Privacy Policy
Welcome to the Massachusetts State Lottery web site. Your privacy, and the security of your personal information, is important to us. When you visit this web site, we may collect the following information about your visit:
Anonymous statistics as you browse the site.
Personal information that you knowingly give to us.
This privacy policy applies only to the use of the Massachusetts State Lottery web site. Other web sites operated by state agencies have individual privacy polcies tailored to the interactions available through each site. On the Lottery’s website, you may also see links to external web sites. We strongly suggest that you read the privacy policies for each web site that you visit.
A Privacy Partnership
Your privacy with respect to the use of this web site results from a partnership between the Commonwealth and you, the user. At this website, we attempt to protect your privacy to the maximum extent possible. However, because some of the information that we receive through this website is subject to the Public Records Law, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 66, Section 10, we cannot ensure absolute privacy. Information that you provide to us through this site may be made available to members of the public under that law. This policy informs you of the information that we collect from you at this site, what we do with it, to whom it may be disseminated, and how you can access it. Based on this information, you can make an informed choice about your use of this site and whether to share personally identifiable information with us through this site.
Personally Identifiable Information
We use the term “personally identifiable information” to mean any information that could reasonably be used to identify you, including, but not limited to, your name, address, e-mail address, Social Security number, birth date, bank account information, credit card information, or any combination of other identifying information.
Information Voluntarily Provided by You
This site collects voluntary information, including personally identifiable information, from you through online forms that you choose to complete and through the e-mails that you send through this site.
Information Collected Automatically
This privacy policy describes the Massachusetts State Lottery’s practices regarding information collected from users on the masslottery.com web site and Massachusetts State Lottery mobile applications (collectively, “Services”). This privacy policy also describes the choices you have regarding the use of the information.
As is true with most web sites and applications, some of your information is automatically collected when you use the Services. This may include, but is not limited to, information about how you linked to the Services, the date and time you used the Services, searches you initiated, things you selected/clicked on, your internet protocol address, the geographical location of your internet protocol address or mobile device, pages you visited, your mobile device identifier and hardware, your network carrier, and the type of browser and operating system you used. This information is aggregated and is used to improve the Services.
Sharing of Information
We may share information about you as described in this privacy policy, including:
With our contractors, sub-contractors, affiliates, and other third parties for marketing purposes;
With vendors and other service providers who need access to information in connection with services they perform for us;
In response to a request for information if disclosure is required by, any applicable law, regulation or legal process;
If we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements or policies, or to protect the rights, property and safety of Lottery or others;
With your express consent or at your direction. We may also share aggregated or anonymized information.
Technologies Used
We use technologies such as cookies, web beacons, tags, mobile device identifiers, SDKs and HTML5 storage to customize your browsing experience, perform statistical analyses on Services usage, to better understand how you use the Services, to learn how we can improve the Services, to assist with our marketing/advertising efforts, and to help process transactions.
A cookie is a small text file that is saved on your web browser when you visit a website. You can view and delete existing cookies through your browser. If you choose, you can configure your browser to notify you when a new cookie is received, stop accepting new cookies, or disable cookies altogether.
Web beacons are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, web beacons are embedded invisibly on web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
Mobile device identifiers, or mobile device IDs are a unique identifier which can be used to identify a mobile device. They can usually only be accessed via an app and not from the mobile web.
A mobile software development kit (“SDK”) is the mobile application version of a beacon. The SDK is a bit of computer code that applications can include to enable ads to be shown, data to be collected, and services to be implemented.
In addition to these technologies, we also use device fingerprints and locally shared objects, such as Flash cookies, to store content information and preferences. We may provide certain features on our web site or display advertising based upon your use of the Services and use HTML5 to collect and store information.
PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU DISABLE COOKIES, MOBILE DEVICE IDENTIFIERS, OR GEOLOCATION SERVICES, YOUR ABILITY TO USE SOME AREAS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE SERVICES MAY BE LIMITED.
