Privacy Policy
Last updated October 27, 2026
Introduction
This privacy policy explains what personal information we collect when you visit our website or interact with us, how we use and share it, and the choices you have. “Personal information” means information that identifies, relates to, or could reasonably be linked to you, including identifiers such as cookie IDs and IP addresses.
Please read this policy carefully. By using our website you acknowledge that you have read it; where the law requires your consent for a particular use, such as non-essential cookies, we will ask for it separately.
Information we collect
When you fill out a form on our site, we may ask for your name, email address, mailing address, phone number or other details.
We also collect certain information automatically when you browse our site, such as your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you view, the links you click, and the website that referred you. This information is collected through cookies and similar technologies, which are described in the “Do we use cookies?” section below.
When do we collect information?
We collect information from you when you subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form, browse our site, or enter information on our site.
How do we use your information?
We may use the information we collect from you when you sign up for our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication, browse the website, or use certain other site features in the following ways:
- To follow up with you after correspondence (email or phone inquiries).
- To understand how visitors use our website so that we can improve it.
- To market our programs and events to you, including by showing you ads on other websites and platforms (see the “Do we use cookies?” and “Analytics and advertising partners” sections below).
How do we protect your information?
Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. Information sent between your browser and our website is encrypted using HTTPS.
We implement a variety of security measures when a user enters, submits, or accesses their information to maintain the safety of your personal information.
We will notify affected individuals and relevant authorities of a personal data breach as required by applicable law, without undue delay and within any applicable deadlines.
Do we use ‘cookies’?
Yes. Cookies are small text files that a website or service stores on your browser. We and our service providers also use similar technologies, such as pixels, tags and browser local storage; in this policy we refer to all of these as “cookies” unless we distinguish them below. We use cookies to make the site work, to understand how it is used, to remember your preferences, and to support our marketing.
Types of cookies we use
We group cookies into four categories. You can allow or block each category except Necessary through our cookie banner.
- Necessary cookies. These are required for the website to function and cannot be switched off. They are set in response to actions you take, such as setting your privacy preferences or filling in forms, and they remember the cookie choices you make.
- Analytics cookies. These help us understand how visitors engage with the website by collecting information and reporting site usage statistics. Some analytics cookies also let us recognize returning visitors and connect your activity on the site with forms you submit. Analytics data is not used for advertising unless you also allow advertisement cookies.
- Functionality cookies. These support optional features such as remembering preferences you set and providing embedded content.
- Advertisement cookies. Set by our advertising partners (listed in the “Analytics and advertising partners” section below), these measure how our ads perform, allow us to show you relevant ads on other sites based on your visit here, and limit how often you see the same ad. These partners may combine this information with other information they hold about you.
Your cookie choices
When you first visit our site you will see a cookie banner. If you are visiting from the United States, non-essential cookies are on by default and you can turn off any category except Necessary. If you are visiting from outside the United States, non-essential cookies are off until you accept them, and you can accept or decline by category.
You can change your choices at any time by clicking “Your Privacy Choices” in the footer of any page. Your choice is stored in a cookie so that we can remember it; if you clear your cookies you will be asked again. Necessary cookies remain active, including cookies that remember your choices.
We also honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signals. If your browser sends a GPC signal, we treat it as a decline of all analytics, functionality and advertisement cookies, and as an opt-out of the sharing of your information for targeted advertising. You can learn more about GPC at globalprivacycontrol.org. Because there is no common industry standard for Do Not Track (DNT) signals, we do not respond to them. You can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings, although some features of the site may not work properly if you do.
Third-party disclosure
We disclose personal information to service providers that help us operate our website, manage our programs, or serve our visitors, subject to confidentiality and data protection obligations. We may also disclose information when required by law or when appropriate to enforce our site policies or protect our or others’ rights, property, or safety. Our disclosures to advertising partners are described below.
We do not sell personal information. When you allow advertisement cookies, our advertising partners (listed in the “Analytics and advertising partners” section below) collect information about your visit through their cookies and pixels and may combine it with other information they hold about you. Under some U.S. state privacy laws, this is considered “sharing” personal information for targeted advertising. You can opt out of this sharing at any time; see “Your U.S. state privacy rights” below.
