How uswaterbillguide.org/ Handles Personal Information — The US State Privacy Patchwork
This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why, how long we keep it, who we share it with, and your rights under California’s CCPA/CPRA, Virginia’s VCDPA, Colorado’s CPA, Connecticut’s CTDPA, Utah’s UCPA, Oregon’s OCDPA, Texas’s TDPSA, Delaware’s DPDPA, Tennessee’s TIPA, New Hampshire’s NHPA, New Jersey’s NJDPA, Montana’s CDPA, Iowa’s ICDPA, and other state laws that apply where you live. We also explain our position under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA).
uswaterbillguide.org/ is a directory and editorial publisher. We do not hold, process, or store any water-utility account information. Account information is held by your utility — for account access, payment history, autopay setup, or any account-related concern, contact your utility directly. We do not need, want, or collect your account number, meter ID, service address, or payment history.
What is on this page
1. Scope and Operator
This policy applies to uswaterbillguide.org/. The operator and "business" / "controller" under the various US state privacy laws is uswaterbillguide.org/ Editorial, contactable at info@uswaterbillguide.org.
This policy does not apply to the EPA, any state primacy agency, any state Public Utility Commission, the AWWA, NACWA, NRWA, ASDWA, your water utility, your bill payment processor (InvoiceCloud, Paymentus, Tyler MUNIS, etc.), or any other third party we link to. Each of those entities is its own controller / business / agency with its own privacy notice.
2. Information We Collect
| Category | Examples | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | IP address, device ID, browser user agent | Automatic when you visit |
| Usage data | Pages viewed, time on page, referrer, internal search queries | Automatic |
| Contact information | Email address, name (if provided), message content | You — only if you email us |
| Cookies / similar | See Cookie Policy | Automatic; managed via banner and settings |
| Approximate location | City / state inferred from IP | Automatic |
We do not collect your name, water utility account number, PWS ID for your utility, service address, meter ID, billing history, payment history, credit-card data, ACH banking data, Social Security number, driver’s license number, financial-account number, or any other category of “sensitive personal information” under the state privacy laws or “non-public personal information” under GLBA. If you accidentally include any such information in an email to us, we delete it on receipt and ask you to take any account-specific question to your utility.
3. Why We Collect It
- To operate the site — load pages, remember your cookie preferences, protect against abuse
- To understand which directory pages are useful — aggregated, anonymized analytics
- To respond to you — when you email us a correction, accessibility issue, privacy-rights request, or other inquiry
- To display non-personalized or personalized advertising — depending on your consent and any opt-out signal you send
- To detect and prevent abuse — fraud, scraping, attacks
- To comply with law — for example, retaining contact records for response to lawful requests from state attorneys general, state regulators, the FTC, or the courts
5. We Do Not “Sell” Personal Information — And Our Position on “Sharing”
Under California’s CCPA / CPRA, Virginia’s VCDPA, and the other state laws, “sale” of personal information typically means an exchange of personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration. “Sharing” under CPRA means disclosure for cross-context behavioral advertising.
uswaterbillguide.org/ does not sell personal information. We may participate in interest-based advertising through third-party advertising partners (Google AdSense). For California residents and for residents of other states where comparable opt-outs apply, we honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as a valid opt-out from “sharing” / cross-context behavioral advertising.
6. How Long We Keep Information
| Category | Retention |
|---|---|
| Web server and security logs | 30 days |
| Aggregated GA4 analytics | 14 months |
| Email correspondence | 24 months from last interaction |
| Cookie-consent records | 12 months from the choice |
| Privacy-rights request audit trail | 3 years (state AG enforcement window) |
7. Rights by State
The US has a state-by-state privacy patchwork rather than a federal omnibus law. Your rights depend on where you live.
| State | Statute | Key rights |
|---|---|---|
| California | CCPA / CPRA | Know, access, delete, correct, opt-out of sale and sharing, limit use of sensitive PI, non-discrimination |
| Virginia | VCDPA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out (targeted advertising / sale / profiling), appeal |
| Colorado | CPA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out, appeal; UODP universal opt-out |
| Connecticut | CTDPA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out, appeal |
| Utah | UCPA | Access, delete, portability, opt-out of sale and targeted advertising |
| Texas | TDPSA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out, appeal |
| Oregon | OCDPA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out, list of third parties |
| Delaware | DPDPA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out, appeal |
| Tennessee | TIPA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out |
| New Hampshire | NHPA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out |
| New Jersey | NJDPA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out |
| Montana | MTCDPA | Access, correct, delete, portability, opt-out |
| Iowa | ICDPA | Access, delete, portability, opt-out of sale and targeted advertising |
| Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island | Various (effective on staggered dates) | Substantially similar rights to the above; check the effective date that applies to you |
| Other states | Federal law + state UDAP | FCRA, COPPA, federal sectoral statutes, and state Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices laws |
8. How to Exercise Your Rights
Email info@uswaterbillguide.org with subject line “Privacy rights request” and the specific right you are exercising (access, correction, deletion, portability, opt-out, appeal). We respond within the timeframes the applicable state law requires (typically 45 days, with one extension up to 45 additional days for complex requests).
Authorized agents. California, Colorado, Connecticut, and several other states permit authorized agents to submit requests on your behalf. We may verify both your identity and the agent’s authority.
Appeals. Where the applicable state law provides an appeal right (Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, and others), we will tell you in our response how to appeal a denial.
9. Our Position Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., regulates Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) that compile consumer reports used for credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, utility-deposit, and other "permissible purposes." uswaterbillguide.org/ does not compile, sell, or furnish “consumer reports” as defined in FCRA. We do not have account-level information about any individual. We are an editorial publisher that describes water utilities. Do not use this site for any FCRA “permissible purpose” — not for credit decisions, not for tenant screening, not for employment decisions, not for insurance underwriting, not for utility-deposit decisions. Permissible-purpose decisions must be made on consumer reports furnished by FCRA-regulated CRAs, with the FCRA-required disclosures and adverse-action notices.
10. Children (COPPA)
The site is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 15 U.S.C. § 6501, and the FTC’s COPPA Rule require operators of websites directed at children to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from a child under 13. We comply with COPPA by not directing the site at children and not knowingly collecting children’s personal information.
If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child has provided personal information to us, contact us with subject line “Child information request” and we will delete it.
11. Security
We use technical and organizational measures appropriate to the limited categories of personal information we process — HTTPS in transit, encryption at rest where applicable, access controls, vendor due diligence, and breach response procedures. No security measure is perfect; we cannot guarantee that personal information will never be exposed by a security incident. We comply with applicable state data-breach notification laws, which now exist in all 50 states, DC, and US territories.
12. Complaints
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal information or a privacy-rights request, you have the right to complain to:
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at reportfraud.ftc.gov
- Your state Attorney General — the primary enforcement authority for state privacy laws in most states
- The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) at cppa.ca.gov if you are a California resident
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) at consumerfinance.gov for FCRA-related concerns
13. Changes to This Policy
We update this policy when our practices change or when applicable state or federal law changes (the US state privacy patchwork has been expanding rapidly). The “Last reviewed” date at the top reflects the current version. Material changes are flagged on the site for 30 days.
14. Contact
For any privacy question or rights request, email info@uswaterbillguide.org.
Exercise a Privacy Right
Email us with subject line “Privacy rights request” — we respond within the timeframes the applicable state law requires.
📧 info@uswaterbillguide.org