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Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement describes the ways in which Harvard Alumni Affairs & Development (AA&D) and the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) gather and use personal information through our hosted websites, including alumni.harvard.edu; through alumni and volunteer platforms such as GiveCampus and AlumniMagnet; in connection with online donation forms, email messages, event registrations, virtual and in-person events; and in the course of other engagement activities and communications.

What Information Do We Gather About You?

We collect information from you when you access the tools described in the first paragraph above. These tools allow you to engage with the University and other alumni through actions such as updating your alumni profile, registering to attend an event, completing a survey, subscribing to alumni email forwarding, submitting an online donation, connecting with us on social media, participating in a travel program, or responding to an electronic or postal mail inquiry. If you were a student or studied at Harvard University, some of your personal data is transferred from your student record into our databases. These databases serve as University systems of record for all philanthropic giving, alumni affiliations, and other information used in alumni affairs and development efforts. Our databases also contain information collected in the course of other development activities and communications, including in connection with soliciting gifts from you; responding to your inquiries; coordinating with Harvard alumni Clubs and Shared Interest Groups; and preparing, receiving, and processing gifts and gift documentation including pledges, gift agreements, and trust, estate, and annuity documents. On occasion, we may collect information from publicly available sources or third-party sources. We may also collect information to confirm your identity if you require assistance accessing AA&D resources that are password protected.

As a result of those actions, you might supply us with, or we might receive personal information including the following:

  • Contact Information: for example, your name, home address, email address, phone numbers, social media usernames, and website urls;
  • Demographic Information: for example, age, nationality, citizenship, gender, race/ethnicity, and religious affiliation;
  • Personal Information and History: for example, personal interests, charitable activities, other personal information you may choose to volunteer and other information we may learn about your background;
  • Education History: for example, prior and subsequent schools, awards, degrees, honors and student activities;
  • Employment Information: for example, your title, employer, business address and work and industry experience;
  • Harvard Affiliations: for example, your social network, group memberships and Harvard-related correspondence;
  • Financial Information: for example, Harvard contribution history, pledge commitments, and other financial data relevant to development activities;
  • Payment Information: for example, when you register for an event, make a donation, or request a service, we may require your payment card information and billing address (AA&D does not retain payment card data);
  • Health and Dietary Information: for example, information that indicates a need for accommodations to participate in events and programs;
  • Your Image: for example, when a photograph or other image is used in online networking or announcements, or when you participate in Harvard events that are recorded by photography or video; and
  • Family Information: for example, family member names, ages, and occupations, and other information to facilitate their participation in events and programs.

If you provide class notes or submit class reports, we retain that information as well. We may retain the content of emails and correspondence you send us, for example, to document gift intentions, volunteerism, or your relationship with Harvard. In addition, if you participate in an event with us or with Harvard Alumni Clubs or Shared Interest Groups, we may collect participation information and details regarding your interest in volunteering.

You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of some features or services we offer. Periodically, we may ask you to confirm the accuracy of your information so we may improve our services and activities.

Device Information Collected By Us

We may collect information about the computer, mobile device, or other device you use to access our websites, such as IP address, geolocation information, unique device identifiers, browser type, browser language, or other information of this nature. We use this information to track access and traffic on our websites and other communications tools, and as otherwise described in this Privacy Statement.

What Do We Use Your Information For?

The personal information you provide to us or that we collect may be used for the purpose of providing you with opportunities to make gifts to Harvard or to otherwise engage with Harvard, alumni, donors, prospective donors, students and other members of the Harvard community. We also may use this information to communicate with you, provide you with services and opportunities, better understand your interests and background, and optimize our websites and tools and analyze their use.

We may use your IP address and device information to help provide more relevant service to you and to administer our websites. For example, we may use your IP address and/or location to help you find alumni events near you. We do not link IP addresses or location data to anything personally identifiable. User sessions will be tracked, but users remain anonymous.

When Do We Share Your Information?

Personal information may be shared within Harvard University and its affiliates in order to conduct alumni affairs and development and other University business processes, and otherwise support the data uses described in this Privacy Statement.

