The Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University holds the privacy of our website users in the highest regard. No personally identifiable information is collected without user consent. However, you may be asked to provide personal information to gain access to some of our content and services. This information, submitted through event registrations and online mailer sign up forms, is used only internally to keep you engaged in our work. No personally identifiable information entered on our websites is sold or given to third parties.
Additionally, technical information about your visit is collected and used to improve usability of our websites.
What kind of information is collected?
While visiting our website, technical information about your visit is recorded for internal use, including:
- Browser type and version
- Operating system type
- Pages visited on our site
- Referring site information
We also use your IP Address. Your IP Address is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer that you are using by your Internet Service Provider. An IP Address is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever a user visits our sites, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited. Collecting IP Addresses is standard practice on the internet and is done automatically by many online service providers, including website operators. We use IP Addresses for purposes such as calculating site usage levels.
We also use tools and third party services to collect information about usage of our sites, including Google Analytics. You can learn more about Google Analytics, and its privacy practices, at the Google Analytics Help Page. Generally speaking, Google Analytics uses cookies that allows us to conduct statistical analyses of our visitors’ browsing behavior.
Opting out of website tracking
All participation in website data collection is voluntary and visitors may opt out at any time. However, please be aware that doing so may mean some features of this website will not function properly. To opt out of tracking you can:
- Enable the Do Not Track feature of your web browser.
- Install browser add-ons to protect privacy, such as Privacy Badger or uBlock Origin.
- Disable cookies and other web technologies such as JavaScript in your browser preference settings.
How is personal information I submit on the website or through e-mail used?
Website visitors may have opportunities to interact with the Nicholas Institute online through e-mail, webforms, and social media. If you submit personal information through one of these channels, it is only used:
- for the purpose in which it was submitted
- to gauge interest in our programs and research
- to determine usage patterns to improve the usability of our website and emails
- to track aggregate statistical trends
Opting out of e-mail communication
You always have the opportunity to opt out of our marketing communications or change your preferences by following the “safe unsubscribe” link in the footer of our e-mail messages or by e-mailing us at nicholasinstitute@duke.edu. Alternatively, please also consider using the "Update Profile" link at the bottom of our mailers to adjust your communication preferences.
For other questions about our email, see Nicholas Institute Email Help.
How do we protect against loss and misuse of your information?
We take precautions to protect our organization and our users from unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure, or destruction of information we hold.
While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers and servers on which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment. We also use "anti-hacking" security measures.
Notification of changes
We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we decide to change this privacy policy in any material way, we will notify you here, by e-mail, or by means of a notice on nicholasinstitute.duke.edu.
Contact us
If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us.
Last reviewed August 26, 2022