Privacy Policy

The Housing Authority of the City of Winston-Salem (HAWS) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of all individuals who use our site. Our goal is to provide an Internet experience that delivers the information, resources, and services that are most relevant and helpful to you. In order to achieve this goal, from time to time we may collect information during your visits. This Privacy Policy is designed to help you learn more about the personal information we collect, who we might share it with, and how we protect it.

Security 

Information presented on this website is considered public information and may be distributed or copied for non-commercial purposes. If the information is distributed or copied, use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested. This website uses software programs to create summary statistics, which are used for website planning and maintenance, determining technical design specifications, and analyzing system performance. For security purposes, and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this website employs software programs to monitor network traffic, to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, to cause damage, or to deny service to authorized users. Except for the uses mentioned above, the use of cookies described below, and authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this website are strictly prohibited and are subject to legal action.

Use of "Cookies"

To better serve our users the HAWS website, we may use "cookies" to customize your browsing experience. Cookies are simple text files stored by your web browser that provide a method of distinguishing among visitors to city websites. In other words, a cookie is a piece of data that identifies you as a unique user. HAWS will not disclose its cookies to third parties except as required by a valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order.

Cookies created on your computer from using city websites do not contain personally identifiable information and do not compromise your privacy or security. The cookie feature is used to store a randomly generated identifying tag on your computer to remember the pages on this website that you visit. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can refuse the cookie or delete the cookie file from your computer at any time by using any one of a number of widely available methods. Check your browser "Help" files for how to block or delete cookies.

If you visit certain pages on this website, a cookie may be placed on your computer to mark the page viewed in order to show you a targeted message about that topic (generated by a third party site) on other websites.

If you have further questions about cookies, the Computer Incident Advisory Capacity Unit that monitors computer problems for the U.S. Department of Energy issued a study on March 12, 1998, of the risks to users of cookies, titled "Information Bulletin 1-034: Internet Cookies."

Information from Web Server Logs

HAWS records and saves information about you from our web server logs such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the time day you visited and your browser type. This information is used to verify our records and to provide better services to you.

Links to Other Sites

HAWS encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to visit from HAWS so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. HAWS is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the HAWS site.

Use or Disclosure of your Personal Information to Third Parties

HAWS will not willfully disclose any individually identifiable information about you to any third party without first receiving your permission. HAWS may access and/or disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on HAWS, protect and defend the rights or property of HAWS or act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of HAWS or members of the public. If you participate in any unlawful activity on the HAWS Web site, HAWS may disclose your personal information listed in our records to the relevant authorities. While HAWS is committed to protecting your personal information, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. 

Correcting Inaccuracies

If you notice any inaccuracies on our website, please contact HAWS at webmail@haws.org  so that such errors may be investigated and corrected. We welcome your comments, suggestions, or questions.