Privacy Statement
MCPHS University d/b/a Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences ("MCPHS") has created this Privacy Statement to inform visitors to our website and subscribers to our email and text messaging services about our privacy practices. The following describes how we collect, use, and share information in connection with this website and our email and text messaging services.
By interacting with this website or subscribing to our email or text messaging services, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Statement and understand that we collect, store, and use information as described in it.
If you are accessing this website from outside the United States, you may have additional rights under local law. Please refer to our International Privacy Notice for more information.
Who are we?
MCPHS is an accredited, not-for-profit institution of higher education that offers a wide range of healthcare programs at our campuses in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, in Manchester, New Hampshire, as well as online. This Privacy Statement applies to our primary public-facing websites and related online services unless a different privacy notice is posted for a particular site or service.
How do we collect information from you?
As described below, some of your personally identifiable information will be used by MCPHS for the purpose of contacting you about information that you have requested. By submitting communications through the website (including, but not limited to, registering or applying for a program or requesting information), by subscribing to our email services, or by subscribing to our text messaging service, you expressly consent to MCPHS’s storage, use, and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Statement, including marketing efforts by MCPHS and by our agents whose job it is to communicate with our students, potential students, alumni, and friends.
Communications to, from, and through this website and to and from us via email or text message are not confidential. No confidential, fiduciary, contractually implied, or other relationship is created between you and MCPHS as a result of your submitting communications through this website, and/or to and from us via email or text message.
What information does MCPHS collect?
We collect personally identifiable information that you voluntarily choose to disclose, and aggregate information that is automatically collected when you visit the website or communicate with us via email or text message.
“Personally identifiable information” refers to information that tells us specifically who you are. It is collected when you choose to request information about MCPHS through our website or communicate with us via email or text message. Examples include your name, address, phone number, current email address, social media tags (such as Facebook or X usernames), programs of interest, and other information you choose to provide. If you choose to correspond with us through email or text message, we may retain your email address and/or phone number and messages, together with our responses.
Your web browser automatically sends us the type of computing device and operating system you are using. We may also collect and maintain the IP (internet protocol) address used by your computing device and other information about your use of our websites, including dates and times you access the myMCPHS portal and associated services, URLs requested, file names sent or received, search strings, and errors generated. We may also collect and store other information to assist us in maintaining or managing our systems, assisting you with a help request, or supporting investigations. Some of this information may be collected through cookies and similar technologies, as described in the “Use of cookies” section below.
We may also share information:
- with departments within MCPHS,
- with individuals and organizations involved in assisting MCPHS in providing services, and
- in response to lawful orders issued by local, state, and/or Federal agencies.
How do we use the personal information that you provide to us?
In general, we use your personal information to contact you regarding educational opportunities and products offered by MCPHS. We may store your information for the purpose of administering our business activities, providing customer service, complying with legal obligations, and making other products and services available to our students, potential students, alumni, and friends. Occasionally, we may (but are not obligated to) use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to the website and new programs we think you will find valuable.
We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, for as long as is set out in any applicable contract you hold with us, or for as long as is otherwise required by law. We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis.
Who has access to your information?
To the extent necessary to deliver and improve services, we may share personal information with others outside MCPHS, such as third-party providers, vendors, and others acting on behalf of MCPHS. When we use third-party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the services, and we enter into agreements that require them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. MCPHS does not sell personal information. MCPHS complies with lawful orders for production of records pursuant to law enforcement investigations and supplies information as may be required by local, state, and Federal agencies. We cannot and do not make any representations about the practices and policies of such third parties, and they are not subject to this Privacy Statement.
Your choices
You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about our programs and events, then you can select your choices by checking the appropriate boxes on the form on which we collect your information or at any time afterward.
We send marketing communications by email, phone, or text message where permitted by law. In many cases this will be based on your direct consent (for example, when you check a box on one of our forms), and in all cases you can opt out of marketing communications at any time. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by mail if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted.
