Privacy Policy

WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
PRIVACY NOTICE SUMMARY
Last Update: 11/28/11

SCOPE

This is a summary of the West Virginia Department of Commerce’s privacy notice. This summary and the full privacy notice apply to the Department’s website and services that display or link to this notice. To review WV.gov privacy notice click here.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

  • We collect information (name, electronic or postal address, etc.) that you choose to give us.
  • The information we collect may be combined with information obtained from other Executive Branch Departments’ websites and services.
  • Information is retained in accordance with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and other policies.

USES OF INFORMATION

  • We use personal information for purposes that relate to the reason you provide it. If information is used for another purpose, we will obtain your permission.
  • For purposes matching the reason you provided the information, or as required by law, we may share your information with other state and federal agencies as well as others we have hired to assist us.
  • We may share non-personal information for purposes related to improving our business practices.
  • To the extent permitted by law, information collected by the West Virginia Small Business Development Center (“WVSBDC”) will be treated as confidential and will not be disclosed. Under federal law, the WVSBDC may not disclose the name, address, or telephone number of any individual or small business receiving assistance without consent of such individual or small business unless (i) the Administrator of the Small Business Administration (“SBA Administrator”) is ordered to make such a disclosure by a court in any civil or criminal enforcement action initiated by a Federal or State agency; or (ii) the SBA Administrator considers such a disclosure to be necessary for the purpose of conducting a financial audit of a small business development center, but a disclosure for this purpose shall be limited to the information necessary for such audit. The SBA Administration may access program activity data and use client information to conduct client surveys. 12 U.S.C.A § 648(a)(7)(A) (2010).

YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES

  • You have the right to review the personal information you provide us and to update or correct that information.
  • If you have consented to an electronic exchange of information, you may cancel that consent by following the instructions in the email you receive.
  • If you provide information to any of our agency websites, you may choose to remove it at any time.

SECURITY

  • All personal information and non personal information is stored on a secured computer server. Some of the applications serving the public are hosted on different servers that have additional security measures, depending upon the type of information required and obtained. Local, more detailed notices regarding privacy and security will be provided to users while using these features.
  • Agencies processing credit card information are required to be compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

HOW TO CONTACT US

  • For more information on our privacy requirements and practices, please contact us at commercewebmaster@wv.gov.
  • To review our full privacy notice, please click here.

EMPLOYEES

I AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE PRIVACY NOTICE.

WVCommerce.com Web Portal: PRIVACY NOTICE
(Last updated October 31, 2011)

Mission:
The West Virginia Department of Commerce (COMMERCE) includes the following nine agencies:
• The West Virginia Development Office
• The West Virginia Division of Energy
• The West Virginia Division of Forestry
• The West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey
• The West Virginia Division of Labor
• The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety & Training
• The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources
• The West Virginia Division of Tourism
• WorkForce West Virginia
• West Virginia Office of Economic Opportunity

COMMERCE’s mission is to promote and preserve the well-being of the citizens of West Virginia by:
• providing a cooperative interagency system that stimulates diverse economic growth and increased employment opportunities for all West Virginians
• encouraging the appropriate use of our state’s abundant natural resources
• improving the safety and productivity of our work force
• promoting the beauty and desirability of our state as a world-class tourism destination

The COMMERCE Web portal extends this mission, and those of our agencies. It is a communication and marketing tool to help COMMERCE deliver professional service and current information to the public, cross-promote our programs across all divisions of COMMERCE and promote the best that West Virginia has to offer for business, living and recreation.

Scope:
This privacy statement applies to this Web portal operated by or on behalf of COMMERCE and its agencies. For questions about this policy, contact: webmaster@commercewv.org.

Privacy Statement:

COMMERCE regards the privacy and security of user information as a critical component of the service that we offer to our users. The privacy policy explains how COMMERCE collects and uses information from this Web portal. The privacy policy also describes how your information is protected.

