Policies

Privacy Policy

Who we are

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) respects your privacy. The following describes our Privacy Policy in relation to the information you submit via Metro’s WordPress websites such as:

• The Source: Transportation News & Views website address is: http://thesource.metro.net/
• El Pasajero: Tu ruta directa a novedades de transporte website address is: http://elpasajero.metro.net/
• Metro Annual Report website address is: http://annualreport.metro.net/
• Measure M: Metro’s Plan to Transform Transportation website address is: http://theplan.metro.net
• Rediscover Gold: More Gold Line Foothill Extension website address is: http://moregold.metro.net/
• More to Explore: Metro Expo Line to Santa Monica website address is: http://moreexpo.metro.net/
• Metro Developer website address is: https://developer.metro.net/
• Metro Primary Resources website address is: http://metroprimaryresources.info/
• America Fast Forward website address is: http://americafastforward.metro.net/

Metro.net’s website Privacy Policy can be found at the following address:

https://www.metro.net/about/site-information/privacy-policy/

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to save your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. Use our Personal Data Request Form.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Contact information

Mailing Address

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
One Gateway Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90012-2952

Additional information

Metro.net’s website Privacy Policy can be found at the following address: https://www.metro.net/about/site-information/privacy-policy/

WordPress Plugins

Plugins used on Metro’s websites add additional functionality. These plugins gather analytics, present images in a lightbox or slide carousel for example. The following list of items is used on Metro’s WordPress Blog Network along with privacy information as it relates to your personal data.

Activity Log

This feature only records activities of a site’s registered users, and the retention duration of activity data will depend on the site’s plan and activity type.

Data Used: To deliver this functionality and record activities around site management, the following information is captured: user email address, user role, user login, user display name, WordPress.com and local user IDs, the activity to be recorded, the WordPress.com-connected site ID of the site on which the activity takes place, the site’s Jetpack version, and the timestamp of the activity. Some activities may also include the actor’s IP address (login attempts, for example) and user agent.

Activity Tracked: Login attempts/actions, post and page update and publish actions, comment/pingback submission and management actions, plugin and theme management actions, widget updates, user management actions, and the modification of other various site settings and options. Retention duration of activity data depends on the site’s plan and activity type. See the complete list of currently-recorded activities (along with retention information).

Data Synced (?): Successful and failed login attempts, which will include the actor’s IP address and user agent.

Carousel

Image views are only recorded if the site owner, has explicitly enabled image view stats tracking for this feature via the jetpack_enable_carousel_stats filter.

Data Used: If image view tracking is enabled, the following information is used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID (if logged in), WordPress.com username (if logged in), user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: Image views.

Contact Form

Data Used: If Akismet is enabled on the site, the contact form submission data — IP address, user agent, name, email address, website, and message — is submitted to the Akismet service (also owned by Automattic) for the sole purpose of spam checking. The actual submission data is stored in the database of the site on which it was submitted and is emailed directly to the owner of the form (i.e. the site author who published the page on which the contact form resides). This email will include the submitter’s IP address, timestamp, name, email address, website, and message.

Data Synced (?): Post and post metadata associated with a user’s contact form submission. If Akismet is enabled on the site, the IP address and user agent originally submitted with the comment are synced, as well, as they are stored in post meta.

Google Analytics

This feature is only available to sites on the Premium and Professional plans.

Data Used: Please refer to the appropriate Google Analytics documentation for the specific type of data it collects. For sites running WooCommerce (also owned by Automattic) and this feature simultaneously and having all purchase tracking explicitly enabled, purchase events will send Google Analytics the following information: order number, product id and name, product category, total cost, and quantity of items purchased. Google Analytics does offer IP anonymization, which can be enabled by the site owner.

Activity Tracked: This feature sends pageview events (and potentially video play events) over to Google Analytics for consumption. For sites running WooCommerce-powered stores, some additional events are also sent to Google Analytics: shopping cart additions and removals, product listing views and clicks, product detail views, and purchases. Tracking for each specific WooCommerce event needs to be enabled by the site owner.

Gravatar Hovercards

Data Used: This feature will send a hash of the user’s email address (if logged in to the site or WordPress.com — or if they submitted a comment on the site using their email address that is attached to an active Gravatar profile) to the Gravatar service (also owned by Automattic) in order to retrieve their profile image.

Jetpack Comments

Data Used: Commenter’s name, email address, and site URL (if provided via the comment form), timestamp, and IP address. Additionally, a jetpack.wordpress.com IFrame receives the following data: WordPress.com blog ID attached to the site, ID of the post on which the comment is being submitted, commenter’s local user ID (if available), commenter’s local username (if available), commenter’s site URL (if available), MD5 hash of the commenter’s email address (if available), and the comment content. If Akismet (also owned by Automattic) is enabled on the site, the following information is sent to the service for the sole purpose of spam checking: commenter’s name, email address, site URL, IP address, and user agent.