You can change your marketing preferences or opt out of marketing communications at any time by following the instructions in our messages (for example, using the “unsubscribe” link in our emails or replying “STOP” to our text messages where available) or by contacting us as set forth below. Opting out of marketing communications will not affect our ability to contact you about your enrollment, your relationship with MCPHS, or other transactional or service-related matters.
Opt-In/Opt-Out
When visitors to our website submit communications through the website, they have the opportunity to opt in to receiving communications from us at the point where we request information about them. By so opting in, by otherwise communicating with MCPHS via email or text, by subscribing to our email services, or by subscribing to our text messaging service, you consent to MCPHS’s storage, use, and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Statement.
If you later wish to opt out of receiving communications from us, or from having us use your personal information for marketing purposes, you may do so at any time using the methods described in the “Your choices” section above.
If you send us email, we may share your email address and message content with others inside MCPHS, and with persons and organizations outside MCPHS who may be called on to assist in processing your inquiry or serving your needs. MCPHS occasionally sends email communications to parties who have shown interest in receiving communications from us to inform them of news, events, and information that may be relevant to them. If you wish to opt out of receiving emails, please contact us as set forth below.
If you send us email messages, you should be aware that information disclosed in email may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personal or confidential information in email. We will use your email address to respond directly to your questions or comments.
Text Messaging
By opting in to receive text messages from us on your wireless telephone, you consent to receiving text messages at that telephone number, including Short Message Service (SMS) messages. By opting in, you accept and agree to be bound by this Privacy Statement and the MCPHS SMS-specific Terms and Conditions. If you require assistance in opting out of text messages, please contact us as set forth below.
How do we protect your information?
We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect. This software provides protection against unauthorized access or disclosure, as well as accidental loss, alteration, or destruction.
Profiling
We may analyze your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you. We may use additional information about you when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively. We do not make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects solely based on automated processing without human review. In some cases, our advertising and analytics providers may help us understand how users interact with our websites across different devices and over time so that we can measure the effectiveness of our communications and improve how we reach prospective students and other audiences.
Use of “cookies”
MCPHS uses cookies and pixels, or transparent GIF files, and similar technologies to help manage online advertising. GIF files enable ad servers, which store advertising content and deliver it onto digital platforms, to recognize the unique cookies on your Web browser, which in turn enables us to learn which advertisements are most effective in bringing users to our website. Cookies are placed by us, or by companies with whom we work, to manage our advertising.
We may use third-party analytics and advertising providers to help us understand how visitors use our websites and to deliver more relevant advertising, and these providers may set and access their own cookies and similar technologies on your device in connection with these activities. Similarly, retargeting is a form of online targeted advertising by which online advertising is targeted to consumers based on their previous Internet actions. Retargeting tags online users by including a pixel within the target webpage or email, which sets a cookie in the user's browser. Once the cookie is set, the advertiser is able to show display ads to that user elsewhere on the internet via an ad exchange. In any case, with cookies, the information that we collect and share through these technologies does not directly identify you, and we do not use it to learn your name, address, telephone number, email address, or social media tag. However, our advertising and analytics providers may collect or infer information about your interests or interactions with our websites over time and may combine that information from other websites or sources to deliver advertising that is more relevant to you.
Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Additionally, you may choose to opt out of Google advertising here or visit the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) opt-out page. Refusing cookies or opting out of Google advertising will not limit your ability to use this website.
Third-party links
Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include links on our website to third-party sites that have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about sites to which we provide links.
Contacting Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, how we deal with your personal information, or your dealings with this website, you can contact us by email at Help.Desk@mcphs.edu or by phone at 617.732.2170.
Changes to the Privacy Statement
The MCPHS Privacy Statement is subject to change at any time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. We encourage you to regularly review the Privacy Statement for any changes.
Effective Date: February 6, 2026
Download this Privacy Statement [PDF].