Third-party links
Our website may include links to third-party websites. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.
Analytics and advertising partners
We use third-party services to operate and protect our website, measure how it is used, provide embedded videos, and advertise our programs. The providers whose cookies and similar technologies may be used on our site include the following. The table below describes their purposes and categories. Each provider’s own privacy policy explains how it uses the information it collects.
- Google Analytics (Analytics). Measures how visitors find and use our site. Google privacy policy
- Google Ads (Advertisement). Measures advertising performance and supports showing relevant ads on other websites based on your visits to our site, subject to your cookie choices. Google privacy policy
- Meta Pixel (Advertisement). Measures our ads and may show you our ads on Facebook and Instagram based on your visit. Meta privacy policy
- LinkedIn Insight Tag (Advertisement). Measures our ads, provides aggregate insights about our website visitors, and may show you our ads on LinkedIn based on your visit. LinkedIn privacy policy
- Reddit Pixel (Advertisement). Measures our ads and may show you our ads on Reddit based on your visit. Reddit privacy policy
- HubSpot (Necessary and Analytics). Our marketing and customer relationship platform. HubSpot hosts our forms and cookie banner, and its analytics cookies connect your activity on the site with forms you submit. HubSpot privacy policy
- Cloudflare (Necessary). Helps protect our website and embedded services against malicious traffic and abuse. Cloudflare privacy policy
- YouTube (Google; Functionality, Analytics and Advertisement). Provides videos embedded on some pages. Its player uses cookies and similar technologies for video features, security, measurement and advertising. Google privacy policy
Cookies we use
The table groups related cookies by provider and purpose. It includes the names used by our current services and examples of names that can vary. Not every cookie is set on every visit: this depends on your choices, the features you use, whether you arrive from an advertisement, your browser settings and your interactions with the provider. A name ending in * represents variants with different identifiers.
Lifetimes describe storage on your device, not how long a provider keeps all information it collects. Cookies may be renewed when you return or interact with a service, and browsers may shorten their lifetime. Provider documentation is linked below for further details.
| Provider and cookies | Category | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
HubSpot privacy choices: __hs_cookie_cat_pref, __hs_gpc_banner_dismiss |
Necessary | Remembers the categories you accept or decline. The GPC cookie may be set when you dismiss a Global Privacy Control notice. | 180 days (about 6 months) |
Cloudflare security: __cf_bm, _cfuvid, cf_clearance |
Necessary | Protects this website and embedded services. These cookies help detect bots, distinguish visitors sharing an IP address for rate limiting, and remember security verification results. | __cf_bm: 30 minutes; _cfuvid: session; cf_clearance: up to 1 year in our current configuration |
HubSpot analytics: __hstc, hubspotutk, __hssc, __hssrc |
Analytics | Recognizes visitors and sessions, measures site use, and helps connect visits with forms you submit. | __hstc and hubspotutk: 180 days; __hssc: 30 minutes; __hssrc: session |
Google Analytics: _ga, _ga_* (including _ga_JWBE4CM4L9) |
Analytics | Distinguishes visitors and maintains session information to measure website use. | Up to 2 years by default, subject to browser limits; Chrome may limit storage to 400 days |
Google Ads attribution: _gcl_au |
Advertisement | Supports advertising and conversion measurement. | 90 days |
Google advertising: IDE (DoubleClick) |
Advertisement | Supports advertising delivery, personalization and measurement. | 13 months in the EEA, Switzerland and UK; 24 months elsewhere, subject to browser limits |
Google cookie-support check: test_cookie (DoubleClick) |
Advertisement | Checks whether the browser supports cookies for Google’s advertising services. | 15 minutes |
Meta advertising: _fbp, fr, _fbc |
Advertisement | Supports advertising delivery and measurement on Facebook and Instagram. _fbc stores an ad-click identifier and may be set when you arrive through a Meta advertising link. |
90 days |
LinkedIn advertising: li_fat_id, lms_ads, lms_analytics, UserMatchHistory, AnalyticsSyncHistory, li_sugr |
Advertisement | Supports advertising delivery and measurement on LinkedIn, including recognizing LinkedIn members and synchronizing advertising identifiers. li_fat_id stores an ad-click identifier and may be set when you arrive through a LinkedIn advertising link. |
li_sugr: 90 days; the other listed cookies: 30 days |
LinkedIn security, routing and consent: bcookie, lidc, li_gc, li_mc |
Advertisement | Used by LinkedIn’s services to identify the browser for security, route requests to LinkedIn’s data centers and remember LinkedIn cookie-consent choices. | bcookie: 1 year; li_gc and li_mc: 6 months; lidc: 24 hours |
Reddit advertising: _rdt_uuid, _rdt_cid |
Advertisement | Supports advertising delivery and measurement on Reddit. _rdt_cid stores an ad-click identifier and may be set when you arrive through a Reddit advertising link. |
90 days |
YouTube embedded videos: YSC, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, __Secure-YNID, __Secure-ROLLOUT_TOKEN, VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA |
Functionality, Analytics and Advertisement | Used collectively by the YouTube player for video features, security, feature rollout, measurement and advertising. The purposes vary between cookies and player configurations. | YSC: session; the other listed cookies: up to 180 days |
YouTube cookies relate to optional embedded video content; they are not classified as necessary for the rest of this website. If you follow a link to watch a video on YouTube, Google’s own privacy and cookie settings apply on that website.
