February 7, 2018
Nelnet, Inc. (”we”, “our”, or “us”) operates the Nelnet mobile device application(s) and the Website nelnet.com (the “Website”). This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) is designed to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive from users of products and services (individually and collectively, the "Services") through the Website, as well as from users of Nelnet’s mobile device application(s). This Policy applies to users who are located in the U.S. when visiting the Website. This Policy does not apply to information you provide to any third party service provider(s) related to or whose services are incorporated into the Website; information you provide to third parties shall be controlled by their respective privacy policies.
We are committed to providing you a useful and enjoyable online experience. This Policy explains our collection and use practices regarding consumer information, including how and what we share with our related companies and with unrelated entities. Protecting your privacy is important to Nelnet and our employees. We want you to understand what information we collect and how we use it.
This Policy is subject to change from time to time, so be sure to check back occasionally to ensure you have read the most current version. It is effective as of the date listed above and applies to our Services that link to this policy. Even if you read and/or agreed to a prior privacy statement, you need to review this updated version. We reserve the right at any time, and in our sole discretion, to change or modify this Online Privacy Policy. If any such changes or modifications are made, we will update the “Last Revised” date appearing at the top of this web page. Such changes or modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting to the Website, and supersede any prior versions of this Policy.
This Policy governs the privacy policies of this Website or the Nelnet mobile device application(s) only. Other divisions, affiliates, and subsidiaries of Nelnet, Inc. will detail their privacy practices on their respective websites.
Information we collect
Why We Collect Information
We collect information so we can identify you as our customer, to establish, manage and protect your accounts, to complete your transactions, to create and offer you products and services you might be interested in, to personalize and improve upon your experience with us and to comply with various legal and regulatory requirements.
Non-Identifying Information
We may collect information from your visit or as part of the registration and administration of your account, in order to personalize and improve upon your experience with us, such as, without limitation, age and individual preferences ("Non-Identifying Information").
Cookies
The Services may place "Cookies" on a visitor's device. Cookies are small text files. Our Cookies save anonymized data about individual visitors, allowing our Services to recognize information about a visitor and help deliver personalized content and other services and functions. Cookies make your Internet experience quicker and more convenient. The Services use both session cookies, which terminate when a user closes his or her browser, and persistent cookies, which remain on the user's device until they expire or are manually deleted. The Services also contain coding from our business and technology partners which generates third party cookies. Third party cookies allow our business and technology partners to store non-Identifying Information they can access when you visit this or other websites. Accepting a cookie from a web or device browser does not give us access to any Personally Identifiable Information.
Most website and mobile device browsers allow you to control cookies, including whether or not to accept them and provide the ability to remove them. You may set most browsers to notify you if you receive a cookie, or you may choose to block cookies with your browser. Blocking cookies may result in a lower quality experience for you while you are using our Services.
Device and Connection Information
When you use our Services, we will identify the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer or handheld device. The IP address does not identify you personally, but it lets us identify the device you are using. We store IP addresses in case we need to track a connection for security purposes. We may also collect other device-specific information about the device you are using, including what type of device it is and hardware model, what operating system you are using, device settings, unique device identifies, geo-location data, and crash data. Whether we collect some or all of this information often depends on what type of device you are using and its settings. Check the policies of your device manufacturer or software provider to learn more about what information your device makes available to us. Whether we collect some or all of this information often depends on what type of device you are using and its settings. Check the policies of your device manufacturer or software provider to learn more about what information your device makes available to us.
Web Beacons (1x1 Pixels or GIFS)
Our Services contain coding known as Web Beacons that use 1x1 pixel images to capture and transmit the online activity of users on our Services. These Web Beacons typically transmit information about form completions and other activities in order to measure advertising effectiveness or store analytics information. In addition, we may use Web Beacons in HTML-based emails. This allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of our email communications and our marketing campaigns by showing how many emails recipients have opened.
Log Files
Like most websites, our servers utilize log files. Log files store information including internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks. Log files are used to analyze trends, administer the Website, track Users’ movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We use log file information at times to help identify you as you browse and to gather broad technical and demographic information on who uses our website.
Google Analytics Feature
We use Google Analytics to collect information about the use of the Website. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit the Website, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to the Website. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve the Website. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit the Website, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with Personally Identifiable Information. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this Website by disabling the Google Analytics cookie on your browser. You can also view and change the currently available opt-outs for Google Ads.
Do Not Track Signals
Do Not Track is a feature in your web browser, which enables you to opt-out of the third party tracking of your online activities over time and across third party websites. We do not track users across third party websites to provide targeted advertising, and therefore, do not process or comply with any web browser’s “do not track” signal or other similar mechanism that indicates a request to disable online tracking of individual users who visit this Website or use our Services. Third parties cannot collect any Personally Identifiable Information from this Website unless you provide it to them directly.
Personally Identifying Information
We may collect Nonpublic Personal Information about you from the following sources:
- Information from your loan applications or other loan and account forms
- Information about your transactions with us or others
- Information we receive from third parties, such as your academic institution
"Nonpublic Personal Information" is nonpublic, personally identifiable financial information about you that we obtain in connection with providing a financial product or service to you. For example, Nonpublic Personal Information includes information regarding your account balance, payment history, and overdraft history, if applicable. We may collect Personally Identifiable Information about you as well, including:
- Your first and last name
- Your home address
- Your home or work telephone number
- Your birth date
- Your email address
- Your social security number
"Personally Identifiable Information" is individually identifiable information about an individual consumer collected by us and maintained in an accessible form.
