Smart Columbus is the smart city initiative for the Columbus Region which is co-led by the City of Columbus and The Columbus Partnership ("Smart Columbus", "we" or "us"). This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected online by Smart Columbus and its affiliates and partners, in connection with its U.S.-based websites, microsites, mobile sites or mobile apps that expressly adopt, display or link to this Privacy Policy including smart.columbus.gov (collectively referred to as our "Sites").
Our Sites are not directed at children under the age of 13, and no one under the age of 13 should provide personal information on our Sites.
This Privacy Policy answers the following questions:
- What information does Smart Columbus collect about you on our Sites?
- How do we use the information we collect about you?
- How is technology used to serve our advertisements on other sites that you visit and what choices do you have?
- Does Smart Columbus share your information with third parties?
- What choices do you have over how Smart Columbus uses your information?
- How does Smart Columbus secure your information on its Sites?
- Will this Privacy Policy change?
- How can I contact Smart Columbus?
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What information does Smart Columbus collect about you on our Sites?
We may collect information about you from a variety of sources, including when:
- you provide us information
- we observe or collect information through technology
- we receive information about you from third parties
Information You Provide
We may ask you to provide information about yourself directly to our Sites, such as the following:
- name
- address
- email address
- telephone number
- financial information
- company information, such as number of employees
- personal preferences
- information in connection with surveys
- location information
- birthday
- information in connection with an event you may be hosting such as event title, date, and various other event details.
Information Observed or Collected Through Technology
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Navigational Information. Navigational information, such as the following, is collected by us and our third party service providers when you use our Sites:
- browser type and version
- operating system
- the Internet service provider used to access our Sites
- IP Address
- use of links to arrive at our Sites
- web pages requested and viewed
- time spent on our Sites
- for our mobile websites and apps, technical information about the device used, such as screen size, cookie support by the device and how images may appear
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Location Information. We and our third party service providers may collect different types of location information from you when you use our Sites and emails, such as:
- Postal Code. We and our third party service providers may collect IP Address to determine the postal code where you are located. This allows us to tailor content to you. The specificity of the location can vary depending on the device used to open our emails or access our Sites.
- Charging Station Locator. Our Sites may allow you to search for electronic vehicle charging stations near you. If you access one of our Sites through a mobile device and you have enabled location-based services, specific location information may be collected for these features. If you access these features through a desktop device, you may be able to choose to have your browser provide us your location information to respond to your request. The specificity of the desktop device location information can vary depending on the browser you are using and how you are connected to the internet.
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Cookies and other similar technology. We and our third party service providers use “cookies.” Cookies assign a unique identification to your device and are typically stored on your device by your web browser. We may also use pixel tags (also known as web beacons, web bugs, and clear GIFs) on the Sites and in emails. A pixel tag is a nearly invisible pixel-sized graphic image on a webpage or in an email message.
The information we and our third party service providers collect through cookies, pixel tags and similar technology includes the following:
- your interactions with our Sites and with our advertisements
- the time of your visit to our Sites
- confirmation when you open email from us, including the time you open the email and whether you click on any links in the email
- sites you visit after visiting one of our Sites.
For additional information on the use of cookies for advertising, see “3. How is technology used to serve our advertisements on other sites that you visit and what choices do you have?”.
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Mobile Information. We or third-parties may collect additional information from you if you access our Sites through a mobile device.
The information we or third parties may collect from your mobile device includes the following:
- your unique device identifier
- your unique device token to facilitate push notification through mobile apps
- your device’s advertising identifier and operating system
- identifiers associated with equipment or systems used in connection with your device (e.g., and identifier of a Wi- Fi router or Internet access point)
- your mobile carrier, manufacturer, or network systems or operators
- anyone who has administrative privileges to devices you use,
- location or GPS/geo-location
- Mobile number.
Information Obtained from Third parties
We may combine information about you from other sources with the information we have collected about you on our Sites.
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How do we use the information we collect about you?
The information we learn from you helps us personalize your experience with us and our communications to you, and helps us continually improve your experience on our Sites.
