Privacy and Security Statement

CPWR — The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of visitors to our websites, as well as those who request information or advice from CPWR.

Our Privacy Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect and use the personal information you provide to us and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our sites.

What Information Do We Collect?

When you visit our websites, you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose, which is collected on an individual basis, and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our websites.

1. Personal Information You Choose to Provide

You are not required to provide any personal information to use any of our websites. However, if you choose to access some of our services, we require and retain basic information. If you wish to receive our communications, ask questions, request assistance or submit information to be posted on one of our websites, we ask for your name and/or mailing or email address. On websites that provide the opportunity to create exposure control plans, you may elect to register in order to save, retrieve and/or edit your plan, and if you do so, we ask for an email address. In each of these instances, we retain the name, email and/or mailing addresses voluntarily provided, along with the content of email inquiries and communications and our response. On occasion, we refer technology issues to our third-party website developer, who may contact you, and we may contact individuals who contact us to solicit volunteers for research initiatives. We do not otherwise use the information for any purpose other than that for which you provide it nor share the information with any third parties.

2. Website Use Information

To fulfill government grant guidelines and to track usage of our websites, a CPWR website may utilize a standard technology called “cookies” (see explanation below, “What Are Cookies?”) and Web server logs. Information gathered through cookies and Web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the websites visited just before and just after our website. The information collected in this manner does not include your name, your email address, or other identifying information.

What Are Cookies?

A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a website, that site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.  Some of the entities whose material appears on our Sites use cookies that originate from their sites. We have no access or control over those cookies.

How Do We Use Information We Collect from Cookies?

As you use our websites, the Sites may use cookies to differentiate you from other users. In some cases, we also use cookies to prevent you from seeing unnecessary advertisements or requiring you to log in more than is necessary for security. Cookies, in conjunction with our Web server’s log files, allow us to (a) create summary statistics so we can determine what information is of the most interest overall (not by individual) to our visitors; (b) enhance a site’s quality and usefulness; and (c) report site usage to the agencies that fund our organization. Cookies do not allow us to gather any personal information about you.

In no case do we disclose, give, sell or transfer any personal information about Site visitors, except as described in “Certain Disclosures” below.

How Do We Protect Your Information?

We implement commercially reasonable security measures to help protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure, or destruction of data.  We restrict access to personal data to certain companies who need the data to operate, develop, or improve our services. These individuals or partner organizations are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline, including termination and criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is fully secure. Accordingly, and despite our reasonable efforts to protect your personal data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of the personal data you transmit to us, or to or from our Sites. If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.

How Do We Secure Information Transmissions?

Email is not recognized as a secure medium of communication. For this reason, we request that you do not send private information to us by email. Some of the information you may enter on our Websites may be transmitted securely via Secure Sockets Layer SSL, 256-bit encryption services. Pages utilizing this technology will have URLs that start with HTTPS instead of HTTP.

Certain Disclosures

We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or subpoena or if we believe that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the law or comply with legal process served on us or affiliated parties; (b) protect and defend our rights and property, our sites, the users of our sites, and/or our affiliated parties; or (c) act under circumstances to protect the safety of users of our sites, us, or third parties.

What About Other Websites Linked to Our Websites?

Our websites contain links to many other websites. We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to or from our websites nor the information or content contained therein.

Please remember that when you use a link to another organization’s website, you leave our website, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect, and you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site. Your browsing and interaction on any other website, including websites which have a link on our websites, is subject to that website’s own rules and policies. Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding.

Your Consent

By using our websites, you consent to our collection and use of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on our websites to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it.

Breach Notification

In the event we determine the occurrence of a data security incident, we will notify you by email, US mail, telephone, or other means as permitted by law.

This Privacy Policy is made effective as of June 10, 2021.