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Township of Monroe, NJ
Gloucester County
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Code
New Laws (5) Index
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Council of the Township of Monroe 4-27-2015 by Ord. No. O:22-2015. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The purpose of this Social Media Policy is to establish enforceable rules for the use of social media by Township officers and employees when engaged in Township business. Social media at this time refers to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, GooglePlus, and any other form of communication that is open to response or comment. Rules are necessary to assure that communications made on behalf of the Township are properly authorized and in correct form; that communications to the municipality by means of social media which can be viewed by the public are appropriate and pertinent; that all communications to the municipality are directed to the proper recipient; and that the sender is clearly and fully informed that a message received by means of social media is not a substitute for required reporting procedures.
The objective of the use of social media by the Township or its departments, is to expand and facilitate communication between the Township and its residents, taxpayers and the general public; and
A. 
This policy governs all social media use by or on behalf of the Township and/or its departments.
B. 
The Township shall have a single presence on each social media site approved for use. Any pages or sites created and/or maintained by an individual department or instrumentality of the Township require prior approval of the Manager and shall comply with this Social Media Policy.
C. 
All Township presence and activity on social media are an integral part of the Township's information networks and must comply with all rules and policies governing the Township's computers and electronic media, including but not limited to the applicable municipal Internet Access and Use Guidelines.
D. 
All Township use of social media, including use by departments or instrumentalities of the Township, is responsible for complying with applicable federal, state, and county laws, regulations, and policies. This includes adherence to established laws and policies regarding copyright, records retention, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Open Public Record Act (OPRA), First Amendment, privacy laws, sunshine laws, and information security policies (if applicable) established by the municipality, its departments, affiliated boards, commissions and authorities.
E. 
Wherever possible, links to more information should direct users back to the municipality's official website.
F. 
Employees representing municipal government on social media outlets must identify themselves by name and, when relevant, by role at the municipality. All municipal policies are applicable to interactions on social media sites when acting in an official capacity and representing the municipality.
G. 
The designated Municipal Webmaster shall monitor content on all social media sites to ensure adherence to the Social Media Policy for appropriate use, message, and branding consistent with the goals of the municipality.
H. 
No "friending" or other special relationship between a Township employee and a third person is permitted.
I. 
Social media sites are not to be used for making any official communications to the Township, for example, reporting crimes or misconduct, reporting dangerous conditions, giving notice required by any statute, ordinance or regulation (e.g., notice of claim). Prominent notice of this subsection shall be displayed on every Township social media site, along with the appropriate contact information for submitting such a communication.
J. 
The municipal Webmaster shall have the authority to remove any prohibited content (see below) from any Township social media site at any time, subject to archiving and retention requirements. See § 84-3, Prohibited content.
A. 
The following content is prohibited and subject to removal:
(1) 
Comments unrelated to the particular post being commented upon;
(2) 
Comments that promote, foster, or perpetuate discrimination on the basis of creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation;
(3) 
Comments containing vulgar, offensive, threatening, or harassing language, personal attacks, or unsupported accusations;
(4) 
Obscene or sexually suggestive or explicit content or links to obscene or sexual content;
(5) 
Illegal activity or encouragement of Illegal activity;
(6) 
Information that may compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems;
(7) 
Comments from children under 13 cannot be posted in order to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. By posting on a Monroe media site, users acknowledge that they are at least 13 years old;
(8) 
Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party;
(9) 
Photographs or videos;
(10) 
Comments with website, e-mail or Internet links of any kind;
(11) 
Content that incites violence;
(12) 
Photographs or videos;
(13) 
Personal information of a person other than the poster; and
(14) 
Spamming or repetitive content.
B. 
Persons posting prohibited content are subject to being barred from posting comments on Township social media.
This policy shall apply to all municipal agencies and departments as well as any affiliated government or nongovernment agency or official permitted by the municipality to post on municipal social media sites.
A. 
The Township of Monroe takes the privacy of your personal information very seriously and will use your personal information only in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information or a list of our patrons to third parties.
B. 
However, as described in more detail in below, there are limited circumstances in which some of your information will be shared with third parties, under strict restrictions, so it is important for you to review this Privacy Policy.
C. 
This Privacy Policy applies to all services that are hosted on any Township of Monroe website, whether the services are offered directly by the Township or via third parties. All third parties are limited by law or by contract from using the information for secondary purposes beyond the purposes for which the information is shared.
D. 
Please take notice that information and/or documents which you provide to the Township, including a channel to be determined by the administration, are subject to disclosure. The New Jersey Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. (OPRA), requires the Township upon request to provide public records to any member of the public. Public records covered by OPRA include most documents in the Township's possession.
A. 
