Privacy Policy for DASH Repository

This Privacy Policy discloses the information gathering and dissemination practices for the DASH (Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard) web site (https://dash.harvard.edu) (the "Site").

The Site is maintained by the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication (the "OSC"), a part of the President and Fellows of Harvard College ("Harvard"), in support of its mission to disseminate information and research to scholars, educators and the public. As used in this Privacy Policy, the terms "we," "us" and "our" refer to the OSC as a part of Harvard.

This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect from users who interact with the Site to view or obtain information or material available on the Site. It does not cover information we collect as part of the process of submitting material to the DASH repository or managing such material.

Collection of Information

Registering for an Account: If you choose to register for an account on the Site, we will ask for your email address. In addition, if you choose, you may add your name and phone number to your Site account profile. We use this information to provide you with email notifications and to administer your account.

Browsing Information: When you access the Site, our servers automatically record information that your browser provides. This may include, among other things, your Internet Protocol address, web request, browser type, the date and time of your request, web pages visited, files accessed, and one or more cookies that uniquely identify your browser (see below).

Cookies: The Site will attempt to store a small piece of data known as a "cookie" on your browser. This is used only to establish continuity between related requests and does not in itself contain any personal information. The Site logs this session identifier along with other information about each request. You may choose to reject the cookie and will still be able to find and read documents on the Site.

Google Analytics: The Harvard University Library uses Google Analytics to gather statistics for portions of library websites, including the Site. The information gathered will be used to improve our services. Google Analytics uses browser cookies for statistical analysis related to your browsing behavior. 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 https://www.google.com/analytics/.

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.

Use of Information

We may use the information collected for the following purposes, in addition to those described above: tailoring the Site to user needs and improving our service; generating data and reports about usage of the Site and its content; supporting the technical functioning and security of our network; and protecting our rights and property or those of our users. Web server logs are retained on a temporary basis and then deleted completely from our systems.

We may share information with third parties, including, among other things, information about the use of the Site and its content that is anonymized or aggregated so it does not identify any individual user. We may also provide third parties, such as other repositories with information about the use of Site content that is associated with the IP address of the user.

We do not provide your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as described in this Privacy Policy and except in the limited circumstances where we believe in good faith that doing so is reasonably necessary to: satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request; investigate compliance with or enforce our Terms of Use; detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; or protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of us, our users or the public as required or permitted by law.

Children's Privacy

This Site's content is not intended to attract children under 13 years of age and we will not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age, you should not use the Site or register for an account.

Security

This Site has security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. However, we cannot guarantee that those security measures will be effective.

Links to Other Sites

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

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this Site, or your dealings with this Site, please contact the Office for Scholarly Communication.

Changes to This Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time without advance notice. If we change the policy, we will post the modified policy on this page, and will note the date of modification. If the changes are significant, we will provide notice on the home page of the Site that this policy has been changed.

This Privacy Policy was last updated September 7, 2010.