Last Updated: Nov. 23, 2021
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and its affiliates (“BGU", "we", “our" or "us") highly value and respect your privacy and therefore invests great efforts and resources in order to optimize our privacy practices and protect your privacy.
In the course of your interaction with BGU, you may provide us with certain personal information which may identify you directly or when associated with other information (“Personal Information"). This privacy policy (“Policy") is intended to describe our privacy practices and the way we treat your Personal Information, in order to allow you to better understand what is being done with your Personal Information as well as your rights with respect to the Personal Information.
BY PROVIDING US YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU AGREE TO THIS POLICY. THEREFORE, PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE POLICY BEFORE PROVIDING US YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS POLICY, YOU SHALL NOT PROVIDE US WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.
This Policy specifically outlines:
We will process your Personal Information on the basis of your consent or without your consent if the processing is required:
A. As a result of your engagement with us or for the purpose of contemplated engagement with you;
B. For complying with legal obligations, such as a court or regulatory order or in response to the approach of applicable authorities;
C. For our legitimate purposes (or the legitimate purposes of those acting on our behalf) which will be broadly described below under the “How We Use the Personal Information We Collect and Store and for what Purposes" section.
If you provide us with Personal Information which is considered to be highly sensitive – e.g. information concerning ethnic origin, racial origin, religious beliefs or health or sexual orientation – we will use such Personal Information only upon your consent or otherwise if this Personal Information is necessary for the purpose of preforming duties or protecting vital or legitimate interests of BGU or yourself.
If you reside or are interacting with BGU from a territory governed by privacy laws which determine that consent is the only legal basis for the processing of the Personal Information, by providing us the information you hereby consent to the processing of the Personal Information for all purposes detailed in this Policy.
Naturally, in the course of your interaction with BGU you may be ask to provide certain details about yourself, e.g. name, contact details, previous education and financial information.
In addition, if you interact with BGU through digital means or via third-party entity (e.g. your present academic institution), we may also collect or be provided with additional information pertains to you. This may include information that is automatically provided to us ensuing the communication between your device and our servers (e.g. Internet Protocol (IP) address or device identifiers).
Aggregated information – we may also gather statistical and aggregated information originating from users of our digital platforms through the use of various technologies, including “cookies". This aggregated information will be anonymous and will not allow, by information collected from other sources.
We will use this aggregated information for the purposes of internal research and development, and we also may share it with our partners, affiliates or other third parties including advisors, advertisers and investors, for the purpose of conducting a general business analysis.
We will store and process your information for the following purposes:
1. Ongoing operation and performance of our Internal Course of Business – that includes, among other, managing our human-resources; serving students and applicants; and managing our procurement system.
2. Support and communication - with students, applicants and friends of BGU.
3. Marketing or advertising our activities – we may send you newsletters, updates, marketing materials and other information that may interest you by e-mail or via mobile devices.
4. Research purposes – if you participate in a research that is conducted by our researchers or is provided to us by a research partner.
5. Compliance with the law – in order to comply with all applicable laws, regulations and legal processes, protect your privacy, prevent illegal activities, enforce legal rights of and protect BGU, its behalf, students, and other third-parties' rights.
6. Additional legitimate interests including:
1. Preventing and responding to fraud, inappropriate use or abuse;
2. Preventing or addressing technical or security issues;
3. Fulfilling our commitments to our partners or other third-parties;
4. Internal research and evaluation;
5. Ensuring the protection of our rights, security and property (and those of our partners and other third-parties' who have connection to us);
6. Various legal purposes, such as the establishment, exercise or defense of a legal claim.
We will not share your Personal Information with third parties, except in the following instances:
A. When we have received your permission. This includes sharing information as described in this Policy or otherwise with other third-parties when you have specifically authorized us to do so.
B. When we engage third parties to process Personal Information on our behalf. Such third parties' use will be subject to our explicit instructions and in compliance with this Policy. For example, we may provide Personal Information to a research partner or another academic institution.
C. With our affiliates. This relates to entities that are legally part of the same group of entities that are connected to BGU, or that become part of that group.
D. As a response to a legal request (such as a court order, search warrant or subpoena) if (i) we believe that we are required to do so by any applicable law; or (ii) when we believe that such disclosure or use is necessary in order to reveal, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activities; enforce this Policy, including in order to investigate potential breaches thereof; protect our rights, property or safety, or those of our students or members of the public from harm, as required or permitted by applicable law; and prevent death or imminent bodily harm.
E. Non-Personally Identifiable Information. We may also share aggregated or non-personally identifiable information that we collect and share as broadly described above under “What Personal Information We Collect" section.
Access to the Personal Information – you may ask to receive information about our privacy practices and the information that relates to your Personal Information. You may also request to review your Personal Information that we possess and relates to you and we will make efforts to comply such a request in accordance with the applicable law.
Rectification of the Personal Information – If you have a reason to believe we possess incorrect, inaccurate or otherwise mistaken Personal Information relating to you, you may request the amendment of such Personal Information. However, if you have provided us with that Personal Information or if you have the possibility to amend the Personal Information by yourself – e.g. through an online studying environment – you are solely responsible to make all necessary changes to correct any Personal Information which is inaccurate, incomplete or outdated. Please keep in mind that false, incorrect, or outdated information may prevent you from enjoying the activities and services we offer.
