Privacy Notice

Purpose

This policy describes privacy practices regarding information collected from the Town of Oakboroweb site. It contains information about what data are collected and how that information is used. This policy may be updated periodically, so please check back from time to time.

This policy applies only to the Town of Oakboro web site (http://www.oakboro.com). When you follow a link to another web site you are subject to the privacy policy of that site. You should check the privacy policies of each of these sites if you have any questions regarding how each specific site handles personally identifiable information.

Automatic Collection of Certain Information

No personally identifiable information is collected from visitors who simply browse this site or who download information from it. While our web servers maintain logs of user activity to help us manage the web site, information stored in these logs does not identify you personally. The logs store things such the domain name and IP address from which you access our site, the type of browser and operating system you used, the date and time you accessed our site, the pages visited and the address of the site that you linked to us from (if you linked to our web site from another web site).

We use this information to learn how many visitors we have, where they are coming from, which parts of our web site are of most interest to visitors, and other facts that will help us improve the web site and the services we offer.

If You Send Us Personal Information

Visitors who request services through this site may be required to furnish additional information in order for us to provide the service requested. The additional information collected will be no more specific than if the visitor were requesting the service by any other means, including by telephone or an in-person visit with The Town of Oakboro. If you participate in a survey, send us an email or submit an online form, your email address and the other information you volunteered will be collected. We may share this information with specific governmental agencies or organizations in order to provide the help and/or assistance you are requesting. We may also use that information to help assess user needs and analyze trends. Certain types of personal information may constitute public records, which means that we must provide it to persons making public records requests. However, this does not include the account numbers you use for electronic payments, public enterprise billing information and certain other types of protected information.

If you use this web site for electronic commerce, we may collect, process and disclose your name, address and payment information (if applicable) to the extent necessary to complete the online transaction and for our own record-keeping activities such as billing, permits and licenses.

Privacy of Email Lists

The Town of Oakboro may maintain e-mail lists, but only of those individuals or organizations that have specifically opted to receive updates and other information from the Town of Oakboro. These lists include members of the media and interested members of the general public who have specifically requested to be kept informed about the Town of Oakboro’s affairs. Under current North Carolina law, these email lists are public records and we must provide them to anyone who makes a public records request, except to the extent that they contain public enterprise billing information or other information protected from disclosure by law.

Length of Time Data Will Be Stored / How to Unsubscribe:

Unless you request that we delete any of the information that you submit via any method we may offer within this website, we may store such information indefinitely. You can “unsubscribe" to any newsletters, notices, schedules, etc., sent to you automatically by sending an email to townofoakboro@oakboro.com, and including "unsubscribe" in the subject or message field.

Security

Some information that you submit to us through this web site may be protected by encryption technology, whereas other information may not. Unless a particular web page on this site indicates that encryption technology is being used, you should not assume that information you submit through that web page will be secure. If you submit information to our server through a web page containing visible indicators of active encryption technology, we will take reasonable precautions to safeguard the confidentiality of such information. However, no web site can protect itself against all eventualities. The Town of Oakboro will not be held liable for any injury caused by the disclosure of your information, whether by security breach, accident, inadvertence, or any other act resulting in disclosure.

Use of Cookies

Cookies or other technology may transfer information from this web site to your hard disk for record-keeping purposes. Cookies or similar technology can make the Internet more useful by storing information about your preferences on a particular site. The use of cookies or similar technology is an industry standard, and this web site, like many other web sites, may make use of them to provide useful features for our users. Cookies in and of themselves do not personally identify you, although they do identify your computer. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. If you prefer, you can set your browser to refuse cookies. However, you may not be able to take full advantage of this web site if you do so.

Public Records

The Town of Oakboro is governed by the North Carolina public records laws. This means that the information we receive online might be disclosed to any person making a public records request. Certain types of information (such as public enterprise billing information and the account numbers you use for electronic payments) are exempt from disclosure as public records. If you have questions about the North Carolina public records laws, refer to N.C. G.S.§132.1 et. seq. For purposes of determining whether information is a public record, information sent to us through this web site is treated the same as information sent to us by mail or delivered to us in person.

Children

No applications on this web site specifically solicit information from minors or seek to determine whether the visitor is a minor. Consequently, visitors should be aware that the collection of personal information requested from or volunteered by children online or by e-mail will be treated in the same manner as information given by an adult. Among other things, this means that it may become a public record and therefore may be subject to public access. We ask that parents guide their children when children are asked to provide personal information online. We ask that children get their parents' permission before providing any information to us.

Opting Out

While accessing our site, you may decline participation in any activity that asks for information (i.e. survey or e-mail). Your choice not to participate will in no way affect your ability to use any other feature on our site.