Terms and Conditions

The Hamilton Project values our visitors' private information and understands the need for security and trust surrounding such information.

Terms of use

Welcome to The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution’s website (the “site”). The Brookings Institution (“Brookings,” “we” or “us”) provides services to you subject to the following conditions (the “Terms and Conditions”). If you visit this site, you accept these conditions. Please read them carefully. This is a legal agreement between you and Brookings, and if you do not agree, you are not permitted to use or otherwise access the site. 

Privacy

Please review our Privacy Policy, below, which also governs your visit to this site, to understand our practices and requirements.

Electronic Communications

When you visit this site and send emails to us, you are communicating with us electronically and thus consent to receive communications from us electronically. We will communicate with you by email or by posting notices on this site. You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

Copyright and Proprietary Rights

All content included on this site, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, digital downloads, data compilations, and software, is the property of Brookings or its content suppliers and protected by all applicable proprietary rights laws. Copyright 2023 – 2024 © The Brookings Institution and/or its licensors. All rights reserved. The compilation of all content on this site is the exclusive property of Brookings and protected by all applicable proprietary rights laws. All software used on this site is the property of Brookings or its software suppliers and protected by all applicable proprietary rights laws.

Trademarks

THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION, and other marks indicated on our site are registered trademarks of Brookings worldwide. Brookings’ trademarks and trade dress may not be used in connection with any product or service without Brookings’ prior written approval, including in any manner that is likely to cause confusion, or in any manner that disparages or discredits Brookings. All other trademarks not owned by Brookings that appear on this site are the property of their respective owners, who may or may not be affiliated with, connected to, or sponsored by Brookings.

License and Site Access

Brookings grants you, based on your continued compliance with these Terms and Conditions, a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable, and non-sublicensable license to access and make personal use of this site. This license does not include any resale or commercial use of this site or its contents; any collection and use of any product listings, descriptions, or prices; any derivative use of this site or its contents; any downloading or copying of account information for the benefit of a third-party; or any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.

This site or any portion of this site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without express written consent of Brookings. You may not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) contained on the site without express written consent of Brookings. You may not use any meta tags or any other “hidden text” utilizing Brookings’ name or trademarks without the express written consent of Brookings. Any unauthorized use terminates the permission or license granted by Brookings under these Terms and Conditions. You are granted a limited, revocable, and nonexclusive right to create hyperlinks to the home page or other pages of the site so long as any links do not portray Brookings in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive manner. You may not use any of Brookings’ logos or other proprietary graphics or trademarks as part of the link without express written permission.

Links to Third Party Sites

Some links posted on this site will let you leave the site. These linked sites are not under the control of Brookings and Brookings is not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site, or any changes or updates to such sites. Brookings is not responsible for webcasting or any other form of transmission received from any linked site. Brookings is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by Brookings of the site.

Your Account

If you use this site, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password, if applicable, and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password or on your computer. If you are under 18, we assume that you are using the site with the permission of a parent or authorized guardian. Brookings reserve the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, remove or edit content, or cancel orders in its sole discretion. You shall immediately notify Brookings if you suspect or become aware of any loss or theft of or unauthorized use of your access credentials. Brookings has the right to disable any username, password, or other identifier if, in our opinion, you have violated any provision of these Terms and Conditions.

Reviews, Comments, Communications, and Other Content

Visitors may submit reviews, suggestions, ideas, comments, questions, or other information concerning website content (“Submissions”), so long as the Submission is not illegal, obscene, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights, or otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable and does not consist of or contain software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of “spam.” You may not use a false email address, impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise mislead as to the origin of the content. Brookings reserves the right (but not the obligation) to remove or edit such content.

If you do make Submissions, including posting content or submitting material, and unless we affirmatively indicate otherwise, you grant Brookings a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. You grant Brookings the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content, if it chooses. You represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content that you post; that the content is accurate; that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity; and that you will indemnify Brookings and hold it harmless for all claims resulting from any Submissions that you make, including content you supply. Brookings has the right but not the obligation to monitor and edit or remove any activity or content. Brookings takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content posted by you or any third party. Brookings reserves the right to establish additional practices, parameters, and limits in its sole discretion concerning the storage, display, or availability of any Submissions. Additionally, Brookings is not responsible for screening, policing, editing, or monitoring your, another user’s, or other third party’s content posted to the site. Nevertheless, Brookings reserves the right to delete or take other action with respect to Submissions that Brookings believes in good faith violate these Terms and Conditions and/or are potentially unlawful, as well as the right to remove any Submissions in its sole discretion. Further, Brookings shall not have any obligation to utilize any Submissions.

