Who We Are
Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) is the public transit system in Chattanooga, TN, serving the City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, and the surrounding areas. To find out more about us, please visit our website at https://www.gocarta.org.
This Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference into the CARTA Terms of Use. The term “CARTA,” “Via,” “Company,” “we,” and “us” includes the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) and Via Transportation, Inc. and our affiliates and subsidiaries.
This Privacy Policy explains how CARTA and Via may:
- collect,
- use,
- and disclose information we obtain through the “Service.
The “Service” means any website, mobile application, or Internet service under Via or CARTA’s control, whether partial or otherwise, in connection with providing Via or CARTA’s online platform. Each reservation a user makes with CARTA on the Service is a “Reservation,” and each ride taken through a Reservation is a “Ride.” “Member” means any such individual who uses the Service to make Reservations and take Rides.
What information do we collect?
If you are visiting gocarta.org to browse through our website, download information or read pages, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information will not identify you personally.
We do not use this data for commercial purposes, nor do we distribute, in any way, any of the information we gather.
The only information we automatically collect and store is the following information about your visit:
- Fully Qualified Domain Name (Domain Name), of your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and/or your computer, if your computer has a domain name specifically assigned to it.
- IP Address (the number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our website
- Browser Type (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.)
- Operating System you use to access our site (Windows OS, Macintosh OS, Linux, etc.)
- Date and Time you accessed our site
- Pages you visited Uniform Resource Locater (URL) of the page you started from (for example: google.com), that linked you to our Web site, if you did not access our page by typing in gocarta.org
We use this information to help make our site more useful to visitors. Learning about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technologies they use helps us to improve the Web site and the services we offer. In order to accomplish these goals, we are constantly conducting statistical analyses of the data we collect and are aggressively improving our hardware and software to meet your needs.
Using CARTA’s Online Forms:
How Voluntarily Provided Information is Used
We collect information from you when you subscribe to our text alerts, apply for a job, apply for Care-a-Van services, contact us, or use any of our online forms.
If you voluntarily send us information, i.e. you fill out a form requesting information, it will be used for governmental purposes only. These purposes could include, without limitation, helping us respond to your request for information; to look into a problem you are bringing to our attention; or to keep lists of interested people (e.g. prospective vendors or employees). We will not rent or sell information identifying you as a particular person (name, address, phone number, etc.) to third parties without your express permission. We will also not disclose credit card information, except for purposes related to your credit card transaction, or with your permission, or as required by law under the State of Tennessee’s Open Records Act.
Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:
- To personalize your experience: Your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs.
- To improve our website: We continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you.
- To improve customer service: Your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs.
- To process forms: When using forms on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number and other personal information appropriate to the form. Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of the form submitted.
- To send email confirmations: The email address you provide in our online forms, will only be used to send you information and confirmations. Note: If at any time you would like to your email address to be removed from our records, we have included a “Remove me from your records” link at the bottom of each email.
- To send text alerts: If you decide to opt-in to our text alert list, you will receive text alerts that may include company news, updates, related service information, etc.
Note: If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future text alerts, we have included an unsubscribe choice on our Text Alert subscription page. To unsubscribe, simply enter you phone number, select “Unsubscribe” and submit.
How do we protect your information?
We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and encrypted into a database, accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential.
Do we use cookies?
Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.
If you use any forms on our site (eg., job application, Care-a-Van application, contact form, etc.), you will be saving your name, email address and other information in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you fill out another form. These cookies will last for one year.
If you are an employee and login, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. We will also set up several cookies to save your information and your screen display choices. These cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. We also store the personal information you provide in your user profile. All employees can see, edit, or delete their own personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
If you prefer, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still contact us by calling 423-629-1473.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Do we disclose any information to outside parties?
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
Third party links
Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.
California Online Privacy Protection Act & GDPR Compliance
Because we value your privacy we have taken the necessary precautions to be in compliance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act as well as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, an EU regulation that requires organizations to notify users regarding cookies and protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens). We therefore will not distribute your personal information to outside parties without your consent.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance
We are in compliance with the requirements of Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Online Privacy Policy Only
This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.
Your Consent
By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page. This policy was last modified on 11/06/2020.