Visit The Woodlands Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how The Woodlands Convention & Visitors Bureau ("Visit The Woodlands", "we", or "us"), collects, uses and shares personal information collected through this website. We value your privacy, and we will not share your personal information with third parties except as described in this Privacy Policy without your consent. 

AGREEMENT

BY USING THIS WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY OF THE TERMS OF THE PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO NO USE THIS WEBSITE OR PROVIDE US WITH YOUR INFORMATION.

WHAT THIS PRIVACY POLICY COVERS

This Privacy Policy applies to our collection, use and sharing of your personal information (a) when you visit our website at www.visitthewoodlands.com and other websites we may use for the events that we sponsor (collectively, the “Site”), (b) receive our communications or participate in our online or offline activities or events, and (c) that we obtain from third parties such as resellers, database vendors, content publishers and suppliers.

This Privacy Policy applies only to information gathered on and through the Site and does not apply to any other information or websites not owned or operated by Visit The Woodlands or information collected by Visit The Woodlands by other means. 

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

INFORMATION YOU GIVE US. Personal information you may provide through the Site or otherwise communicate to us includes:

• Contact Information. We collect information about you when you provide contact information to us via email, mail, or through the Site, including as a result of registering for a contest, submitting information about an event, signing up for our newsletter, or requesting a Visitors or Meeting Planners Guide. This information may include your first and last name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and interests.
• Feedback and Correspondence. We may collect information about you when you request information, respond to surveys, or otherwise correspond with us.
• Other Information. We may collect other information from you that is not specifically listed here. We may use such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

INFORMATION WE GET FROM OTHERS. We may obtain additional information about you from third party sources, such as service providers, vendors, social media sites, and advertising agencies to provide you with more relevant information about our services. 

INFORMATION AUTOMATICALLY COLLECTED. Our servers and third party service providers may automatically record certain information about how you use the Site, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, device and browser type, operating system, DNS, the pages or features of the Site that you browsed and the time spent on those pages or features, the frequency with which you use the Site, the links that you click on or use, and other statistics. We collect this information in server logs and by using cookies and similar tracking technologies. See our Cookie Policy, below, for more information. In addition, we may operate a version of this Site specifically designed to work with mobile devices, in which case your mobile device may automatically share your geographic location information.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use your personal information for the following purposes and as otherwise described to you in this Privacy Policy or at the time of collection:

TO PROVIDE THE SITE AND COMMUNICATION WITH YOU. We use your personal information:

• to provide, maintain and improve the Site;
• to better understand your needs and interests, and personalize your experience with the Site;
• to register you for events and contests;
• to process your event submissions;
• to respond to your requests, questions, comments, and feedback; and
• to perform website analytics and database management services.

TO SEND YOU MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS. We may send you newsletters, promotions or other marketing communications, but you may opt out of receiving them as described in the Your Choices section below.

TO ADVERTISE TO YOU. We may use your personal information to manage and serve ads in the Site or on third party sites and to tailor ads to your interests and browsing history. In addition to the cookies utilized by us on this Site, Visit The Woodlands may allow trusted third parties to place advertisements for our services on sites and applications operated by others. These third parties may use cookies and web beacons to measure the effectiveness of our ads and to determine the display of content and advertising to you based on your interests both on our Site and other sites and applications that you may visit (see our Cookie Policy below).  To support this interest-based advertising solution, we and the companies we have contracted with may use anonymous information about your visits to our and other websites and applications. The information collected and used by this process is always anonymous and does not enable any third party to identify you individually.  You can learn more about interest-based advertising and opt out of such advertising from certain companies at aboutads.info.

FOR COMPLIANCE, FRAUD PREVENTION AND SAFETY. We may use your personal information as we believe appropriate to: (a) investigate or prevent violation of the law or your agreements with us; (b) protect our, your or others’ rights, privacy, safety or property (including by prosecuting and defending legal claims); (c) protect, investigate and deter against fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity; (d) comply with applicable laws, lawful requests and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities; and (e) where permitted by law in connection with a legal investigation. For example, we may share information with law enforcement to reduce the risk of fraud or if someone uses or attempts to use our site for illegal reasons.

WITH YOUR CONSENT. In some cases we may ask for your consent to collect, use or share your personal information.

HOW WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may use third parties to help us design and operate the Site, provide services to support the Site, process your information, and provide promotional and marketing activities on our behalf. For example, we may hire a company to run certain website applications, help us analyze our data, or send information on our behalf about services and events in which you may be interested.  Unless otherwise indicated at the time we collect your information, if we allow third parties to access the personal information we collect, we will have contractual provisions or other appropriate protections in place to ensure such access is for limited purposes and in compliance with this Privacy Policy.

We do not share your personal information with third parties without your consent, except in the following circumstances:

SERVICE PROVIDERS. We may share your personal information with third party companies and individuals as needed for them to provide us with services that help us with our business activities and to promote our services to you. A list of our current service providers is available upon request.

