Privacy Policy

Scope of This Policy

This Privacy Policy covers the website published at www.madisoncountylegislativeoffice.com and every page that carries the chamber desk layout, including the homepage, the services page, the contact page and this legal page. It describes what information the desk receives, why that information is needed, how long it is kept and what choices you have about it.

The policy does not cover the internal case management systems of House Of Representatives, Alabama, the printed session journal, or the separate records held by committee offices outside the chamber desk. Those records follow their own published rules. The policy also does not cover third party websites you may reach through a link on this site; those sites publish their own privacy notices and the desk has no control over them.

By using this website you accept the practices described here. If you do not agree with any part of this policy, please do not use the site or submit a message through the contact form. Your continued use of the site after a change to this policy means that you accept the revised version, which is why we encourage you to review this page from time to time.

Who We Are

The data controller for this website is House Of Representatives, Alabama. The chamber desk operates from the following address:

The desk can be reached by email at operations@madisoncountylegislativeoffice.com and by telephone at +14069627543. This website was developed for the chamber desk by Alabama House, whose role is limited to building and maintaining the pages you see.

When you write to the desk, the clerk who answers is an employee of the chamber office. The clerk processes your message on behalf of House Of Representatives, Alabama and is bound by the same confidentiality rules that govern the rest of the desk work.

Information We Collect

The desk collects only the information it needs to answer a question or keep a record. The information falls into three groups: information you give us directly, information collected automatically as you browse, and information received from other offices within the chamber.

Information you give us directly

When you use the contact form you provide a name, an email address, an optional subject line and a message. When you call the desk you may choose to leave a name, a phone number and a description of your request. When you visit in person during liaison hours, a clerk may record your name and the reference line of the record you asked for.

Information collected automatically

The web server that delivers these pages records standard technical information, including the browser type, the operating system, the referring page and the time of the visit. This information is used to keep the site running and to understand which pages visitors find useful. It is not used to build a personal profile of any visitor.

Information from other chamber offices

Where a question is forwarded to a committee office or a member office, the committee or member may send the desk a note describing the reply so that the request can be closed on the intake sheet. That note carries only what is needed to track the request and is treated under the same rules as a message you send directly.

The desk does not collect payment information, government identification numbers, health records or any special category of personal data through this website. Please do not include such details in a contact message unless the clerk has asked you for them in writing.

How We Use Information

Information received by the desk is used for a short list of purposes, each tied to the work of a chamber office. We use information to answer your message, to route a request to the correct office, to keep the intake sheet in order and to improve the clarity of the pages you see.

• To reply to a question about a bill, a hearing time or a referral date.
• To log a request so that it is answered in the order it arrived.
• To route a question to a member office or a committee office when the desk cannot answer it alone.
• To confirm that a record you asked for was found and sent.
• To measure which pages are read most often so that the site can be made clearer.
• To detect misuse of the site, such as automated flooding of the contact form.
• To comply with a lawful request from an oversight body.

The desk does not sell personal information. The desk does not rent a contact list. The desk does not use your message to send you marketing material, and it does not add your address to any newsletter without your separate request.

Legal Basis for Processing

The desk processes information on the basis of the legitimate interest of a chamber office in answering public questions and keeping an accurate record of its work. Where you send a message through the contact form, your submission is treated as your consent to be contacted in reply. You may withdraw that consent at any time by writing to the desk and asking that your request be closed.

Some processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, for example where an oversight body has asked for a record under a statutory power. In those cases the desk processes only the minimum information needed to satisfy the request and notes the legal authority on the file.

Where the desk relies on legitimate interest, it has carried out a balancing exercise to confirm that the interest of the chamber office does not override the rights and freedoms of the person who sent the message. The outcome of that exercise is that public questions are best answered with the contact details supplied, and that no extra information is added to a file beyond what the question requires.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

This website uses only the small number of cookies needed to keep a session running and to remember a preference during your visit. These are sometimes called essential cookies. They do not track you across other websites and they are not used for advertising.

If the desk later adds an analytics tool to measure page views, it will do so in a form that counts visits without identifying individual people, and this policy will be updated before the change takes effect. You can set your browser to refuse cookies, and the site will continue to work for reading and for sending a contact message, though some preferences may reset when you move between pages.

The site does not use web beacons for advertising, it does not load social media tracking pixels and it does not permit third parties to place cookies on these pages. If a browser blocking setting removes an essential cookie, the contact form may ask you to retype a field, but no information is lost on the server.

Sharing and Disclosure

The desk shares information only in the limited cases described below. In every case it shares the minimum needed to complete the task and it records the share on the intake sheet.

• With a member office or a committee office, when your question requires an answer from that office.
• With the technology provider that hosts this website, under a written agreement that limits the provider to hosting and maintenance.
• With an oversight body, where a lawful and specific request has been made in writing.
• With emergency services, where there is an immediate risk to life or safety.

The desk does not sell information. It does not trade information for advertising. It does not disclose a person identity to a member of the public who asks about a request that another person has made, and it does not publish a contact message in the session journal.

If the desk is required by a court order to disclose a record, it will do so only to the extent the order requires, and where the law allows it will notify the person who sent the message before the disclosure is made.

Data Retention

The desk keeps a message for as long as it is needed to answer the question and to satisfy the record keeping rules of a chamber office. A routine inquiry that is answered within a day is usually closed on the intake sheet within one month, while the reference line is retained with the session file so that the same question can be traced later.

A request that leads to a formal record, such as a referral confirmation or a journal correction, is kept with the session file and follows the retention rule for that file, which matches the life of the session journal. A record that is the subject of a legal hold is kept until the hold is released.

