Privacy Policy

Last Modified Date: April 26, 2023

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) details the manner in which St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation (“St. Pete EDC,” “we,” “our,” “us”) collects, uses, and discloses the information we collect from you through www.stpeteedc.com (the “Website”) or when you, the individual visitor or user (“you” or “your”) engage with our Website or otherwise interact with us offline.

What Information Does St. Pete EDC Collect?

The information that we collect from you depends upon your interactions with us through the Website or when you otherwise contact us as detailed below.

  • If you choose to attend an event that is hosted by St. Pete EDC, such as our annual meeting or an investor event, we will collect your first name, last name, nickname, company name, phone number, job title, the name of the event that you are attending, and the contents of any comments you provide in the comments field (collectively, “Event Registration Information”).
  • In the event that you provide us with a business card with an interest in locating in St. Petersburg, Florida or as a consultant that helps businesses choose sites for their business, we will collect your first name, last name, company name, job title, company address, telephone number, and email address (collectively, “Business Card Information”).
  • If you contact us to express interest in locating or relocating your business to St. Petersburg, we will collect your first name, last name, company name, job title, company address, telephone number, and email address (collectively, “Business Inquiry Information”).
  • We maintain social medial accounts, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. If you contact us through social media with interest in St. Petersburg, we will collect your first and last name, company name, email address, telephone number, and the content of any message, to the extent that you provide us with any of the foregoing information as part of your message or publicly available profile (collectively, “Social Media Information”).
  • The blog section of our Website includes the capability for you to leave a comment on a specific blog post. If you choose to provide a comment, we will collect the content of your comment, your name, your email address, the uniform resource locator (URL) for your website (optional), and we save your name, email and website information for the next time you choose to comment (collectively, “Blog Comment Information”).
  • Our Website includes a web form that you may complete in order to send an inquiry to us, in which case we will collect your first name, last name, company name (optional), email address, phone number, and the content of any message that you choose to submit to us (collectively, “Online Inquiry Information”).
  • When you contact us by telephone or written correspondence, we will collect your first and last name, company name, job title, telephone number, email address, and the content of any message that you choose to provide to us (collectively, “General Inquiry Information”).
  • Our Website utilizes internet cookies, which collect certain information as detailed in the Internet Cookies section of this Policy.

Internet Cookies

Our Website uses internet cookies, which are small data files that are capable of being deployed to your computing device. Upon arrive on our Website, our Cookie Banner will prompt you for consent to deploy both necessary cookies and analytics cookies. An explanation of each type of cookie is included below.

  • Necessary cookies are internet cookies that are necessary to enable our Website to function properly and address core functionality such as network management, security, and accessibility. You may disable necessary cookies at any time by changing your internet browser settings, but this will impact how the Website functions.
  • Analytics cookies are internet cookies that enable us to measure how you use our Website. Specifically, analytics cookies collect and report information on the pages on our Website that you visit and how you use them. The information that is collected from analytics cookies may enable us to identify a person or the company that a person works for.

The information that we collect through our third party analytics service provider through analytics cookies includes the number of users that arrive to our Website and the number of page views on the different pages of our Website (collectively, “Usage Information”). We use this information to evaluate our marketing efforts and to optimize and improve our Website by adding content and features that are most popular among users of our Website.

Click here to view our Cookie Policy.

How Does St. Pete EDC Use the Information it Collects?

The manner in which St. Pete EDC uses the information that we collect from you depends upon your interaction with us as detailed below.

