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Philadelphia Skyline

Privacy Policy

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Your Privacy Matters to Us

The Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (“PHLCVB,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) has updated our Privacy Policy (“Policy”). Please read this Policy carefully. It is your choice whether or not to provide personal information to us. If you choose to do so, you are giving us your express consent to use, process, and disclose your personal information as set forth in this Policy. If you choose not to provide your personal information to us, you may not be able to use our services.

1. Introduction

We respect the privacy of our customers and website users and have developed this Policy to demonstrate our commitment to protecting your privacy.

2. Scope of this Policy

This Policy is intended to describe our practices with respect to the collection, use, and maintenance (“Processing”) of personal information relating to users of our website (identified below) or other services we provide.

For the purposes of this Policy, the term “Site” shall refer to www.discoverphl.com. In this Policy, “personal information” means information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or to one or more factors specific to his/her physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity. Personal information does not include aggregate information or de-identified information, meaning that the information can no longer be attributed to an identifiable natural person without the use of additional information.

Personal information is required for us to be able to provide the services to you. In addition, some of the services we provide require that we disclose your personal information to third parties, such as to companies that help us to provide our services. If you are not willing to provide your personal information and have it disclosed to third parties in accordance with this Policy, you will not be able to use our services.

Our Site may contain links to other websites that do not operate under this Policy. These third-party websites may independently solicit and collect personal information from you and, in some instances, provide us with information about your activities on those websites. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of all third-party websites you visit to understand their information practices.

While we strongly support the protection of privacy on the Internet, we do not have control over, and cannot be responsible for, the actions of other third parties. We encourage you to review each such third party’s privacy statement and understand its privacy practices before providing personal information directly to it.

3. Personal Information We Collect

We collect personal information to operate effectively and provide you with the best experience with our services. You provide some of this information directly, such as when you create an account, make a purchase, or contact us for support. We get some of your information, such as your IP address, by recording how you interact with our Site. We may also get information about you from our business partners or other third parties.

We may receive and collect certain personal information automatically, as outlined elsewhere in this Policy, and including analytics regarding our Site, information your Internet browser automatically sends when you visit our Site, and information collected by cookies and web beacons. We may collect personal information that can identify you such as your name and email address, and other information that does not identify you.

Information provided by you

We ask for and may collect personal information about you such as your name, address, e-mail address, birth date and telephone number. We also may request information about your interests and activities, your gender and age, and other demographic information.

The most common of these circumstances where you would provide personal information include the following:

  1. Creating an account: In order to use certain features of our Site, you may be required to create a password-protected user account and provide us with personal information. Similarly, when you enroll in a membership program or other promotion, you may be asked to submit personal information as part of your member profile. We will store and use this information to administer the programs and services in which you choose to participate, and as permitted by this Policy.
  2. Using Our Site: Our Site may provide you with the ability to enter (either directly, or by authorizing us to access the information from a third party such as a social networking site or application) certain information you may submit to us to help us provide or tailor our services to you.
  3. Contacting Us: When you contact us – for example, to request information, submit an RFP, or become a Member, we may ask you to provide, or confirm, personal information so that we can better serve you.
  4. Participating in a Promotion: If you participate in a promotion we offer, we may ask you to provide personal information so that we can consider your entry and/or award a prize.
  5. Interacting with social networking sites: Our Site may provide you with the ability to enter (directly, or by authorizing us to download the information from a third party such as a social networking site or application) personal information such as contacts or lists of friends. These or related applications may also allow you to provide information directly to social networking sites including information about your purchases, physical location, or comments. If you sign up to receive promotional communications or notifications from us, we may ask you to provide personal information so that we can provide these to you.

Information that we collect from you on our site

We also may use various technologies to collect information from your computer or device and about your activities on our Site.

