Privacy Policy

Privacy Statement

I. Collection of Information by NYCEDC

In order to improve the content and usability of this Web site, New York City Economic Development Corporation (“NYCEDC”) automatically collects several categories of information from users. This information includes the following(1):

  • The apparent Internet Protocol ("IP") address of your Internet Service Provider ("ISP") and/or your computer, if your computer has an IP address assigned directly to it.2
  • The apparent Fully Qualified Domain Name ("Domain Name") of your ISP and/or your computer, if your computer has a domain name assigned directly to it.
  • The type of browser (for example Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera, Konqueror) you use and the operating system resident on your computer.
  • The date and time you visited the site.
  • The Web pages you accessed at the site, as well as any applications used and forms data.
  • The Uniform Resource Locator ("URL") of the site that you visited prior to edc.nyc, if detectable, unless you connected directly to this site, or use it as your homepage or "Portal”.

NYCEDC uses this information for the following purposes and to achieve the following goals:

  • identify site performance needs
  • ensure compatibility with the technology used by edc.nyc's visitors
  • add and improve services offered on edc.nyc
  • conduct statistical analysis of the data it collects from time to time.
  • NYCEDC does not collect data for commercial or marketing purposes.(3)

NYCEDC does not sell, exchange or otherwise distribute the data collected by edc.nyc for commercial or marketing purposes.

II. Information Submitted to edc.nyc

During a session on edc.nyc, a user may actively and voluntarily submit information to NYCEDC by, among other means, electronic mail ("e-mail"), by filling in and submitting an on-line form or by electing to personalize edc.nyc and use it as a customized Portal. Such information is stored in a secure environment, and will be used by NYCEDC in furtherance of its duties and/or obligations under its contracts with The City of New York (the “City”), that is, “economic development and related purposes”.(4)

The economic development and related purposes to which actively submitted information may be put include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Helping NYCEDC respond to a request for information not readily available from edc.nyc
  • Investigating a problem reported to or referred to NYCEDC5
  • Keeping lists of parties interested in some particular issue or facet of economic development or other business related issue in New York City about which NYCEDC anticipates issuing further information in the future
  • Disclosure of such information pursuant to a request made under Freedom of Information Law ("FOIL") or court order, if such information is not protected by federal or state law.(6)

NYCEDC does not rent or sell personally identifiable information (i.e., information such as name, address, phone number or e-mail, that identifies a user as a particular person), nor would NYCEDC exchange or trade such information with third-parties without a user's explicit permission. NYCEDC does not disclose credit card or other personally identifiable financial information other than as necessary to complete a credit card or other financial transaction, or upon explicit permission from the applicable user. All such use by NYCEDC of financial information shall be subject to the section of this policy on financial issues, set forth below.

If you have elected not to receive further information from NYCEDC, edc.nyc will not send such information. If you have elected to receive further communication from NYCEDC, edc.nyc will only send information in categories that have been authorized. If edc.nyc sends e-mail to a user, such e-mail is NOT confidential(7), and is identical in nature to that information generally available to the public and news media.

III. Security

In certain instances, a user may have the opportunity to receive or create a password to access or submit personally identifiable information. One should not divulge a password to anyone, and NYCEDC will never ask a user for a password in a telephone call, fax, e-mail or other form of unsolicited communication. When a user is finished with an application or applications that are password protected, such user should exit the relevant page(s). If the browser used to access said password protected pages is a publicly-accessible browser, users should close down the entire session and, if applicable or possible, flush any temporary caches or other areas where such a password might be stored subsequent to use.

NYCEDC has integrated industry standard or better security measures and systems into the design, implementation and day to day operation of edc.nyc and its underlying servers and networks(8). Furthermore, NYCEDC maintains ongoing efforts to identify and/or block unauthorized intrusions into or onto edc.nyc, and to upload to or change information on or otherwise cause damage to edc.nyc or the information resident hereon or submitted hereto.(9)

IV. Cookies

Edc.nyc is a cookie-enabled site.  Rejecting and/or removing cookies may lead to loss of functionality on those edc.nyc pages requiring cookies to function fully

V. Web Bugs (a/k/a Web Beacons)

Edc.nyc does not use Web bugs(10) on its Web pages or in any html e-mail generated by use of the portal, or otherwise sent from edc.nyc, for any purpose other than to identify site performance needs, ensure compatibility with the technology used by edc.nyc's visitors and/or add and improve services offered on edc.nyc.

VI. Children

No applications on edc.nyc specifically solicit information from minors or seek to determine whether the visitor is a minor. Consequently, because such information will not be specifically identified as being from minors, users of edc.nyc should be aware that personally identifiable information submitted to edc.nyc by minors will be subject to being treated in the same manner as information given by an adult and may become subject to FOIL.

