Privacy Policy

INTRODUCTION

MIT Professional Education (MITPE) offers lifelong learning opportunities to help individuals build the skills and knowledge they need to reach their professional goals. MITPE is committed to supporting the privacy of individuals who enroll in our programs or connect with us. This Privacy Statement explains how we handle and use the personal information we collect about our learners and our past, present and future supporters.

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

While specific information may vary for particular individuals, we may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal information about you, which we have grouped together as follows:

  • For Advanced Study and Custom Program participants, we may collect basic biographic/contact information about you and your representative organization, including name, title, business addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, educational background, and social media contact information. We may also receive educational history in the form of transcripts from your prior educational institutions. We may also collect, with your consent, information regarding your racial or origin and sexual orientation.
  • For Digital Plus Program participants, we collect basic biographic and contact information for you which you supply at enrollment in a course.
  • For Short Program participants, we collect basic biographic/contact information about you and your representative organization, including name, title, business addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, educational background, social media contact information, as well as payment information.
  • For recipients of our newsletter, we may collect your name and email address.
  • For users of our site, we collect and process analytical information – aggregated information related to web visitor activity and email marketing actions

HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

We collect information about you from a variety of sources. A significant portion of the information we maintain is that which you have provided to us, either by updating your profile online, registering for a program, or communicating with us. We may also augment the information we collect about you from targeted internet searches and may use third party sources, such as Boathouse Services.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use your personal information for a number of legitimate purposes, including the performance of contractual obligations. Specifically, we use your personal information to:

  • Provide you with the programs and services for which you have enrolled.
  • Send you information about other MITPE offerings which may be of interest to you.
  • Perform administrative tasks and for internal record keeping purposes.
  • Create and analyze aggregated (fully anonymized) information about our donors and other supporters for statistical research purposes in support of our educational mission.

If you would like to update your information and communication preferences, or unsubscribe from all marketing and promotional communications from MIT Professional Education, you can do so immediately and at any time by clicking the respective links at the bottom of every promotional email. You may also update your information and communication preferences by emailing professional.education@mit.edu. We will always respect a request by you to stop processing your personal information (subject to our legal obligations).

WHEN WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

To perform the functions listed above, it may be necessary to share your personal information with third parties and vendors under contract with us. All individuals performing functions for us are informed regarding appropriate handling of your personal information.

MIT Professional Education is compliant with FERPA. For more information on FERPA, please see MIT's FERPA policies here.

HOW YOUR INFORMATION IS STORED AND SECURED

MITPE uses risk-assessed administrative, technical and physical security measures to protect your personal information. Only authenticated users with specific permissions may access the data using a virtual private network. We use firewalls and regular monitoring to evaluate any attempts at accessing the systems without permission.

HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We consider our relationship with our learning community to be lifelong. This means that we will maintain a record for you until such time as you tell us that you no longer wish us to keep in touch. If you no longer wish to hear from MITPE, we will retain a core set of information about you to fulfill administrative tasks and legal obligations.

RIGHTS FOR INDIVIDUALS IN THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA

You have the right in certain circumstances to (1) access your personal information; (2) to correct or erase information; (3) restrict processing; and (4) object to communications, direct marketing, or profiling. To the extent applicable, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation provides further information about your rights. You also have the right to lodge complaints with your national or regional data protection authority.

If you are inclined to exercise these rights, we request an opportunity to discuss with you any concerns you may have by emailing dataprotection@mit.edu. To protect the personal information we hold, we may also request further information to verify your identify when exercising these rights. Upon a request to erase information, we will maintain a core set of personal data to ensure we do not contact you inadvertently in the future, as well as any information necessary for MIT archival purposes. We may also need to retain some financial information for legal purposes, including US IRS compliance. In the event of an actual or threatened legal claim, we may retain your information for purposes of establishing, defending against or exercising our rights with respect to such claim.

By providing information directly to MIT, you consent to the transfer of your personal information outside of the European Economic Area to the United States. You understand that the current laws and regulations of the United States may not provide the same level of protection as the data and privacy laws and regulations of the EEA.

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide any personal data to us.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

We may change this Privacy Statement from time to time. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information we will make this clear on our website or by contacting you directly.

The controller for your personal information is MIT. We can be contacted at professional.education@mit.edu.

This policy was last updated in OCTOBER 2019.

Non-Discrimination Policy

Commitment to Equal Opportunity

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in education and employment. The Institute prohibits discrimination against individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, employment policies, scholarship and loan programs, and other Institute administered programs and activities; the Institute may, however, favor US citizens or residents in admissions and financial aid.*

The Vice President for Human Resources is designated as the Institute’s Equal Opportunity Officer. Inquiries concerning the Institute’s policies, compliance with applicable laws, statutes, and regulations, and complaints may be directed to Anthony Sharon, Deputy Executive Vice President (who is serving as Interim Vice President for Human Resources), Building 4-204, 617-253-3928. In addition, inquiries about Title IX (which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex) may be directed to the Institute’s Title IX coordinator, Sarah Rankin, Room W31-223, 617-324-7526, titleIX@mit.edu. Inquiries about the laws and about compliance may also be directed to the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Region I, 5 Post Office Square, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02109-3921, 617-289-0111, OCR.Boston@ed.gov.

* The ROTC programs at MIT are operated under Department of Defense (DoD) policies and regulations, and do not comply fully with MIT’s policy of nondiscrimination with regard to gender identity. MIT continues to advocate for a change in DoD policies and regulations concerning gender identity, and is committed to providing alternative financial assistance under a needs-based assessment to any MIT student who loses ROTC financial aid because of these DoD policies and regulations.

The statement was last updated in January 2019.