• Generally, anyone can visit the City of Richmond Hill's Website without revealing any personal information. There are times, however, when information needs to be collected. Personal information like your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address is obtained only when voluntarily submitted, like when you submit a service request, register for a program or pay a parking ticket. Information that you supply relates to the customer relationship the City has with you or your organization. 

• Like many companies, the City of Richmond Hill monitors Website traffic information using log files on its Website server. The purpose of this is to keep track of how many visitors come to the Website a day, the time of day they visit, and how long they visit. This information is then analyzed and can result in changes to the Website content and navigation in order to ensure it meets the needs of residents, businesses and visitors. 

• Should the City receive personal information contained in e-mail correspondence, the City restricts access to any personal information collected on the Website to designated employees of the City that require this information in order to fulfil their assigned duties and formulate responses to the e-mail(s) received. 

• the City does not share or sell any personal information gathered from this Website, including e-mail addresses, with any other organizations or government departments, subject to law. 

• The City of Richmond Hill complies with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. 

• The privacy statement outlined in this section only applies to the City's corporate Website www.richmondhill.ca and does not apply to any other Websites which appear as links and are not managed by the City of Richmond Hill. For these you may wish to view their individual Website's privacy statement before browsing through the site. 

• the City is concerned about the security of your information. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, all reasonable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information collected online have been put in place. The City of Richmond Hill uses industry standard SSL encryption technology and Verisign certificates when collecting or transferring sensitive data such as credit card information. 

• There are various technologies, including one called 'cookies,' which can be used to provide tailored information from a Website. A cookie is an element of data that a Website can send to your browser, which may then store it on your system. Some City pages use cookies or other technologies so that we can better serve you when you return to our site. Cookies do not allow for the collection of personal information about any Website visitor. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it. For more information, please refer to user information provided with your Web browser. 

• By using the City's Website, you signify your acceptance to this Privacy Statement. If the City updates or changes this Privacy Statement, the changes will be made on this page. Your continued use of this Website following the posting of changes to this Privacy Statement will mean you accept those changes. 

Should you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Statement, please e-mail us at access@richmondhill.ca.