Activity Tracked: The comment author’s name, email address, and site URL (if provided during the comment submission) are stored in cookies. Learn more about these cookies.

Data Synced (?): All data and metadata (see above) associated with comments. This includes the status of the comment and, if Akismet is enabled on the site, whether or not it was classified as spam by Akismet.

Likes

This feature is only accessible to users logged in to WordPress.com.

Data Used: In order to process a post like action, the following information is used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID (on which the post was liked), post ID (of the post that was liked), user agent, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: Post likes.

Notifications

This feature is only accessible to registered users of the site who are logged in to WordPress.com.

Data Used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID and URL, Jetpack version, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code. Some visitor-related information or activity may be sent to the site owner via this feature. This may include: email address, WordPress.com username, site URL, email address, comment content, follow actions, etc.

Activity Tracked: Sending notifications (i.e. when we send a notification to a particular user), opening notifications (i.e. when a user opens a notification that they receive), performing an action from within the notification panel (e.g. liking a comment or marking a comment as spam), and clicking on any link from within the notification panel/interface.

Protect

Data Used: In order to check login activity and potentially block fraudulent attempts, the following information is used: attempting user’s IP address, attempting user’s email address/username (i.e. according to the value they were attempting to use during the login process), and all IP-related HTTP headers attached to the attempting user.

Activity Tracked: Failed login attempts (these include IP address and user agent). We also set a cookie (jpp_math_pass) for 1 day to remember if/when a user has successfully completed a math captcha to prove that they’re a real human. Learn more about this cookie.

Data Synced (?): Failed login attempts, which contain the user’s IP address, attempted username or email address, and user agent information.

Sharing

Data Used: When sharing content via email (this option is only available if Akismet is active on the site), the following information is used: sharing party’s name and email address (if the user is logged in, this information will be pulled directly from their account), IP address (for spam checking), user agent (for spam checking), and email body/content. This content will be sent to Akismet (also owned by Automattic) so that a spam check can be performed. Additionally, if reCAPTCHA (by Google) is enabled by the site owner, the sharing party’s IP address will be shared with that service. You can find Google’s privacy policy here.

Subscriptions

Data Used: To initiate and process subscriptions, the following information is used: subscriber’s email address and the ID of the post or comment (depending on the specific subscription being processed). In the event of a new subscription being initiated, we also collect some basic server data, including all of the subscribing user’s HTTP request headers, the IP address from which the subscribing user is viewing the page, and the URI which was given in order to access the page (REQUEST_URI and DOCUMENT_URI). This server data used for the exclusive purpose of monitoring and preventing abuse and spam.

Activity Tracked: Functionality cookies are set for a duration of 347 days to remember a visitor’s blog and post subscription choices if, in fact, they have an active subscription.

WordPress.com Secure Sign On

This feature is only accessible to registered users of the site with WordPress.com accounts.

Data Used: User ID (local site and WordPress.com), role (e.g. administrator), email address, username and display name. Additionally, for activity tracking (see below): IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID and URL, Jetpack version, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: The following usage events are recorded: starting the login process, completing the login process, failing the login process, successfully being redirected after login, and failing to be redirected after login. Several functionality cookies are also set, and these are detailed explicitly in our Cookie documentation.

Data Synced (?): The user ID and role of any user who successfully signed in via this feature.

WordPress.com Stats

Data Used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID (if logged in), WordPress.com username (if logged in), user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code. Important: The site owner does not have access to any of this information via this feature. For example, a site owner can see that a specific post has 285 views, but he/she cannot see which specific users/accounts viewed that post. Stats logs — containing visitor IP addresses and WordPress.com usernames (if available) — are retained by Automattic for 28 days and are used for the sole purpose of powering this feature.

Activity Tracked: Post and page views, video plays (if videos are hosted by WordPress.com), outbound link clicks, referring URLs and search engine terms, and country. When this module is enabled, Jetpack also tracks performance on each page load that includes the Javascript file used for tracking stats. This is exclusively for aggregate performance tracking across Jetpack sites in order to make sure that our plugin and code is not causing performance issues. This includes the tracking of page load times and resource loading duration (image files, JavaScript files, CSS files, etc.). The site owner has the ability to force this feature to honor DNT settings of visitors. By default, DNT is currently not honored.

WordPress.com Toolbar

This feature is only accessible to registered users of the site who are also logged in to WordPress.com.

