C&O Canal Trust Privacy Policy

The C&O Canal Trust (the Trust) is committed to protecting your privacy. Our privacy policy covers what information the Trust collects on its Website and how we use that information. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected].

What information do we collect?

The Trust collects information volunteered by visitors, such as when they sign up for the newsletter, book a lockhouse stay, purchase merchandise from the gift shop, or make a donation. Information the Trust collects in these interactions includes personally identifiable information such as your name, e-mail address, mailing address, and telephone number (“Personally Identifying Information”). No Personally Identifying Information is collected about individuals without their knowledge.

The Trust also collects general information about your use of the website, including Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting. For example, your IP (Internet Protocol) address is used to gather broad demographic information such as the geographic regions most interested in our site and what type of browser most of our visitors prefer. This information helps us to better maintain and update our site to be the most user-friendly and relevant. IP addresses do not provide us with any identifiable Personally Identifying Information, thus keeping visitors anonymous.

We may use third party services to track how our visitors interact with our website, including how they navigate around a web page and the most commonly-clicked links on each page. These services may also collect technical information such as the browser version and operating system used by visitors to our Website. To analyze traffic to our website, we and our third-party service providers may use cookies, tags, web beacons, and similar technologies.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings.  Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookie settings. If you turn cookies off, you may not have access to many features that make your site experience more efficient and some of our services may not function properly. For more information about cookies, please see www.allaboutcookies.org/. You can choose to opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads here: https://www.google.com/settings/ads. You can also see Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs for the web here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

How is this information used by the Trust? 

The Trust will use your contact information to communicate with you via mail, email, and phone about your donations/purchases and to keep you informed about the work of the Trust. The Trust has a strict policy against selling or sharing mailing lists and donor information. Under this policy, Personally Identifying Information provided to the Trust is NEVER shared or sold to any other organization – public, private, or nonprofit. The Trust may permit certain trusted partners to access your information in connection with their performance of services to maintain and operate the Website and certain features on the Website.  We do not otherwise disclose any Personally Identifying Information or any information about your individual visits to our site except when we believe in good faith (i) that the law requires such disclosure or (ii) that such disclosure is necessary to protect the rights and property of the Trust or others.

Email Policy 

The Trust provides forms on its websites where users can sign-up to receive e-mail newsletters and periodic notices about Park- and Trust-related news. The Trust limits communications by email to users who have opted in to receive email communications or in the course of business for online transactions including confirmation of contributions and purchases. Each email sent contains an easy, automated way for you to cease receiving email from us, or to change your expressed interests. Or, you can email [email protected] to request to be unsubscribed.

Security of Your Information 

All data is stored on secure, firewall-protected servers and is only accessible to authorized Trust and partner staff. Sensitive data, such as credit card and other financial information, is collected on secure forms and transmitted using industry-standard Secure Socket Layer Encryption (SSL) technology. At no time is credit card information stored on the Trust website.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, the Trust cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.

The Trust takes industry-standard precautions to protect credit card information. But users who prefer not to use credit cards for online donations can complete the Trust’s donation form and mail or fax to:

C&O Canal Trust
142 W. Potomac St.
Williamsport, MD 21795

Links to Third Party Sites 

The Trust’s websites provides links to third party sites. While we make efforts to choose our links carefully, we cannot take any responsibility for the content of linked Websites, or for the privacy or security policies of Websites to which we link. Since we do not control these websites, we encourage you to review the privacy and security policies posted on these third-party websites prior to any use.

Mobile Application Privacy Notice

The C&O Canal Trust offers a mobile application, “C&O Canal Explorer”, for guests to purchase and download from the Apple of Google stores. This application collects no Personally Identifying Information or location information from its users. We use third party services including Google Analytics and Firebase, to track how our visitors interact with the mobile application, including how they navigate around the application and the most commonly-clicked links on each page. These services may also collect technical information such as the browser version and operating system used by visitors with our application. To analyze traffic on our mobile application, we and our third-party service providers may use cookies, tags, web beacons, and similar technologies.

Children 

We do not solicit any Personally Identifying Information from children under the age of 13.  We encourage families to obtain additional information about safe use of the Internet at http://www.ftc.gov/kidzprivacy/. 

Privacy Policy Changes 

We may amend this privacy policy from time to time. Your continued use of our website after the date that such notices are posted will be deemed your agreement to the changed terms.