Privacy Policy
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Privacy Policy
Effective Date: September 19, 2012
Welcome to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ("SJC") website. Your privacy is one of our top priorities. The following policy applies only to the use of the SJC website. As you navigate the website, you may see links that, when clicked, will take you to websites external to the SJC. These websites, including those operated by other state courts and agencies, have individual privacy policies tailored to the interactions available through each site. We strongly suggest that you read the privacy policies for each website that you visit, and any external site that you visit through a link appearing at this site.
A Privacy Partnership
Your privacy with respect to the use of the SJC website results from a partnership between the SJC and you, the user. At this website, we attempt to protect your privacy to the maximum extent possible. However, we cannot ensure absolute privacy. This policy informs you of the information that we collect from you at this site, what we do with it and to whom it may be disseminated. Based on this information, you can make an informed decision about your use of this site. You can maximize the benefits of your privacy partnership with the SJC by making informed decisions about whether to share personally identifiable information with us through this site.
Personally Identifiable Information
We use the term "personally identifiable information" to mean any information that could reasonably be used to identify you, including but not limited to your name, address, e-mail address, Social Security number or any combination of information that could be used to identify you.
Information Voluntarily Provided by You
This site collects voluntary information from you by means of surveys, e-mails or forms submitted through the website. All such information, including comments and e-mails sent by you to this site, will contain personally identifiable information.
Information Automatically Collected and Stored by this Site
This website employs the use of "Persistent Cookies." The purpose of these Persistent Cookies is to collect and aggregate data regarding the site's visitor activity in order for the SJC Website Administrator to continuously evaluate and improve its website services. You may elect to disable the Persistent Cookies. Please be advised that disabling the Persistent Cookies may affect your ability to view or interact with this website.
This site does collect and store your "Internet Protocol ('IP') address," (which does not identify you as an individual) indefinitely, as well as information about the date and time of your visit, whether a file you have requested exists, and how many "bytes" of information were transmitted to you over the Web from this site. We use your IP address to assess the frequency of visits to this site and the popularity of its various pages and functions. We will not attempt to match any personally identifiable information that you provide to us with your IP address, unless there are reasonable grounds to believe that doing so would provide information that is relevant and material to a criminal investigation.
Usage Data
In addition, we use a tool called Google AnalyticsTM to collect information about use of this site. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to this site. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve this site. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a persistent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google's ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this site by disabling cookies on your browser.
This site also uses a survey tool called ForeSeeTM provided by ForeSee Results. ForeSee collects voluntary information from you through surveys posted at this website. Surveys may collect personally identifiable information you voluntarily submit, such as name, e-mail address or phone number, so that we may contact you for follow up to your question, concern or recommendation. We use the information we get from ForeSee only to improve this site. ForeSee also collects data such as browser information, operating system, and page views through the implementation of session cookies. We do not combine the information collected through the use of ForeSee with any other personally identifiable information not voluntarily provided by you through your survey responses. Although ForeSee plants a persistent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but ForeSee Results. ForeSee Results' ability to use and share information collected by ForeSee about your visits to this site is restricted by the ForeSee Results' Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The ForeSee Results' Terms of Use and Privacy Policy are available online at http://www.foreseeresults.com. You can opt out of ForeSee collecting information via the survey by declining to participate in the survey when the invitation pops up on the site. If you do opt out of completing the survey or you have completed a survey, ForeSee uses a persistent cookie so that it does not offer the survey to you again when you revisit this website. You may prevent ForeSee from using persistent cookies by disabling cookies on your browser. Disabling cookies will in turn prevent ForeSee from recognizing you on return visits and thus ForeSee may present you with the survey questionnaire upon a return visit given that it will not have any means to recognize that you've opted out on a previous visit.
Dissemination of Your Personally Identifiable Information
We do not sell any personally identifiable information collected through this website or submitted to the SJC in conjunction with using functions on the website, and there is no direct or online public access to the information. However, once you voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to us related to your use of the website, its dissemination is governed by the Supreme Judicial Court Order Regarding the Protection of Personal Information and other applicable laws and regulations.
The information that you voluntarily submit will be disclosed only to the SJC and Commonwealth employees or officials, or those under contract with the Commonwealth, with a "need to know" for purposes of fulfilling their job responsibilities. The information will be used for such purposes as: answering your questions; responding to any requests for assistance; generating summary statistics about usage; aiding in the planning, design and development of the SJC website; and fulfilling the court's legal obligations. We will collect and aggregate the information you provide through surveys and through the website's collection of non-personally identifying analytics data for the purpose of improving this website by making it more responsive to customer needs. Where appropriate, we may provide the information you submitted voluntarily through an e-mail to the person or company that is the subject of your inquiry, or to a government agency responsible for the matters referred to in your communication.
Security
Because information sent to the SJC is not encrypted, you should not send messages containing information that you consider highly sensitive to this website. We use standard security measures to ensure that information provided by you, including your personally identifiable information, is not lost, misused, altered, or unintentionally destroyed. We also use software to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.
Policy changes
We will post substantive changes to this policy at least 30 days before they take effect. Any information we collect under the current privacy policy will remain subject to the terms of this policy. After any changes take effect, all new information we collect, if any, will be subject to the new policy.
Contact Information
For questions about your privacy while using this website, please contact David Lucal, Chief Information Technology Officer, David.Lucal@sjc.state.ma.us.
Definitions:
Cookies are files that a website can place on your computer. A cookie file contains unique information that a website can use to track such things as your password, lists of Web pages you have visited, and the date when you last looked at a specific Web page, or to identify your session at a particular website. A cookie file allows the website to recognize you as you click through pages on the site and when you later revisit the site. A website can use cookies to "remember" your preferences, and to record your browsing behavior on the Web.
Although you can prevent websites from placing cookies on your computer by using your browser's preference menu, disabling cookies may affect your ability to view or interact with some websites.
An "Internet Protocol Address" or "IP Address" is a series of numbers that identifies each computer and machine connected to the Internet. An IP address enables a server on a computer network to send you the file that you have requested on the Internet. The IP address disclosed to us may identify the computer from which you are accessing the Internet, or a server owned by your Internet Service Provider. Because it is machine-specific, rather than person-specific, an IP address is not, in and of itself, personally identifiable information.