By visiting sections of the site that contain user-submitted content, you acknowledge and understand that the opinions posted on site are solely those of the authors and not of Brookings, its officers, employees, trustees, funders, or organizations with which they may have a relationship.

Unsolicited E-Mail Policy

The presence of email addresses on this site is not an invitation for unsolicited commercial email. The use of spiders, robots, and other technologies to collect email addresses from this site is prohibited. Senders of email are expected to abide by all applicable state and federal laws.

Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy

Please do not send any unsolicited original creative artwork, samples, demos, or other works. If, despite our request that you not send us your unsolicited ideas and materials, you still send them, please understand that Brookings makes no assurances that your ideas and materials will be treated as confidential or proprietary, or that your ideas and materials will not be used to inform other materials developed by Brookings. You recognize that by submitting any materials to Brookings, whether or not solicited by Brookings, you automatically and hereby grant to Brookings a perpetual, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, and non-exclusive right and license to adopt, publish, reproduce, disseminate, transmit, distribute, copy, use, create derivative works of, and display (in whole or in part) worldwide, or act on any such submission, without additional approval or consideration, in furtherance of and in connection with the operation of the site, and you hereby waive any claim to the contrary.

Copyright Complaints

Brookings respects the intellectual property of others. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please follow our Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement Concerning Material on this Site, which is set forth below.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

This site is provided by Brookings on an “as is” and “as available” basis. Brookings makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of this site or the information, content, materials, or products included on this site. You expressly agree that your use of this site is at your sole risk.

To the full extent permissible by applicable law, Brookings disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.  Brookings does not warrant that this site, its servers, or email sent from Brookings are free of viruses or other harmful components. Brookings will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of this site, including, but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, and consequential damages.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PROVIDED BY LAW, YOU EXPRESSLY ABSOLVE AND RELEASE BROOKINGS FROM ANY CLAIM OF HARM RESULTING FROM A CAUSE BEYOND BROOKINGS’ CONTROL. MOREOVER, IN NO EVENT SHALL BROOKINGS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF THE SITE OR WITH THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE, EVEN IF BROOKINGS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING THE FOREGOING, TOTAL LIABILITY OF BROOKINGS FOR BREACH OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS IS CESSATION OF USE OF THE SITE AND FOR ANY OTHER REASON RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SITE WHATSOEVER FOR AN AMOUNT NOT EXCEEDING ONE HUNDRED ($100) DOLLARS.

Certain state laws do not allow limitations on implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. If these laws apply to you, some or all of the above disclaimers, exclusions, or limitations may not apply to you, and you might have additional rights. In such jurisdictions, Brookings’ liability will be limited to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

Enforcing Security

You may not use the site or any of Brookings’ data, systems, network, or services to engage in, foster, or promote illegal, abusive, or irresponsible behavior including, without limitation, accessing or using Brookings’ data, systems, or networks in an unauthorized manner, attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of Brookings’ system or network, circumventing any security or authentication measures, monitoring any data or traffic, interfering with any services, collecting or using from the site email addresses or other identifiers, collecting or using from the site information without the consent of Brookings (herein or otherwise), using any false, misleading, or deceptive TCP-IP packet header information, using the site to distribute software or tools that gather information, distributing advertisements, or engaging in conduct that is likely to result in retaliation against Brookings or its data, systems, or network. Actual or attempted unauthorized use of the site may result in criminal and/or civil prosecution, including, without limitation, punishment under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 as amended. Brookings reserves the right to view, monitor, and/or record activity on the site in order to maintain security of the site. Such recorded activity is subject to review by law enforcement organizations. Brookings will also comply with all court orders or subpoenas involving requests for information. Brookings reserves the right at any time to suspend or terminate operation of or access to the site or any portion of the site.

Term and Termination

These Terms and Conditions will take effect (or re-take effect) at the moment you begin downloading, accessing, or using the site, certify that you have read, understand, and agree to abide by the terms and conditions of the site, or otherwise register or respond through the site to a request for information, whichever action or event is earliest. Brookings reserves the right at any time to deny your access to the site or to any portion thereof, and these Terms and Conditions will also terminate automatically if you fail to comply with the terms and conditions, subject to the survival rights of certain provisions identified below. Termination will be effective without prior notice. You may also terminate these Terms and Conditions at any time by ceasing to use the site, but all applicable provisions of these Terms and Conditions will survive termination, as identified below, and each re-access or use of the site will reapply these Terms and Conditions (then in effect) to you. Upon termination, you must destroy all copies of any aspect of the site in your possession. The provisions concerning Brookings’ proprietary rights, user submissions, disclaimers (of warranty), limitations of liability, waiver and severability, injunctive relief, and applicable law will survive the termination of these Terms and Conditions for any reason.

