Web Site Privacy Policy

 

St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Bellingham is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy applies to this Church Web site and governs data collection and usage. By using this Web site, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

 

Collection of your Personal Information

If you have provided personally identifiable information, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number, on this Web site, St. Paul's may collect it. We may also collect anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites if you have provided it.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring Web site addresses. This information could be used for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Web site.

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through our public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others. Note: St. Pauls Episcopal Church Bellingham does not read any of your private online communications.

The St. Paul's Webmaster encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from our site so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. We really cannot be responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the St. Paul's Bellingham website and our Episcopalian family of Web sites.

 

Use of your Personal Information

St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church collects and uses your personal information to operate the Web site and deliver the services you have requested. St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church also uses your personally identifiable information to inform you of other information or services available from St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church and its affiliates. We may also contact you via email to conduct research or surveys about your opinion of current services or potential new services that we may offer.

St. Paul’s does not sell, rent or lease its member/visitor/subscriber lists to anyone. We may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external third parties about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to anyone else. In addition, St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis or send you email or postal mail. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church keeps track of the Web sites and pages our visitors view within our site, in order to determine what services, pages and other features are the most popular.

St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church will not disclose your personal information without notice. And we will only do so if required by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church, or the public.

 

Use of Cookies

Our website uses "cookies" to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church pages, or register with our site or services, a cookie helps us recall your specific information on subsequent visits. When you return to the same site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the site features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the site.

 

Security of your Personal Information

St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

 

Changes to this Statement

St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect church and visitor/member feedback. St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church is protecting your information.

 

Contact Information

St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church has not adhered to this Statement, please contact St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.

 

Congregational Privacy Policy

We have several basic groups of people that might be listed or referred to: pastors/staff, adult members, and youth. Information of concern includes names, email addresses, phone numbers and photos. Home addresses are never posted.

1. For pastors/staff, we list names, email addresses (usually office emails), and office phone numbers. No home phone numbers, home addresses, or mobile phone numbers are listed. It is important that people be able to contact the staff and that access is all through the office.

2. For adult members, we often list names when they are a contact for some group or activity that we are featuring on the Web site. We do not list email addresses unless they have specifically given permission. We do not list phone numbers unless they have specifically given permission. It is assumed that other members have the church directory or can call the office for phone numbers.

3. For youth and children, we do not list names, first or last. We also do not list addresses, email addresses or phone numbers. Photo captions do not include their names. This is for their own protection.

 

When using photos or video of St. Paul’s Bellingham Episcopal Church events, attendees, or members - either directly on the Web site or in our photo albums - we use the following guidelines:

• We try not to post anything that would be embarrassing, objectionable or hurtful. If we know someone is shy about such things, we ask them before posting.

• We don't put names as captions (except for pastors/staff or other members who have given expressed written consent)

• We will gladly provide credit for who took a particular photo or video clip if desired by the photographer, and we would certainly honor any copyright wishes or restrictions.

• We will gladly remove any photo or video clip immediately upon request.

 

In any case, if you see anything that includes you or your child and would like it removed from the site, we would be glad to do so. Just notify the webmaster with the details by clicking on the "contact the webmaster" link at the bottom of the page.