Privacy Policy

Last updated: December 9, 2022

Our Commitment to Privacy

Your privacy is very important to us. Part of our operation of this website involves the collection and use of information about you. This Privacy Policy is intended to help you understand how information is collected, stored, and what could be done with that information. This privacy policy may change from time to time, so please check it often.

Owner and data controller:

The Smith House (also referred to as: ‘We’, ‘Us’, ‘Our’)

Address: 84 S Chestatee St, Dahlonega, GA 30533

Email: info@smithhouse.com

Phone: (706) 867-7000

Primary Website Domain and Subdomains: smithhouse.com (also referred to as: ‘This website’)

What Information Do We Collect?

It is possible to visit parts of this website without identifying who you are or revealing any information about yourself. Information collected online can generally be categorized as anonymous or personally identifiable. Anonymous information is information that cannot be connected to the identity of a specific individual. Personally identifiable information is information that specifically identifies a particular user, such as name, address, or phone number.

General disclaimer

While visiting this website, we will not collect any personal information about you unless you choose to provide that information to us. If you choose to provide this information, it will be used for the express purpose for which it was intended, such as responding to your request for information or making a payment. We remind you that if you visit a link outside of this website you are subject to the privacy policies of that site.

Information collected and stored automatically

We automatically collect some technical information from you when you visit the site in order to give you the best possible experience. We use web measurement technology (Google Analytics) to automatically track how visitors interact with this website including where they came from, what they did on the site and whether they completed any predetermined tasks while on the site. 

Aggregate data is used to help us improve our user interface and diversify our content offerings to meet the needs of our customers, track operational problems, prevent fraud and improve the effectiveness, security and integrity of the site. This information does not identify you personally and data is only retained in accordance with our data retention policy. For each page that you visit, we collect and store only the following technical information:

Date and time of access

This information is only used to help us make the site more useful for you. With this data we learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use. All of the information that is automatically submitted to us by your browser is considered anonymous information. To the extent we share such information with third parties, it is not traceable to any particular user and will not be used to contact you.

Google Analytics (Google, Inc.)

Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google utilizes the data collected to track and examine the use of this website, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services.

Google may use the data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

Personal Data collected: Cookies and Usage Data.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy – Opt Out.

Cookies

When you visit some websites, their web servers generate pieces of information known as cookies, which helps webmasters understand how users interact with their site’s content and services. Websites use cookies to track one’s activities on a website (e.g., pages visited, links clicked on, etc.), and to record information about the user so when the user returns to the site, customized features can be provided.

Any use of cookies – or of other tracking tools – by this website or by the owners of third-party services used by this website serves the purpose of providing the service required by the user.

There are two types of cookies. A session cookie is a line of text that is stored temporarily in your web browser’s memory cache, and will expire when the browser is closed. A session cookie is not placed on any hard drive, and it is destroyed as soon as you close your browser. A persistent cookie is saved to a file on your hard drive and is accessed whenever you re-visit the website that put it there. This lets that website remember what you were interested in the last time you visited.

Session cookies

Session cookies are required to keep users logged into their user or client portal accounts. There are times when your personal information is stored in the session, but it is temporary and removed at the end of the process that requires it.

Persistent cookies

We use persistent cookies to enable Google Analytics to differentiate between new and returning visitors to this website. Persistent cookies remain on your computer between visits to this website until they expire. 

We may utilize third party services to enhance its distribution of data and information (e.g., videos) through links from this website. A persistent cookie may be set by such a third party provider when you click on the provider’s link in order to access our data (e.g., play a video).

By default, persistent cookies and web measurement technologies are automatically used when you visit this website. Nevertheless, if you decide to disable or remove cookies from your browser, you will continue to have access to all information and resources available on  this website. To learn more about how to disable cookies in your browser, please click here.

Cookies Relating to Interaction with Our Content Management System (CMS)

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Third-Party Cookies

Third parties that link on this site may use cookies or collect other information when you go to their site. We do not control the collection or use of your information by these companies. You should contact these companies directly if you have any questions about their collection or use of information about you.

Information collected from interactive forms and surveys

Personal information – this website provides interactive forms that let you voluntarily submit personal information (such as your email address, name, or address, business information and/or payment information). This occurs when you register to receive email updates and newsletters, sending questions and comments to our team. In these cases, all submitted information is used only for the express purposes for which it is provided. This information may be shared with a third party only when necessary to provide the requested service.

Personal Data is collected for the following purposes:

Our contracted service providers that process Personal Data on our behalf for IT and system administration and hosting, credit card processing, research and analytics, marketing, customer support and data enrichment;

Affiliates within our current or future operations that process Personal Data for customer support, event management, technical operations and account management;

Public and government authorities, to the extent we are compelled to disclose Personal Data to comply with our legal obligations.

