Privacy Policy

Welcome to CrimsonZip, a wellness app that facilitates organized fitness activity across the Harvard community. CrimsonZip is offered by President and Fellows of Harvard College (“Harvard,” “we,” “us”), through the Lieberman laboratory in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and Harvard University Health Services.   

This Privacy Statement describes the personal information that CrimsonZip collects about you, and how CrimsonZip uses that information and shares it with third parties. Note that if you enroll in a research study utilizing CrimsonZip, this Privacy Statement does not contain an exhaustive list of the data CrimsonZip collects from you or how that data may be used. Before enrolling in the study, you will be asked to provide separate consent for additional collection and use of your data, and will be provided detailed information on such collection and use at that time. 

WHAT INFORMATION DOES CRIMSONZIP COLLECT ABOUT ME? When you use the CrimsonZip app, CrimsonZip collects the following information about you and your activities:

Information that you provide to CrimsonZip, which includes:

  • Your preferred name.
  • Your preferred email address if different from your Harvard email.
  • Information about your affiliation with Harvard.
  • Types and intensity of physical activities (“Activities”) that interest you.
  • Information about Activities that you create on the app, that you plan to attend, or in which you have engaged, including location, date and time, event type, intensity level, and description.
  • Any other information that you input into the CrimsonZip app (the “App”).

Information CrimsonZip collects from HarvardKey in order to enable you to authenticate into the App, including:

  • Your name.
  • Your Harvard email address.

Information CrimsonZip collects to enable your use of the App after obtaining your consent.  Such information may include:

  • Accelerometer and motion data from your mobile device.
  • Physical activity data from your Apple Health or Google Fit app. 

HOW DOES CRIMSONZIP USE MY INFORMATION? CrimsonZip may use your information to operate the App and provide its features and functionality, which may include, but is not limited to, tracking your physical activity and progress toward fitness goals, connecting you with groups and Activities of interest, and allowing you to enter accountability contracts with advocates.    

If you enable this functionality, CrimsonZip may use your email address to send you notifications and reminders relating to your groups and Activities, or to add events to your calendar. 

CrimsonZip may use accelerometer and motion data from your mobile device, as well as physical activity data from your Apple Health or Google Fit app, to track your level of activity. You can control CrimsonZip’s access to this data using the settings menu on your mobile device. 

CrimsonZip may generate and review aggregated information (for example, at the College House level) regarding App usage and physical activity participation. 

We may also use data from the App in aggregated and anonymized form as control-group data in research studies. 

HOW DOES CRIMSONZIP SHARE MY DATA? CrimsonZip may share your information with other CrimsonZip users in order to operate the App. For example, an owner or manager of a group you join will be able to see information such as your name, Harvard email address, or Activities you plan to join. CrimsonZip may also share information that you choose to provide to other users. For example, an advocate may see your user name, recent physical activity, and physical activity goal, and all users in a group will see the owner’s designated email address along with other information the owner may provide.   

In order to operate the App and make it available to you, CrimsonZip may use third-party vendors to store and serve the App and its data. 

CrimsonZip may also share personally identifiable information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process; in response to a request for cooperation from law enforcement or another government agency; to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding actual or suspected violations of our Terms of Service or this Privacy Statement, illegal activities, fraud, security or technical issues, misuse of the App, or other misconduct, or to enforce our Terms of Service; as otherwise may be required by applicable law; or to protect our rights, property, or safety or those of others.

DATA RETENTION AND DELETION. The length of time for which we retain information depends on the purposes for which we collected and used it, requirements of applicable laws, the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide you with services, the resolution of any pending or threatened disputes, and enforcement of our agreements. Data no longer subject to retention as set forth above may be deleted.

USE OF CERTAIN THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES. CrimsonZip may provide links to other websites or resources submitted by users in connection with Activities they post. These websites and resources are not under the control of CrimsonZip, and we are not responsible for their collection of information about you, or for what they do with information about you that they independently store, outside of your CrimsonZip. We encourage you to review the privacy policies or privacy statements and terms of use of each website and resource you visit or use. 

CHILDREN. CrimsonZip is not intended for children aged 13 or younger, and we do not intentionally collect personally identifiable information about such individuals. If we become aware that we have personally identifiable information of a person under 13 years of age, we will remove this information from our database.

AMENDMENTS AND REVISIONS TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT. We may make changes to this Privacy Statement at any time.  CrimsonZip will post notice of changes to the Privacy Statement on this webpage, and the changes will take effect upon posting.  

Revised <18 Sep 2024>