|
General Overview & Purpose Statement
ADA Compliance / Web Accessibility
Our Commitment To Your Privacy
Optional Voluntary Information
Parental Consent
Usage Tracking
Cookies
Use of Information
Sharing of Information
Security
Opt-Out Policy
Your Consent General Overview & Purpose Statement
LARA is a consortium of member cities in Los Angeles County and was formed by environmentally conscious recycling advocates from the member cities.
In 2004, the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) approved the formation of LARA as a regional agency whose mission is to assist members in meeting and exceeding the 50% waste diversion mandates of State Assembly Bill 939.
This website was designed to maintain education and awareness for citizens and member cities of the Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA).
ADA Compliance / Web Accessibility
State of the art web utilities and procedures have been followed to create and maintain a website that is accessible to everyone. The design of this website meets the standards outlined in the US Section 508 accessibility guidelines. In addition, portions of the website are routinely evaluated to ensure that changes to the website continue to meet Section 508 guidelines. To report accessibility issues please contact our webmaster. webmaster@laregionalagency.com (-- forwards to Nady.Maechling@lacity.org and to laraweb@detailsmarketing.com)
Our Commitment To Your Privacy
This site is owned and operated by Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA). Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA), we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.
Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.
Definition of the Information Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) gathers and keeps track of.
Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) gathers two types of information about users:
- Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions to receive our electronic newsletters, to participate in our message boards or forums, to email and from participation in polls and surveys.
- Information Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) gathers through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows us to better tailor our content to readers' needs. Under no circumstances does Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.
Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) Gathers User Information In The Following Processes:
Optional Voluntary Information
We offer the following free services, which require some type of voluntary submission of personal information by users:
1. Electronic newsletters (Dispatches)
We will offer free electronic news and event notices to users. Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every news or event notice that points users to the subscription management page.
2. Message boards/forums
Users of the Member Center password-protected site's Message Boards and Member Forums have been pre-registered (both are free of charge) in order to post messages. During registration the user is supplied with a username, password, and email address. Upon first login, a Member Center user may change his password and contact information at any time.
3. "E-mail this " Service
Our site users can choose to electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking "e-mail this to a friend". The information is not used for any other purpose.
4. Polling
We may occasionally offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other users and see what our audience thinks about important issues. Opinions or other responses to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) may use a system to "tag" users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual users.
5. Surveys
Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our sponsors, advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.
Parental Consent
Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.
Usage Tracking
Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) tracks user traffic patterns throughout our site. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) does break down overall usage statistics according to a user's domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user's browser).
Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that users enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better website for the citizens and member cities of the Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA).
Cookies
We may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above). Our advertising system delivers a one-time cookie to better track ad impressions and click rates.
You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in message boards, forums, polling and surveys.
Use Of Information
Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in our network of sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our users.
As stated above, we use information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.
When we use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you. We track search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what interests our users. But we don't track which terms a particular user enters.
Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers, sponsors and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their needs. Because we don't track the usage patterns of individual users, an advertiser or sponsor will never know that a specific user clicked their ad. We will not disclose any information about any individual user except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public. Sharing Of Information
Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and help our advertisers better understand our audience's demographics. This is essential to keeping our service free. We will not share information about individual users with any third party, except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public. Browser Compatibility
Our website was designed to function best under Netscape and Internet Explorer versions 4 and above. Some portions of the site may require only the latest versions of Netscape or Internet Explorer. To report any browser compatibility issues, please contact our webmaster (webmaster@laregionalagency.com -- forwards to Nady.Maechling@lacity.org and to laraweb@detailsmarketing.com) and we will try to address them in future designs of the website. Security
Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA)’s hosting agents utilize secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our website users.
Opt-Out Policy
We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:
- Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters.
- Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users Your Consent
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA). If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it. |
