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Website Privacy and Security Statement

This website is operated by College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Texas A&M AgriLife Research (“we”, “our”, “us”). This website privacy & security statement (“Policy”) explains how information is collected, used and disclosed by us with respect to your use of our main websites and any other websites which display this Policy (the “Sites”) so you can make an informed decision about using the Sites. We reserve the right to change this Policy at any time. We encourage you to review this Policy from time to time to make sure that you understand how any personal information you provide will be used. 

Information collection and use

We collect personal information from our Sites when you voluntarily provide us with information for responding to inquiries, including mail, telephone or electronic contact. Personal and demographic information may also be collected if you fill out web-based forms on the Sites, leave comments on the Sites, purchase and/or take courses or other offerings available on our Sites, or in connection with your participation in surveys, social media, contests, games, promotions, and other activities on the Sites. As used herein, the term “personal information” means information that specifically identifies an individual (such as a name, address, telephone number or e-mail address) and information about that individual or his or her activities that is directly linked to personal information.

We use personal information collected through our Sites for the purposes described in this Policy or elsewhere on the Sites, for the particular purpose for which it was provided (for example, event or course registration) to respond to your requests, complete a transaction, provide you with our offerings and/or support those offerings, fulfill other forms of public service, or to monitor the overall effectiveness of the Sites. We may also use your information for our internal marketing and development purposes and to improve our offerings. You can choose not to receive marketing materials from us by utilizing the “unsubscribe” instructions in any marketing communications you receive from us. Information is kept as long as the service for which it was submitted is active or as otherwise described in this Policy.  Information may be retained afterward as a record of the service or as otherwise described in this Policy.

When you use the Sites, some information is automatically recorded, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your operating system, the browser type, the address of a referring website, and your activity on our Sites. If you access the Sites from a mobile device, we may also collect information about the type of mobile device you use, the type of mobile Internet browsers you use, and information about the location of your device. This information may be used to analyze trends, to identify system performance or to create summary statistics. We treat this information as personal information if we combine it with or link it to any of the personal information mentioned above. Personal information does not include “aggregate” information, which is data we collect about the use of the Sites or about a group or category of services or users, from which individual identities or other personal information has been removed.

We may also collect certain information through the use of “cookies” or web beacons. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive at the request of a website. Among other things, cookies help us improve our Sites and your experience. Information obtained from cookies and linked to personally identifying information is treated as personal information. Anonymous identifiers are random strings of characters that are used for the same purposes as a cookie on platforms, including certain mobile devices, where cookie technology is not available. Web beacons are small, invisible graphic images that may be used on the Sites or in emails relating to the Sites to collect certain information about usage and effectiveness and monitor user activity on the Sites.

If you wish to block, erase, or be warned of cookies, please refer to your browser manufacturer’s information to learn about these functions.  Should you choose to decline or block cookies by adjusting your browser settings, all or parts of our Sites may not be functional or accessible to you. Our Sites will issue cookies as soon you visit them unless your browser cookie settings are adjusted to decline or block them.

Web analytics

You can browse our Sites without giving us any personal information. We use web analytics technology, including specifically Google Analytics and Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting, to help us analyze traffic to the Sites in order to understand visitors’ interests and to continually update our Sites to improve a user’s experience. Visit Google’s Privacy Policy to learn how Google Analytics collects and processes information. You may choose to engage Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs for the web. 

Collection and use by third-party vendors

Third-party vendors, such as Google, may use cookies or other technologies to serve ads or deliver content on other websites based on your visits to our Sites and other sites on the Internet and to provide analytics services. These third parties may automatically collect information about your visits to this and other websites, your IP address, your internet service provider (ISP), the browser you use to visit our Sites, pages viewed, time spent on pages, links clicked and conversion information. They do this using cookies, clear gifs or other technologies. 

Information automatically collected by third parties may be used by third parties, among other things, to analyze and track data, to deliver advertising or content on other websites based on your prior activities on this or other sites or targeted to your interests, and to better understand the usage and visitation of our Sites and the other sites tracked by these third parties. To manage settings for the Google advertising cookies and to opt-out of certain features, visit their Ad Settings.

This Policy does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, cookies or clear gifs used by the third parties, and we encourage you to check the privacy policies of advertisers and/or ad services to learn about their use of cookies and other technology. If you would like to opt out of these cookies or obtain more information about this practice, visit Google Analytics opt-outs.

Information sharing

We do not sell or share information for commercial solicitation or political purposes. However, we routinely share information with each other and other members of The Texas A&M University System to advance our missions.

With few exceptions, we may not publicly disclose the e-mail addresses of members of the public that have been provided to electronically communicate with us unless the members of the public consent to the disclosure. In some cases, we may redirect your communications to another governmental agency or employee who is in a better position to assist you.

We share your personal information with third parties that we engage to process information on our behalf, including vendors or other service providers that assist with our web hosting, web-based forms, online courses or other offerings, and payment processing. We may also share your information with our collaborators or other entities that fund or support our initiatives, including our online courses or other offerings.

In addition, we may share your personal information with your consent; to comply with a legal process, subpoena, order or other legal or regulatory requirement; enforce our policies or terms and conditions; protect our operations, employees or users; pursue available legal remedies or defend against legal claims; or in the event of a reorganization.

Links to Third-Party Sites

Our sites may contain links to external third-party websites, content, products, or services (“Third Party Sites”). Those third party sites are not under our control, and we are not responsible for the privacy and security practices of their operators. You should refer to the privacy policies of those Third Party Sites to learn about their privacy and security practices.

Deleting personal information

You may request to delete your information if we are not required to retain it by law or for other legitimate purposes. To request to remove personally identifiable information that has been collected about you on our Sites, contact AgriLife Marketing and Communications.  We will make a sincere effort to respond to your request in a timely manner. We may take reasonable steps to verity your identity before granting this request.   Deletion of your personal information may result in loss of services which are dependent on that information. We will also retain your personal information when it is needed to comply with legal obligations, disputes, or agreements.

Security

Extensive security measures consistent with the Texas Administrative Code (TAC) “Information Security Standards” have been employed to protect against unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or destruction of information under our control, as well as the loss, misuse, or alteration of our Sites and/or associated electronic information resources. The information resources that support our Sites undergo an annual information security risk assessment, to assess the security posture of information systems and measure compliance with information security standards.

Questions

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, and Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory comply with the State Website Linking and Privacy Policy (PDF) . If you have any questions about the practices of our Sites or your use of our Sites, please contact the webmaster or through regular mail at:

Texas A&M AgriLife
AgriLife Communications Department
Attention: Webmaster
578 John Kimbrough Blvd.
2112 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-2112