Data Used: Gravatar image URL of the logged-in user in order to display it in the toolbar and the WordPress.com user ID of the logged-in user. Additionally, for activity tracking (detailed below): IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID and URL, Jetpack version, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: Click actions within the toolbar.

Terms & Conditions

Thank you for registering to receive Metro’s (“Metro’s”) Developer website services (the “Services” as further defined below). Use of the Services is governed by these Terms and Conditions and the Web Services Developer Guidelines.

By using the Services you (“You” or where applicable “Your”) agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions and the Web Services Developer Guidelines that are hereby incorporated.

Metro may at any time revise these Terms and Conditions without notice. It is up to You to regularly review the Terms and Conditions, which will be available at this URL, in case there are any changes. Your continued use of the Services after a change has been made to the Terms and Conditions will be treated as Your acceptance of that change.

Definitions

“Services” means the provision by Metro to You of the Transport Information feeds that You have opted to receive pursuant to the registration form;

“Transport Information” means the transport information made available on the Metro Developer website.

“Your Website” means the root URL of the website which You provided us with on registration.

Permitted use of the services

1.1    The rights granted to You hereunder are limited to accessing and displaying or otherwise making available the Transport Information for the purposes stated by You in Your registration. You shall not use the Transport Information for any other purposes whatsoever.

1.2    You may display the Transport Information provided in the Services in conjunction with other information You provide to end users.

Your obligations

2.1    You shall:

a     not use the Transport Information in any way that causes detriment to Metro or brings Metro into disrepute.
b     not change, tamper, dismantle, augment, misrepresent or otherwise modify the Transport Information.  You are authorized to reproduce the Transport Information accurately and only in the form provided by Metro.

c     not integrate Transport Information as part of any advertisement;
d     be responsible for and pay all costs related to the provision, maintenance, rental and use of all equipment and electronic and other links required for the receipt of the Services;
e     only display the Transport Information on the internet at the root URL, or a derivative of the root URL, of Your Website, or through media other than the Internet, provided that You notified Metro of Your intention to use these media in Your registration;
f      agree that access to and use of the Transport Information is subject to terms and conditions prohibiting unauthorized redistribution and publication and protecting Metro’s Intellectual Property Rights (as defined below);
g     comply with all applicable laws and regulatory requirements in relation to Your receipt and use of the Services; and
h     not represent Yourself as Metro or an agent or partner of Metro or make any representations, warranties or guarantees to third parties in respect of the Services.
i     acknowledge Metro as the provider of the Transport Information as set forth in the Web Services Developer Guidelines.  In no event shall You claim ownership of the Transport Information on Your website, web application or any other digital product.  You shall have no rights to reproduce or use the Metro trademark in connection with the Transport Information or the Services.
j     not make the transport information feeds available to any third parties.  You shall have no rights to assign, transfer or convey this Agreement to any third party.

2.2     You may combine the Transport Information with other data provided such combination does not infringe any third party Intellectual Property Right.

Metro Rights

3.1    Metro may make changes, modifications or alterations to the Transport Information and such changes, modifications or alteration may affect Your use of the Transport Information, all without any liability or responsibility of Metro.  Metro will notify You of such alterations in advance by email, to the email address You provided to Metro on registration, and will allow You reasonable time to make such changes to digital platforms as are necessary for You to receive the updated Transport Information; printed publications shall be corrected in the next publication cycle, and already printed and distributed publications are exempt.

3.2    Metro reserves the right to suspend or terminate the Services as set forth below.

Intellectual Property Rights

For the purposes of these Terms and Conditions, “Intellectual Property Rights” shall mean any patent, know-how, trade mark, or name, service mark, design right (in each case whether registered or unregistered), copyright, rights in passing off, database right, rights in commercial or technical information, any other rights in any invention, discovery or process and any other intellectual property rights, whether registered or unregistered and including applications for the grant of any such rights and all rights or forms or protection having equivalent or similar effect in each case in the United States and anywhere else in the world.

4.1    You acknowledge and agree that Metro owns all right, title and interest, including without limitation all Intellectual Property Rights, in and to the Services and Transport Information and that You shall not acquire any right, title, or interest in or to the Services and Transport Information.

4.2    Metro hereby grants You a non-transferable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use all the Intellectual Property Rights in the software associated with and necessary to obtain the Services and/or the Transport Information (the “Software”).  This license is granted for the sole purpose of obtaining the Services and/or the Transport Information as set forth herein.

4.3    You shall not disassemble, decompile or reverse engineer any portion of the Software.

Term and Termination

5.1    These Terms and Conditions (as amended from time to time) shall apply from the date of Your acceptance and shall continue for the period the Services is provided.