  1. Information collected automatically. We may automatically collect information from you when you visit our Site. This information may include your IP address, your browser type and language, access times, the content of any undeleted cookies that your browser previously accepted from us, referring or exit website address, internet service provider, date/time stamp, operating system, locale and language preferences, and system configuration information.
  2. Social Media. We may provide you the ability to sign into the Site using a social media account such as a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Google account, or use your social media accounts to share information from our Site. In these cases, as well as when you choose to join (or “like”) a PHLCVB page on a social media site, the social media site may provide us with certain information about you, including but not limited to your contacts and other “likes”. In addition, we may share your information, including personal information, with third party vendors to facilitate your choice to sign into the Site using a social media account. Please see the privacy policy for the applicable social media site to learn more about how these sites share your personal information.
  3. Cookies. When you visit our Site, we may assign your computer one or more cookies to facilitate access to our site and to personalize your online experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our site, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on our site. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies please note that you may not be able to sign in or use some of the interactive features offered on our Site. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record keeping purposes. Cookies can be either session cookies or persistent cookies. A session cookie expires when you close your browser and is used to make it easier for you to navigate our Site. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. For example, when you sign in to our Site, we will record your user or member ID, which is your email address, and the name on your user or member account in the cookie file on your computer. We store your unique member ID in a cookie for automatic sign-in. This cookie is removed when you sign-out. For security purposes, we will encrypt the unique member ID and any other user or member account-related data that we store in such cookies. In the case of sites and services that do not use a user or member ID, the cookie will contain a unique identifier. We may allow our authorized service providers to serve cookies from our website to allow them to assist us in various activities, such as doing analysis and research on the effectiveness of our site, content and advertising. You may delete or decline cookies by changing your browser settings (click “Help” in the toolbar of most browsers for instructions). If you do so, some of the features and services of our Site may not function properly.
  4. Other technologies. We may use standard Internet technology, such as web beacons and other similar technologies, to track your use of our Site. We also may include web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. The information we obtain in this manner enables us to customize the services we offer our Site visitors to deliver targeted advertisements and to measure the overall effectiveness of our online advertising, content, programming or other activities. Web beacons (also known as clear gifs, pixel tags or web bugs) are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users or to access cookies. Unlike cookies, which are stored on the user’s computer hard drive, web beacons are embedded invisibly on the web pages (or in email) and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Web beacons may be used to deliver or communicate with cookies, to count users who have visited certain pages and to understand usage patterns. We also may receive an anonymous identification number if you come to our site from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website.

Information Collected From Other Sources

We may also obtain both personal and non-personal information about you from advertising companies, and ad networks business partners, contractors and other third parties and add it to our account information or other information we have collected. Examples of such information that we may receive include: updated delivery and address information, purchase history, and additional demographic information. We may combine this information with information we collect through our Site or from other sources.

4. How we use personal information

We use the personal information we collect for a variety of purposes. The legal basis for our Processing of personal information will depend on the specific context in which we collect it. We will retain personal information for as long as it is needed.

General Uses

We may use information that we collect about you to:

  • deliver the services that you have requested;
  • manage your account and provide you with customer support;
  • perform research and analysis about your use of, or interest in, our services, or content, or products, services or content offered by others;
  • communicate with you by e-mail, postal mail, telephone and/or mobile devices about products or services that may be of interest to you either from us or other third parties;
  • develop and display content and advertising tailored to your interests on our site and other sites;
  • verify your eligibility in connection with promotions;
  • enforce our terms and conditions;
  • manage our business and perform functions as otherwise described to you at the time of collection;
  • for legal compliance purposes; and/or
  • to use the information you provided to occasionally notify you about special sales or services and other valuable updates to personalize your shopping transactions (if you prefer that we not contact you in this manner please follow the Opt-Out instructions elsewhere in this Policy).

Lawful Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) is applicable, our lawful basis for Processing your personal information will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.

When we have collected your personal data to provide you with services that you have requested, our legal basis for the Processing of that personal data is that it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract. If you refuse to provide us with your personal data, you may be unable to obtain the services from us that you requested.

We also may use your personal data that you provided to us or our business partners to occasionally notify you about sales or services. This notification also is intended to provide you with a record of your agreement. If you would like to withdraw your consent for us to use your personal data in this manner, please contact us using the contact information provided below.

We also collect and process personal information about you as necessary to operate our business, meet our contractual and legal obligations, and/or fulfill our other legitimate interests (when not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms).

If you have any questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided below.

