Last Updated: September 16, 2026
Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how Berklee College of Music, a 501(c)(3) corporation (referred to herein as “Berklee”, “we”, “our”, or “us”), collects, uses, discloses, and stores personal information when we provide our services to you through the Berklee Connect platform (https://alumni.berklee.edu/) (the “Platform”) and through our interactions with individuals by email, telephone, or other means (collectively with the Platform, the “Services”).
Berklee is the data controller of the personal information of United States (“U.S.”), United Kingdom (“UK”), and European Economic Area (“EEA”) residents accessing and using our Services. In specific instances where we receive your personal information from third parties, or where we are instructed to collect and process your personal information for purposes not defined by Berklee, we may act also as a data processor, following the directives of such third parties and applicable laws.
Residents in the EEA, Switzerland, and UK should refer to the “Privacy Rights” well as the “Jurisdiction-Specific Notices” sections below for additional information that may be applicable to them.
Our Privacy Policy explains: (1) what information we collect; (2) why we collect it; (3) how we use that information; (4) how we may share it; and (5) the rights you may have.
Specifically, our Privacy Policy covers the following topics:
Please familiarize yourself with our privacy practices and let us know if you have any questions. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Services.
If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please submit a request to privacy@berklee.edu.
1. Personal Information We Collect
We collect information, including personal information, to provide better Services to you. We use the term “personal information” to refer to any information that identifies or can be used to identify you. Common examples of personal information include: name, demographic data, email address, digital identifier, such as your IP address, information about your device, and certain metadata.
We collect personal information from the following sources: directly from you, automatically when you use our Services, and through our partners and other third parties. The personal information which we collect includes, but is not limited to, the following circumstances and data elements:
Generally.
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If you request customer support, request more information, use our “Contact Us” feature or similar features on the Platform, or download certain content, we may require that you provide to us your contact information, such as your name, phone number, and email address;
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If you report a problem or have a question about our Platform, you may provide us with contact information, such as a phone number or email address; and
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If you communicate with our team (such as via email or phone), we may collect information about you and any other information that you provide.
If you provide us with any personal information relating to other individuals, you represent that you have the authority to do so and acknowledge that it will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy; if you believe that your personal information has been provided to us improperly, or to otherwise exercise your rights relating to your personal information, please contact us by using the information set out in the “Contact Us” section below.
Berklee Connect Account. When you register for or create a Berklee Connect account online, we collect the information you provide, such as your first and last name, email address, and password. For alumni and students, your account may already be populated with your directory information, such as graduation year, program, and campus, along with certain personal information collected during enrollment, if you haven’t opted-out of sharing directory information. You may also volunteer to provide additional information that may be considered “sensitive personal information” under applicable law, such as, preferred pronouns, gender and race/ethnicity and location information. We use this information to create your account, to provide, customize, and improve our Services offerings to you, to market our Services, and to communicate with you.
If upon registration, through our verification process, we are unable to find a match for you in our database, you will be prompted to provide additional information, including your name at the time of enrollment, program, campus, graduation year, and the email address used for registration, which you must submit for manual verification by Berklee.
Email Subscriptions and Messages. When you subscribe to receive our email newsletter, we collect your name, email address, and any related details you submit through the Platform. We use that information to send you email messages with marketing information, news about new Berklee Connect products and services, alumni events, and other updates relevant to our Services.
Professional and Academic Information. Your professional and academic information may be collected and maintained directly through the Platform, including, your degree(s) (including degrees and credentials received from institutions other than Berklee), academic records, and the name of your current or previous employer(s).
Automated Data Collection: Cookies & Similar Technologies. We and our partners use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit our Platform or open one of our emails, and this may include using cookies or similar technologies to identify your browser or device. These similar technologies include web beacons and web server logs. We also use these technologies to collect and store information when you interact with services from our partners, such as advertising services.
