ADVi, also known as the “virtual advising project” and “ADVi, powered by Mainstay”, operated by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and managed in partnership with Mainstay (formerly known as AdmitHub), collects limited personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information in connection with your use of the askadvi.org website and the mobile texting service.
Please read the entirety of this Privacy Policy to understand how we collect, use, protect, and otherwise handle your information. Please be informed that if you decide to use ADVi, you are consenting to this privacy policy. We share your information only with your consent or as described in this policy.
ADVi administrators reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy and will provide notice upon doing so. If you have comments, suggestions, questions or concerns regarding our privacy policy, contact us (choose “Inquiries/Technical Website Questions” from the drop-down menu and include the phrase “Privacy Policy” in the description).
Personal data
While using our service, we may ask you to provide us with personally identifiable information so that we can assist you with your questions about colleges and universities in the state of Texas and/or share that information with the higher education institution(s) of your choice. These may include:
- Name
- Level of Education
- Graduation Date
- Occupation
- Email address
- Phone numbers
- Mailing addresses
When you request assistance through or regarding the ADVi Platform, you may also provide us with additional information. For example, if you email, chat or text us requesting a callback, you will be asked to provide us with your telephone number.
Usage data
Our Web servers generate temporary logs that contain the following information:
- Internet address of computer being used
- Web pages requested
- Referring Web page
- Browser used
- Date and Time
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of data stored by the Web browser. Cookies are used to remember information about preferences and pages you have visited. We use Session Cookies to operate our service, and we use Security Cookies for security purposes. ADVi does not share cookie information with external third parties, nor with the college or university to which you are requesting information about.
No Use by Children Under 13
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) requires that all online service providers obtain parental consent before knowingly collecting personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. THECB, in collaboration with Mainstay as the provider of ADVi Chatbot services, is not designed to provide services to, and does not knowingly collect or solicit any personally identifiable information from, children under the age of 13. Children under the age of 13 are prohibited from Using any THECB ADVi Chatbot Services unless they are doing so with parental consent or with the consent of a teacher, school or district who is providing such consent in compliance with COPPA. If THECB learns that our agency or its partner entity has collected information from a person under the age of 13 that does not comply with COPPA, THECB will delete that collected information in a reasonably prudent amount of time from when THECB obtains notice that the information was collected.
If you believe that a child under the age of 13 has provided personally identifiable information via ADVi, contact us (choose “Inquiries/Technical Website Questions” from the drop-down menu and include the phrase “Privacy Policy” in the description).
How we share (or don’t share) information we collect
Mainstay
Mainstay may use the information collected to calculate and publish non-personal, aggregate statistics for the purposes of improving the Mainstay Product and marketing. For marketing purposes, the data will only be published in aggregate form and will never publish any personally identifiable information. Further you are providing your consent to receive text messages (including SMS and MMS messages), electronic mail, and other electronic messages (including those made using an automatic messaging system) from THECB and its business partner Mainstay at the email address and phone number you have provided, including your wireless number (standard text and data message rates apply). You also understand you can revoke your consent at any time and that your consent and agreement to be contacted is not a condition of purchasing any property, goods or services from THECB or Mainstay .
Texas high schools
We may use the information we collect to calculate and publish anonymous, non-personal, aggregate statistics that we believe our school partners and user base is interested in viewing. We publish this data in aggregate form only and do not publish any personally identifiable information in connection with this use. We may also report non-personal, aggregate engagement data back to high schools or directly to high school counselors. In some instances, we send some of this data through a secure portal with closely managed authorizations.
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
Persons authorized by the THECB may access ADVi data for research and service delivery purposes only in a manner that demands that the information be kept secure and confidential. Also, as noted above, we use the information gathered from log files, cookies, and the like to improve the ADVi product and services, analyze trends, administer the website, track the movements of users around the site, and gather aggregate information about our users as a whole.
Texas Colleges and universities
With your permission, we may store and send, to the college/university of your choice, some personal data as it relates to your enrollment at said college/university. We may also report non-personal, aggregate engagement data back to colleges and universities partners. Data that contains personally identifiable information will always be shared through a secure portal with closely managed authorizations.
How we store and keep secure any information we collect
Although no computer system is 100% secure, the administrators of ADVi have deployed extensive security measures to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under their control. Information collected in ADVi is stored in a secure location. Data is encrypted at rest and in transit.
How you can access and control your information
- You are entitled to receive and review your information.
- You are entitled to correct, or to request us to correct, any incorrect information held by ADVi.
- You have the right to request to have your personally identifiable data removed from our database. Requests will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Other important privacy information
Your information will not be sold for commercial purposes.
The information that is collected about you will be retained and maintained as required by Texas records retention laws (Section 441.180 et seq. of the Texas Government Code) and rules.
ADVi does not actively share personal information gathered from our web servers. However, because www.askadvi.org is administered by a state agency, some information collected from the ADVi web site may be subject to the Texas Public Information Act. This means that in some cases we may be compelled by law to release information gathered from our web servers.
Questions and concerns
If you have a privacy question or concern, contact us (choose “Inquiries/Technical Website Questions” from the drop-down menu and include the phrase “Privacy Policy” in the description).