GovDirections LLC Privacy Policy

(Last Updated: May 20, 2021, previously updated October 12, 2015)

Your privacy is important to GovDirections, LLC (“GovDirections”, “we”, or “us”) and we are committed to protecting the privacy of your information. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store, share and protect your Personal Information. This Policy applies to all Personal Information collected during any written, electronic, and oral communications, as well as any information collected online, which includes the GovDirections website located at www.GovDirections.com and other GovDirections websites, such as www.GovSchool.com, www.GovAdvice.com and www.GovReporter.com (the “Sites”), and other services and tools (including, but not limited to, mobile applications and other software applications) that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services”).

1. Acceptance of Privacy Policy
Please read the GovDirections Terms of Services carefully before you use our Service. This Privacy Policy is part of, and is governed by, the terms and conditions set forth in the GovDirections Terms of Service. By creating a GovDirections account, or by otherwise accessing, visiting or using the Service, you expressly consent to the GovDirections Terms of Service, and the data practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not feel comfortable with any part of this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Service, please discontinue your access or use of the Service immediately.

By creating a GovDirections account, or by otherwise accessing, visiting or using the Service, you expressly consent to the GovDirections Terms of Service, and the data practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not feel comfortable with any part of this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Service, please discontinue your access or use of the Service immediately

2. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We will notify you of changes to this Privacy Policy by posting the amended terms on the Service at least ten (10) days before the effective date of the changes. If you do not agree to the new terms, you may terminate your account within the applicable ten (10) day period by contacting us at customercare@govdirections.com, and you will not be bound by the amended terms. Otherwise, the new terms will take effect after ten (10) days.

3. The Personal Information We Collect
Personal Information is any information that we collect on or in connection with the Services that relates to you, identifies you personally or could be used to identity you, such as your name, email, phone number and address ("Personal Information"). Aggregated or anonymized information does not constitute Personal Information. The types of Personal Information that we may collect about you are:

• Account Information. We may collect Personal Information that you provide to us in connection with your use of the Service when you register as a user of the Service, send email messages, forms, or other information to us through the Service, or enter a drawing or giveaway offered through the Service. If you register for a GovDirections account directly through the Service, you will be required to provide your email address and password. You can use the Service without registering, however, you may not be able to use certain features of the Service, such as viewing bid information or award data offered through the Service.
• Information You Provide to Us. GovDirections Account. You may also choose to provide additional information in connection with your GovDirections account, including your physical address, your industry and state preferences, and the business opportunities you are seeking. Providing this additional information is optional and you are not required to provide this information in order to use the Service.
• Device Information. We may collect information such as your mobile device ID, device type, and your use of features, functions, or notifications on the device. If you access the Service through a computer, we will automatically collect information such as your browser type and version, computer and connection information, statistics on page views, traffic to and from the Service, Internet Protocol ("IP") address and standard web log information.

4. Information Collected by Cookies and Similar Technologies
In some cases, we may use cookies and similar technologies, such as pixel tags, that automatically collect information. Cookies are small files, typically of letters and numbers, downloaded onto your computer or mobile device when you visit certain websites. When you return to these websites, or visit other websites that use the same cookies, the websites recognize these cookies and your browsing device. A cookie cannot read data off your hard drive or read cookie files created by other websites.

Pixel tags are very small images or small pieces of data embedded in images, also known as "web beacons" or "clear GIFs," that can recognize cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, a description of the page where the pixel tag is placed, and similar information from your computer or device.

Information that may be collected by cookies when you use the Service may include, without limitation:

• the pages you visit within the Service;
• the date and time of your visit to the Service; 
• the amount of time you spend using the Service; 
• the IP address used to connect your computer to the Internet; and/or
• your computer and connection information such as your browser type and version, operating system and platform.

Some of the functions performed by cookies are strictly necessary for us to be able to offer you our Service, while other cookies provide us with valuable insight about how we can improve our Service or help us with marketing our products and services to you based on your interests and preferences.

The length of time a cookie will stay on your browsing device depends on whether it is a "persistent" or "session" cookie. Session cookies will only stay on your device until you stop browsing. Persistent cookies stay on your browsing device until they expire or are deleted (i.e. after you have finished browsing).

First and Third-Party Cookies
When you access our Services, we or companies we work with may place cookies on your computer or other device. These technologies help us better understand user behavior and inform us about which parts of our websites people have visited.

