PRIVACY POLICY FOR THE CITY OF HAMILTON

Your privacy is important to us. The City of Hamilton is committed to protecting the privacy of all visitors to our site and will make every attempt to build users' trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the principles of disclosure. Therefore, this document is being provided to explain our online information practices. These guidelines have been developed with the recognition that Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, and accordingly, guidelines are subject to change. Any such changes will be posted on this page.

This document will include information about the following:

• What information this site gathers/tracks about you
• What this site does with the information it gathers/tracks
• With whom this site shares the information it gathers/tracks

There are two types of information that can be gathered on any web site:

• Aggregate Information:
  Aggregate Information is anonymous data that Web sites use to diagnose problems, administer the sites, gather broad demographic information and help improve the quality of the Web pages. Examples of aggregate information may be your domain name (i.e. "XYZ.com"), the type of browser or operating system you are using or your IP address. None of this information is connected with your Personally Identifiable information.
• Personally Identifiable Information:
  Personally Identifiable Information is any information that personally identifies you. It can be your first and last name, your email address, your home address, or your telephone number. This information is typically gathered in a feedback form, a request for service form, an order form and so on. This information is used to communicate with you to fulfill your requests for products, programs, services or general information. The City of Hamilton will not use this information for any purpose other than to carry out the services we are performing on your behalf.

Personal information about you as an individual will not be provided to any third party. The City of Hamilton also does not use this information to send unsolicited email. We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect online. We carefully protect your data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration or destruction.

Compliance with Legal Process

We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law, or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to:

• comply with the law or with legal process
• protect and defend our rights and property
• protect against misuse or unauthorized use of The City of Hamilton web site
• protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions).

Cookies

To enhance your experience with our sites, some of our web pages may use "cookies." Cookies are text files we place in your computer's browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your e-mail address or any other personally identifiable information unless you choose to provide this information to us by, for example, filling in an online form. However, once you choose to furnish the site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.

Cookies may be used to understand site usage and to improve the content and offerings on our sites. For example, cookies may be used to personalize your experience at our web pages (e.g. to recognize you by name when you return to our site), save your password in password-protected areas, or enable you to use shopping carts. The City of Hamilton will never use cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent by us to you in a cookie. The City of Hamilton does not use information transferred through cookies for any promotional or marketing purposes.