Archives: Legal Pages

Last updated: 4/9/21

By accessing or using this website (the “Site”) of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (“MLSC” or “the Center”), you hereby accept and agree to comply with these Terms and Conditions of use.  You acknowledge your understanding that these Terms and Condition of use constitute a binding agreement between you the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (sometimes referred to as “us”, “we”, or “our”) that governs your access and use of the Site, which includes any images, text, illustrations, designs, icons, photographs, programs, music clips, downloads, video clips, graphics, user interfaces, visual interfaces, information, data, tools, products, written materials, services and other content (together, “Content”), including but not limited to the design, structure, selection, coordination, expression and arrangement of the Content available on or through the Site.

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SITE.  EACH TIME YOU USE THE SITE, YOUR USE INDICATES YOUR FULL ACCEPTANCE OF AND AGREEMENT TO ABIDE BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN CURRENT FORM.  IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS STATED HEREIN, DO NOT USE THE SITE.  IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE, YOU AGREE THAT YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUT USING THE SITE.

YOUR COMPLIANCE WITH THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE AND ALL OTHER RULES, PROCEDURES, POLICIES, TERMS AND CONDITIONS THAT GOVERN ALL OR ANY PORTION OF THE SITE IS A CONDITION TO YOUR RIGHT TO ACCESS THE SITE.  YOUR BREACH OF ANY PROVISION OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE OR OTHER RULES, PROCEDURES, POLICIES, TERMS AND CONDITIONS THAT GOVERN ALL OR ANY PORTION OF THE SITE WILL AUTOMATICALLY, WITHOUT THE REQUIREMENT OF NOTICE OR OTHER ACTION, REVOKE AND TERMINATE YOUR RIGHT TO ACCESS THE SITE.

By accessing or using the Service you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of the terms then you may not access the Service.

Limited Rights to Use

The MLSC grants you a limited right to use the Site.  Your right to use the Site is subject to your agreement to abide by these Terms and Conditions of Use in their entirety, as well as any other rules, procedures, policies, terms or conditions that govern all or any portion of the Site.  At any time and for any reason, the Center may revoke your right to use all or any portion of the Site.

Updates to the Site

The MLSC reserves the right to make changes to the Site and these Terms and Conditions of use at any time without prior notice to you.  For this reason, each time you use the Site, you should visit and review the then-current Terms and Conditions of use that apply to your use of the Site.

Site Security

You may not violate or attempt to violate the security of the Site.  Tampering with any portion of the Site, providing untruthful or inaccurate information, misrepresenting your identity, or conducting fraudulent activities on the Site, whether or not through the use of agents, are prohibited and constitute a breach of these Terms and Conditions of use.  Any violations of system or network security, including attempts to intentionally access a computer without authorization or exceed your authorized access level, may result in civil and criminal charges.  The MLSC may investigate occurrences that might involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting users who are involved in such violations.  We may, without prior notice or warning of any kind, restrict or terminate the access of any and all users to the Site if we reasonably conclude that such restriction or termination is necessary to prevent, or prevent the further spread, or a virus, security breach or system malfunction.

Ownership of Materials on Site

You may download or copy Content only to the extent such download is expressly permitted in writing on the Site.  No right, title or interest in any downloaded materials or software is transferred to you as a result of any such downloading or copying. You may not reproduce (except as noted above), publish, transmit, distribute, display, modify, create derivative works from, sell or participate in any sale of or exploit in any way, in whole or in part, any of the Content, the Site or any related software.

Links to Other Web Sites and Third Party Content

Our Service may contain links to third-party web sites or services that are not owned or controlled by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. Massachusetts Life Sciences Center has no control over and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party web sites or services. You further acknowledge and agree that Massachusetts Life Sciences Center shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such web sites or services. We strongly advise you to read the terms and conditions and privacy policies of any third-party web sites or services that you visit.