We may use such technologies to collect personal identifiers (such as your IP address), information about your device (such as your browser characteristics, device IDs and characteristics, and operating system version) and information concerning your usage of our Platform (including the link you used to reach a given webpage) and interactions with our emails. We use this information to determine how many users have visited particular webpages, viewed particular videos, or opened messages or alerts, and we may also use such information for other purposes described in this Privacy Policy. This helps us establish, maintain, and manage our relationship with you, and also helps us to optimize and provide the Platform for your use and benefit, to improve our marketing activities, and to enforce our Platform’s service terms and] prevent malicious conduct.
In some cases, our third-party partners may process information collected by cookies and similar technologies that we permit them to use on the Platform. With respect to any social media pages that we may use, please see the privacy policies and any cookie policies of the applicable social media providers as to their automated data collection practices.
As indicated above, we, like many other website operators, currently use Google Analytics to collect and process certain Platform usage data. To learn more about Google Analytics and how to opt out, please visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
You may be able to change a web browser’s settings to block and delete cookies when you access the Platform through that web browser. However, if you do that, the Platform may not work properly; also, we will still receive basic information (such as last URL visited) when you navigate to the Platform. Berklee does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals or similar signals, unless required by applicable law.
2. How We Use Personal Information We Collect
We use personal information for our internal and Services-related purposes, and in order to provide, improve, and enhance the Services we offer. We also use your personal information in ways that are compatible with the purposes for which it was collected or authorized by you, including for the following purposes:
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To present, operate, or improve the Services, including analysis of Platform activity;
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To inform you about the programs and events available from Berklee;
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To authorize access to our Platform and your Berklee Connect account;
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To personalize your experience and to deliver content and opportunities that most interest you;
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To respond to your questions, comments, and requests and to provide support to you;
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To comply with all applicable legal requirements; and
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To investigate possible fraud or other violations of this Privacy Policy and/or attempts to harm you.
Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about changes to this Privacy Policy.
3. Our Disclosures of Personal Information
We may share any of the categories of personal information listed above for our operations and Services as described below.
Service Providers and Vendors. We may share personal information with trusted vendors, consultants, and other service providers who perform services for us in connection with the Services and our other operations, including but not limited to, hosting or promoting events, supporting our fundraising efforts, conducting mail or email marketing campaigns, or carrying out similar activities on our behalf. When we disclose personal information for these reasons, we endeavor to enter into a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except for the purposes set forth in the contract.
Partners and Marketing Providers. We may disclose your personal information to our partners and marketing and analytics providers, including social media networks. These partners and providers help us market our products and provide you with offers that may be of interest to you.
Legal and Similar Purposes. We may disclose your personal information for legal reasons. Specifically, we will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Berklee if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:
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meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request;
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enforce our Platform’s service terms, including investigation of potential violations;
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detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; or
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protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of Berklee, you, or the public as required or permitted by law.
We will attempt to notify you about legal demands for your personal information when appropriate in our judgment, unless prohibited by law or court order or when the request is an emergency. We may dispute such demands when we believe, in our discretion, that the requests are overbroad, vague or lack proper authority, but we do not promise to challenge every demand.
Organizational Transactions. We may disclose your personal information in the event of an actual or proposed consolidation, affiliation, reorganization, restructuring, dissolution, transfer or all or a portion of our operations, programs or assets. If we establish a new related entity, are reorganized by or merged with another organization, or if substantially all of our assets are transferred to another organization, personal information about our users is often a transferred business asset.
4. When You Choose Not to Provide Personal Information
Your provision of personal information is required in order to access certain parts of our Services, including your Berklee Connect account. If you choose not to provide such personal information, you may not be able to use our Services.
5. Our Retention of Your Personal Information
We determine the appropriate retention period for personal information on the basis of the amount, nature and sensitivity of your personal information processed, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information and whether we can achieve the purposes of the processing through other means, as well as on the basis of applicable legal requirements (such as applicable statutes of limitation).
After expiry of the applicable retention periods, your personal information will be deleted. If there is any data that we are unable, for technical reasons, to delete entirely from our systems, we will put in place appropriate measures to prevent any further use of such data.
