Privacy Policy
Merit, Inc. (“us,” "we,” or “our”), a Florida Corporation, operates the http://myDistrictwebsite.com website and the MyDistrictWebsite.com mobile application (collectively the “Website” or “Service”). Merit wants to make your online experience pleasant, convenient and safe. Your privacy is important to us. This Policy describes the information we collect about you and how we use this information.
What Kind of Information Does Merit Collect?
When you visit the Website, we collect certain information. Our primary goal in collecting information from you is to provide you with a positive experience while you use our Website. Our Website is intended for use primarily by individuals who reside in and manage special districts in the State of Florida.
We collect both “Personal Information,” such as your email address; and “browsing information,” including your internet protocol address (“IP address”), web history, country location, browser name, device type, internet service provider, and operating system type.
How Does Merit Use My Information?
Merit uses the collected data for various purposes:
- To provide and maintain our Service and Website.
- To notify you about changes to our Service or Website.
- To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service or Website. when you choose to do so.
- To provide customer support.
- To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our Service and Website.
- To monitor the usage of our Service and Website.
- To detect, prevent and address technical issues.
If Merit, Inc. is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, your Personal Information may be transferred. We do not sell the Personal Information we collect on the Website. We may disclose Personal Information in our sole discretion, if disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with an applicable law, statute, order, subpoena, rule, ordinance, or administrative, governmental or judicial request, to prevent a crime or injury, or to enforce this Policy.
Does Merit Share My Information With Third Parties?
We will share certain Personal Information and Browsing Information we collect about you with third parties who perform services for us or with whom we contract for the purposes described in this Policy. For example: we may use third parties to host our Website or data, operate certain features, send e-mails, print or mailings, and analyze data and our advertising effectiveness
We may share Browsing Information, and non-personal information including demographic information with select third parties on an anonymous basis (that is, in a way that does not connect your non-personal Information to your Personal Information or disclose your Personal Information in any fashion).
If Merit, or substantially all of our assets, are sold, or Merit reorganizes or merges into another company, then customer information, including Personal Information, will likely be one of the transferred assets.
On rare occasions, we may be required to disclose your Personal Information as required by law and as necessary to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on us. Or we may need to do so to protect our customer’s rights.
Cookies
We also utilize cookies on our Website. Cookies are small files that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser to enable us to recognize you when you return to our website. Cookies let us identify you to provide you a personalized experience on our website. We use cookie and web beacon technology to track which pages on our sites our visitors view. Most Internet browsers permit you to erase or block cookies. If you configure your browser to remove or reject cookies, though, you will not be able to utilize all of the features or functions of our Website.
Is My Information Secure With Merit?
Merit uses security measures to protect the privacy of your Personal Information. However, transmissions over the Internet are not completely secure, and any information you send to or through our Website may be accessible by others. Merit cannot guarantee our security measures.
How does Merit Protect Kids’ Privacy?
United States
We are concerned about the safety of children when they use the Internet and will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13. Users of our Website must be at least 13 years old. If you are under 13 years old, you should not provide information to us without the involvement of a parent or guardian. If a child has provided us with Personal Information, that child’s parent or guardian should contact us (see below) to delete such information from our records.
European Union
Any child under 13 years of age or that is a “minor” as defined by applicable EU law, rule, regulation, director, or order shall not provide any Personal Information or information to us and is prohibited from registering for an account, entering any contest or promotion, making an online purchase, and enrolling to receive promotional materials from us. Any parental guardian with legal responsibility over a child located within the EU is encouraged to contact us as the address provided below if they have reason to suspect any minor child has provided us with Personal Information or information so that we may promptly delete and destroy such information.
Sensitive Information
We ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive Personal Information (e.g., information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health or medical condition or criminal background) on or through the Website or otherwise to us.
Notification of Changes
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to update or revise this Policy at any time. You acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for checking the Policy periodically for changes. Your continued use of this Website following any such updates or revisions constitutes your acknowledgement and acceptance of the change and agreement to abide and be bound by the updated or revised Policy.
How You Can Access, Change or Suppress Your Personal Information?
To review, correct, update, suppress, delete, or otherwise limit our use of your Personal Information that you previously provided us, please email, call, or write us using the contact information listed below in the “Contact Us” section and clearly describe your request.
In your request, please make clear what information you would like to have changed, whether you would like to have your Personal Information suppressed from our database, or otherwise let us know what limitations you would like to put on our use of your Personal Information. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.
Retention of Data
Merit, Inc. will retain your Personal Information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your Personal Information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.
Merit, Inc. will also retain Browsing Information for internal analysis purposes. Browsing Information is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Service, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.
Transfer of Data
Your information, including Personal Information, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction.
If you are located outside United States and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Information, to United States and process it there.
Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
Merit will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Information will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.
"Do Not Track" Signals Under California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA)
We do not support Do Not Track (“DNT”). Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked.
You can enable or disable Do Not Track by visiting the Preferences or Settings page of your web browser.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact us as follows:
- You may email us through our website at http://www.meritfl.com/
- You may call us (813) 381-5435
- You may send mail to the following postal mail address:
Mailing Address:
3433 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. #301
Valrico, FL 33596
European Union Data Rights
In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), controllers of certain personal information have a duty to provider users located with the European Union with specific information and disclosures concerning how Merit, Inc. handles Personal Information and your data rights.
Identity of the Controller
Merit, Inc.
3433 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. #301
Valrico, FL 33596
(813) 381-5435
http://www.meritfl.com/
Purposes of Processing
Your Personal Information is processed in accordance with this Policy. To the extent you choose to register for an account, the basis for processing your Personal Information is by contract. Where there is an option for you to opt-in to receive additional information from us and you choose to do so, the basis for processing is your affirmative consent. If you provide us your Personal Information to enroll in a service or promotion on our Website, the basis for the processing is your consent. If we collect Personal Information from you and indicate that such data is required to receive the benefit of a given feature, function of service on the Website, the basis for the processing is either your consent or by contract.
Recipients or categories of Recipients of Personal Information
We provide your Personal Information to our third parties who perform services for us or with whom we contract for the purposes described in this Policy. These third parties include web hosting providers, customer service providers, payment card processors, shipping, billing services providers, and packing and logistics services providers.
Transfers
If a transfer of your Personal Information is required to a third country or international organization, the transfer is pursuant to appropriate and suitable safeguards, including the execution of the Standard Contractual Clauses as approved by the European Commission.
Retention Schedule for Personal Information
We maintain the Personal Information that you provide us and we collect from you until you contact us to request deletion of such information.
Data Rights
EU data subjects have the following data rights:
- A right to access to the Personal Information we have for such data subject;
- A right to rectification of incorrect Personal Information;
- A right to erasure of the Personal Information we have for such data subject;
- A right to restriction of processing concerning such data subject;
- A right to object to our processing of such Personal Information;
- A right to data portability, that is, a copy of the data we have on such data subject;
- right to withdraw consent at any time to our processing of such data subject’s Personal Information; and
- A right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
You may exercise your data rights by contacting us, in writing, at the address indicated above.