Introduction

This Privacy Policy informs you about the types of personal information collected by the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority (“we, our or us”) website (“Web Site”), and how we use, share and protect that information.

Applicability of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to the personal information we collect on this Web Site (at www.ridecarta.com) and not to any information that we collect through other methods or services, including websites owned or operated by our affiliates, vendors or partners.

Information You Provide to Us

We may collect and store personal information that you choose to voluntarily provide to us when you contact us, such as when you contact us for business purposes or to submit a request, complaint or compliment. Personal information may include your name, email address, telephone number, and your resume. We use the information you provide to respond to your request or question or to process your application for employment. We may also use the information to communicate with you about other topics that we think may be of interest to you.

What Information Do We Collect

We are committed to making your online experience with our Web Site informative and relevant. To achieve this, we collect certain information when you visit this Web Site, such as your IP address, the type of internet browser you are using, operating system, referring URLs, information on actions taken on the Web Site, how many users visited our Web Site and dates and times of Web Site visits. By collecting this information, we learn how to best tailor this Web Site to our visitors. We collect this information by placing “cookies” in your browser, as explained below in the Cookie Policy.

Cookie Policy

This Cookie Policy explains how cookies and similar technologies (collectively, “Cookie(s)”) are used when you visit our Web Site, including emails, and other applications owned and operated by us as well as any other services that display this Cookie Policy. This policy explains what these technologies are and why they are used, as well as your right to control their use.

  1. What Is A Cookie?

A cookie is a small text file (often including a unique identifier), that is sent to a user’s browser from a website’s computers and stored on a user’s computer’s hard drive or on a tablet or mobile device (collectively, “Computer”). A Cookie stores a small amount of data on your Computer about your visit to the Web Site.

We may also use “web beacons” (also known as “clear GIFs” or “pixel tags”) or similar technologies on our Web Site to enable us to know whether you have visited a web page or received a message. A web beacon is typically a one-pixel, transparent image (although it can be a visible image as well), located on a web page or in an email or other type of message, which is retrieved from a remote website on the internet enabling the verification of an individual’s viewing or receipt of a web page or message. A web beacon helps us to understand whether you came to our website from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, measure successes of email marketing campaigns and improve our website performance. They may also enable us to relate your viewing or receipt of a web page or message to other information about you, including your personal information. In many instances, web beacons rely on cookies to function properly, and so declining cookies will impair their functioning.

We place and access Cookies on your Computer; these Cookies are known as “first-party Cookies.” Cookies may also be placed and accessed by some of our third-party vendors, which are known as “third-party Cookies” and are described below. Some Cookies are “session Cookies,” which means that they are temporary Cookies that are only stored on your device while you are visiting our Site. Other Cookies are “persistent Cookies,” which means that they are stored on your device for a period of time after you leave our Web Site.

You can choose whether to accept Cookies by changing the settings on your browser. However, if you disable this function (or keep this function disabled, as set by default by certain browsers), your experience on the Web Site may be diminished and some features may not work as intended.

  1. What Cookies Do We Use?

Below we list the different types of Cookies that are used on the Web Site that you are visiting.

To the extent any personal information is collected through first-party Cookies, our Privacy Policy applies and complements this Cookie Policy. Personal information collected through a third-party Cookie is subject to the privacy policy of that third party, and not our Privacy Policy.

Essential Cookies

Essential Cookies enable you to navigate the Web Site and to use its services and features. Without these necessary Cookies, the Web Site will not perform as smoothly for you as we would like it to and we may not be able to provide the Web Site or certain services or features.

Preference Cookies

Preference Cookies collect information about your choices and preferences, and allow us to remember language or other local settings and customize the Web Site accordingly.

Social Media Cookies

Social media Cookies are used to enable you to share pages and content you find interesting on our Web Site through third-party social networking and other websites. These Cookies may also be used for advertising purposes.

Analytics Cookies

Analytics Cookies collect information about your use of the Web Site, and enable us to improve the way it works. For example, Analytics Cookies show us which are the most frequently visited pages on the Web Site, help us record any difficulties you have with the Web Site, and show us whether our advertising is effective or not. Analytics Cookies allow us to see the overall patterns of usage on the Web Site, rather than the usage of a single person. We use information from Analytics Cookies to analyze the Web Site traffic, but we do not examine this information for individually identifying information.

