1. Statement of Intent

Your privacy is important to North Park Covenant Church (NPCC). Any information provided to NPCC during the course of any visit to www.npcovenant.org will be handled according to this policy. North Park Covenant Church will act in accordance with current legislation and aim to meet current Internet best practice.

2. Information on Visitors

During the course of your visit to www.npcovenant.org, information about you and your visit is tracked by “SESSIONS”, and in some cases “COOKIES”, without you explicitly providing this information (see 8: Technologies and Definitions). The information stored during these visits, non-personal statistical information, typically is not enough to identify you personally (without significant work). Most websites (if not all) practice these techniques because these technologies allow the website, and the website publisher, to provide better service to you during the course of your visit. This information gathered (not explicitly provided by you, via a form), is removed at the end of your visit to the website except if any errors occur during your visit (see 6: Offending Actions). Portions of this website are restricted to “Members and friends of North Park Covenant Church.” These restricted areas of the website may be accessed by logging in using your personal account on our website. During the registration of your account, you will be asked for Personal Information, including, but not limited to, your Name and Email Address. This information, as well as some SESSION Data (such as the time, date, and your IP address – as required by law) is saved and retained by NPCC.

3. Acquisition of Personal Information

North Park Covenant Church provides a Secure (SSL) version of the website. NPCC will do its best to redirect you to this secure site whenever personal information is requested of you, or returned back to you. However, it is your responsibility to verify they are submitting personal information over this secure channel (see 9: Technologies and Definitions). However, you are the best defense, and NPCC cannot be responsible for fraudulent activity outside of our control. Please verify that the URL is “http[s]:\\www.npcovenant.org\” before submitting information. Please also verify that you press the “logoff button” after you are done accessing restricted information.

4. Sharing of Personal Information

Your Privacy is extremely important to NPCC. Any personal information, submitted through www.npcovenant.org, will NEVER be sold, shared or disclosed to vendors NPCC has not partnered with unless required or directed to do so by law. Your information will only be used by North Park Covenant Church and its related services to provide services beneficial to you. Online access to your personal information may be available to you through ACS Technologies’ web portal.  That account is created upon your request within the online portal.  It is your responsibility to maintain a secure password for the account.  Financial transactions are processed through Vanco Payments in accordance with all PCI requirements and current federal and state laws.

5. Email

NPCC does not SPAM. All announcement lists are on an opt-in, opt-out basis. We will only send announcements that you have agreed to. The one exception to this rule is Members of a Board or Committee of the church will be automatically added to that group’s announcement or discussion list. NPCC will NEVER randomly email you requesting you to “verify your information”. If you receive one of these emails, do NOT provide any Personal Information, and forward the email on to webmaster@npcovenant.org at once. You will receive confirmation emails whenever you initiate action on the website (such as change of password, forgotten password, change of Personal Information, addition of Personal Information, opt-in or opt-out of any mailing list, etc.) These are considered valid email to protect your security. If you receive one of these emails without initiating the stated action, follow the instructions in the email and contact webmaster@npcovenant.org if you have any questions or concerns of its legitimacy.

6. Offending Actions

The website provides content to you, based upon a set of variables (where you’ve been, where you’re going). Some information may be purposefully hidden from you (for example, an article that has been submitted by the author, but not yet edited by the editor). Any deliberate attempt to “HACK” the website to show content other than the intended content is illegal and raises errors on the website. These errors may result in further action by North Park Covenant Church (see 7: North Park Covenant Church Response to Offending Actions). Do not post or send offensive or inappropriate content anywhere on or to www.npcovenant.org or otherwise engage in any disruptive behavior on www.npcovenant.org. North Park Covenant Church considers such behavior to be serious. This action may result in further action by North Park Covenant Church (see 7: North Park Covenant Church Response to Offending Actions).

7. North Park Covenant Church Response to Offending Actions

If any Offending actions occur during the time of your visit to www.npcovenant.org, NPCC can use whatever information we have gathered about you to stop such behavior. This may include informing relevant third parties such as your e-mail provider, Internet service provider, and local or federal law enforcement agencies about your content and your behavior. NPCC may also refuse you access to www.npcovenant.org upon such behavior.

9. Technologies and Definitions

SESSIONS: Sessions are a method of storing information temporarily. Session data is deleted as soon as you leave the website and close the connection (for example, close your browser window or click the “logout” button.) Sessions reside on the web server, and are never transferred to your machine.

COOKIES: Cookies, like sessions store data but they store the information longer. Cookies are stored on your computer rather than the server and are removed either by instruction from the website, an expiration period set by the website, or by the user clearing their cookie information from their browser.

SSL: SSL is an encryption between your computer and the web server that prevents others to see the content of the information you send. Many browsers display a key, or a closed padlock in the URL bar, and in the Status bar at the bottom when the information transferred is secure. You will also know you are communication over a secure channel whenever the URL begins with “https:\\”. The “s” (as opposed to “http:\\”) indicates this secure channel.

10. Directing Concerns

Concerns about your privacy may be directed to the Church Office by written mail to 5250 N. Christiana Ave, Chicago, Illinois, 60625. Or they may be submitted via email to webmaster@npcovenant.org.