Welcome to the Office of the State Treasurer & Receiver General’s Small Business Resource Toolkit website. Your privacy is one of our top priorities. The following policy applies only to the use of the Small Business Resource Toolkit website. As you navigate this site, you will see links that, when clicked, will take you to other websites operated by Mass.gov or other state agencies (“Other Commonwealth Websites”) or to other websites external to Massachusetts state government. Other Commonwealth Websites may have individual privacy policies tailored to the interactions available through each site. You may also see links that will take you to websites external to Massachusetts state government. Some of these sites are hosted by a third-party provider. Thus, when visiting these third-party social media sites, you are subject to different privacy policies and terms of service. We strongly suggest that you read the site policies, including the privacy policies, for each Commonwealth website that you visit and any external site that you visit through a link appearing on this website.

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A Privacy Partnership

 

Your privacy with respect to the use of this website results from a partnership between the Office of the State Treasurer and Receiver General ( “Treasury”) and you, the user. On this website, we attempt to protect your privacy to the maximum extent possible. However, because some of the information that we may 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 website may be made available to members of the public under Massachusetts’ Public Records Law. This policy informs you of the information that we may collect from you on this site, what we do with it, to whom it may be disseminated, and how you can access it. Based on this information, you may make an informed decision about your use of this website. Also, you may maximize the benefits of your privacy partnership with the State Treasurer’s Office by making informed decisions about whether to share personally identifiable information with us through this website.

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Personally Identifiable Information

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We use the term “personally identifiable information” to mean any information that could reasonably be used to identify you, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, Social Security number, birth date, bank account information, credit card information, or any combination of information that could be used to identify you.

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Information Voluntarily Provided by You

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No personally identifiable information, such as your name, address, or phone number, is recorded during your visit to this website unless you voluntarily choose to provide such information. This site collects voluntary information from you only through the forms posted at this website and any e-mails you choose to send to the Small Business Resource Toolkit web address. Such forms and e-mails will contain personally identifiable information.​

 

Information Automatically Collected and Stored by this Site

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This site does not collect "persistent cookies,” but does use server side "session cookies" that close when the session ends. This site does collect and store indefinitely your Internet Protocol ("IP") address, (which does not identify you as an individual), as well as information about the date and time of your visit, whether a file you have requested exists, and how many "bytes" of information were transmitted to you over the Web from this site. We use your IP address to assess the frequency of visits to this site and the popularity of its various pages and functions. The only personally identifiable information currently being collected is through our Contact Us form. This information is provided voluntarily by the site visitor. No other personally identifiable information is collected through this site at this time. We will not attempt to match any personally identifiable information that you provide to us with your IP address, unless there are reasonable grounds to believe that doing so would provide information that is relevant and material to a criminal investigation.

 

Links to Social Media Sites

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Certain links on this website (whether integrated with Tools or otherwise) facilitate interaction with third-party social media sites. Accessing third-party social media functions (whether through a Tool or otherwise) may require you to log in to your social media provider, and that social media provider may plant a persistent cookie on your web browser to keep you logged in. Any interaction with any such social media provider (whether through a Tool or otherwise) is subject to such social media provider’s site policies, and such provider may plant one or more additional persistent cookies on your web browser as a result of your interaction with it.

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Online Forms on this Site

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Online forms may be provided by a third-party service Formstack. When you use this service, your form submission is securely made to Formstack and stored there. Form submissions are then transmitted to the Office of the State Treasurer. The Treasury will delete form submissions from Formstack when there is no longer any administrative need to retain them there. Formstack only uses your form submissions for internal purposes and the data is considered private. Formstack will not distribute or sell your information to a third party unless required by law or a valid government request. Formstack may also share information if it is acquired by or merged with another company. Please see the Formstack privacy policy at www.formstack.com/privacy.

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Dissemination of Your Personally Identifiable Information

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We do not sell any personally identifiable information collected through this website or submitted to the Treasury in conjunction with using functions on this site, and there is no direct or online public access to the information. However, once you voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to us related to your use of this website, its dissemination is governed by the “Public Records Law,” the “Fair Information Practices Act” (Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 66A), www.formstack.com/privacy and other applicable laws and regulations. For this reason, part or all of the information you send us may be provided to a member of the public in response to a public records request. There are pieces of information, such as credit card numbers, TIN, username, or password that are not considered public for the purposes of a public records request. For more information on types of data exempted from disclosure under the Public Records Law, please read the Public Records Law, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 4, Section 7(26).

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In addition, the information that you voluntarily submit will be disclosed only to our employees or officials with a “need to know” for purposes of fulfilling their job responsibilities. We retain information that we collect under some of our programs for an indefinite period to help us serve you with notifications of our newer programs and future events. We 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.

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​Links

 

This site contains some links to other sites, which are not owned or controlled by the Office of the State Treasurer and Receiver General of Massachusetts, that we think might be useful or of interest to you for your information and convenience. The Office of the State Treasurer and Receiver General of Massachusetts does not have control over the privacy practices or the content of such other websites. Please review the privacy information provided by these sites and use informed judgment when using them. The responsibility for the content and accuracy of information on sites accessed by linking from our website rests with the entities providing the information. This includes any responsibility for updating information upon which visitors may rely.

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The inclusion of links from this site to other sites does not imply any endorsement by the Office of the State Treasurer and Receiver General of Massachusetts of any product, service or vendor. Any mention of products, services or vendors is for informational purposes only.

 

Security

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Because information sent to the Treasury is not encrypted, you should not send messages containing information that you consider highly sensitive to this website. We use standard security measures to ensure that information provided by you, including your personally identifiable information, is not lost, misused, altered, or unintentionally destroyed. We also use software 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.

 

Disclaimer

 

The materials in this website are provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind either expressed or implied.  The Office of the State Treasurer and Receiver General of Massachusetts and the Small Business Initiative Toolkit website do not warrant the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information published on this website, and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law disclaim any liability for any losses caused by the reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information.

The fact that this Website includes hyperlinks and videos from sources other than the Office of the Massachusetts State Treasurer (“Treasury”) should not be construed to imply that the Treasury is endorsing any business, website, or strategy.

The resources provided on this Website are intended to provide general information only and are not intended as a substitute for legal or individualized financial advice.

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