Empowering Users to Manage Their Own Data: The OSU Foundation's Privacy & Preferences Center

An estimated 402 million terabytes of data is generated every day. From Facebook comments and TikTok videos to global research and health data, to the emergence and boom of generative AI, data is being created and consumed at an increasingly rapid pace. As a result, data privacy continues to be a growing concern. Individuals want more control over their data and how it’s collected, stored, and shared. They want to know what organizations are doing with their information. Most importantly, they want to know that their sensitive information is private and secure.

To empower Oregonians with greater control over their data, the state enacted the Oregon Consumer Privacy Act (OCPA). This law, effective July 1, 2024, for profitable organizations and July 1, 2025, for nonprofits, reinforces residents' rights to access, correct, and delete their information. It also allows them to opt-out of their data being used for targeted promotions and communications.

The OSU Foundation manages a significant amount of data for alumni, donors, parents, and friends. While universities are exempt from the OCPA, the OSU Foundation is a separate nonprofit entity that partners with OSU. To ensure compliance with the new law, the OSU Foundation Technology and Innovation team collaborated with key stakeholders across the Foundation’s divisions and units to develop and launch the Privacy and Preferences Center. The new center clearly outlines how users have control over their data, supporting better understanding of how their data is being used as well as how to request a copy or ask that their data be deleted.

Although the Privacy and Preferences Center was developed to meet OCPA compliance, its impact and benefit for the OSU Foundation’s constituents includes more than data privacy. Along with greater control over their data, constituents now have greater control over their communications. They can more intuitively interact with and personalize their preferences, customizing which topics they want communications about, and through which channels they want to receive them. The center provides a user-centric experience that simplifies complexity while offering greater control, allowing constituents to focus on and invest their time toward what matters to them.

“Before the new Privacy and Preferences Center launched, communications preferences were functional, but they relied on manual processes, legacy systems, and internal expertise to interpret constituent preferences,” said Scott Emery, Senior Director for Automation and Change Management with the OSU Foundation’s Innovation and Technology team. “Our constituents now have a single, consistent website that’s been thoughtfully integrated into our existing portal. The new center empowers our constituents to personalize the information they want to receive and allows them to engage with us on topics and content they care about.”

By giving alumni, donors, parents, and friends more control, the OSU Foundation is strengthening its relationships. The Privacy and Preferences Center demonstrates the Foundation’s commitment to its constituents, enhancing transparency and fostering trust.

“The center goes above and beyond compliance to allow our constituents to tailor, in detail, what communications they receive from the OSU Foundation and our affiliates and what data we store about them,” Emery said. “Combined with a larger data ecosystem project that allows us to implement their requested changes, and a new updated privacy policy, the center reflects our commitment to being a trustworthy steward of our constituents’ data.

“We offer this control to signal our respect for our constituents’ preferences and the value we put on transparency. When constituents choose what information they want to receive and how to receive it, communications become more relevant and meaningful, leading to higher engagement rates and stronger relationships.”