BUSINESS PARTNERS. We allow our business partners to see information that you have provided to facilitate connections between users of this Site and our business partners. This information is only shared if you choose to include such information as part of your request or submission on our Site. A list of our current business partners that have access to certain personal information we collect is available upon request.

SECURITY, COMPLIANCE, FRAUD PREVENTION, SAFETY, COMPLIANCE WITH LAW. We may disclose your personal information as we believe appropriate to government or law enforcement officials or private parties for the purposes described above under the following sections: For compliance, fraud prevention and safety and for compliance with law.

YOUR CHOICES

You may opt out of marketing-related emails by changing the communication preferences in your account settings or by following the opt-out prompt in the email.  To opt out of other forms of marketing communications, please contact us using the contact information provided at the end of this Policy.

CONSEQUENCES OF NOT PROVIDING PERSONAL INFORMATION. You are not required to provide all personal information identified in this Privacy Policy to use our Site or to interact with us offline, but certain functionality will not be available if you do not provide personal information. For example, if you do not provide personal information, we may not be able to respond to your request or provide you with marketing that we believe you would find valuable.

COOKIE POLICY

WHAT ARE COOKIES? Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies set by the website are called “first party cookies”. Cookies set by parties other than the website are called “third party cookies”.  Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality, such as advertising or website analytics, to be provided on or through the website. The parties that set these third party cookies can recognize your computer or device both when it visits the website in question and also when it visits certain other websites and/or mobile apps.

WHAT COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES DOES VISIT THE WOODLANDS USE? We use several different kinds of cookies on this Site, including strictly necessary cookies, which are cookies that are necessary for the Site to function and cannot be switched off in our systems; performance cookies, which allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our Site; functional cookies, which enable the Site to provide enhanced functionality and personalization; and advertising cookies, which allow us to deliver ads that are more relevant to you and your interests. 

Cookies are not the only way to track visitors to a website. We may use similar technologies from time to time, like web beacons (sometimes called “tracking pixels” or “clear gifs”). These are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognize when someone has visited our Sites.  These technologies often depend on cookies to function properly, and so disabling cookies may impair their functioning.

If you sign up to receive our e-mails, we will also use cookies in conjunction with these emails. When your browser downloads any graphic content in the e-mail, we will also place a cookie on your computer that will tell us if you come to our website at a later date.

THIRD PARTY COOKIES. In addition to our own cookies, we collaborate with various third-party service providers who also use cookies to help us optimize our website and understand more about the visitors to our website.  Our third-party service providers include:  AddThis, AudioEye, Facebook, Google (including YouTube), LinkedIn, Pinterest, Quantcast, and Yahoo. To learn more about how these third parties uses cookies, please click their links or visit their website to view their privacy policies. 

REMARKETING. In addition to using cookies and related technologies as described above, we also permit Google and Facebook  to help us tailor advertising that we think may be of interest to you on third party websites. These third parties use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to our Site, which is called “remarketing” or “cookie-based advertising.” Any data collected through remarketing will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy as well as the third party companies’ privacy policies. 

HOW CAN YOU DISABLE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES? Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. Please keep in mind that cookies and similar technologies are an important part of how the Sites work, and removing, rejecting, or limiting the use of these tools might affect the availability and functionality of our Sites. For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your computer or mobile device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.com. General information about opting out of cookie-based advertising can be found at: www.optout.networkadvertising.org and www.neustar.biz/privacy/opt-out, and you can opt-out of remarketing by Google and Facebook specifically by clicking their links.

DO NOT TRACK SIGNALS. Some Internet browsers also may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” or similar signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit www.allaboutdnt.com.

GOOGLE SERVICES

We use Google Analytics to help us gather statistical information about the visitors to our Sites and to market our services. Specifically, we use Google Adwords remarketing technology to market our services throughout the Internet, but only if you have turned on Ads Personalization through Google. Additionally, we use Google DoubleClick, which allows us to place ads on websites and conduct analyses and prepare reports concerning such ads. We also use Google Analytics to help us gather statistical information about the visitors to our Sites and how they use the Sites on an anonymous, aggregate basis. We may use this information to gain a better understanding of the users of our Sites, to improve our Sites, and to improve our services. We will not associate any data we gather through Google Analytics with your personally identifiable data unless required to do so to cooperate with law enforcement or other governmental request or to comply with law. To understand how Google Analytics collects and processes data, please visit Google’s Privacy Policy. Google Analytics relies on cookies. In addition to controlling cookies generally as described above, you may have the ability to specifically control the type of information that Google Analytics uses. You can opt-out of Google Analytics by visiting the Google Ads Preferences Manager. In addition, to provide website visitors more choice on how their data is collected by Google Analytics, Google has developed an Opt-out Browser add-on, which is available by visiting Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, to enable you to opt-out of Google’s programs.

OTHER IMPORTANT PRIVACY INFORMATION

THIRD PARTY SITES AND SERVICES. The Site may contain links to other websites and services operated by third parties. These links are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. We do not control third party websites, applications or services, and we are not responsible for their actions. Other websites and services follow different rules regarding their collection, use and sharing of your personal information. We encourage you to read their privacy policies to learn more.

