Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how Homebase (“we,” “us,” or “our”) uses the personal data we collect from you when you use our website and services.

What data do we collect?

Homebase collects the following data:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Email
• Date of Birth
• University or Institution
• Education Level
• Visa Category
• Field of Study
• Program Start Date
• Program End Date

You may also provide optional profile information such as:

• Preferred Name
• Gender
• Interests
• Expected Graduation Date
• Country of Citizenship
• Native Language
• Languages they speak
• U.S. Telephone Number
• WhatsApp Number
• Links to social media accounts (including LinkedIn, Facebook, and X)

How do we collect your data?

Data is primarily collected through online forms during registration and is stored securely within AWS servers. If you register for a Homebase account through a third-party system (such as a Sunapsis or Terra Dotta integration), only data required to create your account will be received.

Institutions may elect to manually upload user data to create user accounts. Only data required to create the account will be received. You may elect to provide optional profile information.

How will we use your data?

Your data is used to support processes that improve the student and scholar experience while reducing workload on university staff. Homebase collects user information to:

• Ensure the accuracy of user identity, giving staff the confidence that the relevant and/or required tasks are completed by the correct students or scholars
• Automate workflows based on user characteristics (such as removing alumni from spaces for current students)
• Provide timely and relevant information to students and scholars (such as notifications related to starting or ending their program)

If your university is using the community features in Homebase, you may elect to provide additional information that will be visible on your profile. When you begin using the platform, you have the ability to hide your email address, block all messages from other users, or make your entire profile private.

For user accounts created through a third-party integration (such as Sunapsis or Terra Dotta), course progress for current enrollments will be sent back to the third-party provider so that course completion can be verified and the relevant and/or required tasks can be marked as complete.

How do we protect and store your data?

We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect your information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized access, and other unlawful or unauthorized forms of processing, in accordance with applicable law. In certain instances, we may use Secure Sockets Layer encryption and/or transfer certain information in a non-human readable format to provide protection.

Because the internet is an open system, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will implement reasonable measures to protect your information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us using the internet. Any such transmission is at your own risk and you are responsible for ensuring that any personal information that you send to us is sent securely.

Data retention

Homebase will keep your data for a period of 5 years from your Program End Date. In certain cases, we may be required to retain your data for longer periods, such as for compliance with legal obligations or to resolve disputes. Once this time period has expired, we will delete your data by performing a secure purge of the data in any and all databases or systems.

Security practices

Homebase has skilled and experienced personnel with hands-on knowledge of federal regulations and guidelines (including NIST publications, GISRA, OMB A-130, Computer Security Act, Privacy Act, and FISCAM). We perform security audits of our environment at regular intervals to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations and industry standards.

We ensure the confidentiality of information by complying with applicable laws and regulations and utilizing industry best practices for security and privacy. Availability of data is ensured through robust database clustering technologies combined with our business continuity and disaster recovery program. We ensure integrity of data in transit and at rest by leveraging industry best practices and encryption technologies.

We leverage managed intrusion prevention and detection services, vulnerability scanning at regular intervals, and our applications do not maintain any sensitive data in browser cache, hidden fields, or any other risk-prone locations. We disallow indexing of public files by search engines.

Legal basis for processing personal data

Homebase processes your personal data based on your explicit consent. By registering on our platform, using our services, or providing your information, you consent to the processing of your personal data as outlined in this privacy policy. This consent is required for the collection, storage, and use of your data to provide you with our services.

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. However, please note that withdrawing consent will impact your ability to use certain features or services on the Homebase platform. If you wish to withdraw your consent, please contact us at support@myhomebase.org.

Marketing

Homebase will not share your data for any third-party marketing purposes.

If you have agreed to receive marketing from Homebase, you may always opt out at any time. If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please opt out through a marketing email or contact us using the details at the bottom of this page.

Your data protection rights

Homebase would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

• The right to access — You have the right to request copies of your personal data. We may charge a small fee for this service.
• The right to rectification — You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request that we complete information you believe is incomplete.
• The right to erasure — You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to restrict processing — You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to object to processing — You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to data portability — You have the right to request that we transfer the data we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

You may submit requests to access, rectify, or delete your data by contacting us through the methods provided below. We will respond within one month and may ask for verification to protect your privacy.

More information can be found at:

• European Union and Switzerland residents: European DAA
• Canadian residents: DAA of Canada
• U.S. residents and all other countries: DAA site

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behavior information. When you visit our websites, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology.

How do we use cookies?

Homebase leverages cookies for student information systems integration. This data is collected and leveraged for Google Analytics and Heap Analytics, but this information is not correlated directly to an individual. Users can input additional data into the web application such as address, state of residence, and phone number.

What types of cookies do we use?

Homebase leverages cookies for user account connections and relay to student information systems. This is used to link Homebase score report information to the appropriate user in student information systems.

Google Analytics

We have integrated Google Analytics (with anonymization function) on this website. Google Analytics is a web analytics service that gathers, collects, and analyzes data about visitor behavior. Among other things, it collects data on which website a visitor came from, which subpages were accessed, and how often and for how long subpages were viewed.

The operator of Google Analytics is Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, USA. As IP anonymization is activated on our website, your IP address will be shortened by Google within Member States of the European Union or other states in agreement with the European Economic Area.

You can prevent the storage of cookies by adjusting your browser settings. You may also prevent the collection of data by Google Analytics by downloading and installing the browser opt-out plugin.

Further information: Google’s Privacy Policy · Google Analytics overview

How to manage cookies

You can set your browser not to accept cookies. For instructions on how to remove cookies from your browser, visit:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge

For more information on cookies, visit allaboutcookies.org.

Privacy policies of other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.

Changes to our privacy policy

Homebase keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this page.

Product-specific privacy addenda

Certain Homebase products have additional privacy terms that supplement this policy:

How to contact us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.

How to contact the appropriate authority

Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that Homebase has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Phone: 0-303-123-1113 · Web: ico.org.uk