How long we retain your personal information

We will retain your personal information for as long as is needed to fulfill the purposes set forth in this Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). For personal information that we process on behalf of a business partner, we will retain such personal information in accordance with the terms of our agreement with them, subject to applicable law.

5. Sharing of personal information

We share your personal information as necessary to provide the services you request, including sharing information with third party service providers; when required by law; to protect rights and safety, and with your consent.

We may share personal information with:

  1. Authorized service providers: We may share your personal information with our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf. These services may include fulfilling orders, processing credit card payments, delivering packages, providing customer service and marketing assistance, performing business and sales analysis, supporting our Site functionality, and supporting contests, promotions, sweepstakes, surveys and other features offered through our Site. These service providers may have access to personal information needed to perform their functions but are not permitted to share or use such information for any other purposes.
  2. Business partners: When you make purchases or engage in promotions offered through our Site, we may share personal information with the businesses with which we partner to offer you those products, services, promotions, contests and/or sweepstakes. When you elect to engage in a particular merchant’s offer or program, you authorize us to provide your email address and other information to that merchant.
  3. Third party advertisers on our Site: We may allow third-parties, advertising companies, and ad networks, to display advertisements on our Site. These companies also may use tracking technologies, such as cookies, to collect information about users who view or interact with their advertisements. They may collect information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw and/or clicked on the advertisements they deliver, and possibly associate this information with your subsequent visits to the advertised websites. They also may combine this information with other personal information they collect from you or from other third parties.
  4. Other situations: We also may disclose your information:
    i. In response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand, a court order, or a request for cooperation from a law enforcement or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases, we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us.
    ii. When we believe disclosure is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, our employees, or others; to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement; or to enforce our website terms and conditions or other agreements or policies.
    iii. In connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as the sale of our business, a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.
    iv. When you provide us with your consent to share your information with third parties.

Third-Party Privacy Policies: Any third parties to whom we may disclose personal information may have their own privacy policies which describe how they use and disclose personal information. Those policies will govern use, handling and disclosure of your personal information once we have shared it with those third parties as described in this Policy. If you want to learn more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit the websites of those third parties. These entities or their servers may be located either inside or outside the United States.

Aggregated and Non-personal Information:

We may share aggregated and non-personal information we collect under any of the circumstances set forth in this Policy. We may also share it with third parties to develop and deliver targeted advertising on our Site and on websites and apps of third parties. We may combine non-personal information we collect with additional non-personal information collected from other sources. We also may share aggregated information with third parties, including advisors, advertisers and investors, for the purpose of conducting general business analysis. For example, we may tell our advertisers the number of visitors to our Site and the most popular features or services accessed. This information does not contain any personal information and may be used to develop website content and services that we hope you and other users will find of interest and to target content and advertising.

6. Transfer of Information (GDPR)

Your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed within the United States. Additionally, we may transfer your personal information to other countries in certain circumstances, for example because a server or third party service provider is located there. There are potential risks to you associated with transferring your information to the United States due to the absence of an adequacy decision and appropriate safeguards. These risks include the risk that you will not be able to exercise your data protection rights under applicable law to protect yourself from unlawful use or disclosure of your information. The data protection and privacy laws of other countries, including the United States, may not afford you the same level of protection as those in your own country.

IF YOU ARE FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION OR OTHER REGIONS WITH LAWS GOVERNING DATA COLLECTION AND USE AND YOU PROVIDE US WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION, YOU ARE AGREEING TO THE TRANSFER OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THE UNITED STATES AND POSSIBLY OTHER JURISDICTIONS.

7. Your Privacy Rights

How You Can Access Your Information

If you have a Member account with us, you have the ability to review and update your personal information online by logging into your account. You can also review and update your personal information by contacting us. More information about how to contact us is provided below.

You may request to have all of your personal information collected by us removed from our database by submitting a request to our contact information set forth at the end of this Policy, identifying the subject as “Privacy”. We will remove such information as soon as practicable for us, however, we may still retain certain information associated with your account for analytical purposes and record keeping integrity, as well as to prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, enforce our terms and conditions, take actions we deem necessary to protect the integrity of our web site or our users, or take other actions otherwise permitted by applicable law. In addition, if certain information has already been provided to third parties as described in this Policy, retention of that information will be subject to those third parties’ policies.