Applicable Law

By visiting the site, you agree that the laws of the District of Columbia, U.S.A., without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern these Terms and Conditions and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and Brookings.

Disputes

Any dispute relating in any way to your use of or visit to the site or to products you may purchase through the site shall be submitted to confidential arbitration of Brookings choosing except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate Brookings’ intellectual property rights, or where equitable relief is otherwise necessary to address or fully compensate Brookings for your violation of any term of these Terms and Conditions, Brookings may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in any court in the District of Columbia, and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts. Arbitration under these Terms and Conditions shall be conducted under the rules then prevailing of the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator’s award shall be binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, no arbitration under these Terms and Conditions shall be joined to an arbitration involving any other party, whether through class arbitration proceedings or otherwise.

Site Policies, Modification, and Severability

Please review our other policies, such as our Privacy Policy, posted on this site. These policies also govern your visit to the site. We reserve the right to make changes to our site, policies, and these Terms and Conditions at any time by posting a revised version of the policies or these Terms and Conditions and providing notice thereof to you. Your continued use of the site following any announced change will be conclusively deemed acceptance of any change to these Terms and Conditions. If any of these Terms and Conditions shall be deemed invalid, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that condition shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining condition.

Waiver and Severability

Failure by Brookings to insist on strict performance of any of the terms and conditions of these Terms and Conditions will not operate as a waiver of any subsequent default or failure of performance. No waiver by Brookings of any right under these Terms and Conditions will be deemed to be either a waiver of any other right or provision or a waiver of that same right or provision at any other time. If any part of these Terms and Conditions is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law, including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers, venue, claim, and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most clearly matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of these Terms and Conditions shall continue in effect.

Our Address and Contact Information

The Brookings Institution

1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20036

If you have questions regarding the Brookings site or if you are interested in obtaining more information concerning Brookings, please contact Brookings at the address above, and/or at [email protected].

NOTICE AND PROCEDURE FOR MAKING CLAIMS OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT CONCERNING MATERIAL ON THIS SITE

If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide Brookings’ DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) agent the written information specified below. Please note that this procedure is exclusively for notifying Brookings that you believe that your copyrighted material has been infringed on this website.

  • A description of the copyrighted work(s) that you claim has been infringed upon;
  • Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to allow Brookings to locate the material on the site;
  • Information reasonably sufficient to contact you, such as your address, telephone number, and email address;
  • A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  • A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed or authorized to act on the behalf of the copyright owner or owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
  • An electronic or physical signature of the copyright owner or owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed or from the person authorized to act on the behalf of the copyright owner or owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

The Brookings Institution’s DMCA agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement on its site can be reached as follows:

Office of the General Counsel

The Brookings Institution

1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20036

By phone: (202) 741-6503

By e-mail: [email protected]

 

Privacy Policy of The Brookings Institution

Effective Date: August 14, 2024

Introduction & Scope

The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution (hereinafter referred to as “Brookings,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) provides this privacy policy, which describes our information practices when you visit the Brookings website located at hamiltonproject.org, brookings.edu, and any of Brookings mobile properties that link to this privacy policy (collectively, the “Site”) or donate to Brookings.

The Brookings Institution values our visitors and donors. We understand and appreciate the need for security and trust when we process personal information.

Brookings may work with selected third parties to provide certain features on the Site such as social sharing functions. This privacy policy does not govern any information you choose to provide directly to such third parties. Such third parties have their own privacy policies that govern how they may collect, use, and disclose the information that you provide to them.

Information Collection & Use

When using our Site, we may collect certain information from you, including your name and contact information such as a phone number or email address. We may use the information that you provide for our operational purposes, including as described below. We may also use the information that you provide to contact you with offers or items that may interest you. You may, however, use many features of the Site without providing information.

When you choose to provide us with information, we may combine it with other information about you that we receive from third party sources.

Job Applications

If you apply for a job through the Site, we may collect information including your name, contact information, and educational and work history.

Online Donations

If you choose to make a donation through the Site we request certain information from you, including your name, contact information, and payment information. We use this information to complete the transactions you request, including for billing purposes or to contact you if we have trouble processing an order. We may contact you to discuss the terms of your donation, and to invite you to donate again to Brookings. If you prefer not to receive requests to donate to us, you can opt out by emailing [email protected] or calling 202-797-6220. Please note that opting out of donation emails will not affect your other Brookings subscriptions.

