Privacy Policy

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of all of our website visitors.

This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) sets forth how we, The Akron Zoological Park (“Akron Zoo”), the data controller, collects, uses and protects the information that you give or provide to us when you visit www.akronzoo.org. Akron Zoo may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. You should check this page occasionally to see whether any changes to this Privacy Policy have been made. If changes have been made, and if you do not agree with them, you must cease use of the Site and/or not access it. Your continued access to and/or use of the Site after changes have been made to this Privacy Policy indicate your agreement to and acceptance of the changes. This Privacy Policy is effective as 5/31/2019 (“Effective Date”).

We use cookies on our website. If these cookies are not strictly necessary for the provision of our website, we will ask you to consent to our use of cookies when you first visit our website.

With respect to security: We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site.

Akron Zoo is committed to protecting your privacy when you visit the Site. When you visit the Site, we may collect personal information from you by which you can be identified, including without limitation your name, email address, and credit card information (“Personal Information”). You may visit the Site without providing Personal Information; however, if you do not provide such information, some functionality of the Site may remain unavailable to you.

Our third-party hosting company will also collect additional, non-personally-identifiable information from you (“Non-Personally-Identifiable Information”, together with Personal Information collectively referred to as “Information”), including without limitation the URL you came from, your IP address, your domain name, your browser type, the country and state where your server is located, and the pages that were viewed during your visit to the Site. All Information is kept on a secure server to protect it from disclosure to outside parties.

Personal Information Collected

Akron Zoo may, without limitation, collect the following Personal Information from you when you visit the Site:

information about your device including your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, and operating system;
information about your visits to the Site and the use of the Site, including the referral source, length of visit, page views, and website navigation paths;
your email address, that you enter when you register with the Site;
information that you enter when you create a profile on the Site—for example, your name, profile pictures, gender, birthday, relationship status, interests and hobbies, educational details, and employment details;
your name and email address that you enter in order to create subscriptions to our emails and/or e-newsletters
information that you enter while using the services on the Site;
information that is generated while using the Site, including when, how often, and under what circumstances you use it;
information relating to anything you purchase, services you use, or transactions you make through the Site, including your name, address, telephone number and email address;
information contained in any communications that you send to us by email or through the Site, including its communication content and metadata; and
any other personal information that you send to us.

Uses of Personal Information Collected

Akron Zoo collects the Personal Information set forth above to improve the Site and our services offered, and to provide you with better service. In particular, we may use your Personal Information (and other Information) for the following purposes, without limitation:

administering the Site and business;
to customize/personalize the Site based on user interests;
enabling your use of the services available on the Site;
sending you goods and/or programs purchased through the Site;
supplying and/or fulfilling services purchased through the Site;
sending statements, invoices, and payment reminders to you, and collecting payments from you;
sending you non-marketing commercial communications;
sending you email notifications that you have specifically requested;
sending you our email newsletter, if you have requested it (you can opt out at any time if you would no longer like to receive our email newsletter);
sending you marketing communications relating to our business or the businesses of carefully-selected third parties which we think may be of interest to you, by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (you can opt out at any time if you would no longer like to receive marketing communications);
providing third parties with statistical information about our users (third parties will not be able to identify any individual user from that information);
dealing with inquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to the Site;
keeping the Site secure and to prevent fraud;
verifying compliance with the terms and conditions governing the use of the Site;
sending you useful information about our programs, products and/or services;
for enhancing the Site’s operations;
for statistical purposes;
to improve our products, programs and/or services;
to maintain the integrity of the information and services provided on the Site; and
other uses.

If you submit personal information for publication on the Site, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the license you grant to us.

Your privacy settings can be used to limit the publication of your information on the Site and can be adjusted using privacy controls on the Site.

Akron Zoo does not sell or rent your Information to others. Except as set forth herein, and unless required by law, we will not distribute your Personal Information to third parties without your permission.

Disclosing Personal Information

We may disclose your Personal Information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers, or subcontractors as may be reasonably necessary for the purposes set forth in this policy.

We may disclose your Personal Information to any member of our group of companies which may include our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries, as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set forth in this policy.

We may disclose your Personal Information:

if we are required to do so by law;
in connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings;
to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset that we are (or are contemplating) selling; and
to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that Personal Information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that Personal Information.

Except as provided in this policy, we will not provide your Personal Information to third parties.

Retaining Personal Information

Our data retention policies and procedure are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations regarding the retention and deletion of Personal Information.
Personal Information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
We will retain documents, including electronic documents, containing Personal Information:
1. to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
2. if we believe that the documents may be relevant to any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings; and
3. to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights, including, but not limited to, providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk.

Security for Personal Information

Akron Zoo is committed to ensuring that your Personal Information is secure. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure of your Personal Information, we use suitable, industry-standard physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the Personal Information that we collect via the Site. We will take reasonable technical and organizational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse, or alteration of any of your Personal Information you have provided. We will store all Personal Information you provide on our secure, password- and firewall-protected, servers. Any and all electronic financial transactions entered into the Site will be protected by encryption technology.

You acknowledge that the transmission of any information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing the Site confidential. We will never ask you for your password, except when you securely log in to the Site.

Third party websites

This Site may contain links to other websites. We have no control over and are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices or the content of such websites and third parties. Upon leaving the Site, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new website.

Correcting Your Personal Information

You may request details about your Personal Information that Akron Zoo holds by emailing us at [email address]. If you believe that any of your Personal Information is incorrect or incomplete, please email us at the foregoing email address to request correction. Upon receipt of your email, we will correct any of your Personal Information found to be incorrect.

