In the Web-based Graduate Admissions system that you are currently using, we strive to develop innovative services to better serve our users, including potential applicants, referees, faculty members and graduate administrators. We recognize that privacy is an important issue, so we design and operate our services with the protection of your privacy in mind. This Privacy Policy outlines the types of personal information we gather when you use our services, as well as some of the steps we take to safeguard it.

The following principles apply to the personally identifying information we ask for and that you provide. "Personally identifying information" is information that individually identifies you, such as your name, phone number, and email address.

Data collection

Due to the nature of our services, we require you to register for an account. We ask you for some personal information in order to create an account (including your name, email address and a password for your account), and we will use that information to provide the service. If you decide to apply for graduate admissions by submitting an application, we collect more detailed personal information such as your educational background and course grades.

Cookies

Upon your first visit to our system, a cookie is sent to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. A "cookie" is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. We only use cookies to track the identifier of the active session that you are engaging, and do not use cookies to track any usage trends or personal information. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, our system will not be functional unless you start to accept cookies from this web site.

Information sharing and access

Under any circumstances, we do not rent or sell your personally identifying information to other companies or individuals. Your referees do not have access to any information you have provided in your application, with the exception of your name and email address. Only the graduate administrators and faculty members in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, have access to the application that you have submitted, as well as the letters of reference that your referees have submitted. If you do not choose to submit your application, the information that you have provided will not be accessible by the graduate administrators and faculty members. If you prefer to delete all the information in your application without submitting the application, you may do so by using the Delete my application feature available to you.

Information security

We make every effort to take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. We take advantage of the state-of-the-art web and server-side technologies for this purpose. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact us at any time.