Terms of Use & Privacy Terms of Use & Privacy

Last updated: July 7, 2023

Terms of Use

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston provides this website (this “Site” or this “website”) and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston mobile/non-desktop applications (collectively, the “Sources”) as a convenience to depository institutions, researchers, and the general public. By accessing, viewing, downloading or otherwise using information, data and/or material from the Sources you are implicitly consenting to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy (the “Source Policies”). The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston reserves the right to revise the Source Policies by updating, amending, and/or otherwise changing them when needed and without notice. Your continued use of the data, material and/or information from the Sources constitutes your new acceptance of the new Source Policies.

  • The Federal Reserve of Boston takes reasonable measures to ensure the quality of the data and the other information made available via the “Sources”. However, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston does not guarantee, and assumes no responsibility for, the accuracy, timeliness, correctness, completeness, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose of information available through the Sources. Any conclusions that users draw from the information presented from the Sources are their own and are not to be attributed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Moreover, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is not responsible for any loss, injury, claim, liability, or damage of any kind resulting from the information, the unavailability of the information, the use of the information, or the use of the Sources.
  • All information located on the Sources is provided “As Is” without warranty of any kind. THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE WARRANTY OF TITLE, QUALITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, its employees, officers and Board of Directors shall not be liability for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, punitive, exemplary and/or consequential damages of any kind resulting from or arising in connection with the use of the Sources, regardless of the legal or equitable theory upon which the claim is brought, and even if the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
  • We provide relevant links to information outside of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's website as an additional resource for our users. However, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston does not endorse any views expressed or products or services offered by organizations that are hyperlinked from our website.
  • Reproduction of any information contained herein may be made without limitation as to number, provided that it is not distributed for the purpose of private gain and is appropriately credited to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston or its respective publications. A courtesy copy request for publications containing the cited material should be forwarded to Public Information Office, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 600 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02210.
  • The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's website is subject to monitoring by Federal Reserve System personnel. Any and all users expressly consent to such monitoring and are advised that any evidence of criminal activity may be provided to law enforcement officials.
  • Digitized photographs, graphics, and logos created by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston are the property of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and may not be used without permission.
  • The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston does not permit the use of its name or image in advertising as an endorsement for any product or service, or for any other commercial purpose.
  • Some information contained on the Sources may be copyrighted by the owner and permission to use such materials outside of the use on the Sources must be obtained from the owner and cannot be obtained from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Privacy Policy

Legal Information

This is the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. We respect your privacy. The website and firewall are subject to monitoring by Federal Reserve System personnel. Any and all users expressly consent to such monitoring and are advised that any evidence of criminal activity may be provided to law enforcement officials.

Personal Information

You may access and browse our Site without disclosing your personal data. The personal information you choose to provide us is voluntary. We do not require you to provide any information about yourself that you do not wish to share.

You may choose to provide us with personal information if, for example, you subscribe to our publications or mail lists, send us questions through e-mail, answer our user surveys, register for an event, apply for a job, or participate in our online activities.

If you participate in a user survey, your answers and personal information will only be analyzed in aggregate. The information will be used to help us tailor our website, publications, and services to our users' needs and to help us understand and better serve our audience.

If you provide us with your postal or e-mail address or telephone number, this information will only be used for the purpose for which you provided it, such as to:

  • Provide you with the publications or information requested;
  • Clarify your order or request;
  • Register you for a conference or other event;
  • Respond to you regarding your job application;
  • Provide you with related information;
  • Perform analytics on responses to e-mail distributions for the purpose of improving our communications; or
  • Send you a token of appreciation through postal mail if you participate in selected online activities.
  • When you fill out our online forms, they are returned to us via electronic mail. Your responses are not encrypted. We cannot guarantee the security of information sent via electronic mail.

Cookies

A cookie is a text file that a website can send to your browser and which may then be placed on your computer. The Sources, especially this Site makes limited use of cookies. In addition, sometimes a third-party vendor will use cookies on one of the sites they create and manage for us. For example, our Employment Opportunities Site contains an on-line job application process and uses session cookies, which are deleted when a candidate exits the browser or completes the application process. You can set your browser to notify you before you receive a cookie, giving you the opportunity to decide whether to accept it or not. You can also set your browser to not accept cookies at all. If you do so, however, some areas of some sites (including ours) may not operate properly.

Information Collected Automatically

We collect statistical information about our users in aggregate. We perform analyses on our web server's log files to identify, among other things:

  • Our site's most popular pages;
  • The browsers and operating systems most often used by our visitors;
  • The sites and search engines that have referred visitors to our site; and
  • The domains from which our users visit us. This analysis does not involve personally identifiable information. It is used only for the purpose of helping us understand and better meet our audience's needs.
  • We also subscribe to the WebTrends Live tracking service, which provides us with generic statistics regarding the manner in which our website is visited.

We use Google Analytics and Google Analytics Advertising Features to improve the user experience by collecting statistical information about visitors to the website in the aggregate for the purposes of determining what pages and information is of interest to visitors, which browsers and operating systems our visitors use, what search engines or websites are referring visitors, and whether there are performance or other problems on areas on the website.

