I. Introduction

This privacy policy (“Policy”) describes how the Choose Greater Peoria talent attraction initiative (“Initiative,” “us,” “we,” or “our”), made possible by the Gilmore Foundation, Greater Peoria Leadership Council, Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce, Greater Peoria Economic Development Counsel, Discover Peoria and many other loyal partners, collects, uses, shares, secures, and eventually deletes, information collected from and about Visitors to our Website and from You. We respect Your privacy and are committed to protecting the Personal Information that You may share with us.

Scope of this Policy. This Policy covers both our online and offline information collection activities, including information that we collect through our Website, as well as from You directly.

By continuing to visit and use the Website, You are agreeing to the terms of this Policy. If You do not agree, then please exit this Website and close Your browser.

II. Definitions

“Personal Information” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual that is collected from Visitors to our Website, from You directly when You submit one of our online forms, or offline through a telephone call with us. Personal Information may include a Visitor or Your: full name, physical address, email address, contact phone number, IP address, or other identifier such as from a Cookie.

Personal Information does not include any aggregate or anonymized data that may have been created from Personal Information but can no longer be used to identify, relate to or could reasonably be linked to You or a Visitor.

“Sensitive Personal Information” means any information collected from a Visitor or You that reveals a racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious belief, philosophical belief or trade union membership. It also may include a natural person’s genetic and biometric data, financial information, and data concerning their health, sex life or sexual orientation.

“Visitor” means a natural person that visits and interacts with our Website.

“You” or “Your” means a Visitor and/or a natural person who submits Personal Information to us directly either online or offline.

“Website” means http://www.choosegreaterpeoria.org/.

III. Information that We Collect from You when You Visit Our Website

We may use various technologies and methods to collect information directly from You or from Your computer or device and about Your activities on our Website.

A. Information Collected Automatically: We may automatically collect information from You when You visit Our Website. This information may include Your IP address, location data, Your browser type and language, access times, the content of any undeleted cookies that Your browser previously accepted from us, referring or exit website address, internet service provider, date/time stamp, operating system, locale and language preferences, and system configuration information.

B. Cookies: When You visit our Website, We may assign Your device one or more cookies to facilitate access to our site and to personalize Your online experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about Your online activity on our site, such as the web pages You visit, the links You click, and the searches You conduct on our site. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but You can usually modify Your browser setting to decline cookies.

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record keeping purposes. Cookies can be either session cookies or persistent cookies. A session cookie expires when You close Your browser and is used to make it easier for You to navigate our website. A persistent cookie remains on Your hard drive for an extended period of time.

We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyze our traffic. We also share information about Your use of Our site with Our social media, advertising and analytics partners, who may combine it with other information that You’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from Your use of their services.

When You first visit our site, we provide You with a choice to either accept or deny certain cookies. If You choose to decline cookies please note that some of the features and services of our Website may not function as well as intended. Even if You choose to accept cookies, You are always free to change Your mind and revoke that consent.

Also, to opt-out from third-party cookies that are used for advertising purposes, You can do so on the NAI website at https://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

C. Other Technology: We may use standard Internet technology, such as web beacons and other similar technologies, to track Your use of our Website. We also may include web beacons in e-mail messages or newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. The information we obtain in this manner enables us to customize the services we offer to You and Visitors of our Website, to deliver targeted advertisements, and to measure the overall effectiveness of our online advertising, content, programming, or other activities. Web beacons (also known as clear gifs, pixel tags or web bugs) are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users or to access cookies. Unlike cookies, which are stored on Your device, web beacons are embedded invisibly on the web pages (or in emails) and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Web beacons may be used to deliver or communicate with cookies, to count visitors to certain pages, and to understand usage patterns. We also may receive an anonymous identification number if You come to our Website from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website.

IV. Information that We Collect From You Directly

When You submit one of our online forms we may collect certain Personal Information about You such as Your name, e-mail address, telephone number, general geographic location and Your general professional background and interests. If we connect via telephone with You, we may collect this same type of information in order to provide You with the services and/or information You have requested. We do not collect Sensitive Information.

V. Why We Collect Your Information

We collect Your Personal Information for various reasons, which are described below:

A. To Service Our Website: We use information collected to ensure that our Website is working as intended and for analytics purposes, to understand how our Website is operating and learn how it can be improved. We also use this information as needed for auditing purposes as well.

B. For Marketing Purposes: If You have submitted an online form, or have otherwise signed up to receive our direct communications, we may use this information to send You marketing communications, such as email communications and postal mailings. You can opt out of receiving these communications at any time by clicking the “opt out” link at the bottom of these emails or by contacting us using the information provided at the bottom of this policy.

C. To Provide You the Services and/or Information You Requested: We may use this information to provide You the services and/or information that You have requested from us, including sharing your information with our participating business partners who may contact you directly to discuss potential employment opportunities.

D. To Evaluate and Improve our Services: We may use this information to ensure we are providing the highest level of service to You and the community we service, and to identify any potential gaps or potential improvements to the same.

