My.harvard Privacy Statement
my.harvard Privacy Statement
Introduction
This Privacy Statement describes the ways in which Harvard University may access and use personal information about individuals in connection with providing the my.harvard application managed by Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT). In this Privacy Statement “my.harvard” refers only to the HUIT-managed my.harvard application accessed via admin.my.harvard.edu or portal.my.harvard.edu.
Users
This Privacy Statement applies to all users of the my.harvard application with my.harvard user accounts, regardless of relationship to Harvard.
Information gathering
The personal information about users that may be accessed by Harvard in connection with providing my.harvard includes:
- Student contact information, date of birth, ethnicity and gender, class enrollments and grades, tuition, financial aid information including social security number, admissions data, veteran status, advising notes, degree and program status
- Military ID, state ID, parent/guardian ID, school ID, driver’s license, foreign government ID, permanent resident card, naturalization papers, passport
- Contact data and date of birth for individual student’s approved delegates
- Contact information for parents/guardians, emergency contact, and missing persons contact
Personal information accessible by Harvard through my.harvard also includes data related to use of the my.harvard application, and identifiers or other information about a user’s Harvard affiliation or status.
Harvard may also obtain log files of the IP addresses and browsers of computers accessing the application and the pages visited.
Use of information
The personal information that can be compiled by Harvard in connection with providing my.harvard is used for reporting and analytics, and for administration of student finances and student records. Course search data is used to tune search relevancy. Some student data is used for institutional and required federal reporting.
Harvard may review users’ IP addresses and data on the files and resources they access to administer my.harvard and to provide technical support and help diagnose problems. Harvard may use and retain email or other communications to staff in order to process inquiries, respond to requests, and improve services.
Harvard may use documentation collected to verify identification.
Other uses of personal information by Harvard are described in other parts of this Privacy Statement.
Sharing of information
My.harvard is provided and hosted by the third-party vendor Sierra-Cedar. Data related to use of the my.harvard application and identifiers and other information about a user’s Harvard affiliation and status may be released by Harvard to Sierra Cedar or accessible to Sierra Cedar in connection with providing the application, to enable use of the application by individuals. This may include log files of the IP addresses and browsers of computers accessing the application and the pages visited. Sierra Cedar may also have access to other personal data provided by users in the course of their use of the application, and may use such data for troubleshooting purposes. For more information on Sierra Cedar’s use of data see the Sierra Cedar privacy policy at https://www.sierra-cedar.com/privacy/.
Other third-party vendors provide tools and applications that may be integrated with my.harvard. Some may be contracted for by Harvard and some may be added by end users. These vendors may have access to user identifiers and other user personal information to enable use of their services.
The my.harvard application contains links to other websites.
Harvard may also share personal information with other service providers in connection with data uses described in this Privacy Statement.
Each such website and third-party provider may have its own privacy policy. Harvard is not responsible for the privacy practices of such third parties or websites, or for the content of such websites.
Other sharing of personal information by Harvard is described in other parts of this Privacy Statement.
In addition, Harvard may share and disclose personal information if Harvard believes that doing so is necessary or appropriate to: satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; investigate compliance with or enforce this Privacy Statement or any acceptable use policy for my.harvard; detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; or protect, defend or enforce the operations, property, rights and safety of users, Harvard, Harvard affiliates, or others.
Cookies and related technologies
Harvard may use cookies and related technologies (“Cookies”) in the my.harvard application to gather information when users navigate through my.harvard, in order to enhance and personalize the experience, to help provide services available through my.harvard, to analyze website usage, and to help improve the websites and our related services. To find out more about cookies, visit https://www.internetcookies.org/.
You can review your Internet browser settings, typically under the sections “Help” or “Internet Options,” to exercise choices you have for certain Cookies or you can opt out of the collection and use of some Cookies through tools like the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page. If you disable or delete certain Cookies in your settings, you may not be able to use features of our websites.
We may use third party analytics such as Google Analytics or similar analytics services. 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 https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
The opt-outs described above may not work for all browsers or devices.
Information protection
There are security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of the personal information under Harvard’s control. No data transmission, processing, sharing or storage by any party can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
Contact information
Please contact ithelp@harvard.edu with any questions or concerns about this Privacy Statement.
Users located outside the US
If you are located outside the United States, please click here for additional Harvard privacy disclosures that may apply to you.
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 updated on June 22nd, 2021.