We have enabled the following Google Analytics Advertising Features:

  • Remarketing with Google Analytics
  • Google Display Network Impression Reporting
  • Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting

Visitors may also opt-out of the Google Analytics Advertising Features above through Ads Settings, Ads Settings for mobile apps, and any other means (for example, the NAI’s consumer opt-out).

Google Analytics and Google Analytics Advertising Features depend on the use of cookies set by Google. For more information about Google Analytics and Google’s privacy policy, please see the following policies on Google’s website:

Disclosure of Information

Any information collected on this website, whether individual or aggregate, is for Federal Reserve use only. We do not rent, sell or share personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies except to provide information you've requested, when we have your permission, or under the following circumstances:

We retain the services of outside contractors to provide services, including mailing list administration and our Employment Opportunities pages. We require that these contractors keep information obtained through our website secure and confidential. We also require that these contractors use personal information obtained through our website only on behalf of the Federal Reserve.

We may be required to disclose your personal information to government officials or otherwise as required by subpoenas, court orders, legal process or other legal obligations and to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims. We will share information in order to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud or as otherwise required by law.

Social Media Applications and Third Party Tools

We use third party social media websites and mobile applications (“Social Media Applications”) as well as other third-party tools (“Third Party Tools”) to interact with depository institutions, researchers, and the general public. The use of the information you submit to a given Social Media Application is governed by that Social Media Application provider’s applicable policies, e.g. its Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and other relevant policies. We use a Third Party Tool to distribute email communications. The Third Party Tool may collect analytics information at an individual email address level, such as identifying whether an email communication has been opened and what links have been clicked. This information is used only to enable us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and marketing campaigns so that we may improve our communications.

Children

Our Site is not directed toward children under the age of 13, although the Site includes an online learning opportunity which can be played by children of middle school age and above. This game uses sports to illustrate a connection between economics and everyday life but does not collect any personal information about the user except the player must enter a name (either a first name or made-up name) in order to begin play. We are committed to comply with applicable laws and requirements, such as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. Minor children should always obtain parental consent before releasing personal information to any website.

Information Security and Quality

We have implemented security measures consistent with our internal information security practices to help us keep your information secure. These measures include technical and procedural steps to protect your data from misuse, access or disclosure, loss, alteration or destruction. If you have voluntarily submitted personal information to us and wish to review, update, correct or delete it, please e-mail your request to Bos.Webmaster@bos.frb.org

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Bank undertakes to obey all relevant copyright laws, and does not permit infringement of copyright or other intellectual property rights on its websites. The Bank will review all claims of copyright infringement it receives and remove content deemed to have been posted or distributed in violation of law.
The Bank will promptly terminate without notice any registered user's access to its limited access websites if the Bank determines that user to be a "repeat infringer." A repeat infringer is a registered user who has been notified that such user’s activity infringes copyright or other intellectual property rights more than twice or whose user-submitted content has been removed from the Bank's website more than twice. The Bank may also, at its sole discretion, limit access to any limited access sites or terminate registration for any limited access sites of any users who infringe any intellectual property rights of others, whether or not there is any repeat infringement.

(a) If you are a copyright owner or an agent of ay copyright owner and believe that any user content or other content infringes upon your copyrights, you may submit a notice pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") by providing the Bank with the following information in writing (see 17 U.S.C 512(c)(3) for further details):

  • Your physical or electronic signature (or the physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on your behalf);
  • As you claim to have been infringed or, if you claim multiple copyrighted works have been infringed, a representative list of such works on the Bank’s website;
  • A description of the material you claim to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and information reasonably sufficient to permit the Bank to locate the material so that it may be removed or access to it may be disabled;
  • Your contact information, including your address, telephone number, and e-mail;
  • A statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner of which you have complained is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  • A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

(b) If you believe that your user content that was removed or to which access was disabled is not infringing, or that you have the authorization from the copyright owner, the copyright owner's agent, or pursuant to the law, to post and use the content in your user content, you may send a counter-notice containing the following information:

  • Your physical or electronic signature;
  • A description of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled;
  • A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed or access to it was disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material;
  • Your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address;
  • A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the United States district court for the judicial district in which your address is located or, if you are outside the United States, to the jurisdiction of the United States district court for the District of Massachusetts; and
  • A statement that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the Bank with notification of the alleged infringement or that person’s agent.
    If a counter-notice is received by the Bank, the Bank may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that it may replace the removed material or cease disabling access to it in ten (10) business days. Unless the original complaining party files an action seeking a court order against the content provider, member or user, the Bank may replace the removed content or restore access to it in ten (10) to fourteen (14) business days following receipt of the counter-notice.

(c) DMCA notices and counter-notices should be sent to Bos.Webmaster@bos.frb.org

Links

Our Site contains links to other websites. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

Other Considerations

We may, from time to time, provide a discussion group or forum. Please remember that information you submit in connection with such a feature will be publicly viewable and not confidential. There is a risk in such communication venues that information will be collected and used by others.

Policy Changes

We reserve the right to change this policy at any time without notice. If any change to our policy affects the way we use your personal information, we will provide an avenue for you to opt out of such use.

Contact Information

Questions or comments about the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s privacy policy may be directed to our website administrators at Bos.Webmaster@bos.frb.org or by writing to:

Public Information Office
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
600 Atlantic Avenue
Boston, MA 02210