Privacy Policy & Disclaimers

The North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) respects your privacy. We are providing this privacy statement to ensure that we make every effort to respect your privacy and to inform you what information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it, when we can release it and how you are entitled to access it. This privacy statement applies to the websites we administer and the e-mail you send us. Because we host several websites that perform varied functions, some sites may adopt different privacy and security statements that reflect their functionality.

Information Collected When You Browse NTMWD Sites

If you browse or download information during your visit to this website, we collect and store only the standard data collected by all web server software. That information may include:

  1. The Internet Protocol (IP) address used for your connection (but not your email address). The IP address is a numerical identifier assigned either to your Internet service provider or directly to your computer. We use the Internet IP to respond to your browser request. Example: 192.168.1.75
  2. The domain name assigned to your IP Address (if there is one). Example: somedomain.com
  3. The type of browser and operating system you used. Example: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows 8; IE4WDUS-1998101501)
  4. The date and time you visited this site
  5. The web pages, documents or services you accessed at this site
  6. The website you visited prior to coming to this website. (Note: this is included so that summary analysis can be done on how visitors get to our site, i.e., from a search engine, from a link on another site, etc.)

We do not track individual user navigation choices. We do, however, summarize the information listed above to determine:

  • The general locations of the primary users of our site (item 1 above).
  • What organizations are our most frequent users (item 2 above) to better target our content for the audience.
  • Which internet browsers that users prefer to use to access our site to determine what techniques we should use to develop pages that will work with different browsers (item 3 above).
  • Which pages users visit and the frequency of use (item 5 above).
  • The traffic that directs people to the site (item 6 above).

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this site may monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. If security monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, system personnel may provide the results of such monitoring to appropriate officials. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the state law and federal statutes.

Public Information & Open Records

All information on this site is a public record and subject to the Texas Public Information Act (formerly known as the Open Records Act). In the State of Texas, laws exist to ensure that government is open and that the public has a right to access appropriate records and information possessed by NTMWD. At the same time, there are exceptions to the public’s right to access public records based on the privacy of individuals. Both state and federal laws provide exceptions. We may request personally identifiable information from you in order to provide requested services, but such information is handled as it would be for an in-person visit to a governmental office. All information collected from our websites, including server logs, and information collected from web forms or e-mail you send to us, may be subject to the Texas Public Information Act. This means that while we do not actively share information, in some cases we may be compelled by law to release this information.

Personal Information and Nondisclosure

“Personal information” is information about a person that is readily identifiable to that individual, such as an individual’s name, address, telephone number or email address. Such personal information may be exempt from disclosure if disclosure would constitute an unreasonable invasion of privacy under the circumstances. A domain name or Internet Protocol (IP) address is not considered personal information. Most information collected by NTMWD is assumed to be open to the public unless specifically exempted. You have the right to review information collected about you by this site. We do not sell or share your personal information with third parties unless we are compelled by law to release this information. See Public Information & Open Records section above for more details.

Cookies

A cookie file is a small text file created on your computer by a website. A cookie file contains unique information that a website can use to store such things as passwords, or pages you have visited or the date you last looked at a specific page. Cookies also can identify your server session at a particular website. We do not use cookies to collect or store personal information.

Session

A server session is like a cookie that is stored on a web server. It can store information such as what web pages you visited, when you visited a web page, or personal information that you supply or information the web page retrieves for you. Occasionally, we use server sessions to store information about your session. For example, we may require you to login to a website and store your username to distinguish you from other people using the site.

Server Logs

We use information from server logs to evaluate accessibility or gauge the popularity of various features on our websites. We also use that information for general reporting and management functions. Specifically, we use log analysis tools to generate statistics, determine technical design specifications and identify system performance issues. We store the following information in our server logs:

  • User/client hostname – The hostname or IP address of the user/client requesting access
  • HTTP header, “user agent” – The user-agent information includes the type of browser, its version and the operating system on which it is running
  • HTTP header, “referrer” – The referrer specifies the page from which the client accessed the current page
  • System date – The date and time of the user/client request
  • Full request – The exact request the user/client made
  • Status – The status code the server returned to the user/client
  • Content length – The content length, in bytes, of the document sent to the user/client
  • Method – The request method used
  • Universal Resource Identifier (URI) – The location of a resource on the server including web pages, images and other files
  • Query string of the URI – Anything after the question mark in a URI
  • Protocol – The transport protocol and version used

Google Analytics

Google Analytics stores the following information on its website:

  • User/client hostname– The host-name or IP address of the user/client requesting access
  • HTTP header, “user agent” – The user-agent information includes the type of browser, its version and the operating system on which it is running
  • Universal Resource Identifier (URI) – The location of a resource on the server including web pages, images and other files
  • HTTP header, “referrer” – The referrer specifies the page from which the user/client accessed the current page
  • Screen colors – Color processing ability of the user/client screen
  • Screen resolution – The resolution or dimensions of the user/client screen
  • Service Provider – The Internet service provider of the user/client
  • Mobile device – If user/client is a mobile device, the manufacturer of the mobile device
  • Mobile carrier – If user/client is a mobile device, its Internet service provider
  • Bandwidth (Internet connection speed) – The speed of the user/client connection from their Internet service provider
  • Java support – If Java is enabled
  • Flash version – Which version of Adobe Flash is installed
  • Geographic data – Country, state, city, language preference of the user/client
  • Time on page – The time spent on a web page

Google Analytics shares information with Google. Please read Google’s Privacy Policy for more information.

Secure Transmission

This site uses the industry standard encryption software Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to enable secure transmission of data. The URL in your browser will change to “HTTPS” instead of “HTTP” when this security feature is invoked. Your browser may also display a lock or key symbol on its task bar to indicate invoked secure transmission. If these indicators are not present, information may be susceptible to interception by other parties. Most Internet e-mail communication is not considered secure. If you are communicating sensitive information, consider sending it in by postal mail or contacting the agency by phone.

Links to Other Sites - A Disclaimer

This site provides links to other websites as a convenience to our users. These include links to websites operated by other government agencies, municipalities, nonprofit organizations and private businesses. When you use one of these links, you are no longer on this site and this Privacy Notice will not apply. When you link to another website, you are subject to the privacy policy of that site.

When you follow a link to one of these sites neither the NTMWD, nor any agency, officer or employee of the NTMWD warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published by these external sites, nor endorses any content, viewpoints, products or services linked from these systems, and cannot be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of their information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from these systems does so at his or her own risk.

Risk Disclaimer

NTMWD and its directors, employees and agents do not warrant the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information contained in this website and shall not be held liable for any costs or losses of any kind caused by any reliance on such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information contained herein does so at his, her or its own risk and website visitors are encouraged to consult with NTMWD’s directors, employees and agents directly before any reliance is made. Any transmitted information may be deemed a public record under Texas law, subject to inspection or copying.

©Copyright 2016, NTMWD. All rights reserved. All of this site’s content, including but not limited to text, photographs, images, graphics, trademarks, logos and service marks, is owned or licensed by NTMWD and is protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws.