Baliuag University (the “School”) is bound by the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (the “Act”). It is committed to respecting each student’s personal privacy while ensuring its ability to fully carry out its responsibilities.

This Privacy Policy sets out how the School manages personal information provided to or collected by it, who uses and how the information is used, how the information is shared, how long the information is retained, how a data breach is handled and what the student’s rights are with respect to his/her personal information.

You, the student and parent, shall be asked to sign the Personal Information Consent Form (“Consent Form”) which shall constitute your contract with the School and your acknowledgement that you have read this Policy and Consent Form, and agree to be bound by and comply with them.

All other rules and policies of the School which are not inconsistent with this Policy and the Consent Form shall remain effective. Any provision of the Policy or the Consent Form found to be unenforceable or invalid by any court having competent jurisdiction shall not render invalid such provision shall not affect the validity of the other provisions, which shall remain in full force and effect.

The School may, from time to time and at its sole discretion, review and update this Policy to take account of new laws and technology, changes to the School’s operations and practices and to make sure it remains appropriate to the changing School environment. The School will post and publish notice of any such modification, which shall be effective immediately upon posting or publication.

What kind of personal information does the School collect? 

The type of information the School collects and holds includes (but is not limited to) personal information1, including health and other sensitive2 information that you provide before, during and after the course of your enrolment at the School. On occasions when third parties provide personal information, without or upon the School’s request, the School will determine if it can legitimately keep such information. It will be treated in the same manner as information you provide the School if it is related to the School’s legitimate educational interests; otherwise, the information will be disposed of in a way that will safeguard your privacy.

Upon application for admission and registration for enrolment, the School will collect information on your personal circumstances and directory information, such as but not limited to, name, email address, telephone number and other contact details, family history, previous schools attended, academic performance, disciplinary record, medical record, etc.

Information collected upon, during and after the course of your enrolment include, but are not limited to, information relating to:

•       student’s academic or curricular undertakings, classes enrolled in, scholastic performance, attendance record, medical record, etc.;

•       co-curricular matters, such as outreach activities, study tour, extra- curricular activities, student organization membership, leadership positions and participation in seminars, competitions and programs;

•       exchange programs, internships and on-the-job training;

•       any disciplinary incident and accompanying sanctions;

•       statistical information such as institutional ranking, performance in admissions exams, aptitude tests, etc.;

•       report provided by a medical professional or a reference from another school.

How does the School collect personal information?

The School will generally collect, acquire or generate personal information held about a student by way of forms filled out by parents or students, face-to-face meetings and interviews, emails and telephone calls. It may also collect, acquire and generate a student’s personal information in other forms, such as but not limited to, photographic and video images, digital material or biometric records, and recordings from closed-circuit television cameras installed in the School premises for security purposes.

When you use the School’s online services and online teaching platforms, the School’s servers and those of its third party service providers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website, such as your server address, top level domain name (e.g.,.com, .gov, .ph, etc), date and time of visit to the site, pages accessed and documents viewed, previous sites visited, browser type, browser language, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser. In addition, information you share with others through chat sessions, email exchanges, online platforms or bulletin board discussions can be collected and used by others. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and personalization information. The general recommendation is not to disclose personal information as much as possible.

The School recognizes that there are inherent risks associated with the transmission of information over the internet. Each student should be aware of this when sending personal information via email or via the School’s website, online services, educational online platforms or social media platforms. If this is of concern to you then you may use other methods of communication such as post, fax or telephone (although these also have risks associated with them).

Who uses your information?

Your personal information is accessed and used by School personnel who have a legitimate interest in it for the purpose of carrying out the School’s contractual obligations.

How will the School use the personal information you provide?

The School will use personal information it collects from you for the primary purpose of collection, and for such other secondary purposes that are related to the primary purpose of collection and reasonably expected by you, or to which you have consented.

Personal information will only be collected for purposes necessary to the functions and activities of the School. These include selection, employment, appraisal, discipline, remuneration of staff, and School administrative activities.

In relation to personal information of students and parents, the School's primary purpose of collection is to enable the School to provide schooling for the student. This includes satisfying the needs of the parents, the students and the school during the whole period a student is enrolled at the School and beyond throughout the association of the School with the students, their parents, lawful heirs and assigns. 
The purposes for which the School uses personal information of students and parents include (but are not limited to):

•       evaluating applications for admission to the School and processing confirmation of incoming students and transfer students;

•       recording, generating and maintaining student records of academic, co-curricular and extracurricular progress;

•       recording, storing and evaluating student work, e. g. homework, seatwork, tests, research papers, essays and presentations;

•       recording, generating and maintaining records, whether manually, electronically or other means, of class attendance and participation in curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities;

•       establishing and maintaining student information systems;

•       sharing of grades between and among faculty members, and others with legitimate official need, for academic deliberations;

•       processing scholarship applications, grants and other forms of assistance;

•       investigating incidents relating to student behavior and implementing disciplinary measures;

•       maintaining directories and alumni records;

•       compiling and generating reports for statistical and research purposes;

•       providing health, counseling, information technology, library, sports/ recreation, transportation, parking, campus mobility, safety and security services;

•       managing and controlling access to campus facilities and equipment;

•       communicating official school announcements;

•       sharing marketing and promotional materials regarding school- related functions, events, projects and activities;

•       soliciting student participation in research and non-commercial surveys;

•       keeping parents informed about matters related to the student’s schooling, through correspondence, newsletters and magazines;

•     day-to-day administration of the School;

•     seeking donations and marketing for the School; and

•       satisfying the School's legal obligations and allowing the School to discharge its duty of care.

