CityofAikenSC.gov Privacy Policy

Introduction

The City of Aiken (the “City”) is committed to providing residents, visitors and business with access to government services on-line. We encourage the use of our official Website, www.cityofaikensc.gov (“Website”), to interact with government. CityofAikenSC.gov has various application and services to facilitate a positive on-line experience. The nature of eGovernment services requires capture, storage and management of user information. The City feels strongly about its responsibility to the individual's right to privacy. Outlined is this document is our policies related to information gathered via the Internet.

Personal Information

The City DOES NOT collect personal information automatically from anyone visiting www.CityofAikenSC.gov. The user may provide personal information as a result of interacting with forms, applications, emails, or to complete an online transaction. The information offered voluntarily by the user will be protected against unauthorized use by anyone using the City's existing network security technology.

The City DOES collect general Internet based information for statistical purposes. The user's browser type, Internet domain (www.yourcompany.com), time and date of visit, pages viewed and IP address (unique computer identifier) are examples of the type of statistical information collected. This information is collected automatically without user interaction. The data collected is used to better serve the users of www.CityofAikenSC.gov. The City reserves the right to forward user information to department(s) that can best serve the user and address their request.

Cookies

Cookies are small data files that are transferred by a web application to the user's hard drive. These files are used to store information related to the user, such as, ID, passwords etcetera. This information is provided by the user via interaction with a web application or site. Cookies DO NOT access information on the user's computer. Their primary purpose is to make the users experience more enjoyable on there next visit to the site. Cookie management is controlled at the browser level. The user can turn off cookie transfer via the configuration option of their browser. The applications on www.CityofAikenSC.gov may at times transfer cookies to the user's hard drive. The City is committed to using cookie technology responsibly and will make every effort to protect the user's computer environment from highly unlikely cookie related damage.

Third Party Data Sharing

The City DOES NOT share information provided by the user with third party organizations. It does however reserve the right to share information with organizations under contract to act on the City's behalf. Any information forwarded to the City from contractual third parties will be held in the strictest confidence and used only for the purposes identified in the capturing transaction. The relevant information maybe shared with other government related agencies as outline by the various federal, state and local government information laws, such as, the Freedom of Information Act.

Security

The City is committed to data security and the data quality of personally identifiable information that is either available from or collected by our Website and has taken reasonable precautions to protect such information from loss, misuse, or alteration. If a user submits information to the City's server through a web page containing visible indicators of active encryption technology, the City will take all reasonable precautions to safeguard the confidentiality of such information, but shall nevertheless not be held liable for any injury caused by the disclosure of that information, whether caused by security breach, accident, inadvertence, or any other act resulting in disclosure.