Newsletters and Events

If you choose to subscribe to any of our electronic newsletters, we use the information you provide, including your email address, to fulfill your subscription. You may unsubscribe at any time by changing your newsletter subscription preferences on our Site or by clicking the unsubscribe link contained in the newsletter. After you opt out, we may continue to send messages related to your transactions or relationship with Brookings, and we may also continue to send invitations to donate to Brookings unless you opt out separately from donation invitations.

You may also provide information when you choose to attend a virtual or in-person event. The information you provide will be used to register you for the event and facilitate your attendance and participation.

Any information you provide in connection with requesting newsletters or event attendance may be used to notify you of other newsletters and products that may be of interest to you.

Surveys

Occasionally, we may provide you the opportunity to participate in surveys on our Site or through a third-party service provider. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary. 

Automatically-Collected Data

We and our third-party service providers may use various technologies to collect data automatically about your use of our Site, including when you browse the Site or read our articles and publications. We use this automatically-collected data for our operational purposes such as to administer and improve the Site. We also use these technologies to personalize your experience with Brookings and to provide functions such as recording preferences. The technologies that we use may include, for example:

  • Log Files are data files that store information about the activities, usage patterns, and operations on our Site.  Log files may collect information such as Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, geographic location, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data.
  • Cookies (including persistent, session, and flash cookies) are pieces of data stored on the hard drive of your computer that contain information about you and that is used for recordkeeping purposes.  Cookies enable us to collect information for various purposes, including updating our Site based on data about the total number of visitors and pages viewed.  We use cookies to provide tailored services to you and to enhance your experience on our Site.
  • Web beacons are electronic images that are ordinarily not visible to you.  Web beacons may be embedded in our Site or used in emails and newsletters to provide information on your interactions with our content and to help measure the effectiveness of our electronic communications. 

Your browser may offer tools to reject or delete cookies. If you reject cookies on your browser, you may still use our Site, but your ability to use some areas of our Site may be limited. Even if you set your browser to reject cookies, we may continue to collect some data. In particular, we may use session replay and other technology to record and better understand your interactions on the Site.

Analytics

We may use third-party service providers that use cookies or other technology to collect information about your online activities across this and other websites over time for non-advertising purposes and to help us analyze how visitors use the Site.

We may use Google Analytics and other third-party services to improve the performance of the Site and for analytics and marketing purposes. To learn more about how Google Analytics collects and processes data when using our Site, you may visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners.  To opt out of Google Analytics you may visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

Children Under the Age of 13

Our Site is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe that we may have collected or received information from a child under 13, please contact us at [email protected] to request deletion of that information.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

Non-Donor Information

We may disclose non-donor information that we collect in the following ways:

To our subsidiaries and affiliates;

  • To contractors, agents, or service providers that we use to support our business and provide our services, in which case we make reasonable efforts to ensure that they are bound by contractual obligations to keep the shared information confidential and use or share it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them; 
  • As part of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of Brookings’ assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which information held by Brookings about our Site users is among the assets transferred; 
  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it; 
  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information or with your consent; or
  • As required by law, when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, property, or safety of Brookings or others, and/or to comply with judicial or regulatory process, court order, lawfully-issued subpoena, or legal process served on Brookings.

Donors

We do not trade, share, or sell information collected on donors as part of the donation process to anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations, unless we have the donor’s specific permission to do so. Please see our Donor Guidelines for additional information on our donor practices.

Links to Other Sites

This Site contains links to other websites that are not owned or controlled by Brookings. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such other sites.

Correcting or Updating Information

You may ask to correct, update, or deactivate your information within our communications systems by emailing us at [email protected]. If you are a donor and would like to correct, update, or deactivate information on you in our donor database, please also contact us by emailing [email protected] or calling 202-797-6220.

Security

The security of the information we collect is important to us. Brookings uses commercially reasonable safeguards to help protect the security of this information. For example, we may encrypt information using technologies such as Secure Sockets Layer technology (SSL).

Terms and Conditions

Please also visit our Terms and Conditions section, above, which establishes the use, disclaimers, and limitations of liability governing the use of our Site.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

If our information and/or privacy practices materially change, we will post these changes on this page.  We encourage you to visit this page periodically to learn of any updates. 

Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about this privacy policy, please contact us at:

The Brookings Institution

1775 Massachusetts, Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20036

Attn: Office of General Counsel

[email protected]


Last updated August 19, 2024