Updated December 29, 2022

The Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts takes data privacy seriously. This privacy policy explains who we are, how we collect, share, and use Personal Information, and how you can exercise your privacy rights. We recommend that you read this privacy policy in full to ensure you are fully informed.

Information that we collect

  • Information you provide to us on this Website or otherwise: Certain parts of our Website may ask you to provide Personal Information voluntarily. For example, we may ask you to provide certain Personal Information (such as your name, contact details, company name) when you complete an online form, online registration, or through other business or marketing interactions we may have with you. The Personal Information that you are asked to provide, and the reasons why you are asked to provide it, will be made clear to you at the point we ask you to provide your Personal Information. You may choose to provide additional information when you communicate with us or otherwise interact with us, and we will keep copies of any such communications for our records.
  • Information we collect automatically: When you visit our Website, we may also collect certain information automatically from your device. In some countries, including countries in the European Economic Area, this information may be considered Personal Information under applicable data protection laws. Specifically, the information we collect automatically may include your IP address, your operating system, your browser ID, your browsing activity, and other information about your system and connection and how you interact with our Website. We may collect this information as a part of log files as well as through the use of cookies or other tracking technologies. Our use of cookies and other tracking technologies is discussed more below.

Use of Personal Information

We may use the information we collect through our Websites for a range of reasons, including:

  • To send you information for marketing purposes, in accordance with your marketing preferences.
  • For recruitment purposes if you have applied for employment or volunteer opportunity.
  • To respond to your online inquiries and requests, and to provide you with information and access to resources or services that you have requested from us.
  • To respond to support inquiries.
  • To respond to event registration.
  • To manage our Website and system administration and security.
  • To compile aggregated statistics about site usage and to better understand the preferences of our Visitors.
  • To carry out research and development to improve our products and services.
  • To customize content and layout of the Websites.
  • To carry out other legitimate business purposes, as well as other lawful purposes.

If you do not wish to receive such information, please contact us or, alternatively, when we send you an e-mail, respond with "unsubscribe".

Public Information and Third-Party Websites

  • Social media platforms. Our Websites include social media features, such as displaying social feeds, like and follow buttons, social videos and more. These features may collect information about your IP address and which page you are visiting on our Website, and they may set a cookie to make sure the feature functions properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Website. We also maintain presences on social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Any information, communications, or materials you submit to us via a social media platform is done at your own risk without any expectation of privacy. We cannot control the actions of other users of these platforms or the actions of the platforms themselves.
  • Links to third-party websites. Our Website include links to other websites, whose privacy practices may be different from ours. If you submit Personal Information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.
  • Cookies and Tracking Technologies. We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to collect and use Personal Information about you, including to serve interest-based advertising. For further information about the types of cookies and tracking technologies we use, why, and how you can control them, please see our Cookie Statement here.
  • Other Data Protection Rights. You have the following data protection rights:
    • To access, correct, update, or request deletion of your Personal Information. Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts takes reasonable steps to ensure that the data we collect is reliable for its intended use, accurate, complete, and up to date. You may contact us directly at any time about accessing, correcting, updating, or deleting your Personal Information, or altering your data or marketing preferences by contacting us. We will consider your request in accordance with applicable laws.
    • Similarly, if we have collected and processed your Personal Information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your Personal Information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

How We Share Information

We may share and disclose your Personal Information to the following types of third parties for the purposes described in this privacy policy.

  • Our service providers: Sometimes, we share your information with our third-party service providers, who help us provide and support our Services and other business-related functions. For example, analyzing data (Google Analytics), hosting data, domain registration, engaging technical support for our Services, processing payments, or account creation with third party solutions.
  • We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. We may ask you to verify your identity in order to help us respond efficiently to your request.

Your Choices and Opt-Outs

Members and Visitors who have opted in to our marketing emails can opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of our marketing messages.

Questions & Concerns

If you have any questions or comments, or if you have a concern about the way in which we have handled any privacy matter, please contact us.

Retention of Data

We retain Personal Information where we have an ongoing legitimate business or legal need to do so. Our retention periods will vary depending on the type of data involved, but, generally, we'll refer to these criteria in order to determine retention period:

  • Whether we have a legal or contractual need to retain the data.
  • Whether the data is necessary to provide our Services.
  • Whether our Customers have the ability to access and delete the data.
  • Whether our Customers would reasonably expect that we would retain the data until they remove it or until their accounts are closed or terminated.
  • When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your Personal Information, we will delete it.

Changes to this Policy

We may change this privacy policy at any time and from time to time. The most recent version of the privacy policy is reflected by the version date located at the top of this privacy policy. All updates and amendments are effective immediately upon notice, which we may give by any means, including, but not limited to, by posting a revised version of this privacy policy or other notice on the Websites. We encourage you to review this privacy policy often to stay informed of changes that may affect you. Our electronically or otherwise properly stored copies of this privacy policy are each deemed to be the true, complete, valid, authentic, and enforceable copy of the version of this privacy policy that was in effect on each respective date you visited the Website.