St. Johns Evangelical United Church of Christ
Website Policy
GOAL OF THE POLICY
The St. Johns Evangelical United Church of Christ (STJEUCC) website is publicly accessible. Thus this policy seeks to guide two groups: 1) those who are preparing information to be posted to the website, and 2) those staff, members, guests, friends, and visitors who attend worship services, special events, tours, concerts, Sunday school classes, fellowship meetings, ministry meetings or other gatherings taking place in the life of this congregation. For both groups, this policy is to provide guidance about what information is appropriate for posting to the site and to set the expectation about what information is likely to be posted. Special care has been given to create a balance between the utility of the website and the privacy of individuals.
ADMINISTRATION OF THE POLICY
All information to be posted to the website must be approved, according to policy guidelines, by the Senior Pastor and/or the Office Manager. To assist in the administration of the site the Senior Pastor, Office Manager and/or the Sharing the Message Aspirational Goal Team will make periodic reviews of the content of the website to ensure that this policy is being followed.
CONTENT ACCOUNTABILITY
The information contained in the website is intended to provide church members and the general public general information only. The information is provided by STJEUCC and while we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
Information posted to the website can come from a variety of sources but principally the information comes from the multiple ministries within our congregation and from the outreach ministry work both within and external to the church. In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of the website.
Through this website users are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of STJEUCC. We have no control over the nature, content, and availability of those sites. This inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them. Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, STJEUCC takes no responsibility for and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
CHURCH PRIVACY POLICY
It is the policy of STJEUCC to protect personal privacy. STJEUCC does not guarantee the confidentiality of information that is placed on the website, but will make reasonable efforts to restrict its use to STJEUCC related activities.
STJEUCC will not sell, trade or release any personal information that an individual provides to us, with the exception of situation where STJEUCC is required to comply with governmental, court, and law enforcement requests.
The following information can be posted without prior written permission of the person depicted or described:
- Names, office phone numbers, and STJEUCC e-mail addresses of STJEUCC staff.
- Photographs of staff members leading or attending an STJEUCC event.
- Narrative descriptions of events which contain the names of staff persons.
- Staff biographical information.
- First and/or last names of adult members when those members are designated as a contact person for a STJEUCC event or activity.
- Photographs of adults attending a STJEUCC sponsored event or activity, with accompanying first name identification.
- Photographs and full names of current staff members.
- Calendar dates and physical location of internal and external events and meetings, and the names of STJEUCC officers and staff who will be attending.
- Descriptive announcements of scheduled events which contain the names of persons in a leadership role (for example, a visiting speaker, musician, author, local dignitary).
The following information must not be posted without written permission of the person described or depicted. This permission must be provided using the STJEUCC Photo/Video Release Form. If the person is a minor, written permission must be received from the parent or legal guardian and placed on file in the Church Office.
- Personal e-mail addresses of STJEUCC staff persons, members, visitors, friends, or anyone unrelated to the congregation.
- Personal home or mobile phone numbers of STJEUCC staff persons, members, visitors, friends or anyone unrelated to the congregation.
- Narrative descriptions of events which include the last names of persons.
- Photographs of adults with accompanying last names.
Whenever photographs of minors attending STJEUCC events are published on the website, the following criteria must be observed:
- No identifying captions will be used with any picture. In other words, no child’s name will be published with his or her picture.
- Parent notification will be on file for all children shown in pictures.
Information concerning any individual’s birthday, age, wedding anniversary, illness, death, marriage, prayer requests or praises are not appropriate for posting.
Any person discovering that information about themselves or family members has been posted on the STJUCC website that they do not wish to remain there should contact the STJUCC office by phone (314.892.0848) or e-mail (stjucc.org).
INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE
STJEUCC is the sole owner of the information collected on the site. It may use collected information to provide or improve services for users, and as more particularly set forth below, it may use collected information to contact users for a variety of reasons, including, without limitation, obtaining information for users regarding their use of the site and services and ways STJEUCC can improve them, and to send information to them regarding STJEUCC, its services, or its partners, such as promotions and events. This information is used in ways STJEUCC determines appropriate in its sole discretion, and it reserves the right to do so.
STJEUCC will not sell or rent personally identifiable information to anyone, and it will not disclose any collected information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement.
STJEUCC may collect personally identifiable information when users select certain web site pages. When you “Get in Touch” with the church, personally identifiable information including, but not limited to, the user’s name, e-mail address, and phone number(s) is requested. Once one contacts the church and signs in to its services, users are not anonymous to us.
COOKIES
STJEUCC may employ the use of Cookies to collect information about users and their use of the site. “Cookies” are small computer files that transfer to the user’s computer that allow the web site to know how often one visits the site and the activities conducted while on the site. Third parties, if ever employed, such as advertisers, may also use Cookies when the user selects their advertisements or links from the site. However, STJEUCC has no access to or control over these Cookies.
INFORMATION SHARING AND DISCLOSURE
STJEUCC will not sell or rent personally identifiable information to anyone. STJEUCC may send personally identifiable information about the user to other companies or people when: we have the user’s consent to share information; we need to share the user’s information to provide the product or service requested; we need to send the information to companies who work on behalf of the church to provide a product or service to the user (unless we tell the user differently, these companies do not have any right to use the personally identifiable information we provide to them beyond what is necessary or appropriate in our discretion to assist us); we respond to subpoenas, court orders or legal process; or we find that the user’s actions on our site violate the terms of service or any of our usage guidelines for specific services. The church may share aggregated demographic information with our partners and advertisers that is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person.
LINKS
The website may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that STJEUCC is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. Users are encouraged to be aware when leaving our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects personally identifiable information. The Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by this site.
PERIODIC POLICY REVIEW AND USER ACCEPTANCE
The Senior Pastor, Office Manager, Sharing the Message Aspirational Goal Team, and/or Policy Review Committee will periodically review and make recommended changes for Council approval to this web policy as necessary. Use of the STJEUCC website indicates acceptance of the Church Privacy Policy (as stated above). Please review this Privacy Policy carefully.
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