The NECC Observer is committed to the privacy and security of its users. Information collected will not be disclosed to third parties including email for comment submission and user data collected by our analytic system.

User data includes general location (city) of the user, the device used to view the site, what operating system is used, what browser is used, screen resolution, number of pages viewed in any given time period, how much time spent on a page, what page referred the user to the site and what search terms were used.

Information is collected to provide demographic information to the site administration and editors, and for educational purposes to teach journalism students, specifically those who work for the NECC Observer, about how demographics and analytics work. Information collected will only be used for analysis and to no other purpose and cannot be accessed by anyone besides senior administrators and webmasters to the site. This site uses the google analytics plug-in.

Cookies are used to report how much time is spent on the site and what pages are visited. Information collected by cookies are for analysis purposes only and will not be disclosed to third party user.

Posting policy:

1. comments: comments posted will require a valid NECC email address, which will be stored in our system for future reference. Email will not be disclosed to third parties. The NECC Observer reserves the right to remove any comments for any reason. A specific comment policy will be developed and updated as necessary, but for now vulgar or violent content and hate speech will be removed, as well as irrelevant or derailing comments.
   NOTE: While freedom of speech is protected in the United States, the NECC Observer is not obligated to provide the platform for any particular message. If you find that your message is unwelcome here, you may pursue your constitutional right to free speech by buying and maintaining your own website.
2. submissions: submissions such as opinions pieces, letters to the editor and correspondent articles will be checked by at minimum one editor on staff before publication, and the writer’s first and last name will be published on the website, unless the changes made are so radical that the piece can no longer reasonably be attributed to the submitter. Accepted submissions will be posted by an editor on staff. The NECC Observer reserves the right to edit or shorten any submissions for any reason, generally for clarity and style.

Any changes in the privacy policy will be indicated by a public posting on the Observer website. Contact us with questions at observer@necc.mass.edu