Privacy Policy

Buchanan & Associates

Website Privacy Policy Statement

May 2008

Introduction

Buchanan & Associates recognizes that technology has changed the nature and accessibility of government business information and the prospective use of that information. While committed to applying technology to improve access to information, we are strongly committed to protecting your online privacy.

The purpose of this statement is to inform you about the types of information we gather when you visit our web site, how we may use that information, whether we disclose it to anyone, the security precautions we take to protect your privacy, and how to contact us if you have questions or concerns.

Disclaimer

This site provides links to other sites. This privacy policy applies only to Buchanan & Associates’ web site. When you link to any other web site, you are subject to the privacy policy of that site. Visitors linking to another site are encouraged to examine the privacy statement of that site.

While Buchanan & Associates attempts to maintain current data throughout its website, we regret that this may not always be possible. Neither Buchanan & Associates, officer, nor strategic partner, even employee of Buchanan & Associates warrants the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information published on this system; we do not endorse any content, viewpoints, products, or services linked from other systems to this site, and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect, or not current.  Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this site does so at his or her own risk.

Collection of Information

We collect information that is used for analysis and statistical purposes that help us manage Buchanan & Associates’ web site. Also, we collect information to assist us in delivering service and information to our customers.

(1) Information collected for statistical purposes. We automatically collect electronically generated information about your visit to our site, such as the date, type of browser used, and technical Internet protocol data. We collect this information about each user session from our use logs, and refer to it for statistical purposes.

(2) Information provided when using our interactive forms and functions. This information may include such things as name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and other personal and business data, depending on that particular service you use. We collect only those data necessary to provide the service that you are requesting.

Users of the Service may be Clients, Associates, or Agencies (as each is defined in the User Agreement).

Information You Provide to Us

When you use the Service, you may provide us with information about you. This may include your name and contact information, financial information to make or receive payment for services obtained through the Buchanan & Associates’ platform, or information to help us fill out tax forms. When you use the Service, we may also collect information related to your use of the Service and aggregate this with information about other users. This helps us improve our Services for you. You may also provide us with information about your contacts or friends if, for example, you’d like to add those contacts to a message room. Agencies may also provide us with information about Associates associated with the Agency.

• Personal Information: In the course of using the Service (whether as a Client or Freelancer or Agency), we may require or otherwise collect information that identifies you as a specific individual and can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Information”). Examples of Personal Information include your name, email address, company address, billing address, and phone number.
• Payment Information: If you use the Service to make or receive payments, we will also collect certain payment information, such as credit card or other financial account information, and billing address.
• Identity Verification: We may collect Personal Information, such as your date of birth or taxpayer identification number, to validate your identity or as may be required by law, such as to complete tax filings. We may request documents to verify this information, such as a copy of your government-issued identification or photo or a billing statement.
• General Audience Service: The Service is general audience and intended for users 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from anyone younger than age 18. If we become aware that a child younger than 18 has provided us with Personal Information, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete such information from our files. If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child younger than age 18 and believe that Buchanan & Associates has collected Personal Information from your child, please contact us at: SmallBusiness@TheBuchananGroup.net
• Non-Identifying Information/Usernames: We also may collect other information, such as zip codes, demographic data, information regarding your use of the Service, and general project-related data (“Non-Identifying Information”). We may aggregate information collected from Buchanan & Associates’ registered and non-registered users (“Buchanan & Associates Users”). In some cases, we may render Personal Information (generally, email address) into a form of Non-Identifying Information referred to in this Privacy Policy as “Hashed Information.” This is typically accomplished using a mathematical process (commonly known as a hash function) to convert information into a code. The code does not identify you directly, but it may be used to connect your activity and interests.
• Combination of Personal and Non-Identifying Information: Certain Non-Identifying Information would be considered a part of your Personal Information if it were combined with other identifiers in a way that enables you to be identified (for example, combining information with your name). But the same pieces of information are considered Non-Identifying Information when they are taken alone or combined only with other non-identifying information (for example, your viewing preferences). We may combine your Personal Information with Non-Identifying Information, but Buchanan & Associates will treat the combined information as Personal Information.
• Collection of Third Party Personal Information: We collect the following personal information from you about your contacts or friends: First name, last name, and email address when you provide it to us for the purpose of adding your contacts to a message room.

You do not have a statutory obligation to provide us with any information, but you may have a contractual obligation to do so, and if we do not receive certain information from you, then we will not be able to provide our Service to you. If you have any questions regarding whether provision of information is mandatory and the consequences for withholding such information, please contact us using the contact information below.

Information Received from Third Parties

Third parties may also give us information about you. If we combine that information with information about you collected through the Service, we will still treat that combined information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

We also may receive information about you from third parties. For example, we may supplement the information we collect with outside records or third parties may provide information in connection with a co-marketing agreement or at your request (such as if you choose to sign in with a third-party service). If we combine the information we receive from others with information we collect through the Service, we will treat the combined information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Disclosure to Third Parties

As a small business, Buchanan & Associates is governed by local governments, city, state, and federal laws; some information maybe subject to public records laws. Any information that we receive through use of our web site is subject to confidentiality as well as the same provisions as if the information was provided on paper. Otherwise, we do not share our clients’ personal and/or identifying information with any third party without your permission. Information obtained from clients is not reported or released to any outside parties unless we are legally required to do so in connection with law enforcement investigations or other legal proceedings. Further, we do not reveal any e-mail address information to third parties for independent use unless the client specifically authorizes Buchanan & Associates to do so.

