This document describes the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau (“SCTB”) policy regarding personal information, ongoing communication, site security and overall site usage of sonomacounty.com and any other website that may be maintained by SCTB (“Website”). These provisions apply solely to SCTB online activities and are not necessarily applicable to practices SCTB may engage in outside of the Website. Use of the Website signifies your agreement to the terms and conditions of use set forth in this document (“Agreement”). If you do not agree to these terms, you may not access or otherwise use the Website.
Use of Website Agreement
The Website is presented by the SCTB from within the United States, and the SCTB makes no representation that materials in the website are appropriate or available for use in locations outside the United States and access to them from territories where their contents are illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access this Website from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with applicable local laws. By using the Website, you freely and specifically give us your consent to export your personally identifiable information to the USA and to store and use it in the USA as specified in this Agreement. You understand that data stored in the USA may be subject to lawful request by the courts or law enforcement authorities in the USA.
The materials provided on the Website are protected by copyright as a collective work and/or compilation, pursuant to U.S. copyright laws, international conventions, and other copyright laws. The contents of the Website are only for your personal, non-commercial use. All materials contained on the Website are protected by copyright, and are owned or controlled by the SCTB or the party credited as the provider of the content. You will abide by any and all additional copyright notices, information, or restrictions contained in any content on the Website. You may download and make one copy of the content and other downloadable items displayed on the Website for personal, noncommercial use only, provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained in such content. Copying or storing of any content for other than personal, noncommercial use is expressly prohibited without the prior written permission from the SCTB or the copyright holder identified in the specific copyright notice.
Unless otherwise indicated, all marks displayed on the Website are subject to the trademark rights of the SCTB including without limitation its model nameplates, and its corporate logos and emblems.
All prices shown are based on U.S. dollars and do not include extra costs, such as, but not limited to, taxes. For specific pricing, hotel availability and program information, please visit the hotel site directly. Hotels are independent and are free to set their own prices.
The accuracy of the information on the Website cannot be guaranteed, particularly since this information is subject to change. All product illustrations and specifications are based upon current information at the time of programming. Although descriptions are believed correct, complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The SCTB reserves the right to make changes at any time, without notice or obligation, in the information contained on this Website, including and without limitation to prices, incentive programs, specifications, equipment, colors, materials and to change or discontinue models.
This Agreement shall be deemed to include all other notices, policies, disclaimers, and other terms contained in this Website; provided, however, that in the event of a conflict between such other terms and the terms of this Agreement, the terms of this Agreement shall control. This Agreement and any use of the Website shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflicts of laws provisions. Sole and exclusive jurisdiction for any action or proceeding arising out of or related to this Agreement and any use of the Website shall be an appropriate state or federal court located in the State of California. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the SCTB and you with respect to your use of the Website and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral, or written, between you and the SCTB. Any cause of action you may have with respect to your use of the Website must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim or cause of action arises. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of the Agreement, or portion thereof, to be unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to effect the intent of the Agreement, and the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. You agree that the use of the Website is in the State of California USA and not any other location.
Collection of Personal Information
User information is collected primarily to provide you with a more efficient SCTB online experience, as well as new, updates and information to help the SCTB meet your needs.
We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information such as your home zip/postal code and other such information. By voluntarily providing personal information, you are consenting to the collection and use of your personal information in accordance with the terms of this Terms of Use. The Website is designed for those 16 years of age and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under the age of 16. If we are made aware that we have received such information in violation of our policy, we will use reasonable efforts to locate and remove that information from our records.
You may choose not to use any service that requires the use of your personal information in a manner not described in this Terms of Use. Your use of the Website or any other SCTB online services will be considered as your consent to the use of your personal information in the way described.
The request for e-mail communication or contact from the SCTB may result in the collection of (but is not limited to) the following information:
- Name
- Address
- E-mail address
Use of Information
The information we collect on the Website is used to better serve your online needs. We do not share this information with third parties.
We use return e-mail addresses to answer the e-mail we receive. We may also use these e-mail addresses to site status and to respond to queries.
To receive news, updates and information via e-mail, register at the Website.
We may use non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our Website and share with our marketing and advertising agencies. If you choose to create an SCTB profile or receive information, or to otherwise give us personal information, we may store some or all of that information and use it for marketing research and marketing purposes. To enhance your experience on the Website, we might use information you provide to us through your SCTB profile to pre-populate forms with your name, address, phone, and email address. If you choose to save information, such as a meeting planner RFP form, on the Website, we may contact you to follow up on your interest in our convention and meeting services. In such cases, we may employ an outside research company to call you on our behalf.
Furthermore, we process personal information for certain legitimate business purposes, which include some or all of the following:
- where the processing enables us to enhance, modify, personalise or otherwise improve our services / communications for the benefit of our customers
- to identify and prevent fraud
- to enhance the security of our network and information systems
- to better understand how people interact with our websites
- to provide postal communications which we think will be of interest to you
- to determine the effectiveness of promotional campaigns and advertising
Whenever we process data for these purposes we will ensure that we always keep your Personal Data rights in high regard and take account of these rights. You have the right to object to this processing if you wish, and if you wish to do so please click here. Please bear in mind that if you object this may affect our ability to carry out tasks above for your benefit.
GDPR Policy
See our GDPR Policy here
Credit Card Information
If you choose to purchase products or services from us or our partners, you may need to give personal information and authorization to obtain information from various credit services. For example, you may need to provide the following information:
- Name
- Mailing address
- E-mail address
- Credit card number
- Home and business phone number (Information is collected at the time of a sale in order to complete the sale and deliver the products)
Security of Personal Information
We exercise reasonable care to protect your non-public personal information. This includes storing the personal information on our servers behind a secured firewall and ensuring all transmissions to other vendors use secure encryption technology. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. So while we strive to protect your non-public personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us or receive from us. This is especially true for information you transmit to us via e-mail. We have no way of protecting that information until it reaches us. Once we receive your transmission, we maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your personal information.
Internally, we will limit access to non-public personal information to those associates who need the information to provide products and services to you or maintain or service those products or services. These associates are limited in number, and are committed to our privacy and security policies. We will review our security arrangements from time to time, as we deem appropriate.
Sharing of Non-Public Personal Information
We reserve the right to, without notice to you, share non-public personal information with companies that work for us for the sole purpose of providing you with valuable services you've requested or already have through the Website. These companies may assist us in fulfilling your requests or processing your transactions. We will only share information with companies that work for us to provide marketing and other services and with non-affiliated persons and entities with whom we have entered into a joint marketing agreement, where we together market either our products or those of our marketing partner if you expressly authorize us to share this information. These companies are contractually forbidden from disclosing or using our customer information other than to carry out the purposes for which the information was disclosed. These companies are in no way authorized to sell, rent or trade your personal information. While there are such contractual obligations in place, we cannot and do not guarantee that a third party could not breach its obligation and use your non-public personal information in a way contrary to our policy.
We may disclose information, including non-public personal information, in special cases when we have a good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to legal requirements or comply with the legal process such as, but not limited to situations when we are required to do so by federal, state or local laws and regulations or when we receive a subpoena or are ordered by a court to do so; (b) protect and defend our rights; or (c) act to protect the interests of our users or others. Additionally, we may, without notice to you, provide aggregate statistics about visitors to Website such as volume, traffic patterns and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personal information.
Viewing and Updating Your Information
If you have a business profile account, you can review and revise your personal information at any time by accessing your SCTB profile at the Website. You may also request modifications to, or deletion of, information you previously entered into the Website by sending an email to SCTB requesting the change. To protect your privacy, we make every attempt to verify your identity before granting access to view or revise your personal information.
E-Mail Communication From SCTB
You will only receive e-mail from the SCTB if you have registered for one of our mailing lists. If you are currently on our list and do not wish to receive further information from us, you can opt out if you click here. To sign up for news, updates and information from the SCTB via e-mail, click here.
Monitoring Site Traffic
We collect anonymous user information by using Cookies. This enables the SCTB to gather the information about every visit to our site. Once a user has registered on the SCTB Website, the SCTB might elect to use Cookies to track a specific user. We use this information to enhance the user experience during future visits to the Website. We might also collect information on the browser type including plug-in versions, for example Flash or QuickTime. Another example of information we might capture is the URL where a user is entering or exiting the site.
Cookie Use
A Cookie is a small piece of information that the browser sends to the Web server with each page request. A Cookie can be saved on a user's hard drive as a small text file or it can be restricted to the computer's memory where it is removed once the browser is closed. Only the Cookies that are associated with a specific URL are sent to the Web server, Cookies that are sent from one Web server are never sent to another Web server. The SCTB uses Cookies to identify specific machines in order to gather aggregate data on how Web users are utilizing the Website. In some cases Cookies might be used to identify a specific user. You can set your browser to refuse all or some cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Website may become inaccessible or not function properly.
Pixel/Spotlight Tags
A "pixel tag" or "spotlight tag" is a small graphic file that is included in the Web page being displayed. By virtue of its existence on specific pages the SCTB can gain further information on how users are making use of the Website. Since the browser requesting this small graphic file is no different than the browser requesting any other Web page, it is possible that a Cookie might be transmitted along with the request. This means that all the information that is identified in the "Site Traffic Monitoring" section can also be collected by the use of a "pixel" or "spotlight" tag.
Transmission of Information
Any material, information or idea you transmit to or post on the Website by any means will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary, and may be disseminated or used by the SCTB or its affiliates for any purpose whatsoever, including, but not limited to, developing, manufacturing and marketing products. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all personal data provided to the SCTB online will be handled in accordance with the SCTB Online Privacy Practices. You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from this Website any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic, or profane material, or any other material that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under the law.
Third Party Links
The Website may contain links to other sites, including those of our business partners. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by other sites and those other sites have not agreed to our terms of use. Visit those sites for information regarding their privacy policy prior to providing personal information.
Links to Data on Other Sites.
The links we provide on the Website to other sites, such as the weather data provided by Weather Underground, are there for your reference and convenience. We do not control any of these sites, nor are we responsible for their content. The SCTB does not imply any endorsement of the material on such sites or any association with their operators by including these links on the Website. If you decide to access any of these sites you do so entirely at your own risk and you should be aware that upon using these links you will leave the Website.
Limitation of Warranty and Liability
THE WEBSITE, INCLUDING ALL CONTENT, SOFTWARE, FUNCTIONS, MATERIALS AND INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE ON OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE WEBSITE, IS PROVIDED "AS IS" TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW. THE SCTB AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES AND SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER CONCERNING THE CONTENT ON THE WEBSITE OR THE MATERIALS, INFORMATION AND FUNCTIONS MADE ACCESSIBLE BY THE SOFTWARE USED ON OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE WEBSITE, ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OR HYPERTEXT LINKS TO THIRD PARTIES OR ANY BREACH OF SECURITY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRANSMISSION OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION THROUGH THE WEBSITE OR ANY LINKED SITE. FURTHER, THE SCTB AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES AND SUPPLIERS DISCLAIM ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SCTB DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE WEBSITE OR ANY MATERIALS OR CONTENT CONTAINED THEREIN WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE WEBSITE OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES IT AVAILABLE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. THE SCTB AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES AND SUPPLIERS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THE USE OF THE WEBSITE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE CONTENT AND ANY ERRORS CONTAINED THEREIN AND THE SOFTWARE WHICH MAY BE DOWNLOADED THEREFROM; AND SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF PROFITS, LITIGATION, OR THE LIKE), WHETHER BASED ON BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBLITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THE NEGATION OF DAMAGES SET FORTH ABOVE ARE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN THE SCTB AND USER. THIS SITE AND THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, FORMS, AGREEMENTS, AND DOCUMENTS WOULD NOT BE PROVIDED WITHOUT SUCH LIMITATIONS. APPLICABLE LAW MAY NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
Indemnification
You hereby agree to indemnify, defend and hold the SCTB, and all its officers, directors, owners, agents, employees, information providers, affiliates, licensors and licensees (collectively, the "Indemnified Parties") harmless from and against any and all liability and costs incurred by the Indemnified Parties in connection with any claim arising out of any breach by you of the Agreement or the foregoing representations, warranties and covenants, including, without limitation, attorneys’ fees and costs.
Modification of Terms and Conditions
The SCTB reserves the rights, at its sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove any portion of this Agreement, in whole or in part, at any time. Notification of changes in the Agreement will be posted on the Website. The SCTB may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Website at any time, including the availability of any Website feature, database, or content. The SCTB may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Website without notice or liability. By using this Website you agree to be bound by any such revisions and should therefore periodically visit the page to determine the then current terms of use to which you are bound.
