At muniSERV, we respect and protect the privacy of our customers and those who use our website and our products and services. This privacy statement provides details about how your personal information is collected and used.
Personal information is any information that identifies you or would enable someone to contact you, such as your name, email address, phone number and other non-public information that is associated with the foregoing. This privacy statement applies to the muniSERV website.
Information Collection and Use
We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this privacy statement. We may obtain information that is provided during any voluntary or mandatory registration process, online payment transaction, request for technical support, when you call or email us, or when you visit our website. We collect information only as necessary to fulfill the purposes set forth in this privacy statement.
We keep track of activity on the muniSERV website. Our analytics record which pages are viewed and which site a visitor arrived from, as aggregate counts rather than a profile of you. Our own servers record an IP address and browser details when a request looks like abuse, for example repeated failed sign-ins, so that we can protect the site and the people using it. We also record the IP address and browser of each successful sign-in to your account, kept for 90 days, so unusual access can be recognized.
When you click the Apply button on a job posting, we record that the click happened so that the municipality which posted the job can see how much interest it drew. If you are signed in at the time, that record is linked to your account. We do not track any other links you follow away from the website.
We obtain information that is provided by you on our public forums, including the article submission and RFP uploads. What you post stays on the site even if you later close your account. Contributions to any of the public areas of our website are considered public and non-confidential. To request removal of your personal information from any of these public postings contact us at [email protected].
Security and Privacy
We employ reasonable technical, administrative and physical safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information. We use industry-recognized technical safeguards, such as firewalls, and have adopted and implemented security procedures to protect your information from loss, misuse or unauthorized alteration. We do not collect financial account information, such as credit card numbers, directly. Payment security is handled through our payment processor using their encryption protocols.
Notwithstanding our efforts, we cannot guarantee absolute protection of this information given the open nature of the Internet, and we make no representations or warranties as to the effectiveness of our security.
We keep a documented process for handling a privacy breach, and a register of any incidents. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and the appropriate privacy regulator. If you suspect a breach involving your information, email us at [email protected] and we will investigate.
Sharing of Information
We will never sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their use without your consent. Occasionally, we enter into contracts with third parties so that they can assist us in servicing you. Our contracts with such third parties prohibit them from using any of your personal information for any purpose beyond the purpose for which they were engaged. We may also share non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate with third parties.
The service providers we rely on today are: Stripe, which processes payments and holds your card details (we never see or store them);Resend, which delivers our email; Google reCAPTCHA, which checks that our public forms are being used by a person rather than a bot;Plausible, which measures site traffic without cookies; andAnthropic, whose AI service we use to prepare draft replies to messages you send us through the contact form, and to summarize job postings. A draft reply is only ever a starting point for a person on our team, and is never sent to you automatically.
If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or a sale of all or a substantial portion of our assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you by email and/or a prominent notice on our website of any such transaction.
We may disclose your personal information to courts, law enforcement authorities and/or other relevant third parties when such disclosure is necessary or advisable to conduct an investigation, respond to a subpoena or court order, or protect our legal rights.
Cookies and Analytics
We use cookies on our site to keep you signed in and to remember choices you make while you are using it. We do not use advertising cookies and we do not track you across other websites. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying your browser settings. If you choose to disable cookies you may still browse our site, but you will not be able to sign in.
Our website analytics are provided by Plausible, which measures page visits without cookies and without building a profile of you. Our emails do not contain tracking pixels or web beacons: we record that a message was sent, but not whether you opened it.
Choice / Opt-out
Our Anti-Spam Policy allows only permission-based email. You choose which topics you want to hear about when you register, and you can change those choices at any time on your email preferences page. Every marketing email we send carries an unsubscribe link: open it, confirm, and the change applies immediately. If we hold more than one address for you, unsubscribe from each of them, or email us and we will do it for you. You can also opt out by emailing us at [email protected].
Some communications (for example, important account notifications and billing information) are considered transactional and are sent to everyone with an account, whatever your marketing preferences are. They stop when you close your account, which you can do yourself. See Closing your account below.
Access to Personal Information
You can update your profile, including your name, your organizational information and your contact details, from your dashboard. Your sign-in email address is the one thing you cannot change yourself: email us at [email protected] and we will change it for you. We will retain your information for as long as your account is active and as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
Closing your account
You can close your own account. Open your profile page in your dashboard, scroll to the bottom, and choose Close my account. You will be asked to type the word close to confirm, so it cannot happen by accident.
When you close your account:
- You are signed out and you cannot sign in again.
- Your consultant profile, if you have one, is removed from the directory and from search.
- We stop sending you marketing email, and the transactional messages above stop too. We send one last message confirming the account is closed, so you have a record of it.
- If you have a paid subscription, it is cancelled so that you are not billed again. You keep it until the end of the period you have already paid for, and that period is not refunded.
Closing your account does not delete what you posted. RFPs, job postings, muniBLOG articles, events, and testimonials you gave stay on the site, because other people rely on them: a municipality still needs the RFP it ran, and a consultant still needs the testimonial you wrote. Your account is deactivated rather than erased, so nothing is destroyed and an administrator can reopen it with your profile and history intact if you change your mind. Email us to ask.
If you want your personal information erased rather than your account closed, that is a separate request and we handle it by hand. Email us at [email protected] and say so, and we will tell you what can be removed and what we are required to keep.
Third Party Links
The muniSERV website provides links to third-party websites. Because we do not control the information policies or practices of these third parties, you should review their privacy policies to learn more about how they collect and use personally identifiable information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third parties.
Notification of Changes
We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time. If we decide to change this privacy statement in any material way, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on the muniSERV website. Your continued use of our website constitutes your acceptance of any such changes.
Questions?
Our privacy officer, the person in charge of personal information at muniSERV, is Steven Desrocher, Privacy Officer, reachable at [email protected].
If you have questions or concerns regarding this privacy statement, please contact us.