Notice of Privacy Practices
Commitment to Your Privacy
This site is owned and operated by Summit independent Living Center, Inc. (Summit). Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At Summit, we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.
Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.
Information Summit Gathers and Tracks
Summit gathers information about users that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions to receive our electronic newsletters, to participate in our message boards or forums, and from participation in polls and surveys.
Under no circumstances does Summit divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.
Optional Voluntary Information
- Electronic Newsletters (Dispatches)
We offer a free electronic newsletter to users. Summit gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every newsletter that points users to the subscription management page.
- Action Alerts
We offer a free action alert email listserv to users. Summit gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every action alert that points users to the subscription management page.
- Message Boards and Forums
Summit does not currently utilize Message Boards or Forums. We may offer them in the future at which time users must register separately for these services in order to post messages, although they need not register to visit the site.
- Surveys
Summit may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our governing board. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.
Children
Consistent with the Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personal health information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.
Usage Tracking
Summit tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. Summit does break down overall usage statistics according to a user’s domain name, browser type and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user’s browser).
Summit sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms those users enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don’t like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.
Cookies
We may place a text file called a “cookie” in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can’t read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Summit ILC uses cookies to track user traffic patterns.
You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you’ve set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in polling and surveys.
Use of Information
Summit uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in our network of sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our users.
As stated above, we use information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participant in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. We send out newsletters and action alert emails to voluntary subscribers on a regular basis and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. Summit never shares newsletter or action alert mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners and we only use tracking information from our network of websites to determine which areas of our sites users like and don’t like based on the amount of traffic to each area.
Sharing of Information
Summit uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs. We will not share information about individual users with any third party, except to comply with any applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.
Security
Summit operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our consumers.
Opt-Out Policy
We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:
- Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters or action alerts.
- Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users.
Your Consent
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by Summit. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.