We use the information you provide for things like:
- improving and developing our Sites
- servicing our visitors
- advertising and marketing, including emails and postal mail
- personalizing your experience when visiting our Sites
- responding to your inquiries
- market research and surveys
- conducting events, promotions, contests and sweepstakes
- analytics
- reporting performance indicators to our affiliates, partners, grantors, and funders
We use navigational information gathered through technology for determining things like:
- which parts of our Sites are most visited or used
- what features/products are browsed
- how to improve our Sites
- the effectiveness of our Sites
- performance indicators
- difficulties visitors may experience in accessing our Sites
- monitoring the number of visitors to our Sites
- average time spent on our Sites
- any programming errors or failures on any of our Sites
We use information collected through cookies and similar technology to determine many of the same things listed for navigational information above. In addition cookies and similar technology are used for things like:
- personalizing your experience on our Sites
- serving tailored ads on other sites, as described below
- tailoring email marketing to you based on your preferences on or use of our Sites
- determining return visitors
- measuring the effectiveness of our advertising
- reporting performance indicators to our affiliates, partners, grantors, and funders
We use third-party analytics providers, such as Google Analytics, to measure traffic and usage trends, and to help us better understand your use of and interaction with our Sites. For more information on how Google uses data when you use our Sites, click here.
If you use different devices (such as your home computer, laptop, mobile device and/or other smart device) to access the Sites, we may be able to associate you with each of your devices. For example, our Sites may recognize your account across devices. Information we have collected from your different devices may be combined with other information you have provided us, including information that is saved in your account, how you use our Sites, and the pages you view. We may use this information to help provide more tailored experiences across all of your devices or as otherwise explained in this Privacy Policy. We may also use this information to prevent fraud, such as by identifying when your account is accessed from an unfamiliar device, or to provide customized advertising based on your use of each device and your interactions with the Sites. To opt-out or cancel this device tracking, you may cancel or delete your account information.
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How is technology used to serve our advertisements on other sites that you visit and what choices do you have?
We may contract with third party advertising companies to tailor online advertising to be directed to you on other websites. These third party advertising companies place, use, or rely on technology, such as cookies and pixel tags, to obtain information about your interactions with our Sites as well as with other websites. This information helps us select advertising to serve to you and where to serve it based on your experience on our Sites and other sites that you visit.
For information about opt out programs that these third party advertising companies participate in, and the effect of opting out, click the following: DAA Opt Out click hereor NAI Opt Out click hereBy clicking this website, you will then leave our Site for another online site where you may specify your preferences under that opt-out program. You can also click the preference icon that may appear on some of our advertising served through these technologies. You should also note that our systems may not recognize “Do Not Track” headers from some or all browsers.
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What choices do you have over how Smart Columbus uses your information?
We give you choices about the information we collect and how we communicate with you.
- Email: You may opt-out of our marketing emails or newsletters by following the instructions listed in the email that you received. However, even if you opt-out you may still receive non-marketing emails, such as customer service communications.
- Location Information:
- Mobile Device Location Information. Your mobile device settings may allow you to disable location-based services, which will prevent our Sites from accessing your precise mobile device location information. We recommend you review the help or user manual provided with your device for instructions.
- Desktop Device Location Information. Your desktop web browser may allow you to remove permission you granted through your desktop device for our Sites to access your location information and/or completely block requests for location information. We recommend you review the help or user manual provided with your browser for instructions.
- Email Location Information. Your email program may allow you to prevent the pixel tags or images in the emails you receive from us from downloading, which will also prevent our service provider from accessing your location information. You can also unsubscribe from receiving our emails, as described in the "Email" section above.
- California Opt-Out Rights: Under California law, if you are a resident of California and have previously communicated with us, you may make a written request to Smart Columbus about how we have shared your personal information during the prior calendar year with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. In response to your written request, Smart Columbus is allowed to provide you with a cost-free means to opt-out of such sharing rather than providing the information about these third parties. We are providing the opportunity to opt out, which you can do by submitting an opt out request to smartcolumbus@columbus.gov that includes your name and all of the postal addresses, email addresses, and other contact information that you have provided to us.
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How does Smart Columbus secure your information on its Sites?
Our Sites utilize encryption technology. We also use firewalls and have implemented other reasonable technical, administrative and physical measures designed to protect the personal information in our custody or control from unauthorized access, use, modification and disclosure. Moreover, we regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks. While we implement these security measures on our Sites, you should be aware that 100% security is not always possible.
We may enable you to navigate to third-party websites through links on our Sites. We do this for your convenience. If it is not one of our Sites, we don't endorse, may not have any affiliation with, do not control and aren't responsible for those third-party websites and/or their Internet and web practices. Whether the third-party content appears within our Site environment (like a map frame), or you leave our Site for another website to view it, the terms, conditions, and privacy policies of those other websites govern your online experience. Please review their terms of service and privacy policies if you have any question about their practices.
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Will this Privacy Policy change?
We may make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it periodically. We will update the effective date of the Privacy Policy at the time a change is made.
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How can I contact Smart Columbus?
If you have questions or concerns with respect to our Privacy Policy, please contact us by calling us at (614) 225-6980, or emailing us at smartcolumbus@columbus.gov, making sure to include your question, name and contact information.
Effective as of: July 23, 2018