We use both first-party and third-party cookies on our Service. First-party cookies are cookies that are placed on your device by us, while third-party cookies are set by parties other than GovDirections. Third-party cookies are operated by third parties that can recognize your device both when it visits our Service and when it visits other websites or mobile apps. GovDirections does not control how third-party cookies are used, and we encourage you to check the websites of any third-party cookie providers for more information about how they use cookie information.

Advertising Tracking Technology and Analytics
GovDirections uses third-party service providers to display advertising on our Services and serve advertising on other third-party sites that are more relevant to you or your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement, as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They remember that you have visited a website and this information may be shared with other organizations, such as advertisers. This means that after you have used our Services, you may see some advertisements about our Services elsewhere on the Internet. The information collected through this process by the third-party service providers does not enable us or them to identify your name, contact details or other Personal Information that directly identifies you unless you choose to provide these. Such advertising will only be delivered where permitted by applicable law.

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. The cookies and other technologies used by Google may collect Personal Information, but GovDirections does not use Google Analytics to gather information that personally identifies you. The information generated by Google Analytics will be transmitted to and stored by Google and will be subject to Google’s privacy policies. You may exercise choices regarding the use of cookies from Google Analytics by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout or downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

We may also use tracking technologies to collect "clickstream" data, such as the domain name of the service providing you with Internet access, your device type, IP address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your browser type and version, operating system and platform, the average time spent on our Site, webpages viewed, content searched for, access times and other relevant statistics, and assign unique identifiers to the device or other credentials you use to access the Sites for the same purposes.

Pages of our Sites and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

Pages of our Sites may also use Java scripts, which are code snippets embedded in various parts of websites and applications that facilitate a variety of operations including accelerating the refresh speed of certain functionality or monitoring usage of various online components; entity tags, which are HTTP code mechanisms that allow portions of websites to be stored or "cached" within your browser to accelerate website performance; and HTML5 local storage, which allows data from websites to be stored or "cached" within your browser to store and retrieve data in HTML5 pages when the website is revisited.

Your Choices.

• First-Party Cookies. You can use the browser with which you are viewing this website to enable, disable or delete first-party cookies. To do this, follow the instructions provided by your browser (usually located within the "Help", "Tools" or "Edit" settings). Please note, if you set your browser to disable cookies, you may not be able to access secure areas of the Site. Also, if you disable cookies other parts of the Services may not work properly. You can find more information about how to change your browser cookie settings at https://www.allaboutcookies.org.
• Advertising Cookies. If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements according to our advertisers’ target-audience preferences, you can opt-out of interest-based targeting provided by participating ad servers through the Digital Advertising Alliance (https://optout.aboutads.info) or the Network Advertising Initiative (https://www.aboutads.info/choices). In addition, on your iPhone, iPad or Android mobile device, you can change your device settings to control whether you see online interest-based ads.
• Mobile Advertising. You can opt out of having your mobile advertising identifiers used for certain types of advertising by accessing the settings in mobile device and following the instructions. If you opt-out, we will remove all data about you and will not collect any further data. The random ID previously assigned to you will be removed. Thus, if at a later stage, you decide to opt-in, we will be unable to continue and track you using the prior ID and you will for all practical purposes be a new user.
• Flash Cookies. If you do not want Flash Cookies stored on your computer, you can adjust the settings of your Flash player to block Flash Cookies storage using the tools contained in the website storage settings panel. You can also control Flash Cookies by going to the global storage settings panel and following the instructions. Setting the Flash Player to restrict or limit acceptance of Flash Cookies may reduce or impede the functionality of some Flash applications, including, potentially, Flash applications used in connection with our services or online content.

We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. In addition, most web browsers provide help pages relating to setting cookie preferences. More information may be found for the following browsers here:

• Google Chrome
• Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari (Desktop)
• Safari (Mobile)
• Android Browser
• Opera
• Opera Mobile

Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers - like Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari - include the ability to transmit "Do Not Track" or "DNT" signals. Since uniform standards for DNT signals have not been adopted, our Sites do not currently process or respond to DNT signals.

