Website Privacy Policy

The following policy applies only to the use of MWCC’s Website: mwcc.edu. It provides information about why personal information is being requested from you and how it will be used by Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC).  This policy statement is provided in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR” – defined below) issued by the European Union (“EU”) and effective on May 25, 2018.

As you navigate the site, you may see links that, when clicked, will take you to other websites operated by other organizations. MWCC is not responsible for the content or policies of these sites. These websites have individual privacy policies tailored to the interactions available through each site. We strongly suggest that you read the privacy policies of each website that you visit and any external site that you visit through a link appearing at this site.

The use of our site is governed by the MWCC Acceptable Use Policies.

 


 

The College will use reasonable efforts to maintain the privacy of users accessing its 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. While the College has in place a variety of security measures to safeguard against illegal access of information obtained through its website, the College cannot provide complete assurance against illegal access. Except for those grounds previously stated, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. The transmission of registration IDs and passwords, personalization information, and payment information to this website is encrypted. Because email sent to the college is not encrypted, you should not send messages containing information that you consider highly sensitive to any address on this website.

As with all online services, MWCC cannot guarantee website users of absolute privacy over their use. In some cases, website user information may be subject to disclosure under state or federal public record or freedom of information laws or in the course of a civil or criminal investigation.

Personal Information

Personal information means any information which relates to or identifies you as an individual including, but are not limited to, name, email, phone numbers, IP address, photo, and educational, financial, employment-related, and health data.

What Does it Mean to “Process” Personal Information?

Processing is any operation performed on personal information, such as collecting, destroying, recording, organizing, storing, altering, or disclosing.

What Personal Information Will be Processed?

The College will process the information you provide when you request additional information from the College and/or submit your admission application together with the supporting documents requested to complete your application.

What is the Purpose and Legal Basis of the Processing?

The College will process your personal information for the purposes of identifying you, processing your request for information or application for admission, verifying the information provided, reaching an admission decision, and communicating that outcome and/or other feedback.  The College may also process your information for the following statutory obligations, contractual necessity and/or public interest purposes:

  • To confirm immigration status
  • For affirmative action and equal opportunity monitoring
  • To prevent or detect fraud or other criminal activity
  • To confirm elementary and secondary education record
  • To assist in providing reasonable accommodations for a disability
  • To provide information as required by applicable law
  • For research and statistical purposes, but only in a non-identifiable, aggregate format

Admission decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and are not the result of automated decision-making.

The College will not sell or redistribute for commercial purposes any personal information voluntarily provided by you through your use of its website.

We will collect and aggregate the information you provide through any forms and/or surveys for purposes of market research to improve this website by making it more responsive to customer needs. Where appropriate, we may provide the information submitted by you through an email to the person responsible for the matters referred to in your communication. We will only use information provided by you for a future personalization feature to provide you with a customized experience, and the information provided by you for the authentication feature for the purposes of authenticating you.

Who Will Process my Personal Information?

For the purposes stated above, during the admission process your personal information will be processed by and shared with the following:

  •  Admissions Office
  • Financial Aid Office
  • Marketing Communications Office
  • Student Services Office
  • Registrar’s Office
  • Disability Services if an accommodation is requested
  • Institutional Research
  • Student and Exchange Visitor Program Designated School Official
  • Governmental bodies when required by law
  • State authorities in order to perform one or more statutory duties
  • Third-parties providing specific services to, or on behalf of, the College

The College may subsequently identify other departments or external parties who will process your personal information as you progress through the application process. We will transmit your electronic payment information to contracted payment processors and appropriate organizations, college divisions, and/or Commonwealth agencies for the purpose of completing your payment transactions.

How is My Personal Information Used if I Am Accepted?

Once you are accepted and begin attending the College your personal information is no longer covered by the GDPR.  As a student at the College, your personal information shall be processed in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), a U.S. federal law.  To learn about your rights under FERPA, please visit our Records page.  If your acceptance to the College is for an online course or program only, and you remain in an EU member state while participating in the course or program, the GDPR shall continue to apply to the processing of your personal information.

How Can I Access My Personal Information?

The College may maintain personal information you disclosed during your use of its website for a period of time compliant with state or federal laws You have the right to access this personal information.  You also have the right to ask the College to correct any inaccurate personal information it holds about you.  In order to access your personal information after applying or enrolling, please contact the Records Office at 978-630-9106. To access your personal information before you’ve applied or enrolled, please contact the Marketing Director at 978-630-9458.

How Do I Report a Complaint?

If you are not happy with the way your information is being handled, or with the response received from the College, it is recommended that you contact the Vice President for External Affairs, Communications, & K-12 Partnerships for further assistance at 978-630-9320. If the College fails to adequately address your concerns, you also have a right to file a complaint with the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education at: www.mass.edu/forstufam/complaints/complaints.asp.

How Long is My Personal Information Kept?

