MSBA Privacy Policy
Welcome to the website of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”). Your privacy is important to us. The following policy applies only to the use of www.MassSchoolBuildings.org (the “Website”). As you navigate the Website, you will see links that, when clicked, will take you to websites that are not owned or controlled by the MSBA. Please be aware that the MSBA is not responsible for the privacy practices or other content of such websites. This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected by this Website.
A Privacy Partnership. Your privacy with respect to the use of the Website results from a partnership between the Massachusetts School Building Authority and you, the user. At this Website, we attempt to protect your privacy to the maximum extent possible. However, because some of the information that we receive through this Website 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 Website may be made available to members of the public under that law. This Privacy Policy informs you of the information that we collect from you at this Website, 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 Website. You can maximize the benefits of your privacy partnership with the MSBA by making informed choices about whether to share personally identifiable information with us through this Website.
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, telephone number, e-mail address, or any combination of information that could be used to identify you.
Information Voluntarily Provided by You. No personally identifiable information is recorded during your visit to this Website unless you voluntarily choose to provide such information. This Website collects voluntary information from you only through the forms posted at this Website and any e-mails that you send through the Website. E-mails sent by you through this Website will contain personally identifiable information.
Information Automatically Collected and Stored by this Site. In general, the website does not use “cookies.” For users accessing the MSBA’s web-based applications, however, this Website uses cookies, and collects and stores 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 Website. Your IP address is used to assess the frequency of visits to this Website and the popularity of its various pages and functions. No attempt will be made 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 Website or submitted to the MSBA in conjunction with using functions on the Website, and there is no direct or online public access to the information. However, once you voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to us related to your use of the Website, its dissemination is governed by the "Public Records Law," the "Fair Information Practices Act" (Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 66A), and other applicable laws and regulations. For this reason, part or all of the information you send us 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 MSBA employees or those under contract with the MSBA with a "need to know" for purposes of fulfilling their job responsibilities. The information will be used for such purposes as responding to your questions or to any requests for assistance, authorizing access and facilitating sign-on to certain applications, authenticating you for access to certain transactions and information, generating summary statistics about usage, auditing applications and detecting fraud or otherwise fulfilling the MSBA’s legal obligations.
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 e-mail sent via the MSBA Website is not encrypted, you should not send messages containing information that you consider highly sensitive via this Website. We use standard security measures to ensure that information provided by you, including your personally identifiable information, is not lost, misused, altered, or unintentionally destroyed. We also use software 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. The transmission of Registration IDs and Passwords to this Website is encrypted.
Disclaimer. The materials in this Website are provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind either express or implied. The MSBA does not warrant the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information published on this Website, and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law disclaims any liability for any losses caused by the reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information.
Contact Information. For questions about your privacy while using this Website, please contact the MSBA’s Director of Administration and Operations, Matt Donovan.
Definitions:
Cookies are files that a website can place on your computer. A cookie file contains unique information that a website 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 website. A cookie file allows the website to recognize you as you click through pages on the site and when you later revisit the site. A website can use cookies to "remember" your preferences, and to record your browsing behavior on the site. Although you can prevent websites 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 websites.
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.
