Privacy Policy

Springfield Housing Authority is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy (hereinafter “Statement”) applies to the Springfield Housing Authority website, available at www.shamass.org, (hereinafter the “Site”) and governs data collection and usage. By using the Site you consent to the data practices described in this Statement.

Your E-Mail

Springfield Housing Authority welcomes your comments or questions about our Site and has provided email boxes for that purpose. We will share your comments and questions with our employees most capable of addressing your questions and concerns. Please note that your e-mail, like most, if not all, non-encrypted Internet e-mail communications, may be accessed and viewed by other Internet users, without your knowledge and permission, while in transit to us. For that reason, to protect your privacy, please do not use email to communicate information to us that you consider confidential. If you wish, you may contact us instead via non-cellular telephone at the numbers provided below, or throughout the Site.

Collection of your Personal Information 

Springfield Housing Authority collects personally identifiable information, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number. Springfield Housing Authority also collects anonymous demographic information, which is not unique, such as your ZIP codes, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by Springfield Housing Authority. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by Springfield Housing Authority for the operation of the Site, to maintain quality of the Site, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Site.

Springfield Housing Authority encourages you to review the privacy statements of websites you choose to link to from Springfield Housing Authority so that you can understand how those websites collect, use and share your information. Springfield Housing Authority is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on websites outside of the Springfield Housing Authority and Springfield Housing Authority family of websites and webpages.

Use of Cookies 

The Site uses “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize Springfield Housing Authority pages, or register with the Site or services, a cookie helps Springfield Housing Authority recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the Site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the Springfield Housing Authority features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the Site during your visit.

Use of Your Personal Information

Springfield Housing Authority collects and uses your personal information to operate the Site and deliver the services you have requested. Springfield Housing Authority also uses your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from Springfield Housing Authority and its affiliates. Springfield Housing Authority may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.

Springfield Housing Authority does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. Springfield Housing Authority may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to a third party. In addition, Springfield Housing Authority may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to Springfield Housing Authority, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

Springfield Housing Authority does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

The Springfield Housing Authority will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Springfield Housing Authority; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Springfield Housing Authority, or the public.

It should be noted however that once you voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to us related to your use of this Site or related webpages, its dissemination is governed by the “Public Records Law, “ Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 66, Section 10, the “Fair Information Practices Act”, Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 66A, and other applicable laws and regulations. The Records Retention Law requires the Springfield Housing Authority to preserve records created or received by a housing authority employee. Pursuant to this retention requirement, emails or messages sent to a Springfield Housing Authority e-mail account and information submitted via the Site or related webpages and comments posted or messages received via an official Springfield Housing Authority page on a third-party website (such as an official Springfield Housing Authority profile on a social network) could be treated as public records and may be permanently archived. Any voluntarily submitted information may also be provided to a member of the public in response to a public records request. The information you voluntarily submit through emails will be disclosed only to Springfield Housing Authority employees or officials with a “need to know” for purposes of fulfilling their job responsibilities. They will only use information to answer your questions, respond to any requests for assistance, and fulfill any legal obligation. Where appropriate, we may provide the information submitted by you via e-mail to the person or company that is the subject of the inquiry, or to a government agency responsible for the matters presented in your communication.

Springfield Housing Authority keeps track of the websites and pages our customers visit within the Springfield Housing Authority, in order to determine what Springfield Housing Authority services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customized content and advertising within Springfield Housing Authority to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

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 above the circumstance under which you can get and correct this information, please reference the legal citations above.

Security of Your Personal Information

Springfield Housing Authority secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Springfield Housing Authority secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other websites, it is protected through the use of encryption, as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Links to Other Sites

The Site has links to many other websites. When you go to another site, you are subject to the privacy and security policies of that site. Springfield Housing Authority cannot attest to the accuracy of the information provided therein.

Linking to a website does not constitute an endorsement by Springfield Housing Authority, or any of its employees, of the sponsors of the site or the products presented on the site.

Changes to This Statement

Springfield Housing Authority will occasionally update this Statement to reflect agency and customer feedback. Springfield Housing Authority encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how Springfield Housing Authority is protecting your information.

Contact Information

Springfield Housing Authority welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that Springfield Housing Authority has not adhered to this Statement, please contact Springfield Housing Authority at:

Springfield Housing Authority
25 Saab Court
P.O. Box 1609
Springfield, MA 01101

Telephone Number: (413) 785-4500

We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.