Privacy Policy
Meet Boston Website
This Website (the "Website," or the "Site") is provided to you by Meet Boston ("we" or "us"). To assist you in using our Website, and to explain the relationship arising from your use of our Site and the Services that we offer through it, we have created (i) this privacy policy (the "Privacy Policy"), and (ii) a set of Terms and Conditions of Use (the "Terms"). This Privacy Policy explains how we treat information you provide to us through our Site, and our Terms govern your use of the Site. Both our Terms and Privacy Policy apply to: (a) visitors to our Site, (b) anyone using the Services we offer through our Site; and (c) registered Site members (collectively, "you" and "your").
This Privacy Policy only applies to information that you have provided to Meet Boston through the Website, and does not apply to information that Meet Boston may obtain through other means, such as through traditional mailing lists. In addition, please note that we allow a range of vendors to offer, through our Site, goods and services, such as reservations and booking services, that relate to Boston (collectively, "Travel Service Providers"). Information you provide to our Travel Service Providers will be governed by their privacy policies and procedures.
1. Privacy Policy And Your Acceptance And Consent
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully as it constitutes the agreement between you and Meet Boston regarding your provision, and our collection and use of, personal, financial and other information you may provide to us while accessing our Site or using Our Services.
By using our Website you consent to this Privacy Policy. In addition, for certain activities on the Site, we may further confirm your consent to this Privacy Policy by asking you to click an "I accept" button, referring to this Privacy Policy.
2. The Types Of Information You May Provide
Information you may provide while visiting our Site or using our Services falls into two broad categories: personal information and aggregate information. We use the term "Personal Information" to mean information that could reasonably be used to identify you, including your name, address, email address, birth date, financial information, telephone number or any combination of this information that could be used to identify you. "Aggregate Information" is information that does not personally identify you, and may include, for example, statistical information concerning the pages of our Site that users visit most frequently. Our Privacy Policy governs both categories of information as detailed below.
3. The Connection Between Information Requested From You And Site Services
Please keep in mind that you are able to obtain services on our Site from us, as well as from Travel Service Providers.
3.1. Our Services
We only ask for and compile Personal Information that is needed to provide you with the Services that you seek from us. Certain Services may require a greater amount of information, and a broader scope of use for this information. Other Services, however, generally require less information. If you are uncomfortable with providing the requested level of information, or with our use of this information for the purposes identified, you may simply decline to use those Services. You can still enjoy a wide range of features on our Website even if you choose not to provide us with Personal Information. Please read on to learn more about the relationship between our Services and your Personal Information.
3.2. Services from Travel Service Providers
In addition to the Services that we offer on our Site, Travel Service Providers also provide Travel Services through our Site. These Travel Service Providers generally collect Personal Information from you in order to provide you with the Travel Service that you request, which may include accessing various other resources using the information that you've provided. Each Travel Service Provider is responsible for the treatment of information that you provide to them. We encourage you to review their privacy policies and terms of use as they govern how they use your information.
4. Your Choices Concerning Personal Information; Our Collection and Use of Personal Information
You decide whether you wish to provide us with Personal Information. We have structured our Website so that you may visit us and obtain information related to Boston without revealing your identity, or providing any Personal Information. Please note, however, that certain Services offered by Meet Boston may require that you provide us with Personal Information. Remember that in order to use many of the Travel Services offered by our Travel Service Providers, you need to provide them with Personal Information.
We collect Personal Information through the following means, and use this information for the following purposes, depending on the service you have selected:
We collect Personal Information in connection with orders that you may place on our Site using a credit card or through other means. For credit or debit card purchases, you will be asked to provide contact information (such as name, email address, and shipping address) and financial information (such as credit card number and expiration date). We use a reputable company to verify your credit or debit card information before billing your account. This information is used for billing purposes and to fill orders. If we have trouble processing an order, the information may be used to contact you. We will also share your shipping information with the delivery service you request (UPS, U.S. Postal Service, or other delivery companies you select).