In cases where the School requests personal information about a Student or parent, if the information requested is not provided, the School may not be able to enroll or continue the enrolment of the student or permit the student to take part in a particular activity.

If the School intends to use the student’s personal information for purposes other than a legitimate interest as an academic institution, it will obtain your written consent for that specific purpose, unless you yourself request the School to use, process and share your information for such purpose, or processing without your consent is allowed under the Act or other applicable laws.

Who might the School disclose personal information to?

The School may disclose personal information, including sensitive information, held about a student to:

•     another school;

•     government departments;

•     medical practitioners;

•       people providing services to the School, including specialist visiting teachers, counselors and sports coaches;

•     recipients of School publications, such as newsletters and magazines;

•     Parents or next of kin;

•     School’s Foundation or external fundraising organizations;

•     anyone you authorize the School to disclose information to;

•     suppliers and contractors that carry out services for the School; and

•     anyone to whom the School is required to disclose the information to by law.

Some examples of when we may share or disclose your personal information to others include: 

•       posting of class lists and class schedules in school bulletin boards or other places within the campus;

•       sharing of information to persons, including parents, guardians or next of kin, as required by law or on a need-to-know basis as determined by the School to promote the student’s best interests, or protect a student’s health, safety and security, or that of others;

•       providing academic institutions, government agencies, private or public corporations, or the like, upon their request, with scholastic ranking information or certification of good moral character for purposes of admission;

•       sharing information to potential donors, funders or benefactors for purposes of scholarship, grants and other forms of assistance;

•       distributing the list of graduates and awardees during commencement exercises;

•       reporting and/or disclosing information to the National Privacy Commission and other government bodies or agencies as may be required by law;

•     sharing information for accreditation and university ranking purposes;

•     complying with court orders, subpoenas and/or other legal obligations;

•       responding to inquiries verifying that the student is a bona fide student or graduate of the school;

•     conducting research or surveys for purposes of institutional development;

•     sharing the student’s directory information to the Schools’ alumni association;

•       publishing and posting of academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular achievements and success, including honors lists and names of awardees in school premises and buildings, school bulletin boards, website, social media sites and publications;

•       marketing or advertising to promote the School, including its activities and events, through photos, videos, brochures, website posting, newspaper advertisements, physical and electronic bulletin boards, and other media;

•       live streaming of School events;

•       collecting data from psychological/guidance test administration and interpretation;

•       publishing communications with journalistic content, such as news information in School publications and social media sites.

The School may disclose personal information about a student to overseas recipients, for instance, to facilitate a school Exchange. The School may also store personal information in the cloud which may mean that it resides on servers which are situated outside the Philippines.

How long will the School retain your information? 

The School will retain your personal information indefinitely for historical and statistical purposes. In cases where a retention period is required by law, all records after such period will be duly and securely disposed of.

How does the School manage and secure personal information?

The School's staffs are required to respect the confidentiality of your personal information and the privacy of individuals.

The School has in place steps to protect the personal information it holds from misuse, interference and loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure by use of various methods including locked storage of paper records and password access rights to computerized records.

How will the School handle data breach?

Any data security incident or breach that comes to the knowledge of the School will be recorded and reported as required by law. The School will take all necessary and reasonable steps to address such incident or breach and mitigate any negative effect of such incident or breach. If there is strong suspicion that an incident affects a student’s personal information, the School will notify the concerned student and/or parent of such incident in an appropriate manner.

What are your rights with respect to your information?

 Under the Act, you may object to the processing of your personal data, have the right to obtain access to any personal information which the School holds about you and to advise the School of any perceived inaccuracy.

The School respects every parent's right to make decisions concerning his/her child's education. Generally, the School will refer any requests for consent and notices in relation to a student’s personal information to the parents. The School will treat consent given by parents as consent given on behalf of the student and notice to parents will act as notice given to the student. However, the School may allow a student to give or withhold consent to the use of his/her personal information independently of his/her parents. This would normally be done only when the student is a college student and of legal age or if the student's personal circumstances so warrant.

You may request to access your personal information, and/or have it corrected, erased, or blocked on reasonable grounds. The School reserves the right to deal with the matter in accordance with law.

Students will generally be able to access and correct or update their personal information through their parents, but college students of legal age may seek access and correction themselves.

There will be occasions when access to personal information may be denied. Such occasions would include instances where release of the information would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, or where the release may result in a breach of the School's duty of care to the Student.

To make a request to access or update any personal information the School holds about you, please submit your request and explain the reason for your by writing to the following personnel:

For Pre-School and Elementary Students:            Elementary Principal

For Junior and Senior High School Students:        High School Principal

For College and Graduate Students:                   College Dean

For transcript concerns:                                   University Registrar

The School may require you to verify your identity and specify what information you require. The School may charge a fee to cover the cost of verifying your application and locating, retrieving, reviewing and copying any material requested. If the School cannot provide you with access to that information, the School will provide you with written notice explaining the reasons for refusal.

ENQUIRIES

If you would like further information about the way the School manages the personal information it holds, or wish to complain that you believe that the School has breached the Act, please contact the School’s duly designated Data Privacy Officer:

Name:                     Atty. Susan B. Jacinto Legal Counsel

E-mail address:         dpo@baliuagu.edu.ph

Office Address:         1069 Gil Carlos Street, Baliwag City, Bulacan

The School will investigate any complaint and will notify you of the making of a decision in relation to your complaint as soon as is practicable after it has been made.