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Privacy Policy
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Welcome to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) Web site. Your privacy is one of our top priorities. The following policy applies only to the use of the MassCEC Web site. Other Web sites operated by other state agencies or other entities have different policies. We strongly suggest that you read the privacy policies for the MassCEC Web site and any external site that you visit through a link appearing at this site. In particular, please note that although the MassCEC’s identity on Twitter, and any other social media presence MassCEC may from time to time establish, might appear to be part of this Web site or under MassCEC’s control, these sites are actually hosted by third party providers. Thus, when visiting these third party social media sites, you are subject to different privacy policies and terms of service. Please review MassCEC’s Social Media Policy to review more detailed information on the MassCEC’s use for specific social media sites and for links to the relevant terms of service and privacy policies for those sites.
A Privacy Partnership. Your privacy with respect to the use of this Web site results from a partnership between MassCEC and you, the user. At this Web site, we attempt to protect your privacy to the maximum extent possible. However, because some of the information that we receive through this Web site is subject to the Public Records Law, Massachusetts, General Laws Chapter 66, Section 10, we cannot ensure absolute privacy. Information that you provide to us through this site may be made available to members of the public under that law. This policy informs you of the information that we collect from you at this site, what we do with it, to whom it may be disseminated, and how you can access it. Based on this information, you can make an informed choice about your use of this site. You can maximize the benefits of your privacy partnership with MassCEC by making informed choices about whether to share personally identifiable information with us through this site.
Personally Identifiable Information. We use the term "personally identifiable information" to mean any information that could reasonably be used to identify you, including your name, address, e-mail address, Social Security number, birth date, bank account information, credit card information, or any combination of information that could be used to identify you.
Information Voluntarily Provided by You. This site collects voluntary information from you only through the e-mails that you send through this site. E-mails sent by you to this site will contain personally identifiable information.
Information Automatically Collected and Stored by this Site. This site does not collect "cookies", but does collect and store indefinitely your Internet Protocol ("IP") address, which does not identify you as an individual, as well as information about the date and time of your visit, whether a file you have requested exists, and how many "bytes" of information were transmitted to you over the Web from this site. We use your IP address to assess the frequency of visits to this site and the popularity of its various pages and functions. We will not attempt to match any personally identifiable information that you provide to us with your IP address, unless there are reasonable grounds to believe that doing so would provide information that is relevant and material to a criminal investigation.
Dissemination of Your Personally Identifiable Information. We do not sell any personally identifiable information collected through this Web site. However, once you voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to us through an e-mail, its dissemination is governed by the Public Records Law, the Massachusetts Privacy Act (Fair Information Practices Act), Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 66A) , and other applicable laws and regulations. The Records Retention Law requires MassCEC to preserve records created or received by a state employee. Pursuant to this retention requirement emails or messages sent to a state email account and information submitted via MassCEC’s Web site and comments posted or messages received via an official MassCEC page on a third-party Web site (such as an official MassCEC profile on a social network) could be treated as state governmental records and may be permanently archived. Information that you submit voluntarily through third party social media sites, where such sites are associated with MassCEC, including your name, city or town, and the substance of anything that you post may be disseminated further by being posted online at this Web site or be publicly discussed by a member of the administration. For this reason, part or all of the information you send us, whether by email or through a third-party social media Web site, may be provided to a member of the public in response to a public records request.
In addition, the information that you voluntarily submit will be disclosed only to MassCEC employees or officials with a "need to know" for purposes of fulfilling their job responsibilities. They will only use the information to answer your questions, respond to any requests for assistance, and fulfill the MassCEC ‘s legal obligations. Where appropriate, we may provide the information submitted by you to the person or company that is the subject of your inquiry, or to a government agency responsible for the matters referred to in your communication.
Your Access and Opportunity to Correct. The Public Records Law and the Fair Information Practices Act provide you certain rights to get information about you that is in our records. To learn more about the circumstances under which you can get and correct this information, please click on the above references to these laws.
Security. Because this site does not encrypt incoming e-mail, you should not send information that you consider highly sensitive through this Web site. We use standard security measures to ensure that your personally identifiable information sent via the social media pages or email is not lost, misused, altered, or unintentionally destroyed. We also use software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.
Policy changes. We will post changes to this policy at least 30 days before they take effect. Any information we collect under the current privacy policy will remain subject to the terms of this policy. After any changes take effect, all new information we collect, if any, will be subject to the new policy.
Definitions:
“Cookies” are files that a Web site can place on your computer. A cookie file contains unique information that a Web site can use to track such things as your password, lists of Web pages you have visited, and the date when you last looked at a specific Web page, or to identify your session at a particular Web site. A cookie file allows the Web site to recognize you as you click through pages on the site and when you later revisit the site. A Web site can use cookies to "remember" your preferences, and to record your browsing behavior on the Web. Although you can prevent Web sites from placing cookies on your computer by using your browser's preference menu, disabling cookies may affect your ability to view or interact with some Web sites.
An "Internet Protocol Address" or "IP Address" is a series of numbers that identifies each computer and machine connected to the Internet. An IP address enables a server on a computer network to send you the file that you have requested on the Internet. The IP address disclosed to us may identify the computer from which you are accessing the Internet, or a server owned by your Internet Service Provider. Because it is machine-specific, rather than person-specific, an IP address is not, in and of itself, personally identifiable information.
A “wiki” is a website that uses collaboration software to enable the creation of a number of interlinked web pages. Many authors can contribute to the Web site and upload content to the site. Government wikis typically provide a venue for commentary and discussion regarding topics related to the government entity hosting the wiki. A typical wiki combines text, images, and links to other web pages outside the wiki also related to the topic, and enables readers to leave comments in an interactive format.
[Revised for clarity March 2010]
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