4.2. Email Address and Other Communications
If you send us an email or letter with questions or comments, or if you provide your contact information when placing certain orders through our Site, Meet Boston may use your email address and other Personal Information included in your correspondence to respond to you. In addition, we use your e-mail address to send newsletters, notifications, announcements concerning Meet Boston, developments in travel and convention activities, and other information relating to our Site and our Services. In addition, we may use your email address to invite you to presentations, or other functions we believe may be of interest to you. You will have the ability to opt out of receiving these materials, as provided in Section 6.
Meet Boston may conduct online and other surveys that customers may complete on a voluntary basis. Information collected through the surveys will only be used for the purpose of marketing or planning unless you expressly agree otherwise.
4.4. Informational Notices and Bulletins
Periodically, we may choose to send news, bulletins, or other information to site visitors, and will use Personal Information to send such communications. If we choose to undertake these communications, you will have the ability to opt out of receiving these communications as provided in Section 6.
5. No Unrelated Third Party Is Given Access To Your Personal Information
We do not share with unrelated third parties any Personal Information that you provide to us. We will share your Personal Information with vendors that are involved in providing the Services we offer or that are involved in the operation and maintenance of our Site (collectively, the "Site Vendors"). Personal Information that we collect will be disclosed only to Meet Boston employees on a "need to know" basis for purposes of fulfilling their responsibilities to Meet Boston.
6. How To Obtain Access To Information You Have Provided To Us, And How To Remove Your Information From Our Database
To allow you appropriate control over your Personal Information, you can request access to review, change, update or delete Personal Information that you have previously submitted to us. We will take reasonable steps to verify your identify before granting access to your Personal Information.
You also have the option to delete your name and other Personal Information from our databases. Please understand, however, that it may be impossible to remove this information completely, due to system backups and records of deletions. In addition, if you request deletion of your Information, you will be unable to utilize any Services associated with that Information. Meet Boston will fulfill deletion requests within a reasonable time.
Please note that you must contact the applicable Travel Service Provider if you wish to review, change, update or delete any Personal Information that you have provided to it. Meet Boston does not have control over Personal Information that you have provided to the Travel Service Providers.
7. Information That Does Not Identify You: Aggregate Information
General information that describes our users' activities, but that does not identify any particular user, is Aggregate Information. For example, the fact that our users spend the majority of their time browsing information about local restaurants would constitute Aggregate Information, if that the information does not identify a particular user. This information provides Meet Boston with potentially useful data concerning our users' preferences and the efficacy and interest of our Site and related Services. Meet Boston uses Aggregate Information to analyze the effectiveness of our Site and to improve our Services. From time to time, we may undertake or commission statistical and other summary analyses of the general behavior and characteristics of users participating in our Services and the characteristics of visitors to our Site, and may share Aggregate Information with third parties. Rest assured, though, that Aggregate Information provided to third parties will not allow anyone to identify you, or determine anything personal about you. We collect Aggregate Information through the following means:
We may automatically receive and record information in our server logs from your browser, including your IP address (the Internet address of your PC), your computer's name, the type and version of your web browser, referrer addresses, where the computer is routing from, and other generally-accepted log information. We may also record page views (hit counts) and other general statistical and tracking information, which will be aggregated with that of other users in order to understand how our Website is being used, and for security and monitoring purposes.
A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier, which is sent to your browser from a website's computers and stored on your computer's hard drive. Cookies can be used to provide you with a tailored user experience and to make it easier for you to use a website upon a future visit. We may include cookies on our Website and use them to recognize you when you return to our Website. You may set your browser so that it does not accept cookies. Cookies must be enabled on your web browser, however, if you wish to access certain personalized features of our Services.
