Privacy notice

North Bethesda United Methodist Church
Policy Regarding Web Pages and Postings

Approved by the Technology Committee
September 15, 2002 v7
Approved by the Board of Trustees
October 2, 2002
Approved by the Church Council
October 15, 2002

Goal for Web Communication
North Bethesda United Methodist Church’s (NBUMC) web pages shall be used to:

communicate ideas and information about spirituality, NBUMC programs, and NBUMC or church-related activities with our members and friends
reach out to the community, potential new members, the greater United Methodist Church, the Christian Community, and others with ecumenical interests.
Guiding Principles and Guidelines for the Publicly Available Web Pages
At all times, NBUMC will safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of its members by carefully managing content on the publicly available website.
Information About Members
When publishing written information online, NBUMC may link to online information published by other publications or site, but will not publish:

1. birthdays
2. address and telephone numbers and email address without written permission of the member
3. change of address information without written permission of the member
4. the last names of children under 18 years of age; when it is necessary to publish a child’s name, only first name, or first name and last initial will be published.
When publishing pictures on the NBUMC web pages,
1. Children will not be identified by name
2. the names of adults will only be published with their permission. NBUMC will assume it has that permission unless a member personally retracts it.
Advertising and Sponsorship
It is the philosophy of NBUMC to not permit advertising, both political and commercial, on its web sites. Communications that further the church’s mission or administrative roles are permitted. These links must be consistent with IRS regulations and the church’s contractual agreements. Exceptions to this advertising and sponsorship policy may be made on the approval of the NBUMC Church Council, however, political advertising is never permitted.
Web Disclaimer
NBUMC’s website endeavors to provide up-to-date and useful information to its members and friends. At times, the NBUMC website links to websites that are often affiliated with the Greater United Methodist Church and its affiliates to provide its members and friends with useful, relevant and/or interesting links. It should be noted that these linked sites are independently run outside of the “NorthBethesdaUMC.org” domain. NBUMC is not responsible for the privacy practices, activities or content of such independent sites. While NBUMC attempts to ensure that the sites to which it directly links are relevant and wholesome sites, it is not possible to screen or review all of the links to which these external sites may link. Any links to external Web sites and/or non-NBUMC information provided on these pages or returned from Web search engines are provided as a courtesy to our members and friends.

Guiding Principles and Guidelines for the Private Web Pages (Intranet)
Future system development will enable NBUMC members to communicate safely and securely within our church community using private web pages. When this service is available, NBUMC will publish any principles or guidelines different from those applied to the publicly available web pages.

Web Page Management and Maintenance Responsibility
It is the responsibility of the NBUMC Technology Committee, a standing committee of Board of Trustees, to oversee NBUMC’s web pages and enforce these guidelines.

There will be a link from the NBUMC home page to the privacy policy statement and the web disclaimer. This policy in its entirety will also be posted on the web site.

Effective Date
This policy, having been written and approved as a policy in progress by the Technology Committee on September 15, 2002, and approved by the Board of Trustees on October 2, 2002, and is approved on October 15, 2002, by the Church Council, retroactive to February 3, 2002.

Last updated: October 21, 2002