Personal Information:
Personal information will be collected from you at the time you register with COMMERCE through any of the Web sites COMMERCE operates. You can register by either responding to a message or registering online. Once your registration becomes active on the Web portal, you will begin to receive e-mail updates on COMMERCE news, such as the monthly Open for Business Report, Tourism’s e-newsletter or the Film Office’s e-newsletter.

At the time of registration, you will be prompted by one of our online forms to provide personal information to us including your name, e-mail address, postal address, etc. You may decline to share personal information with us. Declining to provide personal information may limit your eligibility to receive special offers, publications or updates, but it does not limit your general use of the Web platform and its content. Also, you need to register to use some of the site’s features, such as creating travel plans or saving/sharing other site content.

Your personal information is collected through opt-in requests for e-mails, brochures or other information.

COMMERCE also provides an opportunity for you to forward Web portal content to your friends or other individuals through the “e-mail a friend” option. Personal information may be acquired if you sign up to receive information from COMMERCE at a trade show, event or other function. COMMERCE may receive personal information from purchased lists, magazine or trade show lists, survey cards or other third party sources.

No matter how your personal information was acquired, if you have received communications from COMMERCE you may opt-out as indicated below.

Use of Personal Information:

COMMERCE uses personal information to send you information and to keep you informed.

COMMERCE uses personal information, such as demographic and profile information, to tailor your experience on our Web portal, to help develop or optimize content that we think you might be interested in as well as displaying the content according to your preferences.

You may choose to stop receiving future communications from us. Please see the Opt-Out and Discontinue Section below.

COMMERCE may ask you to provide information about your interests (ie: sports, activities, materials or categories of news.) This information will be used to tailor your experience on this Web portal. You may decline to give this information. This information may also be used in a broader application to provide content of interest to users. You will not be identified personally if the interest data is used in the broader application.

From time to time, COMMERCE may solicit your opinion or invite you to participate in surveys to determine your preferences and dislikes in order to provide you with a better product or offering. These surveys are optional and you may always choose not to participate in them.

Non-Personal Information:
Your IP address is a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer. IP addresses are automatically collected by our Web server as part of demographic and profile data known as “traffic data” so that data (such as the Web pages you request) can be sent to you. COMMERCE will not use your IP address to attempt to identify your personal information.

A Referrer is the information passed along by a Web browser that references the Web URL you linked from and is automatically collected by our Web server as “traffic data.” System information we collect as part of “traffic data” includes time, the type of Web browser being used, plug-in programs available and the operating system/platform. COMMERCE uses traffic data to credit your referral to a partner or affiliate who referred you to our Web portal. This information may also be used by COMMERCE to identify broad demographic trends that may be used to provide information tailored to your interests and also may be used to provide information appropriate for your computer system. You will not be personally identified from this information. Additional activity on COMMERCE Web portal will be monitored, including clicked links and click stream data. COMMERCE uses aggregated traffic data combined with interest or content tags to measure use and improve the Web portal’s content and organization.

The COMMERCE Web portal uses “cookie” technology and users’ IP addresses to perform statistical traffic analysis. Cookies are pieces of information transferred to your hard drive when you visit our Web portal that automatically identify your browser to our server when you interact with our online application. Cookies are a common feature on Web sites and are utilized by COMMERCE to provide enhanced service to you.

COMMERCE may combine the information received from cookies with a unique ID number that we have assigned to you. You may adjust your browser setting of your computer to notify you when a cookie is sent or to refuse cookies altogether. Please consult your browser for instructions on such adjustments.

We may obtain additional information about you, such as demographic information, from commercially available sources.

Transfer of Personal Information:
In the event that COMMERCE is merged with another state entity or otherwise renamed or altered, the personal information collected may be transferred to the new state agency.

Stored Portal Information:
The COMMERCE Web portal allows users to register with us and create a briefcase or suitcase to collect, organize and store maps, itineraries, photos, listings, links and other site information. Controls allow Web portal users to share the contents of a briefcase or suitcase with friends or associates, or with all of the users of the portal. Users also may add their own map locations, comments, photos or documents in these areas. As a result, the collected elements contained in these password-accessed areas are governed by the User-Generated Content policies, below. Contents will be monitored by COMMERCE before links to this content are distributed by the application. Briefcases or suitcases may be deactivated if they become inactive for longer than 13 months.