References on this Site to any names, marks, products or services of third parties, or hypertext links to third party sites or information or Content provided by third parties, are provided solely as a convenience to you and do not in any way constitute or imply our endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation of the third party, its information, materials or services. If you decide to link to any such third party sites, you do so at your own risk.

Disclaimer

Your use of the Service is at your sole risk. The Service is provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis. The Service is provided without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement or course of performance.

Governing Law

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of those rights. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by a court, the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in effect. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between us regarding our Service, and supersede and replace any prior agreements we might have between us regarding the Service.

Changes

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material we will try to provide at least 30 days’ notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at our sole discretion.

By continuing to access or use our Service after those revisions become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised terms. If you do not agree to the new terms, please stop using the Service.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms and Conditions, please contact us at info@masslifesciences.com

Please read this privacy notice carefully. We recognize the importance of protecting your personal information and are committed to processing it responsibly and in compliance with applicable data protection laws in all jurisdictions in which we operate.

THE MLSC

This website http://www.masslifesciences.com (our “site”) is operated by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (“MLSC”), also referred to in this notice as “the Center”, “we”, “us” and “our”). MLSC is a body politic and corporate constituting a public instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, created by and exercises its powers and responsibilities in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 23I of the General Laws. The offices of are located at: 1075 Main Street, Suite 100, Waltham, MA 02451. You can contact us about any queries you have regarding this privacy notice at our postal addresses above, or at info@masslifesciences.com

The MLSC is committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. This privacy notice (together with any other documents referred to in it) sets out how we look after your personal data when you visit our website at  http://www.masslifesciences.com, and tells you about your privacy rights and how certain laws may apply to you. Our data and personal information collection practices are not intended to collect data of children under the age of 18. If you have any queries about this policy or how we use your personal information, please contact us at info@masslifesciences.com.

To protect your privacy and help you to make informed choices, we provide this notice explaining our information practices, how you can choose how we use your data, and your rights in relation to your data. In brief, we will only use your information: (1) to optimize our website performance; (2) where you have contacted us online or offline, whether by email or other sources; or (3) where you have consented to us doing so.

YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We collect different information depending on how you use the site and how you interact with us. ‘Personal Data’ means any data which can be associated with you as an individual, either directly or indirectly. The personal data we collect may include identity information, such as your name, organization name and position; contact data, such as your address and email and telephone details, technical data, such as your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access the site, and/or usage data, which includes information about how you use the site, and any communications we may receive from you.  We may also collect marketing and communications data, including your preferences in receiving marketing and other communications from us.

When entering our websites, or contacting us online and/or through email, we will record information necessary to provide you with access, for the operation of the website and for us to comply with security and legal requirements in relation to operating our site, such as passwords, IP address and browser settings. We also collect information about your activities during your visit in order to personalize your website experience, such as recording your preferences and settings, and to collect statistics to help us improve and further develop our websites and services.

Our site is not intended for storing or transmitting ‘special categories’ of personal data, such as details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, health information, or criminal convictions and offenses. Different personal data is collected in different ways.

• Personal data you provide to us: When you request information and/or materials from us, you will provide us with your identity, contact information, IP address, and your marketing and communications preferences. This data is collected via direct solicitation as well as by the use of email tracking codes embedded in our marketing emails. You will also provide us with personal data when you correspond with us.
• Personal data we collect automatically: As you use the site, we will collect certain technical data including your browser type, the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet, and your usage habits, patterns and preferences. We collect this data using cookies, beacons and similar technologies. We use Google Analytics to help us analyze user habits while visiting our site. The data gathered from cookies may be transmitted to Google servers in the United States. We employ IP address anonymization to ensure that there is no direct reporting of individual user IPs as part of this process. The information will be used by Google only for the purpose of evaluating website use, creating website activity reports, and other services relating to website activity and internet usage on behalf of the Center. The IP address that your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics, will not be associated with any other data held by Google. You can remove cookies from your computer through the settings on your browser, but be aware that this may impact your ability to make use of some features on this and other web sites. Management of cookie settings varies from one browser to another. The “Help” menu of your web browser will provide full instructions. For your convenience, you can follow these links for details on how to manage cookies in each of the major web browsers:
  • Chrome
  • Internet Explorer
  • Firefox
  • Opera
  • Safari, Safari for iPad and iPhone