Personal information is shared with third parties or made publicly available under the following circumstances:

  • Printed and online directories. Directory information, including name, degree, address, phone, and email, may be included in printed and online alumni directories. Alumni may request to be excluded from directories.
  • Class notes. Information submitted voluntarily through the “Alumni Notes” area of alumni.harvard.edu or in similar fashion may be published in alumni magazines or communications or reposted to sites that are not password protected.
  • Class reports. Information submitted voluntarily through the "College Red Books" or "Class Reports" area of alumni.harvard.edu or in similar fashion may be made available to other alumni, alumni Clubs or Shared Interest Groups and other alumni organizations, faculty, staff, and students, subject to the alumni information privacy settings you have chosen for your online alumni profile. These data uses are intended to facilitate inter-alumni communication, as well as communication between Harvard and its alumni. The Class Report books, including your Class Report, are available to alumni and University Archives or other repositories.
  • Networking & Engagement. Personal information may be shared with alumni Clubs and Shared Interest Groups and similar organizations. Alumni volunteers administering the groups may use the information to offer services, engagement, and membership opportunities to eligible individuals.
  • Build a historical record. Personal information may be shared with the University Library, University Archives, or other libraries or archives to preserve records, such as Class Reports, which create a historical record.
  • Third-Party Vendors. We engage third-party vendors to support the data uses described in this Privacy Statement. We may share personal information with such third-party vendors or receive personal information from such third-party vendors as needed for these purposes.
  • Donor recognition. Unless you request otherwise, we may share information about your giving as a means of donor recognition.
  • Legal Compliance/Health and Safety. We may share or disclose personal information if we believe that doing so is necessary or appropriate to: satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process (for example, responding to a subpoena) or governmental request; investigate compliance with or enforce this Privacy Statement and other Alumni Affairs and Development terms and conditions; detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; administer or enforce any pledge, bequest, distribution, gift agreement or other commitment; or protect, defend or enforce the operations, property, rights and safety of users, Alumni Affairs and Development, Harvard University, Harvard affiliates, or others.

Data Retention

We retain your information to the extent permitted or required by applicable laws; as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements; and to protect Harvard’s legal rights. We retain your information to ensure the quality and accuracy of our systems and resources. We also collect and maintain aggregated, anonymized, or pseudo-anonymized information, which we may retain indefinitely to protect the safety and security of our sites, and to improve the services we provide to you.

Cookies, Pixels and Related Technologies

We may use cookies and related technologies such as pixels, web beacons, and SDKs (“Cookies and Related Technologies”) to gather information when users navigate through our websites, in order to enhance and personalize the experience, to help provide services available through the websites, to analyze website usage, and to help improve the websites and our related services. These Cookies and Related Technologies may be operated by our partners who assist us in collecting information about usage of the website, serving ads, or providing other services to you. To find out more about cookies and how to enable or disable them, visit www.internetcookies.com.

Some third parties may use Cookies and Related Technologies on our websites to collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites you visit. This information may be used by third parties to provide advertising tailored to your interests on other websites, apps and services you visit.

You can review your Internet browser settings to exercise choices you have for certain Cookies and Related Technologies, or you can opt out of the collection and use of some Cookies and Related Technologies through tools like the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page, available at optout.networkadvertising.org. If you disable or delete certain Cookies or Related Technologies in your settings, you may not be able to use features on our websites or those features may not function as designed.

Some of our hosted websites, including alumni.harvard.edu, use third-party analytics like Google Analytics. For information on how Google processes and collects information using Google Analytics, please see www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners, and for how to opt out, please see tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

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

Users Located Outside the United States of America

If you are located in a country outside the United States that has enacted a personal data protection law, additional privacy disclosures that may apply to you can be reviewed here: https://internationaldataprivacy.harvard.edu/

Links to Third-Party Websites

We may provide hyperlinks to third-party websites as a convenience to our users. We do not control third-party websites and are not responsible for the content of any linked-to third-party websites or any hyperlink in a linked-to website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of third-party websites.

Email

We occasionally send you email communications to inform you of news, events, and information relevant to you and the Harvard alumni community. If at any time you no longer wish to receive these communications from us, you can click the unsubscribe link in the email. 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. We will use your email address to respond directly to your questions or comments.

Text Messaging

By opting in to receive event notifications and other text messages on your mobile device, you consent to receiving text messages at that telephone number.

Information Protection

We have taken steps to protect the information that is under our control in order to prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure its appropriate use. While we use these precautions to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of the networks, systems, servers, devices, and database we operate or that are operated on our behalf.

Disclaimer

This Privacy Statement describes our internal standards and procedures governing the collection, storage, access, use, and disclosure of personal information. 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 Web Site

If you have any questions about this privacy statement or our data practices, you can contact us at https://community.alumni.harvard.edu/contact-us.

Changes To This Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page. This Privacy Statement was last amended on January 24, 2025.