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Privacy Policy

This Web Privacy Policy covers the collection and use of information on our Faith+Lead website and associated app.

Luther Seminary is fully committed to providing an engaging, informative, and useful website for its visitors. We strive to serve you with helpful resources, invite you into our community and provide helpful interaction with our many programs and offerings.

Visitors to any Luther Seminary web page have the opportunity to contact us via email at communic@luthersem.edu. The policy of Luther Seminary regarding its officially controlled and operated websites is to respect and protect the privacy of its users. These users include faculty, staff, students, donors, alumni and other visitors.

How we collect information

This policy defines how Faith+Lead collects information from you and how it is used. For each visitor to our website, the following information may be collected:

Anonymous Information

  • Internet address information of visitors to our websites (IP addresses)
  • Aggregate information on what pages people visit
  • User-specific information on what pages people visit
  • Information on browser capabilities
  • Information on referring domains (what websites link to Luther Seminary)

Personal information

  • Email addresses of those who communicate with us via email
  • Information volunteered by a visitor, such as survey responses
  • Personal information volunteered for specific purposes such as online event or course registration, online applications, online donations or information requests

Security and SSL

There are cases where Faith+Lead may request or provide personal information such as a username or password, address, or credit card information. To provide for your privacy in these instances, Faith+Lead utilizes a secure server which transmits and receives data in SSL-encrypted format.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a technology for managing the security of online message transmission. SSL encrypts any information sent from your browser to the server you are connected to. This technology protects your information from being viewed by an outside user.

Luther Seminary has appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site.

Cookies

Faith+Lead utilizes “cookies” to provide an enhanced online experience, enable e-commerce functionality and to facilitate login authentication to protected areas of the site.

Cookies store small amounts of data on your computer when you visit a website. The web server issuing the cookie is the only server that can read that particular cookie. Cookies cannot retrieve information from your hard drive or profile your system. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying your browser. Our websites are viewable even if you disable the cookie function on your browser. However, if you disable cookies, some advanced and customized features of our site, as well as other websites, will not be available to you.

Third-party web beacons

We use third-party web beacons from Google to help analyze where visitors go and what they do while visiting our website. Yahoo! may also use anonymous information about your visits to this and other websites in order to improve its products and services and provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. Learn more about this practice and know your choices about not having this information used by Google.

Social Media Services

Faith+Lead makes use of multiple social media services (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to share information about content, programs, and other items that may be of interest to you. We also integrate these social media services on our sites. If you make use of a social media service on one of our sites, you are agreeing to the privacy policy of that service. These policies can be viewed in more detail here:

How we use information

The information collected by Faith+Lead is used for internal purposes which include improving the content and usability of the Luther Seminary websites, registering people for events or courses, and fulfilling product orders or information requests. Luther Seminary may use the information to contact visitors for marketing and fundraising purposes. If you do not wish to be contacted by Luther Seminary for these purposes, you can unsubscribe from our lists.

Faith+Lead does not sell, rent, or distribute any personal information obtained from our visitors to groups not affiliated with Luther Seminary, unless required by law. According to federal and state law, Luther Seminary may provide personal information to outside parties if a criminal act is under investigation by authorities.

A number of Luther Seminary pages contain links which may take you outside of our website. These other sites may send and receive cookies, collect data or solicit personal information and may use this information in ways that are not in accordance with our privacy policy statement. Always be aware of the policies of those sites you visit.

While Luther Seminary strives to protect its users’ personal information and privacy, it cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose online and you do so at your own risk. This policy does not extend to anything that is inherent in the operation of the Internet, and therefore beyond our control, and is not to be applied in any manner contrary to applicable law or governmental regulation.

Luther Seminary reserves the right to make changes to this policy at any time. Feel free to check this page periodically for amendments/updates. By using this site, you agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy. Whenever you submit information via this site, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

For Faculty, staff, students, alumni and visitors to the campus

FERPA

Luther Seminary abides by FERPA (The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, commonly known as the Buckley Amendment). This is a federal law that states an educational institution must maintain the confidentiality of education records.

Luther Seminary cooperates with students and judicatories of all denominations in providing appropriate information for their candidacy process.

Electronic Communications Policy

All faculty, staff, students and campus guests using public computers must abide by the Luther Seminary Electronic Communications Policy.

Luther Seminary is committed to providing an environment that encourages the use of computers and electronic communications as essential tools to support the instructional, research, administrative and other work or mission-related activities of the seminary. In utilizing the seminary’s computers and electronic communications systems, such as electronic mail and access to the Internet, it is important for all users to be aware of the seminary’s policy regarding responsible use.

Pursuant to the Electronic Communications Policy, it is the responsibility of each user to ensure that the seminary’s technology is used for proper and lawful purposes and in a manner that is responsible and does not compromise the confidentiality of sensitive information, the security of the seminary’s systems or the policies or mission of the seminary. This policy applies to all users of the seminary’s computers and electronic communications systems, including but not limited to faculty, administrators, employees, students and guests.