We may use so-called "pixel tags," which are small graphic images (also know as "web beacons", "single-pixel GIFS", or "Web bugs"), to tell us what parts of our website have been visited, to measure the effectiveness of searches customers perform on our Site, and for other purposes. Pixel tags also enable us to send email messages in a format users can read, and they inform us whether emails have been opened, to help ensure that our messages are of interest to recipients. None of this data includes Personal Information, and you can "opt-out" of receiving these types of emails from us by following the directions provided in Section 6. If any Personal Information is collected using such tools, it will be subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
We may send email messages which use a "click-through URL" linked to content on our Website. When you click one of these URLs, you pass through our web server before arriving at the destination web page. If we use this feature, we would track this click-through data to help determine our users' interest in particular topics and measure the effectiveness of our customer communications. If you prefer not to be tracked simply do not click text or graphic links in the email, or notify us in accordance with Section 6.
8. Advertising
The Site may include the use of ad banner partners for the serving and/or targeting of ads, promotions, and other marketing messages. These ads may be provided, in some cases, by a third party ad service provider or advertiser ("Advertisers"). These Advertisers may use traditional banner ads or other advertising methods. An Advertiser may place or utilize its own cookie on your browser, and may use Aggregate Information about your visit to our Site, such as the number of times you have viewed the ad. If the Advertiser requests that you provide to it Personal Information, please be aware that this Advertiser's use and collection of this information will be governed by its own privacy policy, and not our Privacy Policy. We recommend that you review the Advertiser's privacy policy before providing Personal Information.
9. Any Information Linked With Your Personal Information Is Protected As "Personal Information"
To enable us to better understand the characteristics of our customers and/or to provide Services tailored to your needs, we may link (i) the Personal Information you have provided with (ii) Aggregate Information. If we combine or link any Aggregate Information or other information with your Personal Information, the resulting combination will be treated and protected as Personal Information under this Privacy Policy. Accordingly, no unrelated third parties will have access to this information.
10. How We Safeguard Information We Collect
We have put in place security systems designed to prevent unauthorized access to or disclosure of Personal Information you may provide to us, and we take reasonable steps to secure and safeguard this Information. Moreover, GBCVB employees are required to acknowledge that they understand and will abide by our policies with respect to the confidentiality of Personal Information.
Our security systems are therefore designed to deter and prevent hackers and others from accessing Personal Information you provide to us. We also use software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Please understand, though, that this Section 9 (How We Safeguard Information We Collect) should not be viewed as giving business, legal, or other advice, or warranting as fail-proof, the security of information submitted to our Site. Due to the nature of Internet communications and evolving technologies, we cannot provide, and expressly disclaim, assurance that the information you provide us will remain free from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties who, despite our efforts, obtain unauthorized access.
There are two exceptions to our Privacy Policy. First, we may release or use Personal Information in connection with (a) legal proceedings, or contemplated legal proceedings, that directly relate to such information, or (b) in response to a subpoena or court order specifically requesting such information. Second in cases involving threat of imminent harm to you or others, we may release such information to prevent or mitigate the threat. In any such case, we will seek to limit the scope of the disclosure and restrict such disclosures only to appropriate authorities, and will disclose only such Personal Information as is reasonably required to fulfill the purpose of the disclosure. In addition, unless instructed otherwise by a court or other authority with appropriate jurisdiction, we may undertake reasonable efforts (i) to notify you of such a disclosure or request for disclosure, and (ii) to provide you with this notice as far in advance of the disclosure as is reasonably practicable.
Persons who receive information in proper accordance with the procedures set out in this Section 10 (Exceptions) ("Proper Recipients") may be able to combine (i) information they properly obtain from us under this Section 10 (Exceptions) with (ii) other information they independently possess concerning you. As long as we comply with the procedures set out in this Section 10 (Exceptions) concerning the release of information, we will not be responsible for Proper Recipients' later use of this information.
This Privacy Policy governs our information practices with respect to information that you directly or indirectly provide while using our Website. This Privacy Policy does not apply to Meet Boston's information practices applicable to other relationships or other programs. Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to any information that you provide to our Travel Service Providers.
