MIT Hacking Medicine Privacy Statement

Introduction

MIT Hacking Medicine is committed to supporting the privacy of participants, donors, and guests of our event. This Privacy Statement explains how we handle and use the personal information we collect about our constituency.

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:

• Basic biographic/contact information – phone numbers, email addresses, and social media contact information such as LinkedIn.
• Demographic information – names, gender, pronouns, age range, ethnicity.
• Analytical information – aggregated information related to web visitor activity and email marketing engagement.
• Occupation Information – details about your career, workplace, or institutional affiliation.
• Logistic Information – information on prior participation in Hacking Medicine events, how you heard about the event, and MIT affiliations.

How we collect personal information about you

We collect information through our applications and registration forms for hackathons and related events. This includes participant, mentor, and judge applications for the MIT GrandHack, as well as registration for local social events around Boston.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information for a number of legitimate purposes all in support of MIT Hacking Medicine and its mission, to foster the growth of healthcare entrepreneurship and innovation to attack and solve healthcare problems on a global scale. Specifically, we use your personal information to:

• Conduct marketing and outreach efforts to understand and expand our reach, share our successes.
• Share resumes with event sponsors, only when consent is explicitly provided by the individual.
• Aggregate statistics on the performance and attendance of our events.
• Develop case studies highlighting event outcomes, with explicit permission from the individuals featured.

If you have concerns about any of these purposes, or how we communicate with you, please contact us at hackmed-directors@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 limited personal information with sponsors, only when explicitly permitted by the individual. The application form includes a question allowing you to consent (or decline) to such sharing.

How your information is stored and secured

MIT uses risk-assessed administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your personal information. Information is stored within MIT Hacking Medicine’s internal database. Only members of the organizing team have access. When data is shared, only relevant portions are shared, never the full database.

How long we keep your personal information

We retain personal information until we are asked to delete it. Upon request, we will promptly remove your data from our active records in accordance with MIT policy and legal requirements.

Data Access and Protection Rights

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 EEA’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 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. To protect the personal information we hold, we may also request further information to verify your identity 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. The controller for your personal information is MIT.

If you are in the EEA or UK and wish to assert any of your applicable GDPR rights, please contact dataprotection@mit.edu. You may also contact MIT’s representatives listed below:

MIT Representative in the European Economic Area

J-PAL Europe
Email: jpaleurope@povertyactionlab.org
Address: 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris, France

MIT Representative in the United Kingdom

MIT Press UK
Address: 71 Queen Victoria Street, London, United Kingdom, EC4V 4BE

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 MIT websites or by contacting you directly.

This policy was last updated in Nov 2025.