Technical server logs are kept for a short period for security and diagnostics and are then deleted or overwritten. When a retention period ends, information is deleted in a way that cannot be reversed, and the deletion is noted on the intake sheet so that a future clerk can see that the file was closed properly.

How We Protect Information

The desk protects information with a mix of technical and organisational measures. Messages are transmitted over an encrypted connection where the surface allows it, access to the intake sheet is limited to clerks who need it, and the server that hosts these pages is kept patched and monitored.

Staff who handle a message are trained to recognise a request that may be fraudulent, and they will not send a record to an address that differs from the one on the request unless a second confirmation has been received. Passwords for the desk systems are long, unique and stored in a protected vault, and access is removed when a clerk leaves the office.

No system can be perfect. If a security incident affects your information, the desk will notify you without undue delay and will describe what happened, what was affected and what steps you can take. The notice will be sent to the email address you supplied and will be recorded on the intake sheet.

Your Privacy Rights

You have a set of rights over the information the desk holds about you. These rights are not absolute, and in some cases the desk must keep a record to satisfy a legal obligation, but the desk will always explain why a request cannot be met in full.

• The right to ask whether the desk holds information about you.
• The right to receive a copy of that information.
• The right to ask that an error be corrected.
• The right to ask that a message be deleted when it is no longer needed.
• The right to ask that a message no longer be used for a particular purpose.
• The right to object to a processing activity that relies on legitimate interest.
• The right to withdraw consent to be contacted at any time.

To exercise a right, write to operations@madisoncountylegislativeoffice.com with the subject line that names the right you wish to use. The desk will reply within one month, and if the request is complex it will tell you why more time is needed and when to expect an answer.

Access and Correction Requests

An access request should describe the message you sent, the date you sent it and the email address you used, so that the clerk can find the correct entry on the intake sheet. If you no longer have those details, the clerk will search by name and by topic and will confirm the result before releasing anything.

A correction request should point to the field that is wrong and say what the correct value is. The desk will check the original message before changing a record, and it will keep a short note of the correction so that the file shows its own history. Where a correction would change a formal record such as a journal line, the desk will first confirm with the chamber clerk that the change is permitted.

If the desk cannot find a record, it will say so plainly rather than guessing. A clear negative answer is part of an honest record, and the desk would rather tell you that nothing was found than release a record that belongs to another person.

Privacy for Children

This website is intended for members of the public who are old enough to take part in civic life, and it is not directed at children. The desk does not knowingly collect information from a child under the age of thirteen through the contact form.

If you are a parent or a guardian and you believe that a child has sent a message to the desk, please write to operations@madisoncountylegislativeoffice.com and the clerk will delete the message and confirm the deletion to you. A school group that wishes to visit the chamber during liaison hours should arrange the visit through a teacher or an adult organiser, who can supply the single contact record for the group.

Links to Other Websites

These pages may link to other websites, including the websites of committee offices and member offices. Those websites are not operated by the desk and they publish their own privacy notices. The desk is not responsible for the content, the security or the privacy practices of a website it does not control.

When you follow a link to another site, we encourage you to read the privacy notice on that site before you enter a name, an email address or any other personal information. A link on this site is not an endorsement of the privacy practices of the destination site.

International Visitors

The chamber desk is based in the United States and the information it holds is stored on servers in the United States. If you visit these pages from another country, you should know that the information you send will be transferred to the United States and processed under United States law and the rules of House Of Representatives, Alabama.

Where a transfer from another region requires a safeguard, the desk relies on the written hosting agreement described in the sharing section and on the minimum data principle. If you would prefer not to transfer information across a border, you can call the desk or visit in person instead of using the contact form.

Changes to This Policy

The desk reviews this policy at each recess audit, and it updates the policy whenever the way it handles information changes. When a change is material, the desk will post the revised policy on this page with a new effective date and will describe the change in a short note at the top of the page.

The effective date shown on this page is the date of the most recent review. A change that only corrects a spelling error or a broken link will be made without a note, because it does not change how information is handled. If you have a question about whether a change affects you, write to the desk and the clerk will explain it in plain language.

How to Contact Us

For any question about this policy, about a message you have sent, or about a record the desk holds, use the details below. The desk answers in the order requests arrive during business hours.

Complaints and Escalation

If you believe the desk has handled your information in a way that does not match this policy, you may raise a complaint in writing. The clerk will acknowledge the complaint, investigate it against the intake sheet and the retention rule, and reply with an outcome. A complaint that concerns a formal record is referred to the chamber clerk for a final review.

You may also raise a complaint with the oversight body that governs the chamber office. The desk will cooperate fully with that review and will provide the records the body asks for, subject to any legal hold that applies. The desk keeps a log of complaints and their outcomes so that recurring problems can be fixed at the source rather than case by case.

Definitions

In this policy, the desk means the chamber desk operated by House Of Representatives, Alabama at the Union St address. Personal information means any information that relates to a person who can be identified from it, either alone or together with other information the desk holds. Processing means any action taken with personal information, including collecting it, storing it, reading it, sharing it and deleting it.

The intake sheet means the single log in which the desk records each request, its reference line, the office it was routed to and the date it was closed. The session file means the collection of calendars, tally sheets, referral ledger entries and proofed journal pages that together describe one session. The chamber clerk means the senior officer of the chamber office who rules on referral conflicts and approves corrections to a formal record.

Where this policy refers to business hours, it means the published hours shown on the contact page. Where it refers to a writing, it means an email to the address above or a letter delivered to the Union St chamber office. These definitions are provided so that the policy can be read without ambiguity, and they do not create any right that is not otherwise described in this document.