People of Praise - Northern Virginia Branch

Privacy and Security

Thank you for visiting the People of Praise of Northern Virginia. This statement informs you how we will handle information we learn about you from your visit to our site. Please be assured that the privacy of our visitors is of utmost importance to us. We collect no personally identifiable information about you when you visit our site unless you choose to provide that information to us.

We want to inform you that, for each HTTP request (which is what your Web browser generates when you request a page or part of a page from a Web site) received, we collect and store only the following information, in what is called a log file:

• the date and time
• the originating Internet Provider address (IPA) (this address can refer to a specific computer; more frequently, commercial Internet providers use a temporary IPA which does not link to a specific computer)
• the type of browser and operating system used (if provided by the browser)
• the URL of the referring page (if provided by the browser)
• the object requested
• completion status of the request
• pages visited

We use the information that we automatically collect to measure the number of visitors to the different areas of our sites, and to help us make our pages more useful to visitors. This includes analyzing these logs periodically to determine the traffic through our servers, the number of pages served, and the level of demand for pages and topics of interest.

How Long is the Information Retained: The logs for each day, with no personal information, are maintained indefinitely.

Cookies: We does not use "persistent cookies" or any other persistent tracking methods to collect personally identifiable information about visitors to our Web pages. However, some pages have “session cookies,” to facilitate use of that particular page. These disappear when the Web user terminates a Web session and closes the browser.

Cookies are small files that Web servers place on a user's hard drive. They can serve several functions, depending upon how they are designed:

• they allow the Web site to identify you as a previous visitor each time you access a site;
• they track what information you view at a site (important to commercial sites trying to determine your buying preferences);
• in the more advanced cases they track your movements through many Web sites but not the whole Web;
• businesses use them for customer convenience to allow them to produce a list of items to buy and pay for them all at one time and to garner information about what individuals are buying at their sites;
• advertisers use them to determine the effectiveness of their marketing and offer insights into consumer preferences and tastes by collecting data from many Web sites; and
• they can be used to help a Web site tailor screens for each customer's preference.

To protect your privacy, be sure to close your browser completely after you have finished conducting business with a Web site that does use cookies. If you are concerned about the potential use of the information gathered from your computer by cookies, you can set your browser to prompt you before it accepts a cookie. Most Internet browsers have settings that let you identify and/or reject cookies.

Other Information Collection: In addition to the information automatically collected by the server, we may collect other information from online visitors as part of a mailing list or online applications. That information is never sold or used outside the People of Praise organization.

How e-mail is Handled: By sending us an electronic mail message, you may be sending us personally-identifying information, such as name and address. In these cases, we may retain the information as long as necessary to respond to your request or otherwise resolve the subject matter of your e-mail. Please be aware that email is not necessarily secure from 3rd party interception or misdirection. For your own protection you may wish to communicate sensitive information using a method other than email.

Personal Information via Forms: Some of our pages provide forms allowing visitors to submit search engine queries, questionnaires, feedback, or other information. Some of these forms may request personally identifiable information (e.g., name, address, e-mail address) for specific purposes, such as when the submitter is requesting a personal response, registering for a conference, or subscribing to a mailing list. All information submitted by visitors is voluntary.