How We Use Your Information
Uses of Information
Certain Non-Identifying Information would be considered a part of your Personally Identifiable Information if it were combined with other identifiers (for example, combining your zip code with your street address) in a way that enables you to be identified. But the same pieces of information are considered Non-Identifying Information when they are taken alone or combined only with other non-identifying information (for example, your viewing preferences). We may combine your Personally Identifiable Information with Non-Identifying Information and aggregate it with information collected from other Users to attempt to provide you with a better experience, to improve the quality and value of the Administrator Services and to analyze and understand how our Website and Services are used. We may also use the combined information without aggregating it to serve you specifically, for instance to deliver a product to you according to your preferences or restrictions.
If you supply us with your e-mail address, we may let you know by e-mail about other products and services and product enhancements that may be of interest to you. You will have the opportunity to tell us you do not want to receive future messages with each message you receive. If you e-mail a question or comment to us, we will use your e-mail address to reply to you and we will temporarily store your e-mail address, your message, and our reply for quality assurance or to satisfy applicable laws and regulations. When we collect your e-mail address this way, we will not use it for marketing our products and services unless you have given us permission.
If you wish to change any of your personal information, you may change it by logging into your Nelnet account, or by contacting Customer Service, either through email, by mail, or by telephone as listed in the "How to Contact Us" section below.
What We Share
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Services, to provide the Services on our behalf, to perform Website-related Services (e.g., without limitation, maintenance services, database management, web analytics and improvement of the Website’s features) to assist us in analyzing how our Website and Services are used, or to perform other services (e.g., without limitation, sending postal mail and email, providing marketing assistance, and providing customer service). These third parties have access to your Nonpublic Personal Information, Nonpublic Personal Information, and/or Personally Identifiable Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf; provided, however, that if you are redirected to a site or application maintained by a third party, the privacy policy of such site or application will control the use of any information you provide.
We may share your information with companies that are affiliated with us, such as our direct or indirect subsidiaries or parent or sister companies or nonaffiliated third parties (to market products or services to you). As we continue to develop our business, we may buy or sell companies, subsidiaries, or business units. We may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of our assets, including your Personally Identifiable Information, in connection with a merger, acquisitions, reorganization or sale of assets including in the event of bankruptcy.
Sometimes the law or other circumstances also require that we disclose Nonpublic Personal Information and/or Personally Identifiable Information about you to nonaffiliated third parties. Some examples are: when you ask or permit us to do so; when a guaranty agency, school or the Department of Education need that information in connection with your account, with agencies that assist us in servicing your loan; in response to subpoenas or court orders; with credit bureaus; when we suspect fraud or criminal activity; to protect our property and rights or those of a third party; to protect the safety of the public or any person; or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity.
VERMONT RESIDENTS: We will not disclose nonpublic personal financial information about you other than as permitted by law unless you authorize us to make that disclosure. Your authorization must be in writing or, if you agree, in electronic form. If you wish to authorize us to disclose your nonpublic personal financial information to nonaffiliated third parties, you may notify us at the address found under the "How to Contact Us" section below.
If you become an inactive User, we will continue to adhere to the privacy policies and practices described in this Policy.
Our Security Procedures
We are committed to providing you a useful and enjoyable online experience. We implement reasonable and appropriate physical, procedural, and electronic safeguards to protect your information.
To access information and send e-mail via the Website, you will need a browser that supports the use of Secure Sockets Layer. This encryption technology helps ensure the authenticity of your online sessions and secures data being transmitted over the public Internet.
Nelnet, Inc. takes careful steps to safeguard customer information. We restrict access to your personal and account information to those employees who need to know that information to provide Services to you, and we regularly train our employees on privacy, information security, and their obligation to protect your information. We maintain reasonable and appropriate physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to guard your Nonpublic Personal Information and Personally Identifiable Information and we regularly test those safeguards to maintain the appropriate levels of protection.
You can help safeguard your Nonpublic Personal Information and Personally Identifiable Information by taking a few simple precautions. Protect your account numbers, passwords, and customer access numbers. Never disclose confidential information to unknown callers. You should always use a secure browser and current virus detection software, and never open email from unknown sources.
Children's Privacy
The Website is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use personally identifiable information from children under age 13. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us Personally Identifiable Information without their consent, he or she should contact us using the information in the "How to Contact Us" section, below. If we confirm collected such information, we will take all reasonable measures to delete that information from our system as soon as possible.
Links to Other Websites and Services
We are not responsible for the collection and use of information by companies or individuals unaffiliated with us whose websites may contain links to the Website, including vendors where you may shop. Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Website to another website, our Policy does not apply to third party websites or services. Your browsing and interaction on any third party website or service are subject to that third party's own rules and policies. Please note that when you shop with a vendor who is linked to the Website, even though you may have started your visit with us, and even though our pages may still appear, your transactions are completed with a separate organization, not with us. In addition, you agree that we are not responsible and we do not have control over any third parties that you authorize to access your user content. If you are using a third party website or service, and you allow such a third party access to your user content, you do so at your own risk. This Policy does not apply to information we collect by other means (including offline) or from other sources other than through the Website and applications.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact us by email or regular mail at the following address:
Nelnet, Inc.
P.O. Box 82561
Lincoln, NE 68501-2561
Email: NelnetConsumerSolutions@nelnet.net