Advertising and Analytics Services
We may collect data about your web site or application activity to deliver more relevant advertising to you based upon preferences or interests inferred from your browsing activity. This process is known as interest-based advertising, targeted ads, or behavioral advertising.
We use Google Analytics and Google Analytics Advertising Features (collectively “Google Services”) to gather information about how users engage with our Services.
For more information on how Google uses data collected when you use the Services, please visit https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can opt-out of Google’s collection and processing of data generated by your use of the Services by going to the hyperlink to download a currently available opt-outs for browser add-on.
Our web site also uses Facebook Custom Audiences to deliver advertisements to web site visitors on Facebook based upon registration of Lottery accounts that we have collected. To learn more and to view your Facebook ad preferences, click here. Dissemination of Your Personally Identifiable Information
We do not sell any personally identifiable information collected through this website or submitted to the Lottery in conjunction with using functions on the website, and there is no direct or online public access to the information. However, once you voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to us, its dissemination is governed by the Public Records Law, the Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 66A (Fair Information Practices Act), Executive Order 412, and other applicable laws and regulations. In addition, dissemination of information collected through this web site may be made in the course of a law enforcement investigation, or through compulsory legal process. For these reasons, part or all of the information you send us may be disseminated.
In addition, the information that you voluntarily submit will be disclosed only to Commonwealth employees or officials, or those under contract with the Commonwealth, with a “need to know” for purposes of fulfilling their job responsibilities. They will only use the information to answer your questions, respond to any requests for assistance, and fulfill the Commonwealth’s legal obligations. Where appropriate, we may provide the information submitted by you to the person or company that is the subject of your inquiry, or to a government agency responsible for the matters referred to in your communication.
Your Access and Opportunity to Correct
The Public Records Law and the Fair Information Practices Act provide you certain rights to get information about you that is in our records. To learn more about the circumstances under which you can get and correct this information, please click on the above references to these laws.
Security
Because this site does not encrypt incoming e-mail, you should not send information that you consider highly sensitive through this Web site. We use standard security measures to ensure that your personally identifiable information is not lost, misused, altered, or unintentionally destroyed. We also use software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.
Special Protections Against Misuse Of Personally Identifiable Information Within Commonwealth Offices
In 1999 Executive Order 412 was issued, which enhanced the privacy protection given to any information about you as a named individual held by the Executive Department of state government. Executive Order 412 limits the collection and dissemination of personally identifiable information within the Executive Department. This site complies with Executive Order 412, so all of the personally identifiable information that you submit to this site is given the privacy protections set forth in Executive Order 412.
Policy Changes
We will post substantive changes to this policy at least 7 days before they take effect. Any information we collect under the current privacy policy will remain subject to the terms of this policy. After any changes take effect, all new information we collect, if any, will be subject to the new policy.
Contact Information
For questions about your privacy while using this Web site, please contact us at webmaster@masslottery.com.
Definitions
Cookies are files that a Web site can place on your computer. A cookie file contains unique information that a Web site can use to track such things as your password, lists of Web pages you have visited, and the date when you last looked at a specific Web page, or to identify your session at a particular Web site. A cookie file allows the Web site to recognize you as you click through pages on the site and when you later revisit the site. A Web site can use cookies to “remember” your preferences, and to record your browsing behavior on the Web. Although you can prevent Web sites from placing cookies on your computer by using your browser's preference menu, disabling cookies may affect your ability to view or interact with some Web sites.
An “Internet Protocol Address” or“IP Address” is a series of numbers that identifies each computer and machine connected to the Internet. An IP address enables a server on a computer network to send you the file that you have requested on the Internet. The IP address disclosed to us may identify the computer from which you are accessing the Internet, or a server owned by your Internet Service Provider. Because it is machine-specific, rather than person-specific, an IP address is not, in and of itself, personally identifiable information.