Your Choices About Collection and Use of Your Information

You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may result in you being unable to use certain features of our Site because such information may be required in order for you to register as a member; purchase products or services; participate in a contest, promotion, survey, or sweepstakes; ask a question; or initiate other transactions on our Site.

Opt-Out

At any time you can choose to no longer receive commercial or promotional emails or newsletters from us by modifying your email preferences by selecting the “Opt-Out” link found in the footer of the communication or on our Site and following the instructions or contacting us at DPO@discoverphl.com with the word “unsubscribe” in the email subject line. When you register as a Member on our Site, you will be given a choice as to whether you want to receive e-mail messages about special offers and deals related to your interest. You may modify your choice at any time by using the “Opt-Out” link as described above.

You also will be given the opportunity, in any commercial e-mail that we send to you, to opt out of receiving such messages in the future. It may take up to thirty (30) days for us to process an opt-out request. We may send you other types of transactional and relationship e-mail communications, such as service announcements, administrative notices, and surveys, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them. Please note that changing information in your account, or otherwise opting out of receipt of promotional email communications will only affect future activities or communications from us. If we have already provided your information to a third party before you have changed your preferences or updated your information, you may have to change your preferences directly with that third party.

Even if you opt-out of receiving promotional communications, you may continue to receive emails and notifications relating to order confirmations, back order notifications, membership information, and/or other business-related communications.

California Privacy Rights

California residents may request a notice from us describing which categories of personal information we have shared with third parties or corporate affiliates for those third parties or corporate affiliates’ direct marketing purposes within the last calendar year, and the name and address of such parties. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please send an email to DPO@discoverphl.com, and insert “California Privacy Rights Request” in the subject line. Please allow thirty (30) days for a response.

If you live in California, you may ask us not to share your personal information with third parties for direct marketing purposes by selecting the “Opt-Out” link found in the footer of the communication or our Site.

GDPR Privacy Rights

If you are an individual located in the EU, you may have additional rights available to you under applicable laws, including:

You have the right to request access to your personal data, and the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you. You have the right to obtain the deletion or the restriction of Processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, including when the data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed, except when we are required by law to maintain or otherwise process your personal data, for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims, or for the protection of the rights or another person. You may have the right to request that we stop Processing your personal information and/or to stop sending you marketing communications. In certain circumstances, you may have the right to be provided with your personal information in a structured, machine readable and commonly used format and to request that we transfer the personal information to another data controller without hindrance. Where our Processing of your personal information is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of the Processing based on consent before its withdrawal. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the EU Member State of your habitual residence, place of work, or place of an alleged infringement of the applicable data protection law.

You may exercise these rights by contacting us using the contact information provided below. To protect your privacy and security, we may take steps to verify your identity before taking action on your request.

8. Children’s Personal Information

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, please do not submit any personal information through our Site or services. We encourage parents and legal guardians to monitor their children’s Internet usage and to help enforce this Policy.

9. Other Important Information

Below, you will find additional privacy information you may find important.

Security

The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted standards (including by taking physical, electronic and procedural measures) to protect the personal information provided to us.

While we are focused on the security of your personal information and follow strict standards, processes and procedures that are designed to protect your personal information, you must remember that the Internet is a global communications vehicle open to threats, viruses and intrusions from others and so we cannot promise, and you should not expect, that we will be able to protect your personal information at all times and in all circumstances.

Users should also take care with how they handle and disclose their personal information and should avoid sending personal information through insecure email. Please refer to the Federal Trade Commission’s website at http://www.ftc.gov for information about how to protect yourself against identity theft.

No Rights of Third Parties

This Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties.

Changes to this policy

We will occasionally update this Policy to reflect material changes in our privacy practices. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share your personal information, we will notify you by posting the modified Policy on our Site and indicating at the top of the Policy the date it was last updated. We may also notify you by sending you an e-mail. We encourage you to review the Policy each time you visit our Site, to see if this Policy has been updated since your last visit to make sure you understand how your personal information will be processed.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us by e-mail or postal mail as follows:

DPO@discoverphl.com

1601 Market St, Suite 200
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Click Here see our EU Data Rights Policy