GIS is a Safe Harbor member in accordance with all requirements to meet the European “adequacy” standard for privacy protection. As a Safe Harbor member GIS complies with the following seven safe harbor principles:
Notice: Organizations must notify individuals about the purposes for which they collect and use information about them. They must provide information about how individuals can contact the organization with any inquiries or complaints, the types of third parties to which it discloses the information and the choices and means the organization offers for limiting its use and disclosure.
Choice: Organizations must give individuals the opportunity to choose (opt out) whether their personal information will be disclosed to a third party or used for a purpose incompatible with the purpose for which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized by the individual. For sensitive information, affirmative or explicit (opt in) choice must be given if the information is to be disclosed to a third party or used for a purpose other than its original purpose or the purpose authorized subsequently by the individual.
Onward Transfer (Transfers to Third Parties): To disclose information to a third party, organizations must apply the notice and choice principles. Where an organization wishes to transfer information to a third party that is acting as an agent(1), it may do so if it makes sure that the third party subscribes to the safe harbor principles or is subject to the Directive or another adequacy finding. As an alternative, the organization can enter into a written agreement with such third party requiring that the third party provide at least the same level of privacy protection as is required by the relevant principles.
Access: Individuals must have access to personal information about them that an organization holds and be able to correct, amend, or delete that information where it is inaccurate, except where the burden or expense of providing access would be disproportionate to the risks to the individual's privacy in the case in question, or where the rights of persons other than the individual would be violated.
Security: Organizations must take reasonable precautions to protect personal information from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.
Data integrity: Personal information must be relevant for the purposes for which it is to be used. An organization should take reasonable steps to ensure that data is reliable for its intended use, accurate, complete, and current.
Enforcement: In order to ensure compliance with the safe harbor principles, there must be (a) readily available and affordable independent recourse mechanisms so that each individual's complaints and disputes can be investigated and resolved and damages awarded where the applicable law or private sector initiatives so provide; (b) procedures for verifying that the commitments companies make to adhere to the safe harbor principles have been implemented; and (c) obligations to remedy problems arising out of a failure to comply with the principles. Sanctions must be sufficiently rigorous to ensure compliance by the organization. Organizations that fail to provide annual self certification letters will no longer appear in the list of participants and safe harbor benefits will no longer be assured.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GIS prohibits the posting of any content that infringes or violates the copyright rights and/or other intellectual property rights (including rights of privacy and publicity) of any person or entity. If you believe that your intellectual property right (or such a right that you are responsible for enforcing) is infringed by any content on the Site, please write to GIS at the address shown below, giving a written statement that contains: (a) identification of the copyrighted work and/or intellectual property right claimed to have been infringed; (b) identification of the allegedly infringing material on the Site that is requested to be removed; (c) your name, address, and daytime telephone number, and an e-mail address if available; (d) a statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the copyrighted work and/or exercise of the intellectual property right is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law; (e) a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that the signatory is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the right that is allegedly infringed; and (f) the signature of the intellectual property right owner or someone authorized on the owner's behalf to assert infringement of the right. GIS will remove any posted content that infringes the copyright or other intellectual property right of any person under US law upon receipt of such a statement (or any statement in conformance with 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)). GIS' contact for submission of notices under this Section 4 is: General Counsel, General Information Services, Inc., 917 Chapin Road, Post Office Box 353, Chapin, SC 29036; telephone number (803) 941-9800.