Privacy Policy

Effective Date: June 4, 2024

Our Commitment to Privacy

Grow Cedar Valley and Live the Valley (collectively, "we," "us," "our") are committed to respecting and protecting your privacy as a visitor to our websites at www.growcedarvalley.com and www.livethevalley.com (collectively, the "Websites"). We take the issue of privacy very seriously and value the trust you place in us each time you use our services and access these websites. This privacy statement describes the practices and policies we have put into place to safeguard your personal information that may be gathered and used as you visit our websites.

These provisions may be changed from time to time and without notice at the sole discretion of Grow Cedar Valley and Live the Valley and as provided by applicable law. You should check this privacy statement frequently for any such changes, but, in any case, your continued access or use of the sites shall constitute acceptance of any modifications of the privacy statement. If you have any questions about our privacy policy, we encourage you to contact us using any of the methods outlined at the end of our privacy statement.

Who is Collecting the Information?

Grow Cedar Valley and Live the Valley are collecting information on these websites as outlined in this privacy statement.

What Information Do We Collect?

Automatic Collection of Information:
If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the websites or download information, our system will automatically gather and store certain information about your visit. This information does not identify you personally and is used in an aggregate way to help us improve our websites and tell us the number of visitors to our sites each day. Our web server automatically collects and records the following information:

The visitor's domain name, but not the email address.
The visitor's IP address.
Aggregate information on what pages are accessed.
The name and release number of web browser software used.
The operating system used.
The date and time you access our sites.
The address of the website that linked to us (referral URL).
Hashed identifiers derived from email addresses for the purposes of cross-device tracking for targeted advertising.

Permission-Based Collection of Information:
At different places on our sites, depending upon the feature you use (i.e., contact form), you may be asked to volunteer personal information such as your name, email address, mailing address, and telephone number. We also collect the email addresses of those who communicate with us via email.

Advertising and Cookies:
We use third-party cookies, web tags, and similar technologies to collect or receive information on our websites and other digital platforms. Through the use of these technologies, Grow Cedar Valley, Live the Valley, and their advertising partners may collect anonymized information from visitors to our websites, such as the date and time of visit, IP addresses, pages visited, browser versions, device type, etc. This information is used for analytics, interest-based advertising, measuring advertising effectiveness, and troubleshooting purposes.

Analytics:
We use Google Analytics to better understand how visitors interact with our websites. This service provides non-personally identifiable data including but not limited to data on where visitors came from and what actions they took on the websites. We will use this information to improve your experience. Please click [here] to learn more about this service and how to opt-out of data collection by Google Analytics.

How Do We Use the Information We Collect?

The information we gather automatically and with your permission during your visit to our websites is used in the following ways:

Monitor, review, measure, and analyze website utilization.
Modify and enhance the websites.
Improve the content and design of our websites.
Respond to your requests.
Distribute news and other information requested by web visitors.

With Whom Will the Information be Shared?

We will only share your information outside our organization for the following purposes:

To provide products or services you’ve requested, with your permission.
To service providers and other third parties we use to support our business.
To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person as required by law.
If Grow Cedar Valley and Live the Valley are acquired by or merged with another company - we’ll notify you well before any info about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Access and Correction of Personal Information

Review of Personal Information:
Site visitors may not access the information we have collected and maintained about them.

Links to Other Sites

Websites often provide several links that offer direct access to other useful or interesting websites holding potential value to site visitors. Inclusion of the other sites by links does not imply any endorsement of the material or information on the other sites. Users are encouraged to review the privacy policy of each linked site before sharing personal information.

This site includes links to non-affiliated external websites. We encourage users to review the privacy policy of each linked site, as we cannot be responsible for the privacy practices of other sites.

We will make every effort to notify you when you are leaving our site, and you may be subjected to different privacy policies than those we have established for our website.

Security of Communications

We recognize that many people are concerned about the privacy and protection of information as it is transmitted over the Internet. You should keep in mind that the possibility exists for unauthorized individuals to intercept any email message you send over the Internet. In some cases, information can be encrypted (scrambled or encoded) to make it very difficult to read if it is intercepted during communication. Certain technology and practices allow websites to provide an increased level of security for your personal and health-related information when appropriate.

To enhance the level of security for communication and the transmission of personal information, we have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site.

Ecommerce, Online Donations, and Online Shopping

All payments are made through GrowthZone, which we use as our chamber management software. Security is of supreme importance in our implementation and in who we partner with, which is one of the reasons we partnered with Stripe, Inc. GrowthZone does not store, process, and/or transmit cardholder data. GrowthZone has implemented GrowthZone Pay using an API provided by Stripe which provides a method for securely sending sensitive information to Stripe directly from the customer’s browser. Collection, storage, and processing of all cardholder data are all handled by Stripe, Inc. Security measures provided by both GrowthZone and by Stripe meet and maintain the high standards required by PCI-DSS security compliance. GrowthZone conducts and passes monthly PCI compliance scans to ensure we remain in compliance with areas that apply to us. Stripe has been audited by a PCI-certified auditor and is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1; the most stringent level of certification available. Stripe is also a participant in the PCI Security Standards Council. See Stripe’s website for their answer to their security compliance.

Changes in Our Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future, we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you of these changes. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our website periodically.

Conditions of Use

Your access and use of the site is subject to this Privacy Statement, Grow Cedar Valley and Live the Valley's disclaimer, Grow Cedar Valley and Live the Valley's Notice of Privacy Practices, and other website conditions including, but not limited to, limitations on damages and all applicable laws, including the law of the States in which we are located.

Web Site Contact Information

If you have questions about our privacy policy, or feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, please contact us:

Grow Cedar Valley
360 Westfield Ave., Ste 300
Waterloo, IA 50701
USA

Email: communications@growcedarvalley.com
Phone: (319) 232-1156
International: +1 (319) 232-1156