Privacy Policy

The Council of the District of Columbia is committed to protecting the privacy and security of our visitors at www.dccouncil.gov. In order to ensure your privacy, we have established the following practices:

Collection of Information

The Council may collect personally identifiable information that is necessary to provide information or services requested by an individual. “Personally identifiable information” refers to information relating to an identified or identifiable individual who is the subject of the information. This is the same information that an individual might provide when visiting a Council office and includes such items as an individual’s name, address, or email address. We only collect this information from individuals who affirmatively provide the information. For example, we may collect an email address from an individual who wishes to receive emails or other updates about Council activities. A user may also affirmatively submit personal information on an online form in response to a survey.

In addition, we collect automatically generated statistical information to help us improve our service. The information collected is not associated with any specific individual and no attempt is made to profile individuals who browse the web site. The information may include your IP address, the domain you use to access the Internet, date and time of your visit, the type of browser and operating system you use, and the address of the web site you came from when you came to visit. We also track the pages accessed to track the popularity of certain pages and to improve the value of our site. We will not record, collect, or track users’ personally identifiable information through these processes. Furthermore, at this time, our website does not use cookies or other tools that store information on your computer.

Use of Information

We will use the information for governmental purposes including, but not limited to, responding to requests, compiling constituent feedback on particular issues, and investigating complaints or problems reported via the Council website. E-mail or other information requests sent to the Council’s web site may be maintained or forwarded to the appropriate agencies in order to respond to the request.

In addition, we may aggregate certain information for public disclosure. For example, if you respond to a survey, we may include your comments along with your name and Ward as part of a compilation. We will not, however, publish your email address under any circumstances, except when required by law or court order.

Data Security

We store any collected information in a secure environment, protected by a firewall, and multiple levels of security.

Usage by Third-Parties

We will not provide personally identifiable information to anyone other than our employees, staff, or agents, and in all circumstances, only for official Council purposes.

Email Lists

We will not use your email address unless you choose to receive updates and other information from the Council. We rely on a third-party service to provide these updates, and we are not responsible for any failures by the vendor to preserve subscriber anonymity.

Children’s Privacy

The Council complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), which protects the privacy of children using the Internet. This website is not directed to children under 13, and we do not solicit or knowingly collect personal information from minors.

Individual Members’ Pages

In addition to the central Council offices, each individual Member or Committee may maintain an office website. This privacy policy does not apply to those sites. For those offices’ privacy policies, please refer to the individual policies included on their websites so that you can know what information they collect and how they use that information.

Links to Other Sites

This website has links to many other sites outside of the www.dccouncil.gov domain. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of these sites and suggest you review their privacy statements.

Contact Information

We welcome comments, suggestions, and other feedback regarding this privacy statement and our website. Please relay all comments to webmaster@dccouncil.gov.

Changes to the Policy

From time to time, we may update this policy as our practices change or as we develop better ways to keep you informed about them. You should refer back to this page often for the latest information and the effective date of any changes. If we decide to change this policy, we will post a new policy on our site and change the date at the bottom. Changes to the policy shall not apply retroactively. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

Updated: April 20, 2011