  • We use Event Registration Information to provide you with access to the desired event, assist you with any potential relocation to the St. Petersburg, Florida area, to evaluate our marketing and advertising efforts, to plan future events, and to contact you with 18271138_1 3 communications about news and other items of interest involving the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation.
  • We use Business Card Information and Business Inquiry Information when you express interest in locating in St. Petersburg, Florida area to provide you with any desired information, to assist you with any potential relocation to the St. Petersburg, Florida area, to evaluate our marketing and advertising efforts, to plan for future events, and to contact you with communications about news and other items of interest involving the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation. If you are a consultant that assists businesses with finding locations for potential development, we will use your Business Card Information to add you to our list of consultants and to contact you with information about the St. Petersburg, Florida area and provide you with any other information that you may request of us for your business.
  • When you contact us through social media, we will use your Social Media Information to respond to your specific inquiry of us, to measure and evaluate our social media efforts, and to send you communications about news and other items of interest involving the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation.
  • We use your Blog Comment Information, to the extent applicable, to post your blog comment for other users to the Website to view and interact with. We also save your name, email, and website information for the next time that you desire to comment on a blog post, which we use to auto-populate the applicable fields of the web form when you want to post another comment.
  • If you choose to contact us with an inquiry with written correspondence or by telephone, or you contact us through the web form on our Website, we will use your General Inquiry Information and Online Inquiry Information to respond to your specific request of us.

Does St. Pete EDC Disclose the Information it Collects to Third Parties?

In connection with making our Website and St. Pete EDC’s services available to businesses interested in the St. Petersburg, Florida area, we utilize a number of third party service providers. These third party service providers provide services, including website and data hosting, software, email marketing, accounting, legal, and analytics services. These third party service providers are only permitted to use the information that we provide or make available to them for purposes of providing their services to us.

Except as otherwise provided by applicable law, we will also disclose information under the following circumstances:

Legal Process

If we are required by law, including in response to a subpoena, warrant, or other legal process to disclose information about you, we will comply with any such legal requirement. We reserve the right to assert a legal challenge in the appropriate legal forum in response to any legal requirement for disclosure of your information, which shall occur in our sole discretion. We will also disclose your information to the extent that we determine in our discretion that such disclosure is required in order for St. Pete EDC to protect its rights, property, or the safety of others.

Sale or Business Reorganization

In the event that St. Pete EDC merges with another organization, reorganizes, or all or substantially all of its assets are acquired by another party, then the information that we collected from you will be part of the assets provided to the margining entity or the acquiring third party unless such disclosure is prohibited by applicable law.

Children’s Online Privacy

St. Pete EDC does not knowingly market to otherwise solicit Personal Information from children thirteen (13) years of age or younger. For purpose of this Section, the term “Personal Information” has the meaning under the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in 15 U.S.C. § 6501, et. al. and its regulations. The Federal Trade Commission has defined the term “Personal Information” to include first and last name, home or other physical address, email address, telephone number, social security number, and other identifiers. If you are a child who is under the age of eighteen, please do not provide us with any Personal Information. If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child who is under the age of eighteen and you believe that your child may have provided us with Personal Information, please contact us by any of the means listed under the heading “Contact Us” at the bottom of this Policy and we will promptly delete your child’s information from our system.

Third-Party Hyperlinks

Our Website includes hyperlinks to websites, which are not owned or operated by St. Pete EDC (each, a “Third-Party Website”). We provide hyperlinks to Third-Party Websites for your convenience and for informational purposes only. You hereby expressly acknowledge and agree that St. Pete EDC has no control over the content, information, business, or privacy practices of any Third-Party Website or service that is owned or operated by a third party. We strongly encourage you to carefully review the privacy policies and terms of service for any Third-Party Website. Under no circumstances will St. Pete EDC be liable to you or any other party in connection with your use of a Third-Party Website.

Revisions to this Policy

Please note that we reserve the right to revise this Policy from time to time in our discretion. Each time we update this Policy, we will also update the Last Modified Date that is listed at the top of this Policy. In the event that we make a material change to the manner in which we collect, use, or disclose information, we will post notice to the main page of our Website to put you on notice that we have changed this Policy. It is your responsibility to regularly check this Policy for updates. Except as otherwise required by law, your use of the Website following any change to this Policy shall be deemed as your acceptance.

