Website Policy

Privacy Statement

This web site is created and maintained by the City of Sterling Heights (“City”) for the benefit of its citizens and the public. The purpose of the site, in part, is to provide an alternative venue to the public in providing certain City services in an electronic manner. The City provides the following Privacy Policy to inform those using the website about the collection and/or use of the data provided by the user: B

Privacy Policy

Information collected from any user of the City’s web site or online service may be used or disclosed for official purposes only, or to comply with any state or federal law. The City will not intentionally disclose any Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) of its web users to any third-party, unless otherwise required by law.

The City recognizes and respects individuals’ right to web or online privacy, including individuals’ right to privacy under certain state and federal law. The City will adhere to the mandates of such laws as: HIPAA, Michigan Internet Privacy Protection Act, Social Security Number Privacy Act, National Crime Prevention and Privacy Act, Child Identification and Protection Act, Michigan City Income Tax Act, Crime Victims Act, etc. With that said, the City also recognizes and respects all state and federal law, which may require the City to disclose certain information. They include requests made under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), subpoenas, court orders, or any other state or federal law, including for any law enforcement purposes.

Information Collected by the City

City Website

As you use the City website, the City will be collecting information from you, which may be used for official purposes, including but not limited to: statistically measure certain site traffic, improving the website, enhancing its on-line services capabilities, and adding to the City’s emergency and contact information database.

Certain information may be collected from you automatically when you view City web pages and download information. This may include: Your Internet Protocol address assigned by your Internet Service Provider;

Your domain name;
The type of browser and operating system used by you;
The date and time you accessed the City's web site;
The pages you requested and/or visited; and
The link site from where you to were able to obtain certain information.

The information collected may not be reviewed on an individual basis but may be used as an aggregate with other users for comparison and/or statistical purposes to improve the efficiency and quality the City’s website usage, including any on-line services.

Certain Personally Identifiable Information (PII) may be collected from you if you opt-in or voluntarily provide the information to:

a) complete a request for an on-line service; or
b) elect to personalize the site (register for a City account).

Any information submitted on-line for these activities will be treated as if you have engaged in these activities in person rather than over the Internet. The City uses the PII you voluntarily provide to tailor our site to your needs and preferences; to provide the on-line services you are requesting, and for purposes of contacting you for upcoming events and/or emergency alerts. The type of information we collect from you will vary with the service being sought. PII may include your home address, telephone number, personal e-mail address, date of birth, social security or a federal identification number (in lieu of a social security number), credit or debit card information, and/or driver license number.

Unless the circumstance mandate that we disclose such PII under any state or federal law, we will not be disclosing your PII to a third-party. If you simply wish to view certain pages on the City's site, or conduct transactions, you do not need to personalize the site by registering for an account.

Parks and Rec App

Our app uses Health Connect data exclusively for core health and fitness features, specifically fitness tracking, activity insights, and workout history. This aligns with the approved Google use case category: “Health & Fitness: fitness tracking and workout insights.”

Data Accessed
We access only workout session metadata, such as:

Workout type (e.g., running, cycling)
Duration (e.g., 45 minutes)
Distance (e.g., 6 km)
Start and end time
Calories burned (e.g., 2,000 kcal total for the day)
Steps (e.g., 12,000/day)
Activity summary (e.g., completed vs. incomplete)

We do not access heart rate, sleep data, body measurements, or any sensitive health/medical data.

Source of Data

All workout data is obtained only from Google Health Connect on Android devices.
Any data from third-party apps or wearables appears only after it syncs to Health Connect.
Users can change or revoke permissions at any time through device settings.

How the Data Is Used

The data is used strictly for the following approved purposes:

Showing users their daily and historical workout activity
Providing fitness insights such as total calories burned (e.g., 2,000 kcal/day) or distance covered
Enabling participation in fitness challenges and leaderboards
Updating progress charts and activity history
Improving app functionality and supporting users when issues are reported
We do not use this data for advertising, profiling, or sharing with third parties.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

These are the basic guidelines we use to look after your personal data.

We maintain secure systems to protect your personal information.
We respect your wishes about how we contact you, whether by post, telephone, email or text message.
We will update your information or preferences promptly when you ask us to.
We will respond fully to requests from you to see the information that we hold about you.
We will not hold your personal information for longer than is necessary for our legitimate business purposes.
We follow strict procedures when storing or handling information that you have given us. Some information is encrypted, such as payment transactions and password.
We will never sell your personal information to a third party.

Retention Policy

We retain personal information as long as we consider it useful to contact you, or as needed to comply with our legal obligations. Where data is not needed for legal or statutory purposes, we will delete this information if you request.

How do we use your information?

We use your information to help us provide and improve our services for you. We may use your information in the following ways.

to provide you with any services that you have purchased or receive free as part of a health or other scheme
to check your identity
to check your eligibility where appropriate
to update our records with any new information you give us
to notify you if we will be unable to provide a service you have booked before
to provide marketing communications (if you have given us your permission)
for research and analysis so we can develop and improve our services for your benefit
to tailor our communications to you to ensure relevance (if you do not want us to do this, please contact us using the details below)
to comply with legal requirements.
To safeguard users of our services

Your Rights to Manage Your Personal Data

Accuracy of data

We will always try to ensure the data we hold about you is accurate and relevant. If you believe the information, we hold about you is out of date or incorrect, please tell a member of staff or see the contacting us section below. You will need a form of identification to request any changes.

Seeing your data – subject access request

You have the right to know what personal information we hold about you. This is called a Subject Access Request.

Removing your data

If you no longer use our services and products and wish us to delete your personal data, we will do this if there are no legal or statutory regulations requiring us to keep this information.

Restricting processing

You can restrict the processing of your data including some processing we do under legitimate business interests.

Transferring your data

In some circumstances you can ask us to transfer your information to another organization.

Objection to processing

You can object to the processing of your data in certain circumstances such as marketing.

Withdrawing consent

If we are relying on consent to process your data, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us

Non-City Links

The City’s Webpages contain links to other World Wide Web sites on the Internet which are not under the control of the City. The links to other websites do not constitute nor imply the City’s control over the website, endorsement of the content, viewpoint, and/or accuracy of information posted on the other websites. The mere fact that the City’s website links to other websites does not mean that the City represents or approves of the contents or the policies of other web sites. Providing these links serves only as a convenience to the City’s website users.

The City does not warrant or make any representations as to the quality, content, accuracy or completeness of the information, graphics, links and other items contained on this server or any other server. Such materials have been compiled from a variety of sources and are subject to change without notice by the City. Commercial use of the information or our online services is prohibited without written permission of the City of Sterling Heights.

Moreover, the information and data that you share with third party sites will be governed by the specific privacy policies and terms of service for those third-party sites and not by this Privacy Policy. By providing these links as part of our rendered services, the City does not imply that it endorses or has reviewed these sites and/or their privacy policies and terms of service. Please contact the third-party sites directly for information on their privacy practices and policies.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

The City may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, the City will post an updated version on this page, unless another type of notice is required by applicable law. It is our policy to post any changes the City makes to its Privacy Policy on this page. The date the Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for periodically visiting the City’s Website and this privacy policy to check for any changes