13.1. Aggregate Information" is defined in section 3 of this Policy.
13.2. "Services" or "Our Services" means the visitor and informational services that Meet Boston offers on the Site. For purposes of clarification, and not limitation, the terms "Services" and "Our Services" explicitly excludes the Travel Services provided to you by Travel Service Providers.
13.3. Personal Information" is defined in Section 3 of this Policy.
13.4. Site Vendors" is defined in Section 5 of this Policy.
13.5. Travel Services" means the online shopping, travel-related (including booking services), and other similar services offered through our Website by Travel Service Providers.
13.6. Travel Service Providers" means those third parties that provide you with Travel Services through our Site.
13.7. "We," "us," and "our" refer to Meet Boston.
13.8. "You" and "your" refer to: (i) visitors to our Site, (ii) anyone using the Our Services or Travel Services offered through our Site; and (iii) registered Site members.
14. Additional General Provisions
14.1. Privacy Protection for Children
Our Website is not directed at children, and we will not accept or request Personal Information from individuals we know to be under 13. In accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), if we learn that a child under 13 has provided Personal Information, we will either (i) delete this information from our databases in accordance with our deletion procedures set out in Section 6 (How To Obtain Access To Information You Have Provided To Us, And How To Remove Your Information From Our Database), or (ii) obtain verifiable parental consent in accordance with COPPA.
14.2. Changes to Privacy Policy
We will post material changes to this Privacy Policy at least 10 days before they take effect. Any information we collect under the current Privacy Policy will remain subject to the terms of this Policy, until you accept the new Privacy Policy (as provided in Section 1), at which point the new Policy's provisions will govern Personal Information we hold on your behalf.
Meet Boston makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, currency, completeness, or adequacy of the content of this Website and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in its content. No warranty of any kind, implied, express or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and freedom from computer virus, is given with respect to this Website or its links to other Internet resources. Although we have put in place security systems (as described in this Privacy Policy) that are designed to prevent unauthorized disclosure of your Personal Information, due to the nature of Internet technologies we cannot provide assurances as to the security of this information, and expressly disclaim any such obligation.
You agree to refrain from activity that imposes an unreasonable burden on the Site, and we reserve the right, in our discretion, to limit the order quantity on any item and/or to refuse service to any customer who violates these provisions.
14.5. Choice of Law and Jurisdiction; Translations
This Site is controlled and operated by Meet Boston from its location in Boston, Massachusetts. This Policy shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without regard to any conflict of law provisions. Any dispute arising under this Privacy Policy shall be resolved exclusively by the state or federal courts sitting in the judicial district that includes Suffolk County, Massachusetts. This Privacy Policy may be translated into languages other than English (collectively, "Translations"). Any communications sent by Meet Boston to you shall be sent in English. Dispute resolution procedures arising out of either this Privacy Policy or the Translations shall be conducted in English, and the English version of this Privacy Policy shall control over the Translations.
14.6. Links to Third-Party Sites
Our Site may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that Meet Boston is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of other sites. We encourage our customers to be aware when they leave our Site and to read the privacy policies of each website that collects Personal Information. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by our Site and does not, for example, apply to information collected by our Travel Service Providers.
This Privacy Policy must be read in conjunction with our Terms of Use, and the provisions of our Terms of Use are incorporated herein. To the extent the Terms of Use conflict with the terms of this Privacy Policy, the terms of this Privacy Policy will control.
Policy Updated: November 15, 2008
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Specific Disclosures for the European Economic Area
(This section is effective on May 25, 2018)
This section applies to data processing activities of data subjects residing in the European Economic Area as well as, regardless of residence, to the processing of any Personal Data in the European Economic Area.
“Personal Data,” for purposes of this section, means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“data subject”). An identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.
“Services” means any of our products, services, or deliverables, including the visitor and other informational services offered by Meet Boston on our Site. For purposes of clarification, and not limitation, the term “Services” explicitly excludes the Destination Services that are provided by Destination Service Providers.
