PRIVACY POLICY

Forsyth County Government respects your individual privacy. This Privacy Policy ('Policy') embodies our commitment to its protection through adherence to fair electronic information practices. This Policy puts you, the individual, in control of how your personal information is processed . You have our promise that we will not electronically process your personal information in any way that is incompatible with this Policy.

Information Collection and Use

Information Collection
Forsyth County Government is the sole owner of the information collected on www.forsythco.com. Forsyth County Government collects information from our users at several different points on our Web site.

Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. We only use session ID cookies which terminate once the user closes the browser.

By setting a session ID cookie on our site we are able to track any interactive transactions providing additional security to the user. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site though they will find some areas that will not respond correctly and they will not be able to place orders.

Log Files
Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Communications from the Site

Web-based email
Users who utilize our web-based email to send information to Commissioners, Departments, or any other person or persons should provide a vailid email address that could be used for replys. Anyone who uses the web-based email for the purposes of sending willfully or corruptly false statements, accusations, remarks in regard to any information in the manner to commit or attempt to commit any fraud will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Special Offers and Updates
Users may occasionally receive information on products, services, or special events. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.

Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.

Sharing

Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

These are the instances in which we may share users' personal information:

Third Party Intermediaries
We may use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Choice/Opt-out
Our users are given the opportunity to 'opt-out' of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site at the point where we ask for information. For example, any order form has an 'opt-out' mechanism so users who buy a product from us, but don't want any marketing material, can keep their email address off of our lists.

Links
This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, Forsyth County Government, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.

Security

This Web site takes every precaution to protect our users' information. When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, their information is protected both online and off-line.

When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when users are just 'surfing'.

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment, in a locked facility.

If users have any questions about the security at our Web site, users can send an email to webmaster@forsythco.com.

Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users' personally identifiable information. This can usually be done by emailing our Director of the Department of Communications at forsythpr@forsythco.com.

Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected. If, however, we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our Web site notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice we will also email users, who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.

Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:

Phone: 770-781-2101
Fax: 770-781-2199
Email: webmaster@forsythco.com.


Postal Address:
110 East Main Street
Suite 210
Cumming, Georgia U.S.A
30040


Copyright ^©2003-2004 Forsyth County, Georgia Government.