Information Collected Automatically

Like other online companies, we receive technical information when you use our Services. We use these technologies to analyze how people use the Service, to improve how our Site functions, to save your log-in information for future sessions, and to serve you with advertisements that may interest you.

We and our third party service providers, including analytics and third party content providers, may automatically collect certain information from you whenever you access or interact with the Service. This information may include, among other information, the browser and operating system you are using, the URL or advertisement that referred you to the Service, the search terms you entered into a search engine that led you to the Service, areas within the Service that you visited, which links you clicked on, which pages or content you viewed and for how long, other similar information and statistics about your interactions, such as content response times, download errors and length of visits to certain pages and other information commonly shared when browsers communicate with websites. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services we offer you, and to improve marketing, analytics, and site functionality.

The information we collect also includes the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address or other unique device identifier (“Device Identifier”) for any device (computer, mobile phone, tablet, etc.) used to access the Service. A Device Identifier is a number that is automatically assigned or connected to the device you use to access the Service, and our servers identify your device by its Device Identifier. Some mobile service providers may also provide us or our third party service providers with information regarding the physical location of the device used to access the Service.

Buchanan & Associates and its partners use cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movement around the website, the desktop app, and the mobile app, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. The technology used to collect information automatically from Buchanan & Associates Users may include the following:

• Cookies: Like many websites, we and our marketing partners, affiliates, analytics, and service providers use “cookies” to collect information. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping purposes. We use both persistent cookies that remain on your computer or similar device (such as to save your registration ID and login password for future logins to the Service and to track your compliance with the Buchanan & Associates’ Terms of Service) and session ID cookies, which expire at the end of your browser session (for example, to enable certain features of the Service, to better understand how Buchanan & Associates Users interact with the Service and to monitor aggregate usage by Buchanan & Associates’ Users and web traffic routing on the Service). You can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level, but if you choose to disable cookies, it may limit your use of certain features or functionality of the Service. For further information on cookies and how they are used for the Service, please visit our Cookie Policy at https://www.TheBuchananGroup.net/legal#cookie-policy      
• Web Beacons: We and our marketing partners, affiliates, analytics, and service providers may also employ software technology known as “web beacons” and/or “tracking tags” to help us keep track of what content on our Service is effective and to serve relevant advertising to you. Web beacons are small graphics with a unique identifier that may be invisible to you, and which are used to track the online activity of Internet users. Web beacons are embedded in the web pages you review or email messages you receive. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors to our Service, to monitor how Buchanan & Associates’ Users navigate the Service, to count how many emails that were sent were actually opened, or to count how many particular articles or links were actually viewed.
• Embedded Scripts: We and our marketing partners, affiliates, analytics, and service providers may also employ software technology known as an Embedded Script. An Embedded Script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Service, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your computer or other device and is deactivated or deleted when you disconnect from the Service.

In addition, we and our marketing partners, affiliates, analytics, and service providers may use a variety of other technologies (such as tags) that collect similar information for security and fraud detection purposes and we may use third parties to perform these services on our behalf.

Sale of Data

Buchanan & Associates does not sell data for direct mail or advertising purposes.

Security

Buchanan & Associates’ web servers contain state-of-the-art industry security precautions that prevent personal information from being stolen or tampered with. We limit employee access to personally identifiable information to only those employees who need access to perform a specific job. All employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices.

Use of Information

If you send us an e-mail message with a question or comment that contains personally identifying information, or fill out a form that transmits this information, we will only use the personally identifiable information to respond to your request and analyze trends. We may redirect your message to another government agency or person in a better position to answer your question.

In order to provide you with the ability to receive directed e-mail information in which you have expressed an interest, it is necessary for Buchanan & Associates to collect your e-mail address. This information is used only for e-mail distribution to the specific list or lists for which you have registered. By agreeing to use this service, you are granting us permission to send you periodic e-mails only about topics for which you registered. The Port will use your e-mail address only for this permission based e-mail service.

Use of Cookies

We do use “persistent” cookies to collect permanent information (please note: a cookie file contains unique information a web site can use to track such things as passwords, lists of pages you’ve visited, and the date when you last looked at a specific page, or to identify your session at a particular web site. A cookie is often used in commercial sites to identify the items selected for a specific shopping cart application). We do use “persistent” cookies in applications that keep track of a user and make it possible for you to complete a form or use a function, but this cookie disappears when you finish filling out an application, or searching a database.

Control of Personal Information

While accessing our website online, users may decline participation at any time in any activity that asks for information (e.g., survey, e-mail, e-commerce). Your choice not to participate will in no way affect your ability to use any other feature on our site. We also offer you the permanent option to unsubscribe from any and all “e-inform” mail lists maintained for our listserv service. Users may at any time choose to remove themselves from any list.

Children

No application on Buchanan & Associates’ website specifically solicits information from minors or seeks to determine whether the visitor is a minor. Consequently, visitors should be aware that the collection of personal information requested from or volunteered by minors online or by e-mail will be treated in the same manner as information given by an adult. This information may become a public record, and as such may be subject to public access. We ask that parents guide their children if they are mistakenly asked to provide personal information online.

Contact

If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy or about the web site in general, you may e-mail Buchanan & Associates web manager at smallbusiness@thebuchanangroup.net.