Website Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which the National Bureau of Economic Research ("we", "us", "our", or "NBER") collects, processes, uses, maintains and discloses information collected about users (each, a "User") through the http://www.nber.org website ("Site") and its subdomains, as well in our offline environment. This Privacy Policy is not applicable to information provided by employees and applicants, which can be found in our Employee Privacy Policy. 

Please review this Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into, and made part of our Terms and Conditions. By using this Site, you consent to our collection, processing, use, maintenance and disclosure of your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy or our Terms and Conditions, you may not use our Site. 

Information We Collect

Personal Information

Personal information is any information that can be used to identify, contact or locate a User, such as name and email addresses. NBER collects personal information through a variety of ways including, but not limited to, when a User visits and registers for an account on our Site and in connection with other activities, services, features or resources we make available on our Site.

Non-Personal Identification Information

Non-personal identification information includes the browser name, the computer type, the operating system, and other technical information about the Users' means of connection. We automatically collect such non-personal identification information about the Users whenever they interact with our Site.

Information You Provide to Us

We collect information, including personal information you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information when you: create an account, use the interactive areas and features of the Site, subscribe to a newsletter or email list, participate in a survey or events, request customer or technical support, or otherwise communicate with us.

The types of information we may collect from you include:

• Account Information, such as your name, email address, password, postal address, phone number, date of birth and any other information you choose to provide.
• Other profile information, including educational, professional and other background information, such as your field of study, current position, practice area and areas of interests.
• Your submissions, including materials that you upload to the Site, such as academic articles, journal articles, periodicals, and other content.
• Other Information You Choose to Provide, such as when you participate in a survey, assessment or interactive area of the Site or when you request technical or customer support.

Information We Collect Automatically When You Use the Site

When you access or use the Site, the types of information we may automatically collect about you include:

• Log Information: When you visit the Site, our servers automatically record certain log file information, such as your Internet Protocol ("IP") address, operating system, browser type and language, referring URLs, access times, pages viewed, links clicked and other information about your activities on the Site.
• Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: We and our service providers use various tracking technologies, including cookies and web beacons, to collect information about you when you interact with our Site. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve the Site and your experience, see which areas and features of the Site are popular, and count visits. Web beacons are electronic images that may be used in the Site or emails and help deliver cookies, count visits and understand usage and campaign effectiveness. For more information about cookies, and how to disable them, please see "Your Choices" below.

Information Collected from Other Sources

We may also obtain information about you from other sources. For example, we may collect information about you from third parties, including, for example, if you sign in to your account with a third-party identity provider (e.g., Google), that provider may share an email address and other information with us. Once we combine information from other sources with your information collected pursuant to this policy, we apply this policy to the combined information as long as it is combined.

Analytics

We use "Google Analytics" to understand how the Users interact with our Site. Google Analytics collects information such as how often the Users visit this Site, what pages are visited, and the Users' browsing history prior to visiting this Site. Such information is used only to improve this site. Google Analytics collects only the User's IP address on the date of visit. No personal information is collected. We do not combine the information collected through Google Analytics with personal identification information.

Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on the User's web browser to identify each User in subsequent visits to 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 identifying you in future visits to this Site by disabling cookies on your browser.

NBER uses embedded YouTube videos. All Users are agreeing to be bound by YouTube's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

How We Use Collected Information

The NBER Site may collect and use Users' personal information for the following purposes:

• To run and operate our Site.
• To display the correct content on our Site.
• To personalize user experience.
• To understand how our Users use the services and resources provided on our Site in aggregate.
• To improve our Site and our products and services.
• To send periodic emails.
• To monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities in connection with our Site.
• To detect, investigate and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities and protect the rights and property of NBER and others.
• To de-identify and aggregate information. Once de-identified and aggregated, it is no longer personal information and is not subject to this Privacy Policy.
• To respond to User inquiries, questions, and/or other requests.
• To carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the information was collected. 

Disclosure of Information

We may share information about you, including personal information, as follows, or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy:

• With vendors, consultants and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work or perform services on our behalf.
• In response to requests from local, state, provincial or federal law enforcement officials, any judicial, administrative or similar proceeding or order, such as a subpoena, if we believe disclosure is in accordance with, or required by any applicable law.
• If we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements or policies, or to protect the rights, property and safety of NBER and others.
• To investigate suspected fraud, harassment, physical threats, or other violations of any law, rule or regulation, the Site's rules or policies, or the rights of third parties.
• In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company.
• With your consent or at your direction.
• To comply with transparency or other public reporting obligations.
• As otherwise permitted or required by law.

We may also share aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you. 

