Privacy Policy

Introduction

Effective Date:This Privacy Policy is effective as of 07/06/2018.

Bang the Table Pty Ltd (Bang the Table) hosts this site on behalf of City of Mercer Island.

Bang the Table takes the privacy of the participants using this site very seriously.

This Site (defined below) is offered by City of Mercer Island for use by individuals who meet criteria defined in Terms of Use. Bang the Table USA LLC hosts the Site for the benefit of City of Mercer Island and owns the underlying technology operating the Site. This privacy policy describes how Bang the Table collects, uses, and shares information provided by you through the Site and otherwise collected by us through the Site. Presenter and Host welcome you to Presenter’s community engagement portal at http://letstalkmercergov.us.engagementhq.com (the “Site”). While all questions, surveys, forums, chat rooms, and other Content (defined below) on the Site is provided and controlled by Presenter, Host owns and operates the Site. On the Site you will be able to engage and communicate with Presenter and other interested parties. Please note that the purpose of the Site is to encourage public discourse and engagement, so you should assume that all Content you provide to the Site will be publicly available. When we use the term “Content,” we mean any information, data, music, sound files, photographs, graphics, images, videos, articles, and other content accessible on the Site excluding these Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy, Moderation Rules, Accessibility Statement and basic use instructions for the Site.

This Privacy Policy applies to Bang the Table’s behavior and treatment of your information. As you will learn, most data collected through the Site – including Content you provide – is shared with City of Mercer Island who may have its own privacy policy governing its use of your data. You should read this privacy policy in conjunction with City of Mercer Island privacy policy.

Please be advised that, under Washington State law, the City of Mercer Island is required to release basic user information (including your name and email address) to members of the public when requested for non-commercial purposes as part of a public records request.

The Site is not directed to persons under the age of 14.

Who do I contact for more information?

Bang the Table may be contacted in relation to privacy policy issues by email at "support@engagementhq.com"

What information do we collect?

Basic Identifying Information

We collect information from you when you register to use this site. This information may vary depending on the specific needs of City of Mercer Island, however, at a minimum is includes your:

  • Screen Name
  • Email Address

Demographic Information

Additional demographic information such as your name, age, address and interests may also be collected at this time. You can click http://letstalkmercergov.us.engagementhq.com/register to check this.

User-Generated Information

We collect all Content that you choose to post, publish or upload to the Site, including but not limited to:

  • Comments in forums
  • Votes on other comments in forums
  • Responses to surveys and quick polls

If the Content you post, publish or upload to the Site contains personal information, we collect and publicly display that personal information.

User-Behaviour Information

We collect information about your behavior on the Site, including, but not limited to:

  • Documents downloaded from the library
  • Videos viewed
  • Pages views

Additionally, we log IP address and browser and device data, and we use log files to understand how you use the Site. Note that you can browse the Site without registering, but you may not have access to all features and functionality.

We do not currently respond to web browser “do not track” or other related mechanisms.

Cookies

We use cookies to enable our servers to recognize your web browser and tell us how and when you use the Site. A cookie is a small amount of information stored in your web browser, which may contain information about you and the way you use the internet and services like the Site. We use cookies to identify our users, provide automatic login, and personalize your experience on the Site. We also may use cookies embedded in emails to help figure out whether anyone is actually reading the drivel that we write.

You can turn cookies off on your web browser, but if you do, the Site might not work properly, and in some cases, you might not be able to log in to the Site at all.

There are many other third party services and web sites that may place cookies in your browser. Our privacy policy covers only our use of our cookies, not cookies used by third parties.

Aggregate Data

We may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to the Site. We may display this information publicly or provide it to others in an aggregated anonymized format. We reserve the right to use and disclose anonymous data to third party companies for any purpose in our discretion.

Why do we collect this information?

To Collect and Collate your Feedback to Inform Better Policy

The principal reason for collecting this information from you is to allow City of Mercer Island to help create better policies and decisions about your community.

To Send you Periodic Emails

The email address you provide by registering on the Site may be used by either Bang the Table or City of Mercer Island to send you information and updates pertaining to the issues discussed on this Site or that contain information about consultations in which you have participated or consultations and websites in which you might be interested based on your past site activities.

Note: If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include a simple unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email.

To Protect the Integrity of the Discussion

We may monitor the information you provide to the Site so we are able to protect the integrity of the discussion from individuals and groups who might attempt to unduly influence the outcomes of the consultation process.

To Improve the Website & Software 

The principal use of this information by Bang the Table is to help us to improve this Site and the software underpinning it. We continually strive to improve the experience of our participants based on your feedback..

To Respond to your Requests

We also use your information to respond to your inquiries or requests, and as directed by you.

Who has access to this information?

When you sign up for a user account, you provide three types of information:

  1. Publicly available information
  2. Information available to both City of Mercer Island and Bang the Table
  3. Information available to Bang the Table only

Publicly Available Information

Publicly available information is limited to your screen name and any Content you post or provide under that name in the public areas of the Site, including public forums and other public tools on the Site.

Note: We strongly recommend use of an anonymous screen name.

Individual survey responses, voting patterns and quick poll responses will not be immediately made available publicly on the Site; however, feedback (including overall results of polls and surveys, and in some instances, unidentifiable and randomly chosen quotes or comments from surveys) may be published in publicly available reports at the end of the consultation period.

Information available to both City of Mercer Island and Bang the Table includes:

  • All information provided during registration for the Site, through the Sign Up form.
  • All Content provided by you to the Site, including comments
  • Survey, Quick Poll, and comment voting responses
  • General site activity such as document downloads.

Information Available to Bang the Table only

Information which is available only to Bang the Table is restricted to your IP address for site security purposes.

Do we disclose any information to third parties other than City of Mercer Island

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect our or others rights, property or safety.

However, we may from time to time notify you about other sites we are managing when we feel they may of direct relevance and interest to you. Please note that you can easily unsubscribe from these notifications at any time.

Third Party Links

Occasionally City of Mercer Island may include links to third party sites. These third parties have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.

Terms and Conditions

Please also visit our Terms of Use policy establishing the use, disclaimers, and limitations of liability governing the use of our website.

Changes

We may change the Privacy Policy from time to time without prior notice to you, but we will indicate an updated Privacy Policy by posting it to the Site and including a revised effective date.

Your Consent

By using our Site, you consent to this Privacy Policy.