6. Privacy Rights
Certain jurisdictions have specific legal requirements and grant privacy rights with respect to personal information, and we will comply with restrictions and any requests you submit as required by applicable law. For example, you may have the right to review, correct, and delete personal information we have about you, or to consent or withdraw consent to certain uses or sharing of personal information. You may also have the right to not be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights. If you seek to exercise your rights under the law of a certain jurisdiction, please contact us by using the contact information in the “Contact Us” section below.
Please note that, when you make a request, we may require that you provide information and follow procedures so that we can verify your identity (and the applicable jurisdiction). The verification steps we take may differ depending on your jurisdiction and the request. Where possible, we will attempt to match the information that you provide in your request to information we already have on file to verify your identity. If we are able to verify your request, we will process it. If we cannot verify your request, we may ask you for additional information to help us do so.
We will respond to your request within the time period required by applicable law. However, we may not always be able or required to comply with your request, in whole or in part, and we will notify you in that event.
Please note, we do not rent, sell, or share “personal information” as defined by California Civil Code §1798.83 about you that we collect through the Services with unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes.
7. Jurisdiction-Specific Notices
EEA, Switzerland, and UK Residents.
The following information is provided to EEA residents to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), and corresponding legislation in the UK and Switzerland, which provide EEA, UK, and Swiss residents with certain rights in connection with the personal information you have shared with us. If you are resident in the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK, you have the following rights:
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The right to be informed. You are entitled to be informed of the use of your personal information. This Privacy Policy provides such information to you.
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The right of access. You have the right to access your personal information (commonly known as a “subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
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The right of correction. You have the right to request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
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The right of erasure. You have the right to request erasure of your personal information in certain circumstances. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is not a good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal information to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
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The right to object. You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) as the legal basis for that particular use of your data (including carrying out profiling based on our legitimate interests). In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your right to object. You also have the absolute right to object any time to the processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
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The right to data portability. You have the right to request the transfer of your personal information to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal information in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you. We do not use personal information to make automated decisions about you in any situations where you may have a legal right to opt out.
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The right to restrict processing. You have the right to restrict the processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal information in one of the following scenarios:
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If you want us to establish the information’s accuracy;
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Where our use of the information is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
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Where you need us to hold the information even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
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You have objected to our use of your information but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
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The right to file a complaint with a supervisory authority. You also have the right to file a complaint by contacting your local supervisory authority for data protection. Contact details for EU data protection authorities are available at https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/items/612080. If you are based in the UK, you can make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk).
To exercise your rights, please submit your request to dpo@berklee.edu or by using the contact information provided in the “Contact Us” section below and we will consider your request in accordance with applicable law. For your protection, we may need to verify your identity before responding to your request, such as verifying that the email address from which you send the request matches your email address that we have on file. If we no longer need to process personal information about you in order to provide our Services, we will not maintain, acquire, or process additional information in order to identify you for the purpose of responding to your request. In some cases, our ability to uphold these rights for you may depend upon our obligations to process personal information for security, safety, fraud prevention reasons, compliance with regulatory or legal requirements, or because processing is necessary to deliver the services you have requested. Where this is the case, we will inform you of specific details in response to your request. We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 30 days of its receipt consistent with applicable law. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded and we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. We may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.
8. Our Legal Basis for Collecting and Processing Personal Information
Berklee is an institute of higher education involved in education and community development. In order for Berklee to provide the Services, it is essential, necessary, and Berklee has lawful bases to collect, process, use, and maintain data of its students, employees, alumni, and others involved in its educational and community programs. Berklee collects a variety of personal and sensitive data. Whenever we collect personal information from you, we may do so on the following legal bases:
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Your consent to such collection and use;
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Out of necessity for the performance of an agreement between us and you, such as your agreement to use our Services or your request for Services;
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Our legitimate business interest, including but not limited to the following circumstances where collecting or using personal information is necessary:
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To provide education, employment, development, and community programs;
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To perform Services requested by you;
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Intra-organization transfers for administrative purposes;
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Development and enhancement of the Services, where the processing enables Berklee to enhance, modify, personalize, or otherwise improve our Services and communications for the benefit of our users, and to better understand how people interact with our Platform;
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Communications and marketing, including processing data for direct marketing purposes, and to determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and advertising;
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Fraud detection and prevention;
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Enhancement of our cybersecurity, including improving the security of our network and information systems; and
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General business operations and diligence;
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Provided that, in each circumstance, we will weigh the necessity of our processing for the purpose against your privacy and confidentiality interests, including considering your reasonable expectations, the impact of processing, and any safeguards which are or could be put in place. In all circumstances, we will limit such processing for our legitimate business interest to what is necessary for its purposes.