In order to purchase tickets or register for particular Township of Monroe-sponsored events, goods or services online, you must provide your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, credit card, debit card or bank account information.
B. 
We apply high data security protections to safeguard your personal information. To protect the personal information we have about you, we use physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with state and federal regulations.
A. 
We do not collect any personal information from a visitor to any of our sites unless that visitor explicitly and intentionally provides it.
B. 
This means you can visit any Township of Monroe website without telling us who you are or revealing any personally identifiable information about yourself. As you browse any Township site, our web servers do collect information about your visit, but not about you personally. None of the information about how you navigate the sites is combined with any personal identifiers.
C. 
Under no circumstances do we collect any personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or sexual characteristics. If you are simply browsing our site, we do not gather any personal information about you.
D. 
Children are not eligible to use our service, and we ask that minors (under the age of 18) do not submit any personal information to us or use any transactional services.
E. 
There are several ways in which you may explicitly and intentionally provide us with and consent to our collection of certain personal information: We use links throughout our sites to provide you with the opportunity to contact us via e-mail to ask questions and raise issues of public importance, request information and materials, to purchase tickets or sign up for Township-sponsored goods, services, and events, or provide us with your comments and suggestions. To do so, we may request additional personal information from you, such as name, address, phone number, or e-mail address, to help us satisfy your request.
F. 
We do not sell or disclose personally identifiable information obtained online about you to other people or nonaffiliated entities unless:
(1) 
You specifically authorize it;
(2) 
It is to complete a transaction that you initiated;
(3) 
It is required by law;
(4) 
Disclosure is necessary to protect your safety, Township employees or property.
G. 
The Township of Monroe may disclose information that we in good faith believe is appropriate to cooperate in investigations of fraud or other illegal activity or to conduct investigations of violations of our Privacy Policy.
H. 
The Township may also disclose information in response to a subpoena, warrant, court order, levy, attachment, order of a court-appointed receiver or other comparable legal process in compliance with state and federal laws, rules, or regulation.
A. 
Several sites within the Township of Monroe enable you to pay for events, products, or services online with a credit card or electronic check. Unless otherwise noted, these transactions are encrypted. It is Township of Monroe policy that confidential information you enter in any transaction is used only for the purposes described in that transaction, unless an additional use is specifically stated at that site.
B. 
Privacy is of great concern to most users of the Internet, and is a critical part of an enjoyable and satisfactory user experience. The Township of Monroe is acutely aware of and sensitive to the privacy concerns of our residents and other visitors to our website. We assure you that we do not collect personal information from you unless you provide it to us.
A. 
If you are using our payment services to purchase online goods or services, we may provide your personal information to appropriate financial institutions, processors, and third parties for the purpose of providing payment services such as credit authorizations, direct debits, and fraud screening transactions.
B. 
The use and distribution of your personal information will be used by such entities for their internal use related to fulfilling the transaction services between you and the Township of Monroe. All personal information submitted by you will be treated as confidential by these entities and will be transferred between the Township of Monroe and these entities only via encrypted means. The Township employs an instant payment notification (IPN) interface for handling real-time purchase confirmation and server-to-server communications. IPN delivers immediate notification and confirmation of your payments and provides status and additional data on pending, canceled, or failed transactions.
A. 
A "cookie" is a piece of information that a website sends to your browser, which then stores this information on your system. If a cookie is used, a website would be able to "remember" information about you and your preferences either until you exit your current browser window (if the cookie is temporary) or until you disable or delete the cookie.
B. 
Many users prefer to use cookies in order to help them navigate a website as seamlessly as possible. You should be aware that cookies contain no more information than you volunteer, and they are not able to "invade" your hard drive and return to the sender personal or other information from your computer.
C. 
Our site may require the use of cookies in order to complete transactions initiated by you at our site.
A. 
When you visit any Township of Monroe site, our computers may automatically collect statistics about your visit. This information does not identify you personally but rather identifies information about a visit to our site.
B. 
The Township may monitor statistics such as how many people visit our site, the user's IP address, which pages people visit, from which domains our visitors come and which browsers people use. We use these statistics about your visit for aggregation purposes only. These statistics are used to help us improve the performance of our website.
A. 
We consider the protection of all personal information we receive from our website visitors and subscribers as critical to our corporate mission. Please be assured that we have security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of any personal information we receive from you.
B. 
As with any transmission over the Internet, however, there is always some element of risk involved in sending personal information.
If a material change is made to this Privacy Statement and/or the way we use personally identifiable information, then we will post prominent notice of the nature of such change on the first page of this Privacy Statement and also on our home page.
If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the Township of Monroe's information practices, or your e-commerce dealings at any of our websites, you can contact us at Township of Monroe, 125 Virginia Avenue, Williamstown, NJ 08094, 856-728-9800.