The College shall retain and store personal information in accordance with applicable U.S. state and federal law.  If you are accepted, your personal information will be kept as part of your student record for the duration of your studies and, where applicable, a prescribed period of time thereafter. If you are unsuccessful, your information will be normally kept for at least 10 years after the completion of the application process.

Information Voluntarily Provided By You

This site may collect voluntary information from you in four different ways:

  1. Through a form, chat, survey and/or email
  2. A personalization feature
  3. An authentication feature
  4. The use of electronic payment functionality

Online Forms, Chats, Surveys and Emails

This site may collect voluntary information from you through surveys, online chats, forms, and through any email messages that you choose to send to the addresses associated with this site. The surveys and online forms may collect personally identifiable information. Any chat or email messages sent by you to this site may contain personally identifiable information such as your email address and any other information you choose to give us to help us answer your inquiry. You may voluntarily provide your personal information through these means to receive information regarding the College’s internal processes, events, registrations, and general College information. After you submit your personal information, the College uses the information to contact you via phone, email, a physical mailing, social media and/or SMS text-messaging. You can opt-out of receiving these marketing-related messages at any time by contacting our Marketing department at marketing@mwcc.mass.edu. Some College departments use highly-respected third party email marketing services such as Constant Contact and SalesForce to keep in touch with you after you’ve opted-in to receiving such communications. These emails automatically include opt-out instructions at the bottom of the email.

Personalization

In addition, should functionality such as personalization be added which enables you to create a personalized view of information that is specific to your interests, please be advised that such a service may result in your disclosure to the College of personal information, such as your name, passwords, and/or email address. Your decisions regarding the type and level of information that you provide to the website will determine the level of personalization possible. Your ability to navigate the website on your own is in no way affected by your choice to use the feature. Should the personalization service be made available, you must first register with the website by choosing a name (which need not be your legal name) and password and providing your email address.

Authentication

In order to engage in certain online transactions, and access certain restricted online information, you will also be required to be a member of the college community with appropriate access privileges controlled by a username and password. (If you are already registered with MWCC and have a username and password, you don’t have to register again). The authentication features vary from service to service and different usernames may be required.

Electronic Payments

The website provides access to various electronic payment options for donations, fees, and tuition expenses. In order to use these features, you will have to provide certain information necessary to process your payment(s), including personally identifiable information such as your name, address and credit card number.

Electronic payment options are also offered through the use of an outside vendor. In this case, payment options are offered through their website(s). As with all websites administered by other organizations and linked to MWCC’s Website, MWCC is not responsible for the content or policies of these sites. These websites have individual privacy policies.

Information Automatically Collected and Stored by This Site

This website may, in the future, use permanent “cookies” (defined below).

This website does collect and store indefinitely your “Internet Protocol (“IP”) address (defined below),” (which does not identify you as an individual), as well as information about the date and time of your visit. We use your IP address to assess the frequency of visits to this site and the popularity of its various pages and functions. The College does not attempt to match any personal information that you provide via use of the College’s website with your IP address unless requested or required to do so pursuant to state or federal law or as part of an investigation conducted by the College into misuse of its website.

On occasion, the College works with third-party vendors, including Google, to show ads on sites across the Internet for the purpose of delivering targeted advertising. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on past visits to our website. At any time, you can opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting the Ads Preferences Manager. Alternatively, you can opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page . We also use HotJar to analyze and improve our website user experience  (view their opt-out page here). HotJar does not collect personal information upon your visit to the College website.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

This policy statement was issued on June 7, 2018.  It will be reviewed as necessary and at least annually. Any changes to the policy will be posted on this page.

Definitions

Cookies

Cookies are files that help websites keep track of your visits and activity. A website can use cookies to “remember” that you have visited the site before and/or remember your preferences when using the site (such as login information, shopping cart contents, etc.). 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.

Fair Information Practices Act

The Fair Information Practices Act is a state law that regulates the manner in which certain state agencies maintain non-public, personal information. The Act is found at Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 66A.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a federal law that regulates the maintenance and distribution of student record information by the institutions of higher education. The law is found at 20 U.S.C.1232(g), with regulations at 34 C.F.R. 99.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

The GDPR protects the personal information of EU citizens and residents and provides a single set of rules for international businesses and organizations, including institutions of higher education, that process this data.  The GDPR applies exclusively to the processing of “personal information” that is obtained from you while you are physically located in an EU member state, regardless of your nationality or citizenship. The GDPR does not apply to personal information obtained from you when you are located outside of the EU.

Internet Protocol Address (IP Address)

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.

Public Records Law

The Public Records Law is a state law that regulates the maintenance of public records in the possession, custody or control of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Law is found at Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 66 and Chapter 4, Section 7(26).

For More Information About MWCC’s Website Privacy Policy

Access the College’s Acceptable Use Policy. If you have any questions about this policy statement, the College’s compliance with the GDPR, or the processing of your personal information, please contact:

Marketing & Communications Office
marketing@mwcc.mass.edu
444 Green Street
Gardner, MA 01440
978-630-9122