Legal/Privacy/Copyright

Use of Personal Information

The Georgia Department of Economic Development (hereafter referred to as "GDEcD") is the sole owner of the information collected on www.georgia.org and www.exploregeorgia.org. GDEcD collects information from our users at several different points on our website through cookies, log files, clear gifs, and/or third parties to create a profile of our users. To protect your privacy, GDEcD does not sell or trade personally identifiable information that visitors voluntarily provide in any registration or contest submission. This personal information is used to better understand visitors’ use of the GDEcD sites, which helps us provide stronger content and functionality appropriate to visitors’ needs. We do not share your profile with other parties.

Log Files

Like most standard website servers, we use log files. This includes Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information. We use a tracking utility called HBX to analyze log files.

Tracking Clicked Links

GDEcD uses third-party advertising technology to serve ads on sites upon which we advertise. This technology uses information about your visits to the sites upon which we advertise (not including your name, address, or other personal information) to serve our ads to you. In the course of serving our advertisements to you, a unique third-party cookie may be placed or recognized on your browser. In addition, we use clear GIFs, or pixel tags, provided by our ad serving company to help manage our online advertising. These clear GIFs allow our ad server to recognize a browser’s cookie when a browser visits this site and to learn which banner ads bring users to our website. The information we collect and share through this technology is not personally identifiable. Learn more about our ad serving partner, cookies and how to "opt-out."

In order to create a better electronic community, we track patterns of use in the emails we send out. We note which links are clicked in our email communications to tell us what areas are of most interest to our opt-in recipients. We may use this information to better personalize the content and promotions that we send you in future mailings. A "referrer" is the information passed along by a Web browser that references the Web URL you linked from, and is automatically gathered by our Web server. This information is used to identify broad demographic trends that may be used to provide information tailored to your interests. You will not be personally identified from this information.

Communications from the Site

Members of the site will occasionally receive newsletters, information on services, or special deals. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see the Opt-Out Policy section. If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter, we ask for contact information such as name and email address. Out of respect for our users' privacy we provide a way to opt-out of these communications. Please see the Opt-Out section.

Surveys, Contests & Promotions

Occasionally our site requests information from users via surveys, contests or promotions. Participation in these surveys, contests or promotions is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and email address), and demographic information (such as zip code). Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site. Contact information will be used to notify winners and award prizes. Users’ personally identifiable information is not shared with third parties unless we give prior notice and choice. Though we may use an intermediary to conduct these surveys, contests or promotions, they may not use our users’ personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Photography and Copywriting Use Terms and Conditions

We'd love to feature your photography, videos or other creative content (“Work”) that you have tagged with #exploregeorgia, #georgiamusic, #georgiaeats, #georgiadrinks or #exploregeorgiapup on our website or other social media accounts.

By agreeing to  these Terms and Conditions, you are granting the Georgia Department of Economic Development (“GDEcD”) a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license (with sublicense and assignment rights) to display and use your Work on GDEcD’s own social media accounts and/or our website at exploregeorgia.org. GDEcD will attribute your Work to you by crediting your social media username or display name.  However, you will not be entitled to any form of compensation whatsoever in exchange for allowing us to display your Work on our social media accounts or website.

By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions, you are representing:

  • That you are 18 or over;
  • That the Work is wholly your own, original work and not a derivative or copy of someone else's work (including, but not limited to, another person, company, entity, or publication);
  • That you own the full rights to license and distribute the Work and full rights and permissions to license and distribute the Work from any third party person, company or brand represented or shown in the Work;
  • That you agree to license the Work, without receiving compensation of any kind or any other conditions, to GDEcD for display on the Explore Georgia social media accounts (including, but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest) as well as the Explore Georgia website at ExploreGeorgia.org. This license will extend worldwide, in perpetuity, and is irrevocable; and
  • That the Work does not contain inappropriate, illegal, harassing, defamatory or objectionable content.

By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions you consent to permitting GDEcD to use your Work at GDEcD’s sole discretion. However, GDEcD is in no way obligated to use your work.

Indemnification

By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions, you agree to indemnify and hold GDEcD harmless from all loss, liability, claims, damages and expenses, including reasonable attorney fees, arising out of or related to your violation of these terms, your infringement of any third party’s rights, and any harm caused to any third party as a result of your uploading of your Work.  Nothing in this Terms and Conditions should be construed in any way as a waiver of GDEcD’s sovereign immunity. 

Severability

If a provision of these terms and conditions is determined by any court or other competent authority to be unlawful and/or unenforceable, the other provisions will continue in effect. If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect.

Choice of Law

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to its choice of law provisions. Any disputes stemming from this Terms and Condition shall be resolved in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia. 

Entire agreement

These terms and conditions constitute the entire agreement between you and the Georgia Department of Economic Development and supersede all previous agreements.

Explore Georgia is managed by the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Contact Explore Georgia at feedback@georgia.org.

Guidelines for Comments Posted

The following is a set of guidelines for posted comments on the ExploreGeorgia website. These guidelines will be used to determine what is appropriate and inappropriate for posting. The following types of comments will be removed. Comments that:

  • Are not on-topic.
  • Use offensive language.
  • Are self-serving or flagrant promotion of goods, sites or services. We may remove any URL for any reason.
  • Are personal attacks (hostile, derogatory or deliberately insulting comments toward a specific individual or group).
  • Are flaming (comments intended to induce an angry response).
  • Are posted by anyone under the age of 13.
  • If a portion of a comment is not allowable, the entire comment will not be posted.
  • Are attempting to collect email addresses or other contact information of other users from the Service or the Site by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications.
  • Use the site in any unlawful manner or in any other manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the Site.
  • Use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Service or the Site.
  • Solicit personal information from anyone under 18 or solicit passwords or personally identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes.
  • Intimidate, threaten and/or harass another.
  • Include content that infringes upon patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights or other proprietary rights.
  • Include telephone numbers, websites, email addresses, street addresses or any personally identifiable information.
  • Include information that do not have the right to disclose or make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as insider information, or proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements).
  • In addition, users will be removed if they attempt to:
  • Register for more than one User account, register for a User account on behalf of an individual other than themselves, or register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity.
  • Impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent themselves, their age or affiliation with any person or entity.
  • Upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any content that we deem to be harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically, religiously or otherwise objectionable.
  • Upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation.

Security

This website takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, their information is protected both online and off-line. All of our users’ information is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. The servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment, in a locked facility.

Links

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, GDEcD, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website.

Legal Disclaimer

Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our website.

Opt-Out Policy

GDEcD will use email addresses and other personally identifiable information to contact visitors who communicate with us. For example, we email visitors who provide us with their email addresses for specific purposes such as receiving our email newsletters. After gathering any user information, GDEcD offers users the opportunity to remove their information from our database so as not to receive future communications or to no longer interact with the website until they later chose to.

Each email communication always contains instructions on how to discontinue receipt. If a visitor at any time chooses to no longer receive such information and opt-out from any future mailings, they will have the opportunity to update and modify any information they have previously provided by visiting the "Profile Pages" section and updating and/or modifying the information previously provided.

Notification of Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

If, however, we are going to use a users personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In some cases where we post a notice we will also email users who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.

Web Linking Policy

The Georgia Department of Economic Development welcomes links to our site. All external links to ExploreGeorgia.org should be clearly identified. We believe strongly in the utility of hyperlinks, which allow you to point directly to content, whether on the same site or an external site. Please use the headline of the link to which you would like to connect from ExploreGeorgia.org.

Georgia.org contains links to other sites that we do not control; therefore, we are not responsible for these other sites. We provide these links for your reference and convenience, but we do not endorse the content of these other sites.

Please Do Not:

  • Use the Georgia Department of Economic Development's logo without prior written permission. To request permission to use the logo online, contact feedback@georgia.org.
  • Copy the editorial content and paste directly on to your site.
  • Attribute a link on your site to Georgia.org and then link to another site.
  • Frame the Georgia.org content or otherwise present it as your own.
  • Use any images from Georgia.org without permission

 

Web logo usage

Size

The logo must be of a size large enough to read the logo type and Georgia.org URL. As a general rule, the horizontal logo should not be smaller than 175x75 pixels and the vertical logo should not be smaller than 175x175 pixels when used for Web. Do reproduce the logo smaller than minimum size as it will lose visual impact and be difficult to read.

Placement

Recommended placement of the Logo is in the top-left corner of the page. If this spacing does not meet your design needs, we request that the logo be visible when the page loads (above the fold). Spacing requirements are the same for the web as described in the print usage guidelines section.

Orientation

The Logo should never be displayed in any orientation different from what is provided by the GDEcD. Do not orient the Logo on its side. The text should always read horizontally whenever used for the Web.

Alt Attribute

The alt attribute is used to define an "alternate text" for an image. The value of the alt attribute is an author-defined text. When using the official Georgia logo, we require you to use “Georgia Logo” as your alt attribute. Doing so will help us track logo usage and improve the display and usefulness of the logo for people who have text-only browsers.

HTML Alt Attribute Example:

Georgia Logo

For specific questions regarding brand standards and logo usage, contact GeorgiaTourism@georgia.org.

Feedback

GDEcD welcomes your questions, comments, and concerns about privacy.
Please send us any and all questions and feedback.

 

I have read and agree to the Georgia Department of Economic Development Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

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