Cookies

The Site uses cookies. A cookie is a file containing an identifier, a string of numbers and letters, that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the web browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies. A persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date. A session cookie will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies. We use cookies on the Site.

The names of the cookies that we use on the Site and the purposes for which they are used are set out below:
1. track users as they navigate the Site;
2. improve the Site’s usability;
3. administer the Site;
4. prevent fraud and improve the security of the Site;
5. personalize the Site for each user; and
6. target advertisements which may be of particular interest to specific users.
Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies—for example:
1. in Internet Explorer (version 10) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking “Tools,” “Internet Options,” “Privacy,” and then “Advanced”
2. in Firefox (version 24) you can block all cookies by clicking “Tools,” “Options,” “Privacy,” selecting “Use custom settings for history” from the drop-down menu, and unticking “Accept cookies from sites”
3. in Chrome (version 29), you can block all cookies by accessing the “Customize and control” menu, and clicking “Settings,” “Show advanced settings,” and “Content settings,” and then selecting “Block sites from setting any data” under the “Cookies” heading.

Blocking all cookies may have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on the Site.

3. You can delete cookies already stored on your computer—for example:

in Internet Explorer (version 10), you must manually delete cookie files (you can find instructions for doing so at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835 )
in Firefox (version 24), you can delete cookies by clicking “Tools,” “Options,” and “Privacy”, then selecting “Use custom settings for history”, clicking “Show Cookies,” and then clicking “Remove All Cookies”
in Chrome (version 29), you can delete all cookies by accessing the “Customize and control” menu, and clicking “Settings,” “Show advanced settings,” and “Clear browsing data,” and then selecting “Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data” before clicking “Clear browsing data.”
Deleting cookies may have a negative impact on the usability of many websites.

Amendments

We may update this privacy policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website. You should check this privacy policy page frequently to ensure you understand any changes to this policy. We may notify you of changes to this policy by email.

Analytics Services

Akron Zoo collects information through cookies and other similar technologies. We may use third parties to provide advertisements for other websites that may be of interest to you, based on Information collected about your use of the Site and other websites. To do this, Akron Zoo and/or these third parties may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser, which may include, without limitation, the use of pixel tags and/or web beacons. You can choose to accept or decline cookies; most browsers automatically accept cookies unless you modify settings to decline them. However, declining to accept cookies may prevent you from taking full advantage of the Site. Further, Akron Zoo does not recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include “do not track” instructions.

Akron Zoo also uses web analytics services, which currently include, without limitation, Google Analytics, and Crazy Egg and Mouseflow analytics. Although we currently use the foregoing analytics services providers, Akron Zoo reserves its right, within its sole discretion, to change analytics services providers, or to add additional analytics services providers, without notice to you.

Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to track and report website traffic. The Information generated, including your shortened IP address, is transmitted to Google. The Information is used to evaluate users’ use of the domain, compile statistical reports on domain activity, and provide other services related to the Site and internet use. Google may also collect information about users’ use of other websites.

The information generated from Google Analytics is used only to improve the Site. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit the Site, rather than your name or other Personal Information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with your Personal Information. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the Site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use (as amended for government websites) and the Google privacy policy, which are available at www.google.com/policies/. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this site by disabling cookies on your browser. You may also opt out of Google Analytics.

The Site uses CrazyEgg tracking to obtain information on how users are interacting with specific Akron Zoo web pages. This allows Akron Zoo to evaluate and, if necessary or beneficial, to modify its Site to improve value and usability. The data CrazyEgg collects includes information about how users navigate around a web page and a list of the most commonly clicked links on a specific web page. CrazyEgg does not collect Personal Information. Crazy Egg’s ability to use and share information collected by Crazy Egg about your visits to the Site is restricted by the Crazy Egg Terms of Use and privacy policy, which are available at www.crazyegg.com/privacy. You may also opt out of CrazyEgg.

The Site also uses Mouseflow web analytics service. This service may record mouse clicks, mouse movements, scrolling activity, and any text you type in the Site, except text in password fields. Mouseflow does not collect Personal Information that you do not voluntarily enter the Site. Mouseflow does not track your browsing habits across other websites or text input into password fields. For more information, see Mouseflow’s privacy policy at http://mouseflow.com/privacy/. You may also opt out of Mouseflow.

Remarketing Services

This Site uses Google AdWords, Facebook, and Bing Remarketing Services to advertise on third-party websites (including the networks of Google, Facebook, Bing and Yahoo!) to previous users of the Site. This could mean that we advertise to previous users who haven’t completed a task on the Site. For example, if a user fills out the contact form but does not submit it, we would then advertise to them on a search results page, or on a site within the third-party networks. Third-party vendors, including Google, Facebook, and Bing, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s past visits to the Akron Zoo Site. Of course, any data collected will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy and any applicable third-party privacy policies.

Akron Zoo currently uses Google AdWords, Facebook, and Bing Remarketing Services as remarketing services providers. Akron Zoo reserves its right, within its sole discretion, to change remarketing services providers, or to add additional remarketing services providers, without notice to you.

You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ads Settings page. Users may opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page.

You can set preferences for how Facebook advertises to you or opt out in your browser or device settings.

To opt out of Bing or another third party, you may use the NAI opt-out tool here, which will allow you to opt out of targeted ads from NAI-approved member companies. The advertisers we use are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and adhere to the NAI Code of Conduct.

The Site may contain links to other websites. Akron Zoo is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. Upon leaving the Site, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.

Other Privacy Protections

You may have other privacy protections under some state or federal laws. We will comply with all applicable state and federal laws as to information about you.

If you feel that the Site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us at the below address or phone number or contact the Federal Trade Commission by phone at 202.FTC-HELP (202.382.4357), or electronically using the FTC Complaint Assistant.