Deletion of Personal Information – you may contact us at all times with a request to delete your Personal Information. We will comply with this request and delete any Personal Information which is associated with you to the extent possible. However, you should be aware that we use backup systems in which your data is stored without the ability to delete it immediately upon request. Therefore, we may require an additional short period of time until we are able to fully delete all traces of your Personal Information.
Nonetheless, for legal reasons, organizational reasons or in order to prevent fraud, we may retain certain specific information relating to you. In any event, your request for deletion will be recorded and will not be deleted.
In addition, under certain circumstances you may have the right to object to the processing of the Personal Information and to export certain Personal Information to another service.
We will retain your Personal Information only as long as it is required for the fulfillment of the purposes stated in this Policy. Some Personal Information will be deleted automatically – e.g. if it is no longer required for the fulfillment of the purpose for which it has been collected or Personal Information that is no longer relevant – and some Personal Information will be deleted upon your request – e.g. Personal Information that you directly provided to us and wish to erase.
Certain regulatory, legal or organizational requirements may require the retention of specific Personal Information for longer periods of time. This includes, among others:
1. Personal Information which is required to prevent fraud or abuse;
2. Personal Information which is required for our internal security purposes;
3. Personal Information which needs to be retained for bookkeeping and accounting purposes, in order to comply with legal or regulatory requirements or to exercise any legal right.
We will retain the minimum Personal Information required for those purposes.
We consider Personal Information security a top priority and we do our best to keep your Personal Information secured. For that purpose, we practice administrative, technical, and physical security procedures to help protect the information you provide us.
Although we take organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect your Personal Information, no method of transmitting or storing electronic Personal Information is ever completely secure. Therefore, you cannot reasonably expect and we cannot promise or guarantee that such information will be immune from any wrongdoings, malfunctions, unlawful interceptions or access, or other kinds of abuse and misuse. Please be aware that we may use third-party cloud service providers that provide hosting, data storage and other services pursuant to their standard terms and conditions that are generally non-negotiable, and accordingly, though we aim to ensure their compliance with the applicable data protection regulations, we may be unable to impose contractual obligations on them with respect to the measures they use to protect Personal Information.
If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that your Personal Information has been compromised or abused), please immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us in accordance with the "Contact Us" section below.
By providing us your Personal Information you hereby provide your consent to the transfer of your Personal Information outside of your country.
If you reside in, or are interacting with us from, the European Union, you should know that most of the processing of your Personal Information takes place in the territory of the State of Israel, which is recognized by the EU Commission as providing adequate protection to your Personal Information.
Notwithstanding the above, we may transfer, process and store your Personal Information also in territories which have yet to be recognized by the EU Commission as providing adequate protection to your Personal Information. However, we will do so only after we will make sure that they will be adequately committed to protect your Personal Information in accordance with this Policy. By providing us your Personal Information you hereby consent to such transfer, processing or storage.
In addition, please note that your information is stored on servers maintained by third party service providers. We ensure the compliance of these third parties with the requirements of the appropriate privacy protection regulations.
Your interaction with BGU may contain integration with third-party services and links to third party sites or other apps or services that are not owned or operated by BGU.
Similarly, it is possible that you will use other services to interact or interface with our platforms (e.g. interacting with us via your social network account). This Policy only applies to BGU's processing activities and does not apply to any third party sites, apps, platforms or any other services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or terms of such other third parties even if our name and logo appear on the screen. We recommend that you review the privacy policies of such third parties before you use any apps or services they offer.
Please note that we may also use third-party providers, such as Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel which will carry the collection through digital means e.g. Cookies or Pixels. These providers may collect and use the data for their own purposes and you may alternate the possibility for such collection through your browser settings.
IF YOU ARE UNDER 16 YEARS OF AGE, YOU MAY NOT PROVIDE US WITH PERSONAL INFORMATION WITHOUT INFORMING US OF YOUR AGE BEFORE DOING SO.
Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, we do not knowingly collect or maintain Personal Information from persons under 16 years of age without an authorization from their legal custodian. If we learn that Personal Information of persons under 16 years of age has been unknowingly processed by us, we may take the appropriate steps to delete such information.
If you are a parent or guardian who knows or has discovered that your child under the age of 16 (or the age of legal majority where you reside) or someone else has submitted your child’s Personal Information or other information without your consent, permission, or authorization; upon your request, we will promptly remove your child’s Personal Information or other information from our database, cease the use of such information and direct any other party with access to such information to do the same, in accordance with this Policy.
We are constantly seeking to improve our privacy practices. Accordingly, we may amend, change, update or modify this Policy from time to time.
Any such change, update or modification will be effective immediately upon posting and will apply to any cause of action arising after the effective date of the change.
You are solely responsible for checking the Policy for updates or changes, and we recommend you do so on an ongoing basis to ensure that you agree with its updated terms. You can easily discern if any changes have been made in the Policy by checking the “Last Updated” date at the top of the Policy.
Your continued interaction with us following the posting of changes to this Policy or receipt of notice, whichever occurs first, means that you accept those changes.
You can address any question or concern you may have with regard to this Policy, or if you have a reason to believe that your privacy or the privacy of your Personal Information has been compromised, to our data protection officer by sending an email to: DPO@bgu.ac.il
You can also contact your local data protection authority for any inquiry or complaint.
Kindly note that certain interactions with, or the submissions of Personal Information to, specific BGU departments or other entity that is controlled by BGU may be subjected to different or additional term. In such event, you will be able to review these additional terms before delivering any Personal Information to us.