How We Protect Your Information

We adopted reasonable physical, technical, and administrative measures to protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of your personal information, username, password, transaction information and data stored on our Site. Unfortunately, no data transmission, processing or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Users are expected to not reuse passwords. If you have reason to believe that your personal information is compromised, please contact us in accordance with the "Contacting Us" section below. 

Selling Your Personal Information

We do not sell, trade, or rent Users' personal information to others. We may share generic, aggregated information that cannot be linked to any single individual with our staff and research affiliates.

California's "Shine the Light" law permits California residents to annually request and obtain information free of charge about what personal information is disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. We do not distribute your personal information to outside parties without your consent for their direct marketing. 

Third Party Websites

The NBER website may provide links to third-party websites, and other websites may link to our Site. We do not control the content or links that appear on the other websites and are not responsible for their practices. These sites and services may have their own privacy policies and customer service policies. Browsing on and interaction with any other website is subject to that website's own terms and policies. We encourage Users to review the privacy policies posted on each and every website when they leave our Site. 

Compliance with Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

No part of our Site is structured or designed to attract children under 13. 

Do Not Track Signals

NBER does not respond to Do Not Track signals to the extent received from a web browser. Because there currently is not a universally accepted technological or legal standard for recognizing or honoring DNT signals as reflections of user choice, we do not respond to them at this time. Once such technology is created and has received applicable regulatory approval, we will consider (a) whether it is possible; and (b) if so, how it can be incorporated within NBER's environment in the future. 

Additional Information for Individuals in the European Economic Area ("EEA")

In addition to the aforementioned information, the following information applies to any individual located in the EEA. For the purposes of this section, any defined terms have the meaning under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). NBER acts as a "Data Controller" under the GDPR. NBER's headquarters is located in the United States at 1050 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138.

Legal Basis of Processing

In this section, we identify the lawful grounds we rely on for processing personal information:

• Consent: If NBER relies on consent for the processing of personal information, we will provide transparent notice of the purposes for which we seek such consent at the time we collect such information.
• Contractual Necessity: It is necessary for us to process your personal information in certain ways in order to provide the Site to you, in accordance with a contract between you and us, including our Terms of Use.
• Legal Obligation: In some cases we may process your personal information where necessary to satisfy our legal obligations, including records we may be required to retain or disclose to a government authority or third party.
• Legitimate Interests: In certain cases we may process your personal information where necessary to further NBER's legitimate interests, including usage statistics, analytics, fraud prevention, and improving the Site.

Data Retention

NBER will retain information (including personal information) about you only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, including for as long as your account is active, or as needed to provide the Site to you. If you no longer want NBER to use information about you, you may cancel your account. NBER will retain and use such information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. Log files are generally retained for a limited period of time, except in cases involving safety, security, functionality, or legal obligations.

Transfer of Personal Information Outside of the EEA

NBER processes your personal information in the United States, which does not provide the same level of data protection as the EEA. Where your personal information is processed outside of the EEA, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as standard contractual clauses, individual consent, or other safeguards permitted by applicable EEA requirements. 

Your Choices

Data Subject Rights

Regardless of where you live, NBER will be happy to consider data subject rights requests if you contact us using the contact information at the end of this policy. You may update, correct, modify, or delete information about you at any time by logging into your online account or by contacting us. Please note we may not be able to honor every request and may need to continue to store information about you as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

Under the GDPR, and in certain other jurisdictions, you may request the following:

• Access to any data held about you;
• Amendment of inaccurate data;
• Deletion of data about you, provided the data is not required by NBER to perform a contract, protect its rights, or comply with applicable laws;
• Restricting the processing of data which is no longer required; and
• Requesting transfer of appropriate data to a third party where technically feasible.

We will not discriminate against you because of your exercise of any of the privacy rights provided in this notice.

If you make a request related to personal information about you, we will need to verify your identity. To do so, we will request that you match specific pieces of information you have previously provided. For requests related to particularly sensitive information, we may require additional proof of identification. We will process your request within the time provided by applicable law.

You may also authorize someone to contact us or exercise any of the above rights on your behalf, but we will require documentation that you have authorized an agent to act on your behalf.

Cookies

Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of the Site. 

Changes to This Privacy Policy

NBER reserves the right to update this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this policy and by posting a notice at the Privacy page of our Site. In some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as by sending you a notification via email).

We encourage Users to frequently check this policy for any changes and to stay informed about how we protect the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of any changes to this Privacy Policy means you accept such changes. 

Contacting Us

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, or your dealings with this Site, please contact us: webmaster@nber.org, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, or 617-868-3900

Effective August 1, 2026