Do Not Track Signals

St. Pete EDC does not share personal information for direct marketing purposes. We do not recognize or otherwise respond to Do Not Track signals or requests transmitted from internet web browsers and do not meet the thresholds of a “business” under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended.

Your Options for Viewing, Updating or Deleting Information

St. Pete EDC respects your privacy. If you would like to make changes to or delete any personal information that you have provided to us, such as your first name, last name, company name, job title, email address, telephone number, or mailing address, please contact us at info@stpeteedc.com. Please include “Data Request” in the subject line of your message and please make sure to include your name and request in sufficient detail to enable us to locate your information or to follow up with you if we have any questions. Please note that we reserve the right to reject any request to the extent we are not unable to verify your information.

European Union (“EU”) General Data Protection Regulation Disclosures (“GDPR”)

Under the EU’s GDPR and the United Kingdom’s Data Protection Act, we are required to provide data subjects with certain disclosures concerning their data rights and our collecting and processing of personal data. Although St. Pete EDC does not market goods or services to European countries, St. Pete EDC will respond to inquiries from European companies that reach out to St. Pete EDC and will capture the information in connection with the inquiry.

For purposes of this section on the GDPR, references to terms such as “controller,” “data subject,” “personal data,” “processor,” or “supervisory authority” in this section shall have the meanings set forth in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the European Council, dated 27 April 2016, on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC.

Identity of the Controller

St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation
100 Second Avenue North, Suite 130
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701

Purposes of Processing

The legal basis for the personal data that we collect from data subjects who visit our Website through internet cookies is your affirmative consent by virtue of your cookie selection preferences. If you contact us by telephone, email, or written correspondence, the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is both your affirmative consent and our legitimate basis is responding to questions that come into our business. The legal basis for processing any personal information that you provide in a comment on the blog page of our Website is your affirmative consent and our legitimate interest in promoting discussion among visitors to our Website in events and news taking place in and around St. Petersburg, Florida.

Recipients of Personal Data

We provide personal data to third parties as detailed in the Privacy Policy, including third party service provider who render services their services to us. These third parties include website and data hosting, software, email marketing, accounting, legal, and analytics service providers.

Data Transfers

St. Pete EDC is located in the State of Florida, USA. When you provide us with your personal data, this personal data is stored within the United States. St. Pete EDC has no intention of transferring your personal data outside of the United States, but in the event that such a transfer is required, we will comply with all applicable data privacy laws, including utilizing approved mechanisms for transferring personal data, including the Standard Contractual Clauses, as approved by the EU Commission and those clauses approved by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office.

Data Retention Policy

St. Pete EDC retains any personal data it collects until such time as you contact us to delete this information.

Data Rights

Data subjects are afforded certain rights under the GDPR, which includes all of the following:

  • the right to access and rectification of any personal data that we maintain about you;
  • the right to request deletion of your personal data that we maintain about you;
  • the right to object or block certain processing activities undertaken by us;
  • the right to data portability with respect to the personal data that we maintain about you in a reasonable format capable of being utilized with another data controller;
  • the right to withdraw your consent, to the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is based on consent; and
  • the right to lodge a complaint against us with a supervisory authority if you believe we have acted improperly.

A data subject may exercise any of the foregoing rights by contacting us using the information contained at the bottom of this Policy.

Statutory or Contractual Requirement for the Collection of Personal Data

None of the personal data requested through the Website or in any interaction with us is a statutory or contractual requirement under any law or contract. Fields that are mandatory in order to submit a web form on our Website contain an asterisk. If you do not provide information that is noted as being mandatory, then you will be unable to submit the desired form to us, but can contact us alternatively using the contact information contained below.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or would like to exercise any of the data rights afforded to you, please contact us using any of the following methods:

For written correspondence:
St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation
100 Second Avenue North, Suite 130
St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Telephone:
(727) 767-0209

Email:
info@stpeteedc.com