E. In Order to Respond from Requests from You: If You have requested information or in any other way requested that we contact You, we will use Your Personal Information to respond to such a request.

F. To Facilitate and Enable Your Interactions with Third-party Social Media Providers: We may use information collected to support and allow You to share posts about us and connect with us on social media.

G. For Other General Purposes: We may use information collected for other general purposes, such as to maintain the day-to-day operation and security of our Website, monitor and analyze trends and usage of the services we provide, to help us develop the design of the Website and to conduct internal marketing and demographic studies.

H. For Legal Purposes: We may also collect information in order to comply with certain legal rules and regulations to which we may be subject.

VI. How Long do We Store and Maintain Your Personal Information?

We only store and maintain Your Personal Information for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected. For example, if You sign up to receive information about jobs and living in Peoria, we will store and maintain Your Personal Information and continue to send You this information until You opt out of receiving such communications. With regards to Your Personal Information collected for our analytics purposes and used to help maintain and improve Our Website, we only store and maintain that information until it is aggregated and used to create a new anonymous data set that no longer contains Your Personal Information, and then delete the underlying Personal Information once that new data set has been created.

VII. We Do Not Sell Your Personal Information

We do not sell the Personal Information that we have collected from You to any third parties and we do not share Your Personal Information for any cross-contextual advertising.

VIII. Who We Share Your Personal Information With

Generally, we share Your Personal Information as necessary to provide the information and services that You request, including sharing information with certain third parties, such as service providers. We also may share Your Personal Information when required to by law; to protect Your rights and safety, and with Your consent.
Specifically, we may share Your Personal Information with third-parties, including:

A. Authorized service providers: We may share Your Personal Information with our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf. These services may include relationship management software; website hosting; evaluators, contractors and auditors; email marketing providers; customer service providers; providers that perform business and operations analysis for us; and providers that support and maintain our Website, including providing analytics services for us.

B. Our Advertising Partners: We may also allow third-parties through an advertising network to target custom content and ads to You on our Website and other websites. The information provided to these service providers is limited to only that which we deem appropriate for these service providers to carry out their functions and enable us to market to You.

C. Our Philanthropic, Civic, and Community and Business Partners: We may share your Personal Information with other organizations that we partner with to further the goals and initiatives of Choose Greater Peoria. For example, if You submit one of our online forms requesting more information about jobs in the tri-county community (Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties) Your information may be provided to employers in these areas and they may contact You directly. You should check these organizations privacy policies before providing them with any Personal or Sensitive Information.

D. For a Legal Reason: We may have to share Your Personal Information in response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand, a court order, or a request for cooperation from a law enforcement or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases, we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us.

E. To Prevent Fraud or Illegal Conduct: We may have to share Your Personal Information in situations where we believe disclosure is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our organization, its officers, employees, or others; or to enforce our terms of service or other agreements or policies.

IX. Children’s Personal Information

We do not knowingly market to or collect information from children under 16. The Website and our services are not geared for or marketed to children under the age of 16.

X. Third-Party Tracking on Our Website

Third-parties may be using cookies or other technologies to collect Your Personal Information as You navigate through the internet including from our Website. As described above, You may decline these third-party cookies by changing Your browser settings.

XI. Links to Other Websites

We may provide links to other companies, civic organizations and business partners, including social media companies, on the Website. If You choose to link to websites not controlled by us, we are not responsible for the privacy or security of these sites, including the accuracy, completeness, reliability or suitability of their information. If You are asked to provide information on one of these websites, You are strongly urged to carefully study their privacy policies before sharing Your information.

XII. How do we Secure and Protect Your Personal Information.

We maintain a comprehensive Information Security Program that employs commercially available physical and IT securitization tools, including but not limited to:

A. Commercially available and sufficient firewalls;

B. Segmented Data Storage;

C. Encryption;

D. Multi-factor authentication; and

E. Policies providing for least privileged access to data across our organization.

Unfortunately, however, there is no way to completely eliminate the risk of a data security incident. If we do suffer one that affects any of Your Personal Information, we will report the same to You as per applicable data breach notification laws.

If You have any questions about the cybersecurity for the Website, You can send an email to info@choosegreaterpeoria.org.

XIII. Nevada Residents

We do not sell Personal Information as defined under Nevada law. Nevada residents may email questions regarding our practices relating to Personal Information to info@choosegreaterpeoria.org.

XIV. Changes to this Policy

We reserve the right to, in our sole discretion, modify, alter or otherwise update this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do so, We will let You know by updating the effective date noted at the top of this Privacy Policy. We encourage You to review our Privacy Policy whenever You use the Website.

XV. Contact Information

If You have any comments, questions or concerns regarding this Policy or our privacy practices, You may contact us by e-mail, phone, or postal mail at: info@choosegreaterpeoria.org, (309) 265-0162, or 5823 N Forest Park Drive, Peoria, IL 61614.