Last updated: October 14, 2026

This policy explains what personal information The Cornell Real Estate Council (“CREC,” “we,” “us”) collects through cornellrec.org, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

Information you give us

  • Membership and profile. When you register or join, we collect your name, email address and the profile details you choose to add, such as your employer, title, professional interests, Cornell affiliation, location and photo.
  • Social sign-in. If you sign in with LinkedIn or Facebook, we receive the basic profile information that service shares with your permission, such as your name, email address and profile photo.
  • Purchases and event registration. When you buy a membership or an event ticket, we collect your name, email, billing address, phone number and attendee details. Card payments are handled by Stripe; we do not receive or store your full card number.
  • Newsletter. If you subscribe, we collect your email address and name.
  • Job board and files. If you post a job or upload a file to your account, we store what you submit.
  • Messages. If you contact us, we keep the message and your contact details so we can respond.

Information collected automatically

  • Essential cookies. These keep you signed in, hold your cart and checkout, remember your cookie choices and protect forms from spam. The site cannot work without them.
  • Analytics, only with your consent. If you click Accept on our cookie banner, we use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used (for example, which pages are visited). We have turned off Google Signals and ad personalization, so this data is not used for advertising. If you decline, Google Analytics does not load.
  • Member activity. When you are signed in, we record when you last visited, how many sessions you have had, your browser and device type, and your approximate location (city, region and country) estimated from your IP address. We use this to understand member engagement.
  • Email engagement. Our newsletters record whether an email was opened and which links were clicked. Clicking a link in one of our emails may set a cookie that connects your visit to that email.
  • Security and server logs. Like most websites, our hosting and security services (including Cloudflare) record IP addresses, browser information and the pages requested, to keep the site running and protect it from abuse.

Cookies and your choices

When you first visit, a banner lets you Accept, Decline or open Cookie Settings. Until you accept, only essential cookies are used. You can change your choice at any time with the cookie button in the bottom-left corner of the page. If your browser sends a Do Not Track signal, we treat it as declining analytics.

Some pages include content from other services: YouTube videos (embedded in YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode), Google Maps on event pages, Google Fonts and Google reCAPTCHA, which protects our forms from spam. These services may receive your IP address when that content loads. Fonts are loaded only after you accept cookies.

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Some features, such as signing in and checking out, will not work without essential cookies.

How we use your information

  • To run your membership, process purchases and manage event registration and check-in.
  • To operate the member directory and help members connect with one another.
  • To send emails about your membership, purchases and events, and newsletters if you subscribed.
  • To understand how the site is used and improve it.
  • To keep the site secure, prevent fraud and meet legal and accounting obligations.

The member directory

Your member profile is visible only to other signed-in members, not to the public. You can limit who sees your profile from the Privacy tab in your account, or contact us and we will hide it for you.

Who we share information with

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising. We do not use advertising pixels from Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok or similar networks. We share information only as follows:

  • Service providers that run the site for us and may only use the information to provide their service: website hosting (DigitalOcean), security and content delivery (Cloudflare), payments (Stripe), email delivery (MailPoet and Mailgun), our email inbox (Zoho), website backups (Dropbox), analytics with your consent, and Google services (reCAPTCHA, Maps, YouTube and Fonts).
  • LinkedIn or Facebook, only if you choose to sign in with them.
  • Other members, through the member directory as described above.
  • When required by law, or to protect the rights, property or safety of CREC, our members or others.

How long we keep information

We keep account and profile information while your account is active. We keep purchase records as long as needed for accounting and tax purposes. Website backups are kept for a limited period and then overwritten. When you ask us to delete your account, we delete or anonymize your information unless we must keep it for legal or accounting reasons.

How we protect information

The site uses encrypted connections (HTTPS), access to our systems is limited to the people who need it, and the site is scanned regularly for security issues. No website can be guaranteed completely secure, but we work to protect your information and will notify affected people of a data breach as required by law.

Your choices and rights

  • Update your information at any time from your account page.
  • Unsubscribe from newsletters using the link at the bottom of any email. We will still send messages about purchases and events you register for.
  • Request a copy, correction or deletion of your personal information by emailing us at the address below.
  • California residents: we do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under California law. You may contact us to exercise any rights you have under California law, and we will not discriminate against you for doing so.

Children

This site is intended for adults and university students. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Links to other websites

Our site links to other websites, including sponsors, partners and event venues. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies, not this one.

Changes to this policy

We will post any changes on this page and update the date at the top.

Contact us

Questions or requests about this policy:
The Cornell Real Estate Council
140 East 45th Street, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10017
info@cornellrec.org