Our Commitment to Privacy

The MATRC is strongly committed to maintaining the privacy and security of confidential personal information and other highly sensitive data that it collects. Our privacy and public records obligations are governed by applicable MATRC statutes, including, but not limited to, the MATRC Privacy Protection Act of 1976, the MATRC Freedom of Information Act and by any applicable U.S. federal laws.

Notice about the Information We Collect

This notice applies to all information collected by or submitted to official MATRC websites. The following information explains the Internet privacy policy and practices that the MATRC has adopted for its official websites. This notice should not be construed as a contractual promise, and the MATRC reserves the right to amend it at any time without notice.

When you access our Web pages, the client information and the essential and nonessential technical information listed below is automatically collected—we refer to those categories collectively as "access information.” No other information is collected through our official website except “optional information” sent to us by email or online forms.

Automatically Collected Access Information

  • Client information: the Internet domain and Internet address of the computer you are using.
  • Essential technical information: identification of the page or service you are requesting, type of browser and operating system you are using and the date and time of access.
  • Nonessential technical information: the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our website and the "cookie information" described below.

Optional Information

  • Personal Data: when you send us an email we may collect your email address, your name and the content of your email.
  • Form Data: when you complete online forms, all the data you choose to fill in or confirm, including credit or debit card information if you are ordering a product or making a payment, as well as information about other people if you are ordering a gift and want it sent directly to the recipient's address.

The Way We Use Information

Client information is used to route the requested Web page to your computer for viewing. In theory, the requested Web page and the routing information could be discerned by other entities involved in transmitting the requested page to you. We do not control the privacy practices of those entities. Essential and nonessential technical information helps us respond to your request in an appropriate format (or in a personalized manner) and helps us plan website improvements. Optional information enables us to provide services or information tailored more specifically to your needs or to forward your message or inquiry to another entity that is better able to do so and also allows us to plan website improvements.

We may use non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our website. For example, we may report that X number of individuals visited a certain area on our website or that Y number of men and Z number of women filled out our registration form, but we would not disclose anything that could be used to identify those individuals.

We may keep client information from our systems indefinitely after the Web page is transmitted, but we do not try to obtain any information to link it to the individuals who browse our website. However, on rare occasions when a "hacker" attempts to breach computer security, logs of access information are retained to permit a security investigation and in such cases may be forwarded together with any other relevant information in our possession to law enforcement agencies.

Under the MATRC Freedom of Information Act, any records in our possession at the time of a Freedom of Information Request might be subject to being inspected by or disclosed to members of the public for any purpose they may desire. As indicated above, client information may be retained after transmission of the requested Web page and might be available for inspection.

We use the information you provide about yourself when placing an order or request only to complete that order or request. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete that order or request. Similarly, we use the information you provide about someone else when placing an order or request only to complete that order or request. Again, we do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete that order or request.

We generally use return email addresses only to answer the email we receive. Such addresses are generally not used for any other purpose and by MATRC and state policy are not shared with outside parties.

Finally, we never use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without clear notice and the opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such uses.

Use of Cookies

The information stored in the cookie might include the following (formatted for legibility):

Name: PHPSESSID: 973016679.175537
Timestamp: 973021258
Portal: 0
Expires: Tue, 01-May-2001 19:40:58 GMT
Domain: www.matrc.org
Path: /

Providing Information Is Your Choice

There is no legal requirement for you to provide any information at our website. However, our website will not work without routing information and the essential technical information. Failure of your browser to provide nonessential technical information will not prevent your use of our website but may prevent certain features from working. For any optional information that is requested at the website, failure to provide the requested information will mean that the particular feature or service associated with that part of the Web page may not be available to you.

Our Commitment to Data Security

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online, consistent with the policies of the MATRC and with the laws and regulations of the Commonwealth of MATRC.