Big Blue Network Privacy Policy
In order to allay some of the concerns expressed by students and faculty not on The Big Blue Network, we wanted to share our privacy policy with you. For BBN members, this policy is always accessible by clicking on the “Privacy” tab at the top of the site or by going here: http://networkblue.uky.edu/page/privacy-1.
We’d love to have your feedback on this policy and how we can improve and clarify it. Thanks!!!
The Big Blue Network Privacy Policy
The University of Kentucky has built The Big Blue Network as a way for you to connect with your fellow students and with U.K. student leaders, faculty, advisors, student support staff and selected administrators. We want to make it easier for you to connect with every aspect of academic, extra-curricular and social life here at the university because we believe that the more engaged you are with the university community, the more likely you are to stay at UK, be successful in your classes and graduate in a timely manner.
Therefore, we encourage you to be active on The Big Blue Network and share things of interest to you. Engage in conversations with your friends, but also seek out help or insight from our student leaders, faculty and staff about how to get the most from your time at the University of Kentucky.
In the interest of creating a safe space for everyone on the Big Blue Network, we have restricted who can see and access the site. That’s why you had to apply for membership and be approved to enter. The outside world can’t see what goes on in BBN. You mom or your boss can’t friend you. The Big Blue Network is only for approved members of the university community.
That being said, please be aware that other members of the community, due to the default privacy settings of BNN can see your activities on the network. If you are concerned about your privacy related to other members of the network, please take a minute to review and adjust your privacy settings by clicking here.
The Online Community Manager of the Big Blue Network also monitors the site for illegal and inappropriate content. The basic rules for activity on The Big Blue Network are
1. No threatening behavior of any kind will be tolerated. This also applies to activity on other social sites like MySpace and Facebook. This policy is available from the Office of the Dean of Students.
2. You are responsible for following the Student Code of Conduct while on the Big Blue Network.
3. It should go without saying, but evidence of illegal activity on the Big Blue Network will be reported. This includes, but is not limited to underage drinking, consumption of controlled substances and more.
Otherwise, feel free to be your authentic self!
The Office of Undergraduate Education also collects usage data from the Big Blue Network to make certain that we are doing the best job that we can of using the network and interacting with undergraduate students to promote our retention and success efforts. We also want to be able to help other academic and student support units make more effective use of the network in interacting with you. For that reason, we collect two types of usage data on The Big Blue Network:
FIRST, we collect anonymous usage statistics, like most websites, using Google Analytics. This helps us to understand how many members are visiting the site, which of our site features are the most popular, and which need a little more love. It helps us to know how much time, on average, our members spend on the site, which browsers they use to access it, and over what type of Internet connection they are accessing the site. In other words, it gives us some basic, anonymous statistics that help us to improve the effectiveness of our program.
SECOND, like most programs and offices on campus, we collect assessment data to help us understand what we are doing well and what we could be doing better. We need to know whether or not the program is working and why. In order to do this type of assessment on The Big Blue Network, we will occasionally analyze interactions between students and student leaders, faculty and staff in order to determine if we are successful in creating the types of informational and community-building conversations and content that will lead to increased student retention and success. We do this not to spy on individual expression of opinion or thought, but to make certain we are making The Big Blue Network the best and most useful experience possible for our students and the broader university community.
What do NOT doing look at every conversation or comment on The Big Blue Network in order to use this information against our students. As long as BBN members follow the network policy, there is no reason for us to take an interest in, or interfere with, student expression of thought or activities. Remember: BBN is password-protected and invitation-only precisely because we want our students to feel safe in expressing these aspects of their campus lives. We do not check in to see if you are going to class, doing your homework, taking regular showers or feeding your cat. But please – feed your cat!
If you ever have any questions or concerns about The Big Blue Network and your privacy or safety, please contact Dr. Christopher S. Rice, community manager of The Big Blue Network, by email (christopher.rice@uky.edu), Twitter (@NetworkBlue) or here on The Big Blue Network.