5. How Your Personal Information Is Used
GovDirections may use information that we collect about you through the Service in the following ways:

• To provide access to the Service and to provide you with requested services and customer support and to process and respond to your inquiries; 
• To personalize, customize, measure, and improve our services, content, and advertising and otherwise to enhance your experience of the Service; 
• To prevent, detect, and investigate potentially prohibited or illegal activities, and enforce the GovDirections Terms of Service; 
• To analyze the accuracy, effectiveness, usability, or popularity of the Service; 
• To generate and review reports and data about our user base and service usage patterns; 
• To compile aggregate data for internal and external business purposes; 
• To resolve disputes and troubleshoot problems; 
• To contact you with information, including promotional, marketing and advertising information and recommendations that we believe may be of interest to you; 
• To provide you with other services requested by you as described when we collect the information; 
• To provide you with information we deem relevant when you visit third-party merchant locations;
• To send push notifications to your mobile device to provide updates about the Service and other relevant messages, to the extent you consent to this during registration process; and 
• As otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy or the GovDirections Terms of Service.

6. Sharing of Information with Third Parties
We take care to allow your Personal Information to be accessed only by those who need access to perform their tasks and duties, and to share with other parties who have a legitimate purpose for accessing it. We want you to understand when and with whom we may share the information we collect. We may share information that we collect through the Services with third parties as follows:

• Our Service Providers. We may share your Personal Information with contractors or service providers who provide certain services to us or on our behalf, such as operating and supporting the Service or otherwise responding to your customer service requests. These service providers will only have access to the information needed to perform these limited functions on our behalf and are required to provide your information with at least the same level of protection and security as we use for the Service.
• Business Transfers or Bankruptcy. If GovDirections becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, securities offering, bankruptcy, reorganization, dissolution, or other transaction or if the ownership of all or substantially all of our business otherwise changes, GovDirections may share or transfer your Personal Information to a third party or parties in connection with the applicable transaction.
• Law Enforcement Authorities. To the extent permitted or required by law, we may share your Personal Information with law enforcement, governmental agencies, or authorized third parties, in response to a verified request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity or any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other GovDirections user to legal liability, or to protect our rights or property, or during emergencies when safety is at risk.

7. Data Security
GovDirections takes reasonable measures to protect the information you provide to GovDirections or submit through the Service against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure, or modification. However, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to GovDirections or submit through the Service and you do so at your own risk. No internet or email transmission is ever fully secure or error-free. Email sent to or through the Service may not be secure. You should use caution whenever submitting information online and take special care in deciding what information you send to us via email. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site.
8. Accessing, Changing and Managing Your Information
You may change and update the information you provide through the Service, or change your preferences concerning how we use your Personal Information, as follows:

• Changing, Updating or Deleting Your Information. You may make changes to the user information you provided in connection with your GovDirections account by logging in to your account and changing the applicable information. If you choose to terminate your account, you may also request that we delete your information by contacting us at customercare@govdirections.com. Following receipt of a request from you, we will take reasonable steps to update, correct or delete your information as required under the applicable law.
  
  In addition, if you are a California resident under the age of 18 and are a registered user of the Service, you may request that we remove content or information about you that you posted on the Service by (i) submitting a request in writing to customercare@govdirections.com  and (ii) clearly identifying the content or information you wish to have removed and providing sufficient information to allow us to locate the content or information to be removed. Please note, we are not required to, and may not be able to, erase or otherwise eliminate content or information if (a) other state or federal laws require us or a third party to maintain the content or information; (b) the content or information was posted, stored, or republished by another user; (c) the content or information is anonymized so that you cannot be individually identified; (d) you do not follow the instructions posted in this Privacy Policy on how to request removal of your content or information; or (e) you have received compensation or other consideration for providing the content. Further, nothing in this provision shall be construed to limit the authority of a law enforcement agency to obtain the applicable content or information.

9. Children's Privacy
GovDirections is not intended for use by children under the age of sixteen (16). We will never knowingly collect Personal Information directly from children under the age of sixteen (16) without verifiable parental consent. If you are under the age of sixteen (16), please do not provide us with information of any kind whatsoever. We encourage parents and guardians to spend time with their children online and to be familiar with the websites they visit. If you have reason to believe that we may have accidentally received information from a child under the age of sixteen (16), please contact us immediately at customercare@govdirections.com.

10. International Users
The Services are offered in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States and choose to use the Service or provide your information to us, your information will be transferred, processed and stored in the United States. U.S. privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. Your agreement to our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of information in connection with the Service represents your agreement to this practice. If you do not want your Personal Information transferred to or processed or stored in the United States, you should not use the Service.

