Your privacy is important to us. It is First United Methodist Church of Gulfport’s policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect from you across our website, https://fumc-gulfport.org/, and other sites we own and operate.
The following elaborates on the information we collect:
When you visit our website, our servers may automatically log the standard data provided by your web browser. This data is considered “non-identifying information”, as it does not personally identify you on its own. It may include your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, your browser type and version, the pages of our website you visit, the time and date of your visit to our website, the time spent on each page of our website, and other related details.
We may ask for personal information, such as your name, phone number and email address. This data is considered “identifying information”, as it can personally identify you. We only request personal information relevant to providing you with a service, and only use it to help provide or improve this service.
Text Messaging Privacy Policy: We are committed to respecting the privacy and security of texting participants' personal information. This policy is designed to provide transparency regarding the collection, use, and sharing of information within our texting membership. The primary purpose of collecting member information is to enhance engagement, provide current updates, and create community within our organization. We do not sell information for marketing and do not share information other than for the purposes of communicating important updates or information about our organization. We strive to keep your information private and implement security measures to protect such information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
You agree and accept that we cannot completely control the unauthorized breach or interception of confidential data or communications, notwithstanding the reasonable security measures we use. You consent to our use of security measures described above for the purpose of protecting and keeping your information private.
We collect information by fair and lawful means, with your knowledge and consent. We also let you know why we’re collecting it and how it will be used. You are free to refuse our request for this information, with the understanding that we may be unable to provide you with some of your desired services without it.
We may use a combination of identifying and non-identifying information to understand who our visitors are, how they use our services, and how we may improve their experience of our website in future. We do not disclose the specifics of this information publicly, but may share aggregated and anonymized versions of this information, for example, in website and customer usage trend reports.
We only retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide a service, or to improve our services in future. While we retain this data, we will protect it within commercially acceptable means to prevent loss and theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. That said, we advise that no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and cannot guarantee absolute data security.
We use “cookies” to collect information about you and your activity across our site. A cookie is a small piece of data that our website stores on your computer, and accesses each time you visit so we can understand how you use our site and serve you content based on preferences you have specified. If you do not wish to accept cookies from us, you should instruct your browser to refuse cookies from our website, understanding that we may be unable to provide you with some of your desired services without them. This policy covers only the use of cookies between your computer and our website; it does not cover the use of cookies by any third-party services we use on our site.
This website does not knowingly target or collect personal information from children. As a parent/guardian, please contact us if you believe your child is participating in an activity involving personal information on our website, and you have not received a notification or request for consent. We do not use your supplied contact details for marketing or promotional purposes.
This privacy policy only covers First United Methodist Church of Gulfport’s own collecting and handling of data. We only work with partners, affiliates and third-party providers whose privacy policies align with ours, however we cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy practices. Our website may link to external sites that are not operated by us. Please be aware that we have no control over the content and policies of those sites, and cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy practices.
At our discretion, we may update this policy to reflect current acceptable practices. We will take reasonable steps to let users know about changes via our website. Your continued use of this site after any changes to this policy will be regarded as acceptance of our practices around data and personal information.
As our user, you have the right to be informed about how your data is collected and used. You are entitled to know what data we collect about you, and how it is processed. You are entitled to correct and update any personal information about you, and to request this information be deleted. You are entitled to restrict or object to our use of your data, while retaining the right to use your personal information for your own purposes. You have the right to opt out of data about you being used in decisions based solely on automated processing. Feel free to contact us if you have any concerns or questions about how we handle your data and personal information.