We also use browser local storage, which is stored on your device differently from a cookie:
| Provider and storage item | Category | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|
Google Ads: _gcl_ls |
Advertisement | Stores advertising click information to support attribution and conversion measurement. | Persistent local storage; unlike cookies, it has no automatic browser-enforced expiry. It remains until removed by the service, your browser or you. |
Further information is available in HubSpot’s cookie documentation, Cloudflare’s cookie documentation, Google’s cookie policy, Meta’s cookie policy, LinkedIn’s cookie policy and Reddit’s cookie notice.
How long we keep your information
We keep personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, to comply with our legal obligations, or to resolve disputes, and then delete or anonymize it. Cookie lifetimes are listed in the “Cookies we use” table above.
Changes to this policy and your information
We may update this policy from time to time. We will post any changes on this page and update the “Last updated” date at the top.
You can update or correct your personal information by emailing us at info@twc.edu.
Your U.S. state privacy rights
Several U.S. states have privacy laws that give their residents the right to opt out of the “sale” of their personal information and of its “sharing” or use for targeted advertising, the right to know what personal information an organization holds about them and to correct or delete it, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. Many of these laws do not apply to nonprofit organizations like ours. We honor the opt-out described below for all visitors regardless, and we will respond to other requests to the extent these laws apply to us.
We do not sell personal information. We do share the following categories of personal information with our advertising partners (listed in the “Analytics and advertising partners” section above) for targeted advertising: identifiers, such as cookie IDs and your IP address, and internet activity, such as the pages you visit on our site. To opt out, click “Your Privacy Choices” in the footer of any page and turn off Advertisement cookies, or enable the Global Privacy Control signal in your browser. Your opt-out applies to the browser and device you are using.
To exercise your other rights or ask a question about this section, contact us at info@twc.edu or 202-238-7900. We will verify your request before acting on it and may ask for information to confirm your identity.
Visitors outside the United States
If you visit our site from outside the United States, we set analytics, functionality and advertisement cookies only if you consent through our cookie banner. You can withdraw your consent at any time by clicking “Your Privacy Choices” in the footer and changing your choices; withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing that took place before you withdrew it. Our legal basis for these cookies is your consent. Our legal basis for necessary cookies is our legitimate interest in operating a secure, working website.
Information collected through our site is transferred to and processed in the United States. Our service providers listed above rely on recognized transfer mechanisms, such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses, where applicable.
You may also have the right to access, correct or delete your personal information, to object to or restrict its processing, and to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. Contact us at info@twc.edu to exercise these rights.
COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act)
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13, and we do not specifically market to children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us at info@twc.edu and we will delete it.
Email communications
We use your email address to respond to your inquiries and, if you have signed up, to send you information about our programs, events and services. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of each email or by emailing info@twc.edu, and we will promptly remove you from our marketing emails.
Contacting us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us using the information below.
The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars
1005 3rd Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
United States
info@twc.edu
202-238-7900