USC Privacy Notice

Information you submit voluntarily through our websites, such as your name, email, or other contact information, may be collected by USC to respond to your inquiries, as well as for internal marketing and development purposes.

USC websites may use online data entry forms to collect personally identifiable information, including your name and contact information (email, address, telephone number) and other identifiers in order to allow you to provide website feedback, register for events, or use USC’s online applications and services. We may reveal personally identifiable information about you to unaffiliated third parties:

• if you request or authorize it;
• if the information is provided to help complete a transaction for you;
• if the information is provided to comply with the law, applicable regulations, governmental and quasi-governmental requests, court orders or subpoenas, to enforce our Terms of Use or other agreements, or to protect our rights, property or safety or the rights, property or safety of our users or others (e.g., to a consumer reporting agency for fraud protection etc.);
• if the information is provided to our agents, outside vendors or service providers to perform functions on our behalf (e.g., analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, providing customer service, processing orders, etc.); or
• as otherwise described in this Privacy Notice or in a more specific privacy notice associated with a particular department, unit or function.

We may share information that does not personally identify you without restriction. In certain jurisdictions, we may be required to provide more specific disclosures about the purposes for which your personal information is collected, and to give you the right to opt-out or withdraw consent at any time.

USC protects the data of minors and does not knowingly collect personal information from persons under the age of digital consent, as defined by applicable data protection laws. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a minor without necessary consent, we will promptly take steps to delete the information.

We (and our authorized third parties) use cookies and similar technologies, such as pixels, web beacons, tags, and session replay tools to collect information about you, your device, and how you interact with our websites.

Cookies are small data files placed on a user’s device when they visit a website. Some cookies are erased when you close your browser window, and some remain over multiple sessions for a period of time. Pixels, web beacons and tags are types of code or transparent graphics that contain a unique identifier, and which provide analytical information about the user experience and help us customize our marketing activities. Unlike cookies, which are stored on a user’s device, pixels, web beacons, and tags are embedded directly on web pages users visit. Session replay tools record your interactions with our websites, such as how you move throughout our websites and engage with our webforms and help us improve our websites and identify and fix technical issues visitors may be having with our websites.

In addition to the uses identified above, we use these technologies to analyze website usage by all of our visitors; to help us remember you and your preferences when you revisit the websites; and to remember you the next time you log in.

We may disclose this information with selected third parties, such as analytics providers, advertising networks, and social media companies, to help us understand website usage, user demographics, and deliver relevant content or ads. These third parties may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites.

Some USC websites use tools like Google Analytics to track usage patterns. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on.

You can also manage cookies by adjusting your browser settings. Please note that disabling cookies may affect how some features work. For more information about cookies and how they function, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

Our websites may not respond to “Do Not Track” (DNT) signals from your browser.

USC students can manage privacy settings for their directory information by following the instructions in the Request to Restrict Directory Information form. Faculty and staff can manage their directory information in Workday.

You can choose not to receive certain emails from us by “unsubscribing” using the instructions in any email you receive from us. This will not stop us from sending emails about your account or education with us.

In most cases, the lawful grounds for collecting and using your personal information is for USC’s legitimate interests in carrying out its business functions, provided that our interests do not outweigh your rights, interests, and freedom. We may also collect and use your personal information based on your prior consent, to carry out a contractual obligation, or to fulfill legal obligations. When the collection and use is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without such withdrawal affecting the legitimacy of the use that has occurred so far.

If we transfer your personal information to third parties located in other countries, we will only do so where we believe the third parties offer an adequate level of protection under the applicable data protection laws, and where necessary, we may implement appropriate safeguards as needed.

Depending on your location and the data protection laws that apply to you, you may have certain rights regarding your personal data. These may include the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you;
• Request correction or deletion of inaccurate or outdated information;
• Withdraw your consent for processing at any time;
• Object to certain uses of your data;
• Request a copy of your data in a portable format (where technically feasible);
• Restrict or refuse automated decision-making and profiling, subject to limitations.

You may also have the right to file a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. Please note that the availability and scope of these rights may vary depending on your jurisdiction.

To exercise any of these rights, or if you have questions about how they apply to you, please contact us at compliance@usc.edu.

USC is committed to safeguarding the personal information we collect. To ensure the security and confidentiality of your information, we strive to implement comprehensive security measures in an effort to prevent the loss, misuse, or unauthorized access of the information under our control.

USC reserves the right to modify this privacy notice at any time. We encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to this Privacy Notice. If we make changes, we will post an updated effective date at the top of the Privacy Notice. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Notice will constitute your acceptance of such change.