We may be required by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide personally identifiable information to the appropriate governmental authorities. If requested by law enforcement or judicial authorities, we will provide this information on receipt of the appropriate documentation. We may also release information to law enforcement agencies or other third parties if we feel it is necessary to protect the safety and welfare of our personnel or to enforce our terms of use.

Payment information (“Personal Data”) – When you submit a payment, or contact us through our online forms we may collect the information necessary to process the transaction, such as credit card information, full address, and telephone number. Credit card information is not stored on this website, as they are processed through a third-party payment processor. For more information please see Site Security below. 

Payment information is collected for the following purposes:

To process online payments for users

We may securely transmit payment information to other parties, including:

Our contracted service providers that process payment information on our behalf for IT and system administration and hosting, credit card processing, and customer support

General contact forms

By filling in the contact form with their data, the user authorizes this website to use details (such as name, email address, and phone number) to reply to requests for information or any other kind of request as indicated by the form’s header.

Email newsletter subscription

By registering on the mailing list or for the newsletter, the user’s email address will be added to the contact list of those who may receive email messages containing information of commercial or promotional nature concerning this website. You can opt out at any time.

Children’s privacy

Because we care about the safety and privacy of children online, this website does not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under 13. We do not intend to solicit information of any kind from children under 13.

It is possible that by fraud or deception we may receive information pertaining to children under 13. If we are notified of this, as soon as we verify the information, we will immediately obtain parental consent or otherwise delete the information from our servers. If you want to notify us of our receipt of information by children under 13, please do so by sending an e-mail to info@smithhouse.com.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Access and storage of your data

Data Retention

Non-personal Data collected automatically for the purpose of website traffic analytics is currently stored for 26 months.

Personal Data submitted in communication with us shall be retained for as long as needed, as allowed or as required by law. For instance, we may retain and use your Personal Data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse and fulfill and enforce our agreements.

Data sharing

We do not sell, rent, or lease any individual’s personal information or lists of email addresses to anyone for marketing purposes, and we take commercially reasonable steps to maintain the security of this information. However, we reserve the right to supply any such information to any organization into which we may merge in the future or to which it may make any transfer in order to enable a third party to continue part or all of our mission. 

In addition to this website, in some cases, the data may be accessible to certain types of persons in charge, involved with the operation of this website (administration, sales, marketing, legal, system administration) or external parties (such as third-party technical service providers, mail carriers, hosting providers, IT companies, communications agencies) appointed, if necessary, as data processors by us. The updated list of these parties may be requested from us at any time.

In any case, we will gladly help to clarify the specific basis that applies to the processing, and in particular whether the provision of Personal Data is necessary to provide services.

Requesting access to and deletion of Personal Data

You, the user, may request access to the data that we have, to rectify or correct it, and to request eraser of your information from our database. 

To do so, please contact us at info@smithhouse.com.

Site security

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this website takes appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or unauthorized destruction of the data. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary, and only authorized individuals have access to the personally identifiable information provided by our users. We do not, however, guarantee that unauthorized, inadvertent disclosure will never occur.

Data encryption

When you enter personally identifiable information on a form on this website, it is encrypted with secure socket layer technology (SSL or TLS). Although we follow accepted industry standards to protect your personal information, no method of transmission or storage over the Internet is 100% secure.  It is up to you to be careful where you submit your personal information.

PCI Compliance

This website carefully follows and regularly evaluates all requirements in order to maintain PCI compliance as specified by the PCI Security Standards Council.

Social media and third-party websites

This website uses some social media tools and websites to interact with its customers and resource partners. Social media websites are used to publicize our programs and services and engage with members of the public. We do not use third party websites to solicit and collect personal information from individuals. Any personal information collected by a third party website may not be transmitted to us. Our privacy and other web policies do not apply to these third party sites and we encourage you to read the policies of the third party site when deciding whether to use it. Our official social media sites are as follows:

Facebook

The Facebook Like button and social widgets are services allowing interaction with the Facebook social network provided by Facebook, Inc.

Personal Data collected: Cookies and Usage Data.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.

Twitter

The Twitter Tweet button and social widgets are services allowing interaction with the Twitter social network provided by Twitter, Inc.

Personal Data collected: Cookies and Usage Data.

Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy.

Links to other sites

This site contains links to websites of other public and private organizations. When you follow a link to another site, you leave this website and your website interactions are no longer protected by our privacy policy. We are not responsible for, and do not endorse the privacy or security practices and content of sites to which this website links.