9. Our Email and Text Message Opt-Out Policy
By providing an email address through the Services, you agree that we may contact you in the event of a change in this Privacy Policy, to provide you with any Service-related notices, or to provide you with marketing information about our Services.
We currently provide the following opt-out opportunities:
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At any time, you can follow a link provided in marketing email messages (i.e., messages that are not service notices or other informational emails) received from us to unsubscribe.
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At any time, you can text “Stop” to opt out of receiving text and SMS messages.
Notwithstanding anything else in this Privacy Policy, please note that we always reserve the right to contact you in the event of a change in this Privacy Policy, or to email you any Service-related notices.
10. Third-Party Links
The Platform may contain links to webpages operated by parties other than Berklee. We do not control such websites and are not responsible for their contents or the privacy policies or other practices of such websites. Our inclusion of links to such websites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or any association with their operators. This Privacy Policy only applies to our Platform.
11. How We Protect Personal Information
Berklee maintains reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information and other information against accidental, unlawful, or unauthorized destruction, loss, alteration, access, disclosure, or use. Information you send by email is not secure, so please avoid including personal information in any email you send us. No method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information.
12. International Data Transfers
We may, directly or indirectly through third-party entities around the world, process, store, and transfer the information you provide, including your personal information, as described in this Privacy Policy. Specifically, the personal information that we collect may be transferred to, and stored at, a location outside of your jurisdiction. It may also be processed by staff operating outside of your jurisdiction who work for us in connection with the activities outlined in this Privacy Policy. By submitting your information through the Services, you agree to this transfer, storing, or processing. We will take all steps necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We have put in place commercially reasonable technical and organizational procedures to safeguard the information and personal information we collect through the Services. If we transfer your personal information out of your jurisdiction, we will implement suitable safeguards and rely on legally-provided mechanisms to lawfully transfer data across borders to ensure that your personal information is protected.
13. No Use By Children
The Services are not intended for use by children. In particular, if you are under the age of 16, you may not use our Services. We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use personal information from children under 16 years old. If we believe that any information has been posted by a child under the age of 16, we will promptly delete that information. Parents may contact us using the methods set forth below to request that information concerning their child be removed from our records.
14. Changes to this Privacy Policy
Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are material, we will provide a more prominent notice for a reasonable time period (including, for certain Services, email notification of Privacy Policy changes). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.
15. Contact Us
If you have any specific questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us via email or by writing to us at the address below:
Send an e-mail to: privacy@berklee.edu
Send mail to our address:
Berklee College of Music, Inc.
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
United States of America
Data Protection Officers.
Berklee has appointed Data Protection Officers (DPOs) to oversee compliance with applicable data protection and privacy laws, including the GDPR.
United States (Berklee College of Music)
For questions or concerns regarding the processing of your personal information by Berklee College of Music in the United States, or to exercise your privacy rights, please contact:
- Data Protection Officer: dpo@berklee.edu
European Union (Berklee Valencia)
For questions or concerns regarding the processing of personal information by Berklee Valencia, or to exercise your rights under the GDPR, please contact:
- Data Protection Officer – Berklee Valencia: dpo_valencia@berklee.edu
You may also contact us by post:
Berklee Valencia
Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía
Av. del Professor López Piñero, 1
46013 Valencia, Spain