Privacy Policy

The Harvard Club of Washington, DC (“HCW”) is committed to safeguarding the privacy of visitors to our website. This Privacy Policy sets forth our policies and practices for handling the information we collect from or about you. It applies to the websites and online services that we operate and/or that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Sites”). For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “you” or “your” means you as the user of the Sites.

By visiting the Sites, you agree to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in this Privacy Policy and accept this Privacy Policy and Harvard Club of Washington, DC Terms of Use, which are hereby incorporated. If you do not understand or agree with these policies, please do not use or access the Sites.

Changes and Updates

The HCW may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we update the Privacy Policy, we will notify you by revising the “Updated” date above and posting the new Privacy Policy, or providing any other notice required by applicable law.  We recommend that you check back periodically to stay aware of any modifications. Your continued use of the Sites after changes have been posted will constitute your acceptance of this Privacy Policy and any changes.  If you do not agree to any updates to this Privacy Policy, please do not consider accessing the Sites.

What Information We Collect

Information You Provide

Some features of the Sites may ask for and collect from you information at various points throughout the Sites. Depending on what products or services you choose to receive from the HCW, you may be asked to provide:

• Contact information, including your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number;
• Demographic information, including your Harvard school and graduation year; and/or
• Transaction and billing information, including your credit card information and other payment information like billing address. Payment information may be processed by secure third-party providers in connection with products and/or services that you purchase from the HCW.

You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you may not be able to take advantage of some of our features or service offerings. Periodically, we may ask you to confirm the accuracy of your information to avoid disruption of services and enhance our offerings to you.

Information Collected Automatically

We collect internet, electronic activity, and other information automatically from the devices and browsers that you use, including through cookies and other similar technologies, such as your device type, Internet protocol (IP) address, device identifiers, and other unique personal or online identifiers; browser type and version; pages that you visit before and after using the Sites, browsing history, and search history; the date and time of your visit; information about the links you click, pages you view, and content you interact with within the Sites and other information about how you use the Sites. Consistent with your mobile device or app permissions, we may also collect geolocation information.

As stated above, some of this information is collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies. For example, the HCW uses Google Analytics on the Sites, for purposes including optimizing the experience of the Sites for visitors.

Some mobile and web browsers transmit “do-not-track” signals. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. We currently do not take action in response to these signals.

Information Collected From Other Sources

We also receive personal information from other sources, including from users of the Sites and other services and organizations. For example, as an affiliate of the Harvard Alumni Association (“HAA”), the HCW collects from the HAA information such as name, email address, home address, work address, phone number, school and graduation year. Alumni may choose to opt out from the sharing of their directory information by HAA. Please refer to HAA’s Privacy Statement at https://alumni.harvard.edu/privacy for additional details.

How We Use Your Information

The HCW may use your information in the following ways:

• To process and respond to inquiries and for the purposes for which you provided the information, such as to process membership applications, donations or event registrations, to provide information about a project or event, and to provide customer support. For example, in sending us an email or text message, we may collect your name and e-mail address, IP address, or mobile phone number, in order to respond to or otherwise handle the subject of the e-mail or text message.
• To defend our legal rights and interests, and those of our affiliates, members, and the public.
• To comply with our legal obligations, including any court order, legal process, or respond to any governmental or regulatory request.
• To evaluate our Sites and identify where we should make changes or expand services.
• For any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent or at your direction.

How We Disclose Your Information

The HCW may use or disclose the Information You Provide, Information Collected Automatically, and Information Collected from Other Sources, to the following categories of third parties:

• Affiliates. We may disclose information to our affiliates, such as HAA. The HCW is not responsible for HAA’s use of your information. For information on how HAA may use your information, please see HAA’s Privacy Statement at https://alumni.harvard.edu/privacy.
• Authorized service providers and business partners. We may disclose personal information to third-party service providers and business partners that provide services to us for a variety of business purposes, such as billing, payment processing, customer service, email deployment, security, and verifying information.
• Business transfers. We may share your information in connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as the sale of a website, a merger, consolidation, asset sale, initial public offering, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.
• Legal purposes. We may disclose your information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, legal process, law enforcement requests, legal claims or government inquiries, and to protect and defend the rights, interests, safety, and security of the HCW, our affiliates, users, or the public.
• With your consent. We may share information for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or pursuant to your consent.

Third Party Websites

Our Sites may contain links to other websites provided by third parties. Please be aware that we do not control these third party websites or any of the content contained on those websites. Once you have left our Sites, we cannot be responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites. We encourage you to exercise caution and to read the privacy policy for the website you visit. The inclusion of hyperlinks to third party websites on our Sites in no way constitutes an endorsement by us of such websites’ content, actions or policies.

Email and Text-Messaging Policy

The HCW may send you email communications to provide our Newsletter and to otherwise inform you of news, events, and other information relevant to you and the Harvard alumni community. You may opt out of these emails by clicking the Unsubscribe link in the footer of emails sent by the HCW. If you are missing the link or require assistance in opting out of emails, please contact events@harvard-dc.org or 202-337-1300. 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 personally identifiable or confidential information in email. We will use your email address to respond directly to your questions or comments.

Similarly, by opting in to receive event notifications and other text messages on your wireless telephone, you consent to receiving text messages at the telephone number, including Short Message Service (“SMS”) messages. By opting in, you accept and agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use, which can be viewed on our website. If you require assistance in opting out of text messages, please contact events@harvard-dc.org or 202-337-1300. If you send us text messages, you should be aware that information disclosed in texts may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personally identifiable or confidential information in texts. We may use your texting phone number to respond directly to your questions or comments.

Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect or sell any information from children, as defined by applicable law, without parental consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law.

Data Retention and Security

The HCW is committed to maintaining your confidence and trust and takes reasonable steps to help protect the information you provide to us. However, no transmission or electronic storage of information is guaranteed to be secure. Any information you provide to us electronically may not be secure while in transit. We therefore urge you to always use caution when transmitting information over the Internet, and to always use secure channels to send us sensitive or confidential information. Please note that information collected by third parties may not have the same security protections as information you submit to us, and we are not responsible for protecting the security of such information.

Information will be retained only for so long as reasonably necessary and proportionate for the purposes set out above, considering criteria such as the duration of our relationship with you, the sensitivity of the relevant information, any applicable rules on statute of limitations, and any legal requirements to retain your personal information.

International Transfers

By using the Sites and providing us with information, you understand and agree that we may transfer and store your information on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction.  To the extent you are a resident of a country other than the United States, you consent to the transfer of such data to the United States for processing by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions regarding this Privacy Policy, or to update any information you have provided us, please contact us at privacy@harvard-dc.org.