Security and Fraud Prevention Providers – third-party security and fraud prevention providers when we have reason to believe that someone is causing injury to or interference with our rights or property or harming or potentially harming other persons or property.
- Law Enforcement or Government Agencies – government agencies and authorities, and other third parties when compelled to do so, or at our discretion, or otherwise as required to do so by law, court order, or subpoena.
In addition to the above, we share your information internally with other University offices and units as necessary to provide services to you through the Site.
Cookie Notice
We use cookies, pixels, tags, and other tracking technologies to provide, protect, and improve our Site and to collect, use, disclose, and share information as described in this Privacy Statement. This section explains how we use cookies and the choices you have.
What is a cookie and why do we use them?
A “cookie” is a small text file that is placed onto your device when you access a website or application. Cookies help websites remember information about your visit, which can both make it easier to visit the website again and make the site more useful to you. Other tracking technologies including, without limitation, embedded scripts, web pixels, web tags, web storage, web beacons, and identifiers associated with your app or device, operate in a similar manner to cookies and are used for similar purposes. We refer to all of these technologies as “cookies.”
Who can place cookies on your device?
Depending on the Site configuration, both SCU and our trusted third parties may place cookies on your device. Cookies placed by SCU are considered “first‑party cookies”, whereas cookies placed by our partners or on their behalf are considered “third‑party cookies.”
How long do cookies stay on your device?
Cookies can be either temporary or non-temporary as follows:
- Session cookies are temporary and allow websites to track a user’s actions during their browser session. Session cookies are removed from your device after you leave the website you are currently visiting.
- Persistent cookies are non-temporary and remember a user’s actions and preferences on a website, or across different websites, over time. Persistent cookies remain on a user’s device until they expire at a pre-determined time (e.g., 30 days after being downloaded), or until the user deletes them, such as by clearing browser cookies or site data.
What types of cookies do we use?
The following types of cookies are used on our Site:
- Non-Advertising/Non-Marketing cookies, also known as strictly necessary cookies, including essential cookies, preference cookies, and performance/statistics cookies. These cookies are essential for security and network management and to allow you to browse our Site and use its features, as well as remember choices you have made on our Site in the past. Typically, these are a mix of first-party and third-party session cookies. They do not involve sharing information with third parties for any type of marketing, advertising, or commercialization purposes.
- Advertising/Marketing/Analytics cookies, often referred to as non-essential cookies. These cookies are almost always third-party cookies and typically involve sharing certain elements of your data with those third parties for advertising, marketing, or analytics. For example, we may use third-party “web analytics” services such as those offered by Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity.
How can I manage or opt out of cookies?
When you first visit our Site, we may provide you the opportunity to manage your privacy preferences regarding the use of advertising/marketing/analytics cookies. We are not able to allow you to opt out of strictly necessary/essential cookies because, as described above, they are necessary for the technical functioning of our Site. If you accepted our use of non-essential cookies on your first visit and later change your mind, you can navigate away from our Site, clear your browser’s cookies and/or site data, and then revisit our site clicking “Decline” in the banner that will be re-presented.
You can use the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on to disable tracking by Google Analytics, and can use the Digital Advertising Alliance system and select “Microsoft” to opt out of tracking by Microsoft Clarity where applicable. If you install the Protect My Choices app for your browser, you can ensure your opt-out preference is saved. Further general information about cookies and how they work is available at www.allaboutcookies.org.
Children’s Privacy
We are committed to complying with applicable U.S. federal law regarding children’s privacy. Our Site is intended for a general audience, including prospective and current students, some of whom may be under the age of 18. Consistent with age-related requirements, however, we do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under the age of 13. If we become aware that personal information has been collected from a child under 13 we will delete that information and not use it for any purpose whatsoever.
Your Privacy Choices; Unsubscribing
If you are an SCU student, faculty member or staff member, you can manage privacy settings for your directory information on Workday by entering in the search bar “Manage My Privacy Settings” and choosing which directory information you wish to keep private.
If you opt in to receive text messages, you are consenting to receive promotional and fundraising text messages from the University and its service providers. Consent is not a condition of purchase or donation. Message and data rates may apply. We may share your mobile information and opt-in status with service providers that help us deliver these messages. No mobile information or text messaging opt-in data or consent will be shared with or sold to third parties or lead generators for their marketing purposes.
If you are a general Site visitor and we are using your personal information to send you marketing materials, such as emails, you may elect to unsubscribe and no longer receive those specific messages by following the instructions in the email. If you no longer wish to receive promotional text messages, reply STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or QUIT to any mobile message from us. When we receive your request, we will take reasonable steps to remove your name from our distribution lists, but it may take time to do so. You may still receive materials for a period of time after you unsubscribe.
Comprehensive Privacy Laws
Privacy and data protection laws vary around the world and among individual states in the U.S. Our obligations arising under the majority of the world’s privacy laws, including U.S. federal and most state laws, are satisfied by individual risk assessments that we conduct to ensure we act reasonably and responsibly when processing your personal information.
In some jurisdictions privacy laws grant you certain specific rights regarding your personal information. We refer to these types of privacy laws as “Comprehensive Privacy Laws.” Examples of Comprehensive Privacy Laws include the respective versions of the General Data Protection Regulation adopted in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom (collectively, “GDPR”) and California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (collectively, “CCPA”).
Whether and how a particular comprehensive privacy law applies to the University depends on a variety of factors, including the nature and scope of its activities, the volume of personal information processed in a particular jurisdiction, and the availability of any applicable nonprofit exemptions. Based on our current assessment, we do not believe that the nature, scope, and locations of University activities subject SCU to any Comprehensive Privacy Laws. We continue to monitor legal developments and will update this Privacy Statement as appropriate if our obligations change.
Changes to This Privacy Statement
We reserve the right to change or update this Privacy Statement from time to time. Please check our Site periodically for such changes since all information collected is subject to the Privacy Statement in place at the time of collection. We will indicate the effective date at the beginning of this Privacy Statement.
Contacting Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Statement or our privacy practices, please contact us at [email protected].