11. Retention of Your Information
We retain information for active GovDirections accounts as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations. In addition, we may retain information from closed accounts to comply with the law, prevent fraud, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigation, enforce the GovDirections Terms of Service and take other actions permitted by law. The information we retain about you will be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
12. Special Notice For California Residents
This section applies only to California residents. Pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 ("CCPA"), below is a summary of the Personal Information categories, as identified and defined by the CCPA (see California Civil Code section 1798.140 (o)), that we collect, the reason we collect your Personal Information, where we obtain the Personal Information, and the third parties that we share your Personal Information. We may collect:

• identifiers such as a name, address, unique personal identifier, email, phone number, your device's IP address, software, and identification numbers associated with your devices;
• commercial information such as records of products or services purchased, obtained, or considered by you;
• Internet or other electronic information regarding your browsing history, search history, the webpage visited before you came to our Site, length of visit and number of page views, click-stream data, locale preferences, your mobile carrier, date and time stamps associated with transactions, and system configuration information;
• your geolocation, to the extent you have configured your device to permit us to collect such information;
• audio recordings of your voice to the extent you call us, as permitted under applicable law; and
• inferences about your preferences, characteristics, behavior and attitudes.

We generally do not collect protected classifications about our users, such as biometric information, professional or employment-related information, or education information. For more information about the Personal Information we collect and how we collect it, please refer to sections 3 and 4 above.

We collect your Personal Information for the business and commercial purposes described in sections 4 and 5. To find out the categories of third parties with whom we share such information, please see section 6.

Privacy Rights. If you are a California resident, you have rights in relation to your Personal Information; however, your rights are subject to certain exceptions. For instance, GovDirections cannot disclose specific pieces of Personal Information if the disclosure would create a substantial, articulable, and unreasonable risk to the security of the Personal Information, your account with us or the security of our network systems.

• Right Against Discrimination:  We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your right to know, delete or to opt-out of sales.
• Right to Know:  You have the right to know the Personal Information we collect, use, disclose, and sell about you during the preceding 12 months. You have the right to request in writing from us a copy of the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which we collected that information, why we collected that information about you, the categories of third parties with whom we shared your Personal Information, the categories of Personal Information that the business disclosed about you for a business purpose, and the specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you. Please note that we are only required to respond twice per calendar year to your right to know.
• Right to Delete:  You have the right to request us delete any Personal Information we have collected from you or maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions.
  
  To assert your right to know or your right to delete your Personal Information, please contact us at customercare@govdirections.com.  To verify your identity, we may ask you to verify Personal Information we already have on file for you. If we cannot verify your identity from the information we have on file, we may request that you submit additional information, which we will only use to verify your identity, and for security or fraud-prevention purposes. In certain circumstances, you are permitted to use an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf where (i) you provide sufficient evidence to show that the requestor is an authorized agent with written permission to act on your behalf and (ii) you successfully verify your own identity with us.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale:  We share information about you with our partners, third parties or affiliates for our marketing purposes. Such sharing may be considered a "sale" of Personal Information under the CCPA. All California residents have the right to opt-out of such sharing. If you would like us to no longer share your Personal Information in this way please email customercare@govdirections.com. If you opt-out, we may be unable to offer you some of our Services which require sharing of Personal Information.

If you are a California resident you may request a notice from us describing what categories of Personal Information (if any) we have shared with third parties, including our corporate affiliates, for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. You may request such notice once a year and free of charge. To request a notice, please contact us as provided in the “How to Contact Us” section of this Policy and indicate in the email subject line “California Shine the Light Request” so that we can process your request. Please include your mailing address, state of residence and email address with your request.

13. Special Notice to Nevada Residents
Pursuant to Nevada law, if you are a Nevada resident, you may direct us not to sell Personal Information we collect from you to another party for that party to license or sell to another party. You may request to opt-out of such sharing by emailing us at customercare@govdirections.com. Please note, we may seek to verify your identity when we receive a request from you in order to ensure the security of your Personal Information.

14. How to Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our use of the information we collect from you in connection with the Service, you may contact us by email at customercare@govdirections.com, or by postal mail at 245 N Highland AVE, STE 230-524, Atlanta, GA 30307 Attn: GovDirections Customer Care. You can contact us by phone at (800) 492-8523.

* Last updated on October 12, 2015 to change our phone number. On May 20, 2021 we made changes to accommodate a new application and recognize California and Nevada laws. Originally prepared March 21, 2012.