NYCEDC strongly believes that parental supervision is an important factor in Internet use by minors. Therefore, edc.nyc asks parents to guide their minor children when children are asked to provide any personal information online. edc.nyc further asks that children ask for and receive their parent's permission before providing any information online.

VII. Healthcare Information

Any page on this sight that might contain a link to a site providing personally identifiable healthcare information via edc.nyc will be required to certify that its healthcare data handling and security procedures are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"). If such data and security services are provided by a third-party provider, the Site owner shall be responsible for such third party's compliance with HIPAA.

VIII. Third Party Links

Edc.nyc provides links to, and may be linked from, local, State and federal government agencies, and from, or to, other Web sites. The existence and/or provision of those links neither constitutes nor implies endorsement of the destination or departure Web site(s) or of the content, viewpoint, accuracy, opinions, policy(ies), product(s), accessibility or privacy policy of said destination or departure Web site(s). Nor does any link between edc.nyc and a third-party Web site imply sponsorship of such Web site, or the creator of such Web site. Edc.nyc provides links for informational purposes only and will remove an individual link at that site manager's request.

Some content on portions of edc.nyc may reside on servers run by third parties.(11) Each entity providing content for edc.nyc is bound by edc.nyc's privacy policy. Any entity using a third-party host, ISP, ASP or other combination of third-party transport, storage, content or application provision services shall be responsible for such third party's compliance with edc.nyc's privacy policy.

IX. Intellectual Property

The content of edc.nyc's Web pages is copyrighted, and contains some third party images/graphics that are used with permission. Users are notified, therefore, that one should presume the need to obtain permission from the copyright holder before reproducing or otherwise using images/graphics from this Web site.

X. NYCEDC Micro-sites

The guidelines outlined in the Privacy Policy also apply to the following Web sites maintained by NYCEDC: EssexStreetMarket.com, NYCruise.com, BrooklynArmyTerminal.com.

XI. Changes to Privacy Statement

Edc.nyc may change the policies set forth in this privacy Statement from time to time, and reserves the right to do so without notice.

Privacy Statement Footnotes

(1) An IP address is a numeric value assigned to an Internet Service Provider, a computer network, an individual computer or router, or a firewall (collectively, "users") so that other computers on the Internet may direct Internet messages or other traffic to such users. Until the IP addressing system is changed, an IP address will take the form of XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX, where the X's are numbers between 1 and 9, and 0 for some positions.

(2) A Domain Name is an alphanumeric value that represents the plain language (English or such other local language as is relevant) translation of the IP address assigned to a specific user or collection of users. For example, if a user had an IP address of 123.123.123.123, the Domain Name that represented that address might be WWW.HOME.COM.

(3) Commercial and non-commercial marketing purposes include, for the purposes of this policy, Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail (colloquially known as "SPAM" e-mail), targeted e-mail for the purpose of selling products, or the sale or exchange of personally identifiable information between parties that anticipate receiving valuta in exchange for such information.

(4) NYCEDC’s duties and obligations are set forth in the contracts between NYCEDC and the City and in all applicable and relevant local, state and federal law.

(5) The material you submit may be seen by various people. We may enter the information you send into our electronic database, to share with our attorneys and investigators involved in law enforcement or public policy development. We may also share it with a variety of other government agencies enforcing consumer protection, competition, and other laws. You may be contacted by any of those agencies.

(6) Pursuant to Article 6 of NYS Public Officers Law 87, certain categories of information may be exempt from such disclosure under FOIL including, but not limited to, records whose disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy under 89(2) of Article 6, or might endanger the life or safety of any person.

(7) E-mail is generally not secure against interception. If a communication is very sensitive, or includes personal information like a bank account, charge card, or social security number, it is more prudent to send such communication by postal mail (i.e., "snail mail") instead.

(8) NYCEDC maintains user registration information behind a "firewall" and limits accessibility to such information to only those few employees that have special access rights to production systems. Sensitive information submitted by users is transmitted by Secure Socket Layer ("SSL") technology and encrypted.

(9) For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, NYCEDC employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act, and such other federal, state or local law as is applicable.

(10) A Web bug is a clear, camouflaged or otherwise invisible graphics image format ("GIF") file placed upon a Web page or in hyper text markup language ("HTML") e-mail and used to monitor who is reading a Web page or the relevant e-mail. Web bugs can also be used for other monitoring purposes such as profiling of the affected party.

(11) These third parties are computers, computer networks, ISPs, or application service providers ("ASPs") that are non-governmental in nature and have direct control of what information is automatically gathered, whether cookies are used, and how voluntarily provided information is used.