5.2    Metro shall have the right in its sole discretion, to terminate these Terms and Conditions immediately if any of the information You provided on Your registration is found to be inaccurate or You are found to use the Services in a manner inconsistent with these Terms and Conditions.

5.3    If You have not used the Services for a 60 day period, You will be deemed to have terminated the Services and Metro will be authorized to deactivate Your key.  Once Metro has deactivated Your key, You will need to re-register to obtain the Services and the Transport Information.

5.4    Metro may change, suspend or discontinue all or any aspect of the Services or Transport Information, including its availability, at any time, and may suspend or terminate Your digital use of the Services at any time and for any reason.

5.5    Upon Termination of these Terms and Conditions for any reason, all rights granted under, or in connection with, these Terms and Conditions shall terminate, and You shall immediately remove the Transport Information and all references to it from Your website and digital platform. The Transport Information shall be removed from future printed publications; already printed and distributed publications are exempt.

Disclaimer and Liability

6.1    Metro does not guarantee or represent that the Transport Information and/or the Services will always be accurate, complete or current or that access to the Services will be uninterrupted.

6.2    You acknowledge and agree that Metro nor any of its employees, officers, or agents makes any warranty, express or implied, with respect to the Transport Information nor with respect to its accuracy, sufficiency or completeness thereof, nor with respect to any of the software or other systems provided by Metro under this Agreement.   The Transport Information is provided on an “as is” and “with all faults” basis, with You bearing the entire risk as to quality and performance of the Transport Information.

6.3    Metro makes no representations or warranties that Transport Information will perform based on the Your equipment.   You will be solely responsible for any resulting damage to Your software or computer systems and/or any resulting loss of data, from Your use of the Services pursuant to this Agreement and/or any reliance which You may place upon the Services.

6.4    Metro makes no representations or warranties that the Transport Information will be suitable for the purposes for which it is permitted to be used under the terms of this Agreement.  THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF THE FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY WAIVED.

6.5    Metro expressly disclaims all liability (whether incurred directly or indirectly) for all loss and/or damage occasioned from the use and/or inability to use the Services or any part of it.

6.6    You acknowledge and agree in no event shall Metro or its employees, officers, or agents be liable for any damages, claim or loss incurred by You  (including without limitation, compensatory, incidental, indirect, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, lost profits, lost sales or business, expenditures, investments or commitments in connection with any business, or loss of goodwill) resulting from loss of the Transport Information or inability to use the Transport Information irrespective of whether Metro had been informed of, knew of, or should have known of the likelihood of such damages, claim, or loss.  This limitation applies to all causes of action in the aggregate, including, without limitation, breach of contract, breach of warranty, negligence, strict liability, misrepresentation, and other torts.

6.7    Metro shall under no circumstances, be liable for special, incidental, exemplary or consequential damages suffered by the Your use of the Transport Information; including, but not limited to, loss of profits, anticipated revenue, interest, loss of use, or other such claims arises from any causes whatsoever, whether or not such loss or damages is based on contract, warranty, tort including negligence indemnity or otherwise.

Indemnity

7.1    You shall defend, indemnify, and hold Metro and its employees, officers, and agents harmless from and against any and all liability and expense, including reasonable defense costs and legal fees, caused by Your use, possession, or dissemination of the Transport  Information made available from the Services.

Privacy

8.1 Metro’s Privacy Policy will apply to all personal information collected in connection with Your use of the Services.

Miscellaneous

9.1    Failure by Metro to insist upon strict performance of any part of these Terms and Conditions, or delay in or failure to exercise any rights or remedies to which it is entitled shall not constitute a waiver of such right or remedies, nor shall termination of these Terms and Conditions by Metro operate as a waiver of any of its terms. Any express waiver of any breach of these Terms and Conditions by Metro does not constitute a waiver of any subsequent breach of these Terms and Conditions. Waivers shall only be valid if recorded in writing and signed by the waivor.

9.2    If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is held invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason by any court of competent jurisdiction, such provision shall be severed from these Terms and Conditions and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect as if these Terms and Conditions had been executed without the invalid, illegal, or unenforceable provision.

9.3    The provisions of the Disclaimer and Liability and Indemnity sections above and any other paragraphs that are necessary to give effect to those paragraphs shall survive termination of these Terms and Conditions.

9.4    Both parties agree that this Agreement shall be interpreted and enforced under the laws of the state of California and that venue and jurisdiction in any dispute shall be in Los Angeles County, California.

9.5    Entire Agreement: These Terms and Conditions, the Web Services Developer Guidelines and all documents referred to in them constitute the entire agreement between You and Metro and govern Your use of the Services, superceding any prior agreements between You and Metro.