Privacy Statement

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte has established this privacy statement to demonstrate its firm commitment to privacy and transparency. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for the website charlotte.edu and the network of websites making up the UNC Charlotte network.

We collect information from you when you access charlotte.edu, subscribe to our email services, fill out admissions or employment applications, engage with university-operated or public social media platforms, or provide information through other web services. This information includes the pages visited on the site, the date and time of the visit, the Internet address (URL or IP address) of the referring site, the domain name and IP address from which the access occurred, the version of browser used, the capabilities of the browser, search terms used on our search engines, information collected by social media platforms, and other personally identifying information you provide to the University. Any personally identifiable information is not released to external parties without your consent unless required or authorized by law. The University may release your information to vendors, contractors, and affiliated entities who assist the University with its operations, including some social media platforms or other third-party service providers. These university vendors or contractors are only permitted to use personal information for the express purposes permitted in their agreement with the University.

We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website by identifying (1) which parts of our site are most heavily used, and (2) which portion of our audience comes from within the UNC Charlotte network. We do not link IP addresses to personally identifiable information. This means that user sessions will be tracked, but the users will remain anonymous.

The email address and other information you submit through any online forms or applications on the charlotte.edu site may be used to send you information, process applications, orders and services, respond to inquiries, engage with social media platforms, and/or facilitate other university or other services available to you, including marketing, promotion opportunities, and sending you tailored proposals, appeals, and requests for donations. 

IPs and other tracking information, such as web beacons/pixel tags, log files, and other technologies, may be collected by third-party services and used for the purpose of analytics and ad campaign tracking. We may also provide your information to third parties in circumstances in which we believe doing so is necessary or appropriate to: manage and deliver the best user experience; provide, customize, and personalize communications and market our activities to you; satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request; detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; or protect the rights, property, or safety of the University, its students, employees, and constituents, users of charlotte.edu, or others.

UNC Charlotte’s websites may collect anonymous usage data and user demographics. The University uses tools like Google Analytics, a service of Google, which collect this data and information through cookies. The data and information collected may include IP address, requested URLs, referring web page, browser, device used, date and time the site is visited, and other related information. This data and information is used to monitor the effectiveness of the websites, network management, security purposes, provide a unique and personalized user experience to visitors, send targeted communications and promotions, and consider potential improvements. UNC Charlotte does not sell or share any specific information about a particular user obtained from these tools to non-university associated third parties. UNC Charlotte may use information collected to reach out to you directly.  Please review your browser settings to learn how to turn off cookies for specific sites or altogether.

Cookies are small files that are stored on your computer (unless you block them). We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our services to you.

Cookies may be set by an organization other than charlotte.edu. These “third-party cookies” may, for example, originate from websites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or other social media services for which charlotte.edu has implemented “plug-ins.” Since the cookie policies of these sites change over time, you should determine their policies by visiting the privacy policy pages of these sites directly.

You may disable cookies through your individual browser options.

We may provide hyperlinks to third-party websites as a convenience to users of charlotte.edu. UNC Charlotte does not control third-party websites and is not responsible for the contents of any linked-to, third-party websites or any hyperlink in a linked-to website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of third-party websites that may be linked from charlotte.edu.

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information we gather about you, we have taken commercially reasonable steps to protect the information. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure.

Please note that NC public records law requires UNC Charlotte to disclose, to anyone who asks, any records that the University has made or received in the course of conducting state business unless there is a specific legal basis for maintaining the privacy of the requested records. Unless specifically protected by law (e.g., FERPA-protected student education records, HIPAA-protected health information, certain personnel records) the University may disclose information obtained through your use of University systems for University business purposes in accordance with governing law.

UNC Charlotte offers programs and activities designed for children and youth (e.g., summer camps). Parents and guardians may register or apply their children for these University programs through UNC Charlotte’s online network. These registration and application websites are intended to be used only by adults and not by children under the age of 13. UNC Charlotte does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. Any personal information of children provided to UNC Charlotte on these sites should be shared with the University only by a child’s parent or legal guardian. Information that may be requested from parents and/or a guardian, and voluntarily provided to the University include: Child’s Name, Birthdate, Grade Level, and Gender; and Parent or Legal Guardian’s Name, Residential or Mailing Address, Email Address, and Phone Number.

All records and information collected about you when you access our services are subject to retention and disposition obligations from the State of North Carolina. For more information on how UNC Charlotte maintains and destroys university records, please see University Policy 605.3 and the UNC General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule available at: https://legal.charlotte.edu/policies/up-605.3  

This Privacy Statement may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page. The effective date of this Privacy Statement is August 8, 2019; updated August 24, 2021.