Website Disclaimer
General Disclaimer
The Town of Topsfield maintains this website for the purposes of providing basic information about the municipality and presenting general information to the public.
The information on this website originates from various sources, and may or may not be current and up-to-date. The Town of Topsfield does not warrant or make representation as to the current accuracy or completeness of the information on this website. Viewers should not act upon any information provided on this website without first verifying its accuracy with the responsible Town department.
The Town of Topsfield therefore will not assume any legal liability for any misrepresentation(s) that may occur. Further, the Town of Topsfield and its employees shall not be held liable for any damage(s) resulting from any use of this website or from reliance on information contained within.
Communications made through the e-mail or messaging system of this website shall in no way constitute "legal notice" to the Town of Topsfield or any of its departments, officers, employees, agents, or representatives, where such notice to the Town is required by any law, rule, or regulation.
This website and its contents are for use by the citizens of Topsfield, MA and the general public and will be updated or changed without notice. Any attempt to modify, destroy or damage this website, or its contents, or to use this website in ways not intended, is strictly prohibited and punishable according to the relevant statutes of Massachusetts and federal law.
Agendas and minutes posted on the website are for the convenience of the public and for informational purposes only. For official agendas, please see the binder located in a box at the base of the