24 HOUR EMERGENCY: 251-968-6323 • CONTACT • PAY ONLINE ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICES WATER SEWER ANNOUNCEMENTS CAREERS Privacy Policy Your privacy is important to us. This Statement of Privacy applies to gulfshoresutilities.com and governs data collection and usage. Collection of your Personal Information We do not collect any personal information about you unless you voluntarily provide it to us. However, you may be required to provide certain personal information to us when you elect to use certain products or services available on the Site. These may include: (a) registering for an account on our Site; (b) signing up for special offers; (d) sending us an email message; (e) submitting your credit card or other payment information when ordering and purchasing products and services on our Site. To wit, we will use your information for, but not limited to, communicating with you in relation to services and/or products you have requested from us. Use of your Personal Information The Utilities Board of the City of Gulf Shores (Gulf Shores Utilities) collects and uses your personal information to operate its website(s) and deliver the services you have requested. Gulf Shores Utilities may also use your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from Gulf Shores Utilities. Sharing Information with Third Parties Gulf Shores Utilities may, from time to time, contact you about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (email, name, address, telephone number) is screened and not transferred to the third party. Gulf Shores Utilities may share data with trusted partners to help perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to Gulf Shores Utilities, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information. Gulf Shores Utilities may disclose your personal information, without notice, if required to do so 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 Gulf Shores Utilities or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Gulf Shores Utilities; and/or (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Gulf Shores Utilities, or the public. Tracking User Behavior Gulf Shores Utilities may keep track of the websites and pages our users visit within Gulf Shores Utilities, in order to determine what Gulf Shores Utilities services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customized content and advertising within Gulf Shores Utilities to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area. Information about your computer hardware and software may be automatically collected by Gulf Shores Utilities. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times, and referring website addresses. This information is used for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Gulf Shores Utilities website. Use of Cookies The Gulf Shores Utilities website may use “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 Gulf Shores Utilities pages, or register with our site, a cookie helps Gulf Shores Utilities to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same Gulf Shores Utilities website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the Gulf Shores Utilities features that you customized. At this time the only cookies that Gulf Shores Utilities uses are cookies to keep track of which users are logged-in. 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 prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the Gulf Shores Utilities services or websites you visit. Links This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or 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 any other site that collects personally identifiable information. Security of your Personal Information Gulf Shores Utilities secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. Gulf Shores Utilities uses the following methods for this purpose: SSL Protocol When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other websites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. We strive to take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or alteration of your personal information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, you acknowledge that: (a) there are security and privacy limitations inherent to the Internet which are beyond our control; and (b) security, integrity, and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and us through this Site cannot be guaranteed. Children Under 13 Gulf Shores Utilities does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, you must ask your parent or guardian for permission to use this website. Email Communications From time to time, Gulf Shores Utilities may contact you via email for the purpose of providing announcements, promotional offers, alerts, confirmations, and/or other general communication. In order to improve our services, we may receive a notification when you open an email from Gulf Shores Utilities or click on a link therein. If you would like to stop receiving marketing or promotional communications via email from Gulf Shores Utilities, you may opt out of such communications. Customers will be given the option of unsubscribing at the bottom of each email or within their account settings. External Data Storage Sites We may store your data on servers provided by third party hosting vendors with whom we have contracted. Changes to this Statement Gulf Shores Utilities reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account, by placing a prominent notice on our site, and/or by updating any privacy information on this page. Your continued use of the Site and/or Services available through this Site after such modifications will constitute your: (a) acknowledgment of the modified Privacy Policy; and (b) agreement to abide and be bound by that Policy. Contact Information Gulf Shores Utilities welcomes your questions or comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that Gulf Shores Utilities has not adhered to this Statement, please contact us at: Gulf Shores Utilities 1629 East 1st Street P.O. Box 1229 Gulf Shores, AL. 36547 (251) 968-6323 / fax: (251) 968-6847 About Board of Directors Staff Directory Holidays & Closings Contact Water Water Emergency Sewer Procedures Pay Online Careers Customer Services Rates & Procedures Specifications Service Area Map Forms Grease Recycling Privacy Policy Gulf Shores Utilities 1629 East 1st Street P.O. Box 1229 Gulf Shores, AL. 36547 (251) 968-6323 / fax: (251) 968-6847 Emergency Service: 251-968-6323 Office Hours: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday - Friday Copyright © Gulf Shores Utilities Website Design: Graphic Penguin