The City of Gastonia, along with its divisions, affiliates, and subsidiaries (collectively “Gastonia”), appreciates your interest in our city and your visit to this website. We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that your experience online is safe, secure, and informative. We want you to feel confident when interacting with our digital services, whether you are browsing for information, accessing public resources, or communicating with city departments. Safeguarding your personal information is an important responsibility, and we give careful attention to privacy protection throughout our operations and online processes.
When you visit our website, certain information is automatically collected by our web servers to help us maintain and improve site functionality. This may include the name of your internet service provider, the website from which you accessed our site, the pages you visit within our site, and the date and duration of your visit. This information is used for statistical and system administration purposes to enhance performance, usability, and security. Gastonia may also use “cookies” to better understand visitor preferences and optimize website functionality. A cookie is a small text file stored on your device that assigns a unique identifier and helps us recognize repeat visitors, remember preferences, and improve the overall user experience. Cookies do not grant us access to your computer or personal files beyond the information you choose to share.
Additional personal information is collected only when voluntarily provided by you. This may occur when you complete a form, register for a program or event, participate in a survey, enter a contest, submit a service request, or otherwise communicate with us through the website. Any personal data you provide is used solely for the purpose for which it was submitted, such as responding to inquiries, administering services, processing transactions, or conducting customer satisfaction surveys. We limit the collection and use of personal data to what is necessary to fulfill these purposes and strive to handle all information responsibly and transparently.
Please be aware that, as a public entity, information submitted to Gastonia may be subject to applicable public records laws. While we do not sell personal information to third parties, certain information may be disclosed if required by law or in response to a lawful public records request. To protect the data under our control, Gastonia employs appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to prevent unauthorized access, accidental loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. These safeguards are regularly reviewed and updated as needed to maintain the integrity and confidentiality of the information entrusted to us.