1. WHAT ARE COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES?

‍Cookies. A cookie is a text file containing a string of characters that is sent to your device when you visit a website. When you visit the site again, the cookie allows that site to recognize your browser. Cookies may store user preferences and other information. Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, HBCU Community) are called "first party cookies." Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called "third party cookies”. Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website (e.g. advertising, interactive content, and analytics). The parties that set these third party cookies can recognize your computer both when it visits the website in question and also when it visits certain other websites.

Local storage. Local storage technologies refer to the methods that web applications use to store data locally on your device. The most commonly used local storage technology is called "localStorage" and is part of the HTML5 standard. This technology allows web applications to store data that persists even after the user closes their browser or restarts their device.

Session storage. Session storage isa feature of your web browser that allows a website to temporarily store data on your device while you are actively using the website. This data is deleted as soon as you close your browser or navigate away from the website. Websites may use session storage to improve your experience and ensure that certain information is readily available during your browsing session.

Other tracking technologies. Websites use a variety of tracking technologies, including web beacons (also known as tracking pixels), third-party tracking scripts, advertising pixels, and analytics tools. These technologies provide data on how visitors use websites and allow websites to serve personalized advertisements.

This Cookie Policy refers to all these technologies collectively as “cookies.”

2. WHY DO WE USE COOKIES?

We use cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our website to operate, and we refer to these as "strictly necessary" cookies. Other cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our website and services more broadly. For example, our cookies may help to distinguish you from other users of our services for the purposes of helping you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, enabling functionality, helping us understand activity and patterns, and facilitating online advertising.

Third parties set cookies on our website for analytics, and other purposes. This is described in more detail below.

3. HOW DO WE USE COOKIES?

We and our service providers automatically log information about an individual’s interactions with our website and services, such as:

1. Online activity information, such as pages or screens viewed, how long individuals spend on a page or screen, the website they visited before browsing to our website, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about activity on a page or screen, access times and duration of access, and whether individuals open our marketing emails or click links within them.
2. Device information, such as computer or mobile device operating system type and version, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, RAM and disk size, CPU usage, device type (e.g., phone, tablet), IP address, unique identifiers (including identifiers used for advertising purposes), language settings, mobile device carrier, radio/network information (e.g., WiFi, LTE,5G), and general location information such as city, state, or geographic area.

We use both persistent cookies and session cookies. Persistent cookies stay on your device for a set period of time or until you delete them, while session cookies are deleted once you close your web browser. We use persistent cookies, for example, to remember any preferences you have or choices you make when you use our website.

4. WHAT TYPES OF COOKIES DO WE USE?

In this section, we outline the specific types of cookies served through our website and the purposes they serve.

These cookies include:

1. Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website. They provide page navigation functionality and access to secure areas. You can set your browser to block these cookies, but then some parts of the services will not work.
2. Performance cookies: These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our website but are not essential for its use. However, without these cookies, certain functionality may become unavailable.
3. Functional cookies: These cookies enhance the performance of our website(e.g., they allow us to remember your preferences and settings). Without these cookies, certain functionality may become unavailable.

5. HOW CAN YOU CONTROL COOKIES?

You can limit online tracking by:

1. Blocking cookies in your browser. Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings.Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
2. Using privacy plug-ins or browsers. You can block our website from setting cookies used for interest-based ads by using a browser with privacy features, like Brave, or installing browser plugins like Privacy Badger, Ghostery, or uBlock Origin, and configuring them to block third party cookies/trackers.

Note that because these opt-out mechanisms are specific to the device or browser on which they are exercised, you will need to opt out on each browser and device that you use.

Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers can be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” or similar signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.

6. HOW OFTEN WILL WE UPDATE THIS COOKIE POLICY?

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any material changes to this Cookie Policy prior to the changes becoming effective by posting the changes on this page and providing a more prominent notice with on-site or email notifications. Please therefore re-visit this Cookie Policy regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.

The date at the top of this Cookie Policy indicates when it was last updated.

7. WHERE CAN YOU GET FURTHER INFORMATION?

If you have any questions about our use of cookies, please email us at hello@thehbcu.community.