Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy discloses the privacy practices for the Harvard Divinity School website.

By using this website, you are consenting to our collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Information gathering

1) Registering for an account

If you register or apply for a program on our website or request information or other resources, we may ask for your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, position, affiliation, or other personal information. We may also ask you for other information at other times. We use this information to respond to your inquiries, to customize your experience on the website, to improve our content and to provide you with email notifications related to your interests.

2) Browsing information and cookies

When you access this website, our servers automatically record information that your browser provides. This may include, among other data, your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, device identifiers and location, the date and time of your access, web pages visited, and files accessed. We do not link IP addresses to any personally identifiable information. Logs of IP addresses are retained on a temporary basis, and then deleted from our system.

This website will attempt to store a small piece of data known as a "cookie" on your computer, which will be read each time you visit the site. We may use cookies to establish continuity between related requests, to personalize the site to your preferences, to authenticate your log-in, and to analyze site traffic. Cookies do not themselves contain any personal information. You may choose to block cookies with your browser, but if you do, you may not be able to take advantage of all of this site's features.

Harvard Divinity School uses Google Analytics to gather statistics for some of its web pages. The information gathered is used to improve web services. Google Analytics uses a browser cookie for statistical analysis related to your browsing behavior on these websites. If you choose, you can opt out by turning off cookies in the preferences settings in your browser, or download and install Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. For more information on Google Analytics, please visit http://www.google.com/analytics/.

Harvard Divinity School uses third-party vendor re-marketing tracking tools, including the Google Adwords tracking cookie and Facebook pixel, to serve ads about the School, our programs, and events online. These ads appear on Facebook, Google products, and on sites across the Internet. The third-party vendors use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to tailor the ads based on your past visits to our website and elsewhere online and to measure ad conversion.

To opt-out of the collection and use of information for ad targeting on Facebook, please visit www.aboutads.info/choices. To opt-out of Google's use of cookies, please visit Google’s Ads Settings. You can also opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.

3) User communications

When you send email or other communications to us, we may retain the communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our services.

You should also be aware that, when you voluntarily disclose personal information in discussion groups, that information may be collected by others and may result in unsolicited messages from others.

Use of information

We use the information collected for the following purposes, in addition to those described above: tailoring the website to user needs and improving our service; generating data and reports about usage of the website and its content, including identifying how much of our audience comes from within the Harvard network; supporting the functioning and security of the website; protecting our rights and safety and the rights and safety of others; and research.

We may evaluate site usage by collecting statistics about the behavior of visitors to this website and analyzing user information and demographics, but only to generate aggregate statistical reports. For this purpose, we may use third-party services to collect such information. We may display this statistical information publicly or provide it to others.

At no time do we disclose site usage by individual visitors or by IP addresses.

We may provide your personally identifiable information to third parties when we believe that doing so is necessary or appropriate to: satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; investigate compliance with or enforce our Terms of Use; detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; or protect our rights and safety and the rights and safety of our users or others.

Other websites and cookies

This website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.

Cookies may be set by parties other than us. These "third-party cookies" may, for example, originate from websites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus or other social media services for we have implemented "plug-ins." Since the cookie policies of these sites change over time, you should determine their policies by visiting the privacy policy pages of these sites directly.

Information protection

This site has security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. However, no such measures are 100% secure.

Users located outside the United States of America

If you are located in a country outside of the United States which has enacted a personal data protection law, please read these additional privacy disclosures that may apply to you.

Contacting this website

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, you can contact Susan Worst in the HDS Office of IT and Media Services.

Changes to this policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we change the policy, we will post the modified policy on this page.

Effective date

The effective date of this policy is September 21, 2022.