Privacy Policy

Last Updated: December, 2019

Thank you for visiting the Center For Rural Policy and Development website (“Site”) operated by the Center For Rural Policy and Development. We respect your privacy and want to protect your personal information. To learn more about the steps taken to protect your information, please read this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal data when you use our Site and the choices you have associated with that data. By visiting the Site directly or through another site, you accept the practices described in this Policy.

This Privacy Policy applied to the Site. This Privacy Policy does not necessarily apply to any offline collection of your personal information including but not limited to phone calls and mail.

We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices on any website not operated by Center For Rural Policy and Development to which the Site links or that links to the Site.

We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide our Site to you and improve it. For example, we can use your personal information to:

• Help make the Site easier for you to use by not having to enter information more than once.
• Help you quickly find information, products and services.

1. Email Address. The Site permits you to enter your email address for purposes including but not limited to signing up for email newsletters, contacting Center For Rural Policy and Development and receiving company updates. You may unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of the message.
2. Cookies and Other Technology. The Site employs cookies and web beacons to speed your navigation of the Site, recognize you and your access privileges and track your Site usage. These technologies track information related to your interaction with the Site and your browsing history. We use this information to improve the Site, understand which pages are popular, evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and other internal business purposes.
   1. Cookies are small digital signature files that are stored by your Internet browser on your computer’s hard drive. Most browsers accept cookies but can be set to refuse cookies from websites and remove them from your hard drive. Disabling cookies may prevent you from accessing or using portions of the Site.
   2. Web beacons allow two websites to share information. They may be used for site traffic reporting, unique website visitor counts and advertising auditing.

   You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the settings on your web browser. Browsers typically allow you to prevent acceptance of new cookies, disable cookies altogether or set up notifications for when cookies are sent to it. The Help section on your browser, usually found in the toolbar, often has instructions on how to change cookies settings.

   If you do not choose to modify your browser’s cookies settings, cookies will be issued when you use the Site. If you do not accept cookies or decide to disable them, you will still be able to access and use the site. However, you may lose some features and functionality on the site that rely on cookies.

3. Log Files. The Site server automatically recognizes the Internet URL from which you access the Site. We may also log your Internet Protocol (IP) address, Internet service provider and date/time stamp for system administration, internal marketing and system troubleshooting purposes. (An IP address may indicate the location of your computer on the Internet.)
4. Age. We respect the privacy of children. We do not knowingly or intentionally collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are under 13 years old, do not submit any personal information to us. Rely on a parent or guardian to assist you.
5. Third Parties. We may combine information you provide us with data we have collected offline, data that is publicly available and data from third parties. We reserve the right to, at times, contract with third party vendors to provide ads on the Site to visitors on our behalf via the Internet.

Information Use and Disclosure

1. Internal Use. We use your personal information to provide you with customer service. Personal information may also be used to improve the Site’s content and layout, to improve outreach for our own marketing efforts and to determine general information about Site visitors.
2. Communications with You.
   1. You may submit your email address for reasons such as to sign up for email newsletters, request information or directly contact Center For Rural Policy and Development. If you submit your email address, we use it to deliver information to you. We always permit you to unsubscribe from future emails.
   2. We may use the personal information provided by you or collected from third parties to send you direct mail communications.
3. External Use. We do not sell, rent, trade, license or otherwise disclose your specific personal information or financial information to anyone other than affiliates under Center For Rural Policy and Development’s control, except:
   1. We may disclose such information in response to requests from law enforcement officials conducting investigations; subpoenas; a court order; or if we are otherwise required to disclose such information by law. We also will release personal information where disclosure is necessary to protect our legal rights, enforce agreements or protect others or ourselves. For example, we may share information to reduce risk of fraud or if someone uses or attempts to use the Site for illegal reasons or to commit fraud.
   2. We may share non-personal information (such as the number of daily visitors to a particular web page) with third parties such as advertising partners. This information does not directly identify you or any user.
4. Advertising and Analytics Services. We reserve the right to use third parties to place ads across the Internet on our behalf and to provide analytics on such services. These third parties also use cookies, web beacons and other technologies to collect information about your Internet usage such as your IP address, web browser, sites visited, links clicked and other information. To opt-out of having your web browsing used to create ads tailored for you, please visit www.aboutads.info/choices. You can opt-out of having your activity on the Site available on Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Data Security

The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Opt Out/Corrections/Removal

Upon request, we will

1. Correct or update your personal information
2. Provide you with the personal data you have entered on the Site that has been retained
3. Stop sending marketing communications to your email or home address
4. Disable your account to prevent any future purchases through that account
5. Block or suppress processing of your data
6. Fully erase your personal data. This does not include data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

You can make these requests by contacting us directly via email or phone. To opt-out of email communications, click the unsubscribe link located at the bottom on the message. We always permit you to unsubscribe from future emails. Please allow up to ten days for any changes to take effect.

For information on disabling cookies see Information Collection, section D. For information on opting out of advertising and analytics tracking see Information Use and Disclosure, section D.

Updates to the Policy

If we change or update this Privacy Policy, we will post changes and updates on the Site so that you will always be aware of what information we collect, us and disclose. We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy from time to time so you will know if the Privacy Policy has been changed or updated. If you have any questions regarding the Privacy Policy, please contact us.

International Users

Our digital operations are conducted in the United States. Regardless of where you live, you consent to have your personal data transferred, processed and stored in the United States and allow Center For Rural Policy and Development to collect and use your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Effective December, 2019

If you have any additional questions about Center For Rural Policy and Development’s collection and storage of data, please contact us:

Center For Rural Policy and Development
PO Box 3185
Mankato, MN 56002-3185

(507) 934-7700
(877) RURALMN (toll free)