This privacy statement (the “Privacy Statement”) discloses how President and Fellows of Harvard College, acting through the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University (“Harvard”), gathers and uses information about individuals through our hosted website, cities.harvard.edu (the “Site”). As used in this Privacy Statement, the terms “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Harvard. By using this Site, you are consenting to our collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?
We and our third-party vendors collect certain information regarding your use of the Site, such as your IP address and browser type. Your session and the pages you visit on the Site will be tracked, but you will remain anonymous. We may use your IP address to identify the general geographic area from which you are accessing the Site. We connect data from different systems but do not link IP addresses to any personal information. We may also collect other information as described in this Privacy Statement. You may also choose to share information with us voluntarily through e-mail. When you send email to us, we may retain those communications and your email address for the uses described herein. If you send us email messages, you should be aware that information disclosed in email may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personal or confidential information in email.

WHAT DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION FOR?
We use the information we gather from you for systems administration purposes, abuse prevention, to track user trends, and for the other purposes described in this Privacy Statement. If you send us an email, the email address you provide may be used to send you information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions. We will not share, sell, rent, swap, or authorize any third party to use your email address for commercial purposes without your permission.

User information may be shared with third-party vendors to the extent necessary to provide and improve web services or other communications to users. For example, we use third parties such as Google Analytics to generate reports on site usage, web traffic, user behavior, and user interests in order to optimize our website for our visitors. We also use geographic, demographic, and interest-based reports of our website visitors to create custom audience lists. We prohibit any third parties who receive user information for this purpose from using or sharing user information for any purpose other than providing services for the benefit of our users.

We may also provide your information to third parties in circumstances where we believe that doing so is necessary or appropriate to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; or protect our rights and safety and the rights and safety of our users or others.

HOW IS THIS INFORMATION COLLECTED AND HOW CAN YOU OPT OUT?
Google and other third parties may use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to collect or receive information from this website and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads. For more information on Google Analytics, consult their terms of use, privacy practices, and ads settings. You can opt out of the collection and use of certain information through tools like the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.

COOKIES
Cookies are small files that are stored on your computer (unless you block them). We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. You can review your Internet browser settings, typically under the sections “Help” or “Internet Options,” to exercise choices you have for certain Cookies or you can opt out of the collection and use of some Cookies through tools like the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page. If you disable or delete certain Cookies in your settings, you may not be able to use features of the Site.

The opt-outs described here and above may not work for all browsers or devices.

OTHER WEBSITES AND COOKIES
This website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

Cookies may be set by parties other than us. These “third-party cookies” may, for example, originate from websites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud, or other social media services for which the Site has implemented “plug-ins.” Since the cookie policies of these sites change over time, you should determine their policies by visiting the privacy policy pages of these sites directly.

INFORMATION PROTECTION
There are security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of the personal information under Harvard’s control. No data transmission, processing, sharing or storage by any party can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

USERS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
If you are located in a country outside of the United States which has enacted a personal data protection law, please click here for additional privacy disclosures that may apply to you.

DISCLAIMER
This Privacy Statement describes our internal standards and procedures governing the collection, storage, access, use, and disclosure of information via the Site. It is not intended to create, nor does it create, any contractual or other legal obligation on Harvard’s part, or any contractual or other legal right or expectation for any individual person that did not previously exist under applicable law.

CONTACTING THIS SITE
If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement or our data practices, you can contact us at cities@harvard.edu.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT
This Privacy Statement may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page.

EFFECTIVE DATE
The effective date of this Privacy Statement is April 4, 2023.