SECURITY. The security of your personal information is important to us. We take a number of organizational, technical and physical measures that are designed to protect the personal information we collect. However, security risk is inherent in all internet and information technologies and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personal information.

INTERNATIONAL DATA USE. We are located in the United States and have affiliates and service providers in other countries, and your personal information may be collected, used and stored in the United States or other locations outside of your home country. Privacy laws in the locations where we handle your personal information may not be as protective as the privacy laws in your home country. 

VERIFYING, CHANGING AND DELETING YOUR INFORMATION. If you have registered for an account through our Site, you can access, review and manage many changes yourself via your account, including updating your profile information and changing your communication preferences. If the information you are seeking is not available within your account, you can contact us as detailed below and ask us to change, update or fix your information in certain cases, particularly if it is inaccurate. You can also request that we erase or delete all or some of your personal information or otherwise object to, limit, or restrict the use of such information (if we have no legal right or legitimate business interest in retaining such information). 

CHILDREN. The Site is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 13, nor do we knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13. If you are under 13, you should not attempt to use the Site or send any information about yourself to us.

NOTICE TO EUROPEAN USERS

The following applies to individuals in the European Economic Area.

CONTROLLER. The Woodlands Convention and Visitors Bureau (dba Visit The Woodlands) is the controller of your personal information covered by this Privacy Policy for purposes of European data protection legislation.

LEGAL BASES FOR PROCESSING. We are required to inform you of the legal bases of our processing of your personal information, which are described in the table below. If you have questions about the legal basis of how we process your personal information, contact us using one of the methods detailed at the end of this Policy.

RENTENTION. We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.  To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

YOUR RIGHTS. European data protection laws give you certain rights regarding your personal information. You may ask us to take the following actions in relation to your personal information that we hold:

• Provide you with information about our processing of your personal information and give you access to your personal information.
• Update or correct inaccuracies in your personal information.
• Delete your personal information.
• Transfer a machine-readable copy of your personal information to you or a third party of your choice
• Restrict the processing of your personal information.
• Object to our reliance on our legitimate interests as the basis of our processing of your personal information that impacts your rights.
• You may submit these requests by contacting us as detailed at the end of this Policy. We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and process your request. Applicable law may require or permit us to decline your request. If we decline your request, we will tell you why, subject to legal restrictions. If you would like to submit a complaint about our use of your personal information or response to your requests regarding your personal information, you may contact us or submit a complaint to the data protection regulator in your jurisdiction. You can find your data protection regulator here.

CROSS-BORDER DATA TRANSFERS. Any information you provide to us through the use of the Site may be stored, processed, transferred among, and accessed from the United States and other countries which may not guarantee the same level of protection of personal information as the one in which you reside. However, we will handle your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy regardless of where your personal information is kept. Regarding transfers from the European Economic Area ("EEA") to the United States, we rely on the derogations for transfers which are necessary to perform the transaction with you. Where required by law, you may request a copy of the suitable mechanisms we have in place by contacting us as detailed below. If you reside in other non-US jurisdictions outside the EEA, your use of the Site or provision of any personal information constitutes your consent for the transfer of such data to the United States for the purposes identified above. If you have questions about cross-border transfers, please contact us as detailed below.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post them on the Site and indicate the effective date of the change. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy we will notify you by email or through the Site.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

ORIGINAL AND PAID CONTENT. All written content, photography and videography used on www.visitthewoodlands.com is owned by Visit The Woodlands or has been used with special permission. In addition to original content created by our staff, Visit The Woodlands works with paid vendors, including writers, photographers and videographers, that have provided Visit The Woodlands exclusive rights to use content in a specific way, for its intended purpose only.

USER GENERATED CONTENT. You may also see user generated content featured on our website. Visit The Woodlands has been granted special permission to use this content by the owner. View the terms and conditions of our Hashtag Rights Request here. If you'd like your content to be featured on our website, please tag us on social using #SoWoodlands.

IMPROPER USE OF CONTENT. Use of written content, photography or videography either edited or as-is is not permitted without expressed, written permission from Visit The Woodlands. Content is protected by all applicable copyright laws and usage agreements and improper use of content is punishable to the full extent of the law. In addition, Visit The Woodlands reserves the right to disallow the use of content by any party at any time and without explanation or cause.

VISIT THE WOODLANDS FUNDING: Visit The Woodlands is funded by hotel occupancy taxes from the 14 hotels located within The Woodlands Township boundaries. As such, Visit The Woodlands funds, and all assets created with those funds, are to be used in accordance with laws set forth by the Texas Comptrollers Office. This means our assets should only be used to promote tourism and bring convention business to The Woodlands. Read more about us and our mission here. 

For permission to use images or any content of this site, contact Ashley White at ashley.white@visitthewoodlands.com.

HOW TO CONTACT US

Visit The Woodlands
2801 Technology Forest Blvd
The Woodlands, TX 77381
United States of America
(281) 367-1151
info@visitthewoodlands.com

This Privacy Policy was last updated June 1, 2021