Privacy Policy

CONFIDENTIALITY OF MBL RECORDS

The successful partnership between the MBL and its constituencies is based on effective service, trust and accountability. The MBL’s ability to assure donors and prospective donors that their personal or financial information will be held in confidence is essential to fulfilling its specific mission of raising private support for the Laboratory.  All records associated with such activities relating to personal or financial information about a donor, alumnus, prospective donor, volunteer, or employee are records of MBL and are confidential.

PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated: July 24, 2020

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is committed to following best practices for the privacy of our online visitors and donors. The MBL utilizes appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data, in accordance with Massachusetts data and security regulations.

Personal Information: We do not collect any personal information about you at our website unless you choose to provide it to us voluntarily. We define personal information as information that personally identifies you or allows us to contact you. Such information might include your phone number, name, mailing address, or email address. It is the MBL’s policy to never rent or sell any personal information to third parties. All access to your personal information is strictly limited to professional staff of the MBL whose job requires them to process this data.

Credit Card Information: To accept contributions via credit card, the MBL uses accredited online payment processing services which are compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Credit card numbers are never stored on any MBL server or computer.

User Choices: You may opt out of receiving our e-correspondence at any time you choose. We will provide a clear, easy-to-use method for doing this on our website and in each issue of our newsletter. You may opt out of receiving mailed correspondence by contacting development@mbl.edu.

User Communications: When you send us e-mail or other communications we may retain those communications in order to process your requests, respond to you, and improve our services.

Cookies: When you visit our website, a small file, or cookie, is sent to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. Cookies are used to improve the quality of the online experience by storing user preferences and tracking user trends. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Some of our website features may not work if your cookies are disabled.

Log information: Your IP address is used to help us understand how our website is being used and how to improve it. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Links: This privacy policy applies only to the MBL website. If you visit links to outside websites, please note that each site you link to will offer its own privacy policy and that we are not responsible for the content and privacy policies of any website but our own. Sites you link to from our website may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you.

Donor privacy: Donor names may be listed in our Annual Report, in donor newsletters, and on our website unless the donor explicitly indicates that he or she wishes to remain “anonymous”.

Please note that our privacy policy is subject to change. We will use this page to notify you of any policy changes, or changes in the use of our users’ personally identifiable information. If the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice. If you have any additional questions or concerns about this policy, please contact us at development@mbl.edu or write to: Development at MBL, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543.