ISO has recently begun displaying a message on the Web Single Sign-On (WebSSO) login page.

The Rice SSO service is required to submit some information about you to the website.  This information may include NetID, first and last names, email address, and university affiliations (student, faculty, staff, etc.) if the website requires this information to operate.  By continuing with the authentication process, you are agreeing to this information transfer.

You may be asking yourself, what happened or has something changed.

Nothing has changed.  WebSSO has always had to send this information but this change allows us to be more transparent about this transfer of information.

Websites need different types of information to function properly.  They all do not require the same information.  For example, when you use the Box service, it requires your NetID to function properly because it needs to know who the files belong to.  When you use Canvas, it requires your NetID, name and email address, this is to support the internal profile creation and the communication between students in a course and faculty with their students.  Some external to Rice websites, like those in our Research and Scholarship InCommon federation will receive NetID, name, email address and affiliation (student, faculty, staff, etc.).  We are contractually obligated to share this information with these sites in order to have access to them. In general though, we only share the minimal amount of information required by the website to function.

We just want people to be aware that some information about you is being shared, and this is the first step we are taking to make people aware. 

Questions or concerns?

If you have any questions, please contact the OIT Help Desk at 713-348-HELP or helpdesk@rice.edu.