MMU Privacy Policy

Marshall Municipal Utilities (“MMU”) is committed to safeguarding your privacy on its Web site located at www.mmumo.net and when using its internet service. This MMU Privacy Policy does not apply to services provided, or information obtained, other than through the Web site and through its internet service. Please read the following policy to understand how your information will be treated. This policy may change from time to time so please check back periodically. If there is a material change in the collection, use, or disclosure practices to which you have previously agreed, we will attempt to send you a notice via e-mail if you have provided us with an e-mail address. Please keep in mind that some of the services mentioned specifically in this policy may not be available at this time. If you have questions concerning this policy, please contact mmu@mmumo.net. This Privacy Policy is effective as of September 12, 2006.

What information does MMU collect from me?

Web site visitors – When you visit any of our websites, including websites of our customers that are hosted on our servers, we automatically log some information about your visit. Such information includes date and time, IP address, browser used and resources requested. On our main website we have an electric trouble reporting form. On that form you may optionally provide your name address and phone number when reporting an electric problem. On our webmail server we require an account name and password for access. Information collected by our customers on websites hosted on our servers is not available to us and not covered in this policy. MMU may provide to those customers copies of the relevant portions of the website access logs.

Electronic Mail users – We do not store emails on our servers unless they are left in a customer’s mailbox. As a courtesy, we keep email accounts open for customers that discontinue service for a short time. Those customers may continue to receive email that is temporarily stored on our servers until collected by the customer or until we close the account. For our customers that do not use our servers for email, we collect an email address if available.

Internet service users – When a customer uses our servers to access the Internet, some information may be collected. Our servers log name server requests. We also track total volume of traffic for each customer. In some cases we may need to track volume of traffic on a given port in order to determine the source of spam or viruses.

Cookies – As part of offering and providing customizable and personalized services, many Web sites use cookies to store and sometimes track information about you. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a Web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. We may use cookies to allow faster and easier access to your account information, monitor traffic on the site and measure traffic patterns to improve functionality. MMU Web pages may in the future contain electronic images known as Web beacons (sometimes called clear giffs or Web bugs) or other advanced technologies that are useful in the provision of services to you. We may use such devices to verify compliance with our terms and conditions of use or with any promotions on the site.

How does MMU use the information?

MMU’s primary goal in collecting information is to maintain and improve the service and to be able to notify the user of service anomalies or improvements. We also may do research on our users’ demographics and behavior based on the information provided to us upon registration, gathered from transaction activity, from our server log files or from surveys. This research may be compiled, analyzed or sold on an aggregated basis, which does not include information identifying individual users. MMU also may share this data with business partners or other third parties.

Who is collecting information?

When you are on a MMU site and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with MMU and its related governmental entities and service providers. If personal data is to be collected and/or maintained by any company other than MMU or its affiliates, we will attempt to notify you on the Web site or in an updated version of this Privacy Policy. If you do not want your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service.

Please be aware that other Web sites to which we link may collect personally identifiable information about you when you visit those sites. The information practices of other Web sites linked to our Web sites are not covered by this Privacy Policy.

With whom does MMU share my information?

We will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or under the circumstances described below. The following describes some of the ways that your information may be disclosed.

Data in the Aggregate: We may disclose “blinded” aggregated data and user statistics to prospective partners and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes. Blinded data is data which does not identify an individual person.

Other: We also may disclose your information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating MMU’s Terms and Conditions of Use, or may otherwise be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) MMU’s rights or property, other MMU Web site users or customers, or anyone else that may be harmed by such activities. We may disclose or access account information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service and improve our products and services.

We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, including packaging, delivering or mailing, answering customer questions about products or services, sending postal mail, providing investor information and processing data. We will only provide those companies the information they need to deliver the service, and they are contractually prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

As we continue to develop our business, we may buy or sell businesses or assets. In such transactions, confidential customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets. In the event of a transaction involving the sale of some or all of MMU’s businesses, customer and site visitor information may be one of the transferred assets. In such case, the transferred information may become subject to a different privacy policy.

What security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of my information?

Your MMU email account is password-protected so you have access to this personal information. We use encryption technology for passwords information. Remember to sign out of your MMU account and close your browser window when you have finished your work. This is to ensure that others cannot access your account by using your computer when you are away from it. Because of the global nature of the Internet, when you give us information, that information may be sent electronically to servers outside of the country where you originally entered the information. No data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Except as discussed above or otherwise designated, this site does not use security encryption measures. Therefore, information that you disclose by use of this site (as with any site that is non-secure), by posting a message or using e mail, could be collected and used by others. This may result in unsolicited messages from third parties or use of such information by third parties for their own purposes, legal or illegal. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, MMU cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or from our services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure its security on our systems.

What else should I know about my privacy?

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose information online, that information is accessible to other customers and users. Ultimately, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you are online.