USE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your information where:

• You have given us permission to do so If you request information from us whether by signing up for a mailing list, request information on events, or otherwise request general information from us, we will send you updates and marketing information that you have consented to receive. Likewise, we may need your contact, identity, technical and/or usage information to respond to a question you have asked us, or to register you for an event that you have requested to attend. If you apply for a position with us, we treat any information you send to us as strictly private and confidential and will only use it in relation to the application you have submitted.
• We have a legitimate interest (reasonable business purpose) for doing so, where our doing so will not unduly affect your rights.

We will use your identity, contact and usage information to keep our records up to date.

We will use your technical information to provide and make improvements to the site, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data, and troubleshooting, ensure that the site is secure, analyze how users interact with the site and address any issues you may experience with the site.

We may also use any or all of the information above to administer and manage our business in general. If you feel that your interests and fundamental rights outweigh our business purposes, and that we should therefore stop processing your data, please let us know. We need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation in certain circumstances, and therefore may need to retain or use your data to comply with these regulations and/or the law.

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may share your information with our trusted third party service providers (including information technology providers such as website and mailing list hosts). When we share your information with our service providers, we will ensure that your data is kept secure and used only in accordance with this notice.

On rare occasions, we may share personal data when we believe it is necessary to comply with the law, regulation or legal request (including a court order or government inquiry) and/or to enforce or apply our terms of use or other agreements.

VISITORS TO THE CENTER

We register individuals visiting our sites and locations (name, identification and business contact information) and use camera supervision for reasons of security and safety of persons and belongings.

DATA SECURITY

The safety of your personal data is important to us, and we use various measures to ensure that your data is secure. Our Site uses encryption, data security, and intrusion prevention technologies to protect and secure all personal information in our possession. Our data environment is monitored malicious and/or unusual activity. However, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data.

RETENTION OF PERSONAL DATA

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. We consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements when determining the appropriate retention period for personal data.

THIRD PARTY LINKS

This site may contain links to other sites whose information practices may be different than ours. Please consult all third party sites’ privacy notices and refer to our Terms and Conditions for additional information regarding third-party links.

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We are continually improving the user experience for everyone and applying the relevant accessibility standards.

Accessibility Standards
We strive to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities and more user-friendly for everyone.

Accessibility Measures
Our website is tested regularly to ensure accessibility. Our testing includes automated tools and manual evaluation with assistive technology users.

Accessibility Features

• Keyboard navigation for easy access
• Text alternatives for non-text content
• Adjustable text size and contrast options
• Descriptive link text

Contact Information
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of our website. If you encounter any accessibility barriers, please contact us:

• Email: info@masslifesciences.com

Feedback and Formal Complaints
We aim to respond to accessibility feedback as soon as possible. If you need a formal complaint, please email: info@masslifesciences.com

Statement Update
This statement was last updated on July 22, 2024. We review and update our accessibility statement annually or as needed.

YOUR RIGHTS

We respect your rights concerning the processing of personal information.  Depending on how and where you interact with us, you may have a right to one or more of the following with respect to your personal information we process or control (1) request access to, or copies of, your personal information, together with details about how we process it; (2) request rectification of any inaccuracies; (3) request erasure or restriction of Processing; (4) object to processing by us or on our behalf; (5) have personal information transferred to another party; (6) withdraw consent to processing; and/or (7) submit complaints with a data protection authority regarding any processing by us or on our behalf.

To exercise one or more of these rights or to ask a question about them, please contact us at info@masslifesciences.com. To protect your privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to help verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may change this policy without prior notice.  Please refer to our Terms and Conditions for additional information.

This privacy statement was last updated on April 9, 2021.