Advertising Cookies

Advertising Cookies are set to manage our advertising. These Cookies collect information about your activities on this Web Site and other websites to provide you targeted advertising. In the E.E.A. advertising is not personalized or targeted based on your activities.

  1. How Do I Manage Cookies?

You can change your Cookie settings above by opting out of all Cookies.

You may refuse or accept Cookies from the Web Site or any other website at any time by activating settings on your browser. Most browsers automatically accept Cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline Cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline Cookies, you may not be able to sign in or use other interactive features of our Web Site that depend on Cookies. Information about the procedure to follow in order to enable or disable Cookies can be found at:

  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Safari Mobile (iPhone and iPads)
  • Firefox
  • Microsoft Edge

For more information about other commonly used browsers, please refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/.

Please be aware that if Cookies are disabled, not all features of the Web Site may operate as intended.

To opt-out of participating in Google Analytics data follow the instructions: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

How We Use the Information We Collect

We may use the information we obtain about you both to further our relationship with you and for other purposes, including to:

Process, evaluate and respond to your requests and inquiries; verify your identity to ensure security for the other purposes listed here; operate, evaluate and improve our business (including developing new services; managing our communications; learning about our visitors, analyzing our services and website; and facilitating the functionality of our website); process applications for employment; perform data analyses (including anonymization of personal information); enforce our Terms of Use comply with applicable legal requirements and industry standards and our policies. We may use personal information for other additional purposes. We will identify these additional purposes at the time of collection.

Sharing Information

We do not sell or otherwise disclose personal information we collect about you, except as described herein or otherwise disclose to you at the time the data is collected.

We also may share information provided by our visitors to this Web Site with service providers we have retained to perform services on our behalf, including without limitation, hosting or operating this Web Site, carrying out your requests, responding to your inquiries, and analyzing data. We require these service providers by contract to appropriately safeguard the privacy and security of personal information they process on our behalf.

We may disclose information about you as compelled or required by law, to law enforcement authorities or other government officials, to protect or defend our legal rights, or in order to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, or violations of our Terms and conditions for using this Web Site or other applicable policies.

We also reserve the right to transfer personal information we have about you in the event that we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business assets.

Security

The security of information is important to us, and we are committed to using reasonable measures to protect the personal information we may collect. However, due to the inherent open nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that communications between you and us or the information stored on this Web Site is absolutely secure.

Links to Other Websites

This Web Site may provide links to other websites for your convenience and information. These websites may operate independently from us. Linked sites may have their own privacy notices or policies, which we strongly encourage you to review to better understand their procedures for collecting, using and disclosing personal information. We are not responsible for the content of the linked websites, any use of these sites, or the privacy practices of these sites.

Visiting Our Website from Outside the United States

If you are visiting our Web Site from outside of the United States or otherwise contacting us from outside of the United States, please be aware that your personal information may be transferred to, stored or processed in the United States, where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, but please be assured that we take steps to protect your privacy. By using our services, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Policy.

Children

This Web Site is not intended for children and we do not knowingly solicit personal data from or communicate with children under the age of 13. Further, this Web Site is not intended for incapacitated persons, and we do not knowingly solicit personal data from individuals who are incapacitated. If you become aware that your child, any child under your care, or a person otherwise not able to provide valid consent has provided us with information without a parent or guardian’s consent, please contact us as described below.

Access, Updates and Your Choices

If you do not wish to receive any correspondence from the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority, please request to be removed from our contact lists in one of the following ways:

Send a letter to:
CARTA Marketing
1362 McMillan Ave. 
North Charleston, SC 29405
Email Michelle Emerson at memerson@ridecarta.com

By using this Web Site, you consent to the processing of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy or our privacy practices, please feel free to email us at memerson@ridecarta.com or write to us at:

CARTA Marketing
1362 McMillan Ave., Suite 100
North Charleston, SC 29405 
Attn: Michelle Emerson

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change or add to this Privacy Policy from time to time and will post any revisions on this Web Site. We will indicate at the bottom of the Privacy Policy when it was most recently updated. We encourage you to check back often to review the latest version.

Last Revised: Apr 1, 2020