“Site” means any website operated and controlled by us.
All other terms shall have the meaning as defined in this Privacy Policy.
The scope of applicable data protections and processing for the Services we offer to our member organizations are set forth in contractual agreements and are therefore not covered by this Privacy Policy. Our disclosures with respect to our processing of personal data of Site visitors, prospective customers, and individuals using the Services we offer through the Site are set forth in this section.
1. How we collect and use personal data
We describe how we collect and use Personal Data in Sections 2–4 of the Privacy Notice. Sections 2–4 are expressly incorporated by reference herein.
2. How We Disclose Personal Data
Our disclosure is limited to circumstances where we are permitted to do so under applicable European and national data protection laws and regulations. We share data with companies that provide services on our behalf, whose practices are in line with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as applicable. These third parties include providers of web services, payment processing services, email distribution services, and marketing services to potential and existing customers.
3. Legal Basis for Processing
We collect and process your Personal Data for a variety of different purposes which are set out in further detail in this section.
In some cases, we will ask for your consent so that we may process your Personal Data. However, in certain circumstances, applicable data protection laws allow us to process your Personal Data without needing to obtain your consent.
3.1 Processing personal data where consent not required
In certain cases, separate consent is not required, including:
- For the performance of a contract.
To perform our contractual obligations to you, including our fulfilling orders or purchases you have made, contacting you in relation to any issues with your order or use of our Services, in relation to the provision of our Services, or where we need to provide your Personal Data to our service providers or member organizations related to the provision of the Services.
- Legitimate Interests.
To operate our business and provide our Services (other than in performing our contractual obligations to you) for our “legitimate interests” and for the purposes of applicable law, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of Personal Data.
In most cases, we process your Personal Data on the basis of our legitimate interests.For example, when you provide your Personal Data to Meet Boston to help you plan or coordinate an event, including when you submit a Request For Proposal on our Site, we may share your Personal Data with our membership organizations or other relevant third parties in order to provide you with venues to host your event and other event-related services.We process your Personal Data on the basis of our legitimate interests in such cases in order to provide you the Services.
Other examples of where we process Personal Data on the basis of our legitimate interests may include, but are not limited to: - To communicate with you regarding the Services, including to provide you important notices regarding changes to our Terms and to address and respond to your requests, inquiries, and complaints.
- For our direct marketing purposes.
- For third parties’ marketing purposes in connection with our Services.
- To send you surveys in connection with our Services.
- To assist in the investigation of suspected illegal or wrongful activity, and to protect and defend our rights and property, or the rights or safety of third parties.
- To develop, provide, and improve our Services.
- To enforce our Terms of Use, License Agreements, or this Privacy Notice, or agreements with third parties.
- To comply with legal obligations.
To comply with laws, regulators, court orders, or other legal obligations, or pursuant to legal process.
- To protect data subjects’ vital interests.
To protect the vital interests of you or of another person.
3.2 Consent for Processing
In cases where we are not already authorized to process the Personal Data under applicable law, we may ask for your consent to process your Personal Data, including:
- Marketing
Where we are not relying on our legitimate interests or another legal basis for processing Personal Data, we may ask for your consent for Meet Boston or our partners or vendors to contact you by telephone, SMS, post and/or email about other offers, products, promotions, developments or Services which we think may be of interest to you and for other marketing purposes. - Use of Cookies
Our Site uses cookies and similar technologies to improve user experience and for analytics. We also use cookies and similar technologies for purposes of marketing and advertising, including interest-based advertising. For more information on interest-based advertising, see section 4 (Interest-Based Advertising). In those jurisdictions that require it, we allow the data subject to give explicit permission or to deny the use of certain categories of cookies.
A “cookie” is a small text file that a web server stores in browser software. A browser sends cookies to a server when the browser makes a connection to the server (for example, when requesting a web page from the same domain that created the cookie). The purpose of cookies is to remember the browser over time and distinguish one browser instance (or user) from all others. Some cookies and other technologies may serve to track Personal Data previously entered by a web user on our Site. Most browsers allow you to control cookies, including whether or not to accept them, and how to remove them. Cookies can remember login information, preferences, and similar information.
Cookies, as well as other tracking technologies such as HTML5 local storage, and Local Shared Objects (such as “Flash” cookies), and similar mechanisms, may record information such as a unique identifier, information you enter in a form, IP address, and other categories of data.
We also use web beacons or “pixels,” and in certain circumstances may collect IP address, screen resolution and browser software and operating system types; clickstream patterns; dates and times that our site is accessed, and other categories of data.
If you want to block the use and saving of cookies from the Site on to their computers hard drive, you should take the necessary steps within your web browser’s settings to block all cookies from the Site and its external serving vendors. Please note that if you choose to erase or block your cookies, certain parts of our Site may not function correctly. For information on how to disable cookies, refer to your browser’s documentation.
4. Interest-based Advertising
Interest-based advertising is advertising that is targeted to you based on your web browsing and app usage over time and across websites or apps. You have the option to restrict the use of information for interest-based advertising and to opt-out of receiving interest-based ads. Depending on from where you access our Site, you may also be asked to consent to our use of cookies, including advertising cookies.
The opt-outs for interest-based advertising require that strictly necessary cookies are not blocked by the settings in your web browser. We support the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising of the Digital Advertising Alliance in the U.S., the Canadian Digital Advertising Alliance in Canada, and the European Digital Advertising Alliance in the EU. If you live in the United States, Canada, or the European Union, you can visit Ad Choices (US), Your Ad Choices (Canada), or Your Online Choices (EU) to find a convenient place to opt-out of interest-based advertising with participating entities for each region. These websites also provide detailed information about how interest-based advertising works. Opting out does not mean that you will no longer receive advertising from us, or when you use the Internet. It just means that the data collected from our website will not be used for interest-based advertising and that the advertising you see displayed on websites will not be customized to your interests.
5. Withdrawing your consent
Where consent is the basis of processing, you may at any time withdraw the consent you provide for the processing of your Personal Data by contacting us at privacy@bostonusa.com, provided that we are not required by applicable law or professional standards to retain such information.
If you want to stop receiving future marketing messages and materials, you can do so by clicking the “unsubscribe” link included in our email marketing messages or by contacting us at privacy@meetboston.com.
6. Data Subject Rights
You have the right in certain circumstances to request confirmation from us as to whether or not we are processing your Personal Data. Where we are processing your Personal Data, you also have the right to request access to, modification of, or deletion of such Personal Data.
You also have the right in certain circumstances to receive the Personal Data concerning you that you provided to us, to restrict processing of your Personal Data, or to transmit such data to another controller.
To exercise your rights with respect to your Personal Data, please contact us at privacy@bostonusa.com. As permitted by law, certain data elements may not be subject to access, modification, portability, restriction, and/or deletion. Furthermore, where permissible, we may charge for this service. We will respond to reasonable requests as soon as practicable and as required by law.
7. De-identified or Anonymized Data
We may create de-identified or anonymous data from Personal Data by removing data components (such as your name, email address, or linkable tracking ID) that makes the data personally identifiable to you or through obfuscation or through other means. Our use of anonymized data is not subject to this Privacy Policy.
8. Third-party sites
Our Site may provide a link to another website or Internet location, including, for example, sites managed and administered by our third-party Destination Travel Service Providers. We provide these links merely for your convenience. We have no control over, do not review, and are not responsible for these other websites, their content, or any goods or services available through the websites. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to these other websites. We encourage you to review the terms of use and privacy policies of each third-party site you visit.
9. Data Retention
We will retain your Personal Data for as long as long as you maintain an account or subscription agreement or as otherwise necessary to provide you the Services. We will also retain your Personal Data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
10. Right to Lodge a Complaint With A Supervisory Authority
You may have a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
11.Contact Us
For questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: privacy@meetboston.com.