User-Generated Content:
The COMMERCE Web portal enables users to contribute content to the site, including travel journals, travel itineraries, photos, videos, essays or other text or multimedia postings. Submissions are monitored and become the property of COMMERCE once uploaded to the Web portal. Any and all posted content may be public, unless otherwise stated. Please consider this before posting information on these areas.

Submission is no guarantee of publication. COMMERCE may, in its sole discretion, reject, excerpt, edit or publish user-generated content in its promotional materials, either print or digital. User submissions must not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to copyright infringement, privacy, publicity or intellectual property rights.

  • The submission must not contain text, quotes or content created by a party other than participant;
  • The submission must not contain material that is hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or libelous;
  • The submission must not contain material that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age; and
  • The submission must not contain material that is unlawful, in violation of or contrary to the laws or regulations in any state where the material is created.

Sharing of Information:
COMMERCE does not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. We may share your personal information with other state agencies for the limited purposes of data processing or storage.

COMMERCE may also share your personal information with authorized third party agents or contractors in order to provide a requested service or transaction. For example, if COMMERCE mails a package to you, your personal information must be shared with the shipping company. COMMERCE will share the minimum amount of personal information necessary to complete the requested service or transaction.

COMMERCE may occasionally hire third party companies to provide limited services on our behalf, including customer service, hosting Web sites, processing transactions or performing statistical analysis of our services or data. In those instances, the third party companies will be contractually obligated to safeguard your personal information and prohibited from using your personal information in any manner other than the purpose for which the third party company was retained.

COMMERCE may respond to subpoenas, court orders or other legal processes by disclosing personal information and other related information. COMMERCE reserves the right to establish and exercise our legal rights and to defend against legal claims.

We may collect and potentially share personal information and any other additional information available to us in order to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any persons, violations of COMMERCE’s terms of use, potential threats to national security or as otherwise required by law.

Some of your non-personal information may be shared on an aggregate basis only, as a part of a larger set of statistics.

COMMERCE will ask for your opt-in consent to share your personal information with a third party for any other reason.

Security:
Information collected by COMMERCE is stored in secure operating environments that are not available to the public. All of our employees are dedicated to maintaining and upholding your privacy and security and are aware of our privacy and security policies. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed 100 percent secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information within our systems, COMMERCE cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. COMMERCE recommends that you take every precaution in protecting your personal information when you utilize the Internet. Examples of precautions include using a combination of letters and numbers in creating passwords, changing your passwords often and using a secure browser.

Children’s Privacy:
COMMERCE does not knowingly solicit any personal information from children under the age of thirteen.

COMMERCE does not knowingly obtain, retain or use information from anyone under the age of thirteen. If COMMERCE learns that it has collected personal information on a child under the age of thirteen we will delete the data from our systems.

Other Web Sites and Links:
COMMERCE Web portal may contain links to other Web sites that are third-party Web sites not operated by COMMERCE, including Web sites operated by COMMERCE’s, partners and affiliates. Please note that the privacy practices of those other Web sites and of our partners and affiliates are not covered by this Privacy Policy, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites, partners or affiliates. You should be careful to review any privacy policies of such Web sites, partners or affiliates.

Update your Personal Information:
The COMMERCE Web portal includes an account management interface to assist you in updating your personal information, interests and preferences. Please use this interface to update your information, including if you wish to opt-in to some or all of our e-newsletters and feeds.

Opt-Out and Discontinue:
Subscribers may elect to opt-out and to discontinue receiving future communications from COMMERCE by sending us an e-mail at webmaster@commercewv.org, indicating your name and e-mail address and requesting to opt-out and discontinue future communications. As an opt-in subscriber, you are required to confirm your subscription by automated e-mail in order to begin receiving information or updates from COMMERCE. An automated opt-out e-mail will then be provided to you. You may also avoid future communications from COMMERCE. As noted, the COMMERCE Web portal includes an online account management interface to assist you in updating your personal information and preferences.

Modification of Privacy Policy by COMMERCE:
COMMERCE reserves the right to change or update this Privacy Policy at any time. The changes to the privacy policy will be posted on this site, so check the privacy policy frequently to stay informed.

COMMERCE Anti-Spam Policy:
COMMERCE prohibits the use of COMMERCE’s services, directly or indirectly, for the transmission, distribution or delivery of any unsolicited or bulk or unsolicited commercial e-mail (“Spam”). You may not use any COMMERCE services to send Spam. You may not deliver Spam or cause Spam to be to be delivered to any of COMMERCE’s Services or COMMERCE registered users.

In addition, e-mail sent or caused to be sent, to or through COMMERCE Services may not:

  • Use or contain invalid or forged headers;
  • Use or contain invalid or non-existent domain names;
  • Employ any technique to otherwise misrepresent, hide or obscure any information in identifying the point of origin or the transmission path;
  • Use other means of deceptive addressing;
  • Use a third party’s Internet domain name or be relayed from or through a third party’s equipment, without permission of the third party;
  • Contain false or misleading information in the subject line or otherwise contain false or misleading content;
  • Fail to comply with additional technical standards described below;
  • Otherwise violate COMMERCE Terms of Use.

COMMERCE does not authorize the harvesting, mining or collection of e-mail addresses or other information from or through COMMERCE’s services.

Nothing in this policy is intended to grant any right to transmit or send e-mail to, or through, COMMERCE. Failure to enforce this policy in every instance does not amount to a waiver of COMMERCE’s rights.

Unauthorized use of COMMERCE’s services in connection with the transmission of unsolicited e-mail, including the transmission of e-mail in violation of this policy, may result in civil, criminal or administrative penalties against the sender and those assisting the sender.

Links:
This site may contain hyperlinks to other sites. We do not control the information on these sites. Such links are provided for convenience and/or information only. Offering a link does not imply endorsement of any offering on the linked site.

Information Gathering:
COMMERCE’s Web portal includes directories of businesses, events, amenities and organization.

We report information as it is provided to us. We do not warrant or guarantee that all information is correct or up-to-date, and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance upon the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information. Any person who relies upon such information obtained from this Web site, does so at his or her own risk.

We try to provide contact information so that Web portal visitors can verify information by personal contact.

The contents of this Web portal are published for information purposes only and subject to change without notice. Event listings, times and information may be entered by the facility or coordinator of that event. Please confirm the date and location of events you plan to attend in case an activity has been canceled or rescheduled.

Subscription Services:
Mailing lists or subscription services offered by this Web portal may be terminated at any time.

COMMERCE Database Policy:
COMMERCE’s Web portal includes directories of businesses, real estate, events, amenities, attractions, providers, licensees and organization. The following are the guidelines we ask entities to follow:

Directories:

  1. COMMERCE agencies offer numerous directory services to constituent or regulated groups or individuals, including small businesses, consultants, trainers, licensees, certified entities or individuals, public resources, service providers, raw material or end-product providers and other consumer audiences.
  2. Individual policies related to how directory information is collected and publicized is displayed at the time of collection. (For example, at the time of license renewal or at the request of a service provider.)
  3. Commerce provides these directories of providers or license-holders as a service to the public and to those listed in our directories.
  4. COMMERCE makes every effort to insure the information is accurate and up to date. But information may change without warning due to circumstances outside of COMMERCE’s control. Web portal users should verify information by personal contact.
  5. COMMERCE displays directory contact information, disclosing information required to identify and contact the business or owner; including, contact, address, phone, fax, e-mail and Web site URL.
  6. Business location coordinates are mapped and driving directions may be provided through COMMERCE’s license with Microsoft Virtual Earth. COMMERCE is not responsible for misguided directions, but we will work with consumers, businesses and the mapping vendor to correct and inaccurate maps or directions, as best we can.

Development/Real Estate Listings:

  1. COMMERCE will, at its sole discretion, work with public or private partners to market available sites, land and buildings to businesses expanding or relocating in the state. The database of current properties is listed in the site selection area of the Business & Workforce section of the site.
  2. COMMERCE will deactivate any listing that it deems inappropriate or misrepresentative of a facility.
  3. COMMERCE reserves the right to change the terms, conditions and notices under which this Web portal is offered at any time.
  4. Business location coordinates are mapped and driving directions may be provided through COMMERCE’s license with Microsoft Virtual Earth. COMMERCE is not responsible for misguided directions, but we will work with consumers, businesses and the mapping vendor to correct and inaccurate maps or directions, as best we can.

Attraction or Destination Listings:

  1. Information provided must accurately describe the facility or event listed and must contain useful information to the public. All information is posted at the discretion of COMMERCE.
  2. Listings cannot contain terminology, advertising or pictures that are adult or sexually oriented or otherwise not directly related to travel or business.
  3. Listings should market travel- or business-related services, not products. However, retail destinations are encouraged to describe their facilities and products.
  4. The contact person with access to the username and password for updating the listing is responsible for providing accurate and up-to-date information. The facility must be listed using the proper name as shown on the facility’s business license. Listings should designate: who, what, when, where (including brief directions from a major highway), contact person, hours of operation and any admission fees.
  5. Listings must be updated at least once a year to ensure accuracy.
  6. Please verify your entries and make sure you list your facility or event by its proper business name or title. Multiple name listings will be deactivated at the discretion of COMMERCE. Businesses should use keywords to indicate multiple activities or offerings.
  7. Keywords are used to categorize the offerings of facilities and events. Choose keywords that accurately describe your facility or event.
  8. COMMERCE will deactivate any listing that it deems inappropriate or misrepresentative of a facility or event.
  9. COMMERCE reserves the right to change the terms, conditions and notices under which this Web portal is offered at any time.
  10. Facility location coordinates are mapped and driving directions may be provided through COMMERCE’s license with Microsoft Virtual Earth. COMMERCE is not responsible for misguided directions, but we will work with consumers, businesses and the mapping vendor to correct and inaccurate maps or directions, as best we can.

Event Listings:

  1. An event must be a workshop, conference, fair, festival or gathering that is open to the public, and, with or without admission fees, may be attended during a reasonable specific date range. For example, Jan. 2002-Dec. 2025 is unacceptable. Whitewater or skiing season is unacceptable. Fall leaf-peeping month is unacceptable.
  2. A facility may not list daily operations as an event. A museum may list special showings and workshops or presentations, but not its regular hours of operations as an event.
  3. No sales promotions may be listed as events. For example, Gauley Festival weekend special is unacceptable unless you are promoting a special weekend program; or “State Fair opening weekend” special hotel rates would be unacceptable, but the State Fair can announce its opening weekend activities.
  4. COMMERCE will refer callers to the contact person if questions arise.
  5. If an event is listed by multiple facilities, COMMERCE reserves the right to designate the official event coordinator or organization as the listing for the event. Information or listings that are not updated at least once a year will be removed.
  6. Activities not applicable to the events guidelines may be listed in the description of a facility.
  7. Outdated events must be made inactive by the facility or event coordinator. After a reasonable period of time, COMMERCE will terminate outdated events, if they are not done by the coordinator.
  8. After one warning, COMMERCE will deactivate the user name and password of any facility violating these policies.
  9. COMMERCE reserves the right to change the terms, conditions and notices under which this Web site is offered at any time.
  10. Event location coordinates are mapped and driving directions may be provided through COMMERCE’s license with Microsoft Virtual Earth. COMMERCE is not responsible for misguided directions, but we will work with consumers, businesses and the mapping vendor to correct and inaccurate maps or directions, as best we can.