Privacy Policy

Please read this carefully. It provides information about the privacy policy of TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc., TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc. (together referred to as "TIAA-CREF"). The TIAA-CREF privacy policy concerns nonpublic personal information ("personal information") that TIAA-CREF may have about current and former Account Owners in the Minnesota College Savings Plan (the "Plan").

TIAA-CREF may collect personal information about you from various sources. That includes personal information that you give on: the Application; Plan forms; and interactive tools. It may also include personal information about your participation in the Plan, such as your Investment Options. TIAA-CREF may also obtain certain of your personal information from third parties, such as consumer reporting agencies.

We use your personal information to effect your investment in the Plan and to effect related services. When you complete the Application, you may opt to receive information about other financial products and services offered by TIAA-CREF and its affiliates. If so, your personal information may be shared with these affiliates so that they can mail you their materials ("affiliate materials"). These affiliates include: insurance companies; broker-dealers; investment companies; investment advisors; and a trust company. Your personal information also is available to the Office in its role as Administrator.

TIAA-CREF limits access to your personal information to those employees who must know it to provide Plan-related services. TIAA-CREF may also give your personal information to service providers: who process your transactions; mail you Plan documents and affiliate materials; or enhance your Plan benefits.

We protect your personal information by physical, electronic and procedural safeguards as required by federal and state laws.

TIAA-CREF does not disclose your personal information to any other person outside of the Plan, unless you consent or it is permitted under applicable federal and state laws. TIAA-CREF may also disclose your personal information if it is allowed or required by its contract with the Office. With your consent or if allowed by law, we will provide your personal information to the financial advisor you designate.

NOTICE OF PRIVACY POLICY OF THE MINNESOTA COLLEGE SAVINGS PLAN

The following notice provides important information about the reasons that the Minnesota College Savings Plan (the "Plan") has requested certain information from you on your Application and other forms for the Plan and the way such information will be used by the Plan.

Section 7(b) of the Federal Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C.A. Section 552a note, Pub Law 93-579 Section 7) requires the State of Minnesota to disclose to you whenever your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number is requested, whether providing such information is mandatory or voluntary, the statutory or other authority by which the information is solicited, and the uses that the State of Minnesota will make of such information. Accordingly, you are hereby informed that the furnishing of your and your Beneficiary's Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number on an Application and other Plan forms is mandatory in that failure to provide it will prevent participation in the Plan. Your and your Beneficiary's Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number are requested pursuant to legal authority contained in the United States Code, Title 42, Section 405(c)(2) (C)(i); Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Section 6109(a); Proposed Treasury Regulation Section 1.529-4(b)(3)(i) and (c)(2)(i); and Internal Revenue Service Notice 2001-81. Your and your Beneficiary's Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number will be used to verify identity, as an identifier for your Account in the Plan so that all necessary data is accurately recorded, and for federal and state tax administration purposes involving Sections 529(b)(6) and (d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Your Beneficiary's Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number will also be provided to any Eligible Educational Institution that receives a direct distribution of a payment of Qualified Higher Education Expenses for the Beneficiary, so that the institution can verify your Beneficiary's identity.

Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, Section 13.02, subdivision 12 and Section 13.04, subdivision 2, you are hereby informed that the information that you supply on an Application, other Plan form, or on the Plan Web site is defined as private data on individuals (except for the names and addresses of Beneficiaries who receive matching grants under the Plan, as such information is public) and may not be disclosed to third parties without the informed consent of the person to whom it pertains, unless the information is authorized or required to be disclosed by Minnesota law, or other state or federal law. The purpose of requesting the information on the Application, other Plan form, or on the Plan Web site is to establish and administer a qualified tuition savings Account in the Plan according to the guidelines established under Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code and by the State of Minnesota in Minnesota Statutes, Section 136G.01, et seq. Failure to provide the information requested on an Application or other Plan form will prevent your participation in the Plan. In order to establish and maintain a qualified tuition savings Account in the Plan for you, the information that you provide on the Application, other Plan form, or on the Plan Web site may be shared with other public and private individuals and entities for that sole purpose. Neither the Minnesota Office of Higher Education nor the Minnesota State Board of Investment discriminates on the basis of disability in the admission or access to, or treatment or employment in, their programs or activities.

NOTICE ABOUT ONLINE PRIVACY

Safeguarding your online personal information is something that the Minnesota College Savings Plan (the "Plan") takes very seriously. Personal information provided to the Plan is not sold or bartered. In addition, the personal information provided by you online through the Plan Web site is not revealed to any person or organization outside of TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc., its affiliates and subcontractors, its parent company, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), and the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (and its staff) unless:

• Proper authorization or direction from you to do so has been received,
• It is permitted by law, or
• It is necessary to do so in order to enable service providers to perform work on behalf of the Plan.

When you visit the Plan Web site, you can go to pages that are open to the general public or log onto secure pages in the My Account section of the site to enroll in the Plan, access information about your Account, or conduct certain transactions on the Account. Once you have opened an Account in the Plan, access to these secure pages of the Plan Web site is permitted only after you have supplied your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number and Password. This information serves to verify your identity, so that only you can access your Account and initiate transactions through the Plan Web site.

The following categories of personal information will be requested from you if you choose to enroll in the Plan or access your Account online: (1) your name and your Beneficiary's name; (2) complete physical address information; (3) telephone numbers; (4) your gender; (5) Social Security Numbers or Taxpayer Identification Numbers for yourself and your Beneficiary; (6) your date of birth and your Beneficiary's date of birth; (7) depending on your method of contribution, certain banking information; and (8) at your option, your relationship to the Beneficiary and your e-mail address.

The Plan is committed to protecting your privacy online. When you enter personal data into the Plan Web site (including your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number and your Password) to enroll or access your Account online, you will log into secure pages where we use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol for protecting information. SSL has been universally accepted on the Internet for authenticated and encrypted communication between clients and servers. In addition, all online enrollment or Account transaction data that you send to us and we confirm back to you, is sent over an encrypted SSL connection protected with a mechanism for detecting tampering --that is, for automatically determining whether the data has been altered in transit. This generally means that the data sent is encrypted and can only be decrypted by our Web server. Your data is stored on a secure server behind our firewall, which works to restrict access to your data from outside the server.

To use this section of the Plan Web site you need a browser that supports encryption and dynamic Web page construction. We strongly recommend Netscape navigator version 4.0 or higher, or Microsoft Internet version 4.0 or higher.

To help ensure the confidentiality and integrity of your information:

• Do not share your Password, Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number with anyone.
• Call the Plan's toll-free number at 1 (877) 338-4646 if you suspect any willful misuse of this site.

If you provide personal information to effect transactions on the Plan Web site, a record of the transactions that you have performed while on the site is retained by the Plan.

If you decide not to enroll online and you want to request Plan materials to be mailed to you, or you want to subscribe to the Plan e-mail newsletter, you can click on other sections of the Plan Web site (i.e., the Request Enrollment Kit page of the Enroll Today! section or the Sign up for E-mail Bulletins section) to provide your name, mailing address and e-mail address, respectively. The personal information that you provide on those pages of the site will be stored and used to market the Plan more effectively. Although those pages of the Plan Web site do not use SSL encryption protocol, your information will be safeguarded in accordance with federal and state privacy laws and industry norms.

If you need to inform us of changes or corrections to personal information that you have provided through online enrollment or online Account transactions, please follow the instructions in the Access Your Account section of the Plan Web site, or download and complete an Account Services form and mail it to the address provided on the form.
If you have provided us with mailing or e-mail information in order to request mailing of an enrollment kit or to subscribe to our e-mail newsletter, you will not be able to review and correct that information online. However, if you want to request another enrollment kit or re-subscribe to the e-mail newsletter, and your mailing or e-mail information has changed, you can go to the Open An Account section of the Plan Web site and click on the Request Enrollment Kit link to enter your new e-mail and/or mailing address.

We are notifying you in accordance with Minnesota Statutes, Section 13.15, Subdivision 3, about the limited use of cookies on this Web site to measure marketing results for the Plan. This process renders all visitors to the Plan Web site anonymous and will not personally identify you. Please read the notice below about the way that cookies are used on this site:

Because your privacy is important to us, we are advising you that a cookie may be placed on your browser that (1) identifies a particular Internet advertisement that brought you to the Plan Web site and tracks the pages visited on this site; (2) counts your computer as it enters the Plan Web site and tracks the pages visited on this site; or (3) facilitates your navigation and use of this site. The sole purpose of this cookie, which you may delete at any time, is to count the number of visitors to the Plan Web site so that marketing results for Plan can be measured and navigation of the site can be enhanced. Absolutely no personally identifiable information about you will be collected, used, or stored through this process. We do not track or record information about individuals who visit this site. If you provide personal information on this Web site, such as by enrolling online, or requesting Plan materials or the e-mail newsletter, that information will be collected, stored and used (as discussed above) in accordance with federal and state privacy laws.

The Plan periodically reviews its privacy policies and procedures and reserves the right to amend them. If we amend some portion of our privacy policies, we will continue our commitment to keeping your personal information secure. We will notify you of any changes to our privacy policies by posting them on the Plan Web site and, if a material change affecting Account Owners is made, we will give Account Owners written notice of that change.

Effective date: 7/1/04.

© Copyright 2005 TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc.