Privacy Policy

The Brunswick County Tourism Development Authority (BCTDA) is committed to making your visit to our website a positive experience in a protected environment. Our privacy policy describes how we collect, protect and share information gathered from you, the choices you have about how we use and disclose your information, ways to access and update your information, and how to contact us with questions or concerns related to this privacy policy. 

ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVACY POLICY AND CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY

CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13

INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND HOW WE COLLECT IT

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

CHOICES ABOUT HOW WE USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION

ACCESSING AND CORRECTING YOUR INFORMATION

DATA SECURITY

CONTACT INFORMATION

 

ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVACY POLICY AND CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY

The Brunswick County Tourism Development Authority (“BCTDA” or “We”) respects your privacy and we are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”). When you register or otherwise provide us with your information, you opt-in, i.e., agree, to the BCTDA’s use of the information as provided below, including to receive communications from us, but you may opt-out as provided below.

This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website www.ncbrunswick.com, and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting and disclosing that information.

This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect on this website and in email, text and other electronic messages between you and the Website. It does not apply to information collected by:

  • The BCTDA offline, through social media platforms, or through any other means, including on any other website operated by us or any third party, including our affiliates and subsidiaries; or
  • Any third party, including our affiliates and subsidiaries, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Website.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. By accessing or using this Website, you acknowledge that you have read and understand the Privacy Policy and accept and agree to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you must not access or use the Website.

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion. All changes are effective immediately once posted, and apply to all access to and use of the Website thereafter. Your continued use of the Website following the posting of the changed Privacy Policy means that you accept and agree to the changes. You are expected to check this Privacy Policy when you access the Website so you are aware of any changes, as they are binding on you. However, if we make material changes to how we treat our users' personal information, we may notify you by email to any active and deliverable email address that you have provided to us and/or through a notice on the home page of the Website. The date the Privacy Policy was last revised is displayed at the top of this page.

CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13

Children 13 and under are not eligible to provide any information to or on the website, as we do not provide privacy measures designed to protect children when using the Internet unsupervised. Our website is not intended for children under 13 years of age and the BCTDA does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we find that we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us as provided below.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND HOW WE COLLECT IT

The BCTDA collects several types of information from and about users of our Website, including information:

  • That may personally identify you, such as name, postal address, email address, telephone number or any other information the Website collects that is defined as personal or personally identifiable information under an applicable law ("personal information"); That is about you but individually does not identify you; and/or about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access the Website and usage details.

We collect this information:

  • Directly from you when you provide it to the BCTDA.
  • Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses and information collected through cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies.
  • From third parties, for example, our travel and business partners.

Information you provide to BCTDA.

The information we collect on or through our Website may include:

  • Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Website, subscribing to our service, posting material or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by the BCTDA and when you report a problem with the Website.
  • Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies.

We may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including:

  • Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
  • Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system and browser type.
  • About your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking).

We use common Internet technologies, including Google Analytics and "cookies" to collect information about users so that at any time we can provide the best possible functionality and develop our information services.

  • Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of the Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to the Website.
  • Web Beacons. Pages of the Website and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs. pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Organization, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an e-mail and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide us, including any personal information:

  • To present the Website and its contents to you.
  • To provide you with information, products or services that you request from the Organization. For example:
    • Email Newsletter and Visitor Information Form Requests: We collect and use information provided by visitors to provide convenient access to our products and services, keep visitors posted on our products and services, and special offers as described at the point of collection. For example, we collect, store and use your name, address, phone number, email address and the topics of interest to you via our email newsletter request form. This information allows us to provide information of interest to you regarding a variety of topics in an email newsletter, but it is not provided to any third party except as may be required by law. We will only share your name, email and mailing address provided on this form with industry partners if you select that you would like to receive offers and promotions from area tourism businesses. Industry partners may elect to provide information directly to you at your email and/or mailing address.
    • Vacation Guide Request Form: Information collected through our vacation guide request form allows us to mail information of interest to visitors. If a visitor elects to provide an email address on this form then he/she will be included in an email mailing about news, special offers and information on NC's Brunswick Islands. If you check the box indicating that you would like to receive offers and promotions from area tourism businesses on this form then the name, address and email collected from the vacation guide request form are shared with industry partners who may elect to provide information directly to you at your email and/or mailing address. Additionally, information from these parties may be included in the vacation guide sent by the BCTDA. Data collected through one or more collection points on the website may be aggregated and used for internal research purposes and provided to third parties.
  • To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features on the Website.
  • In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
  • For any other purpose with your consent.

Specifically, we use Google Analytics to measure and monitor usage trends of the ncbrunswick.com website. We also use data from Google's Interest-based advertising or third-party audience data (such as age, gender and interests) with Google Analytics in order to periodically evaluate whether the content on the Website is well-matched to audiences actually using the Website and how to tailor and improve said content to appropriate user audiences if it can be improved through content changes and updates.

The website also uses the Google AdWords remarketing service and other advertising campaigns to advertise on third-party websites (including Google) to previous visitors to our site. It could mean that we advertise to previous visitors who have not completed a task on our site or who have visited key pages, for example, requesting a Visitors Guide. This could be in the form of an advertisement on the Google search results page or on a site in the Google Display Network. We monitor how effective our advertisements are at inspiring you to visit NC’s Brunswick Islands via use of cookies by third-party vendors, including Google, to serve ads based on users' past visits to the Website, or interactions with our advertisements.

The website may also use remarking services provided by channel partners ( NaviStone ) for the purpose of direct mail advertising. Through the use of cookies and web beacons, NaviStone may combine data (IP addresses) collected from our website with other data, including names and addresses from third-party databases, for the purposes of direct mail advertising.

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction, and, we may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this Privacy Policy:

  • To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
  • To contractors, service providers and other third parties we use to support our business.
  • To third parties to market their products or services to you if you specifically opt-in to such use.
  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
  • For any other purpose disclosed by the Organization when you provide the information.
  • With your consent.

We may also share your information:

  • To comply with any court order, law or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
  • If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property or safety of the Organization, our customers or others.

CHOICES ABOUT HOW WE USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION

The BCTDA aims to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you share with us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

  • Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
  • Disclosure of Your Information for Third-Party Advertising. If you do not want us to share your personal information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes, you can opt-out by sending us an email stating your request to info@ncbrunswick.com.
  • Promotional Offers from BCTDA. If you do not want to have your contact information used by the BCTDA to promote our own or third parties' products or services, you can opt-out by sending us an email stating your request to info@ncbrunswick.com. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions.
  • Vacation Guide Request Form: If you have sent a Vacation Guide request form and no longer wish to receive this information, please contact us at one of the following:
    • Mail: Brunswick County Tourism Development Authority, P. O. Box 1186, Shallotte, NC 28459.
    • Telephone: 910-755-5517.
    • Email: info@ncbrunswick.com.
    • Please provide us with your exact name, mailing address and email address, if applicable.
  • Third Parties. We do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt-out of Google's use of cookies by visiting Google's Ads Settings.  Other sites that can assist web users in opting-out of cookie based advertising include:  http://optout.networkadvertising.org/#!/ and https://www.neustar.biz/privacy/opt-out

ACCESSING AND CORRECTING YOUR INFORMATION

Please send us an e-mail at info@ncbrunswick.com, or mail or call to the contact information below to request access to, correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to the BCTDA. We cannot delete your personal information except by also deleting all information you provided.

DATA SECURITY

We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure. To ensure that the processing of information is carried out in a safe manner, only authorized persons at the BCTDA, and our subcontractors and system suppliers (see below) will have access to the information you provide us. The number of employees with such approval is limited. Access to information is secured by access mechanisms.

  • Simpleview (www.simpleviewinc.com) - website data management systems 

  • Act-On (www.act-on.com) - for email newsletter 

  • The Focus Group Marketing Services, LLC, (www.teamcoastal.com) to distribute Visitors Guides

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to the Website. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

We employ reasonable and appropriate security measures such as maintaining physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in compliance with applicable security requirements, including US federal and state regulations. We use computer safeguards such as firewalls and data encryption; we enforce physical access controls to our buildings and files; and we authorize access to personal information only for those employees who require it to fulfill their job responsibilities. However, no security system is foolproof and we cannot guarantee the security of your information.

The BCTDA has no control over, nor does it bear any of the responsibility for the privacy policies and/or content of any sites or advertisers linked to or on the BCTDA's website, or the cookies these sites might set in your browser.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Any questions, concerns or additional requests about this privacy policy should be directed to: info@ncbrunswick.com or write to us at the address below. Additionally, you may contact us at:

Brunswick County Tourism Development Authority

Address: P.O. Box 1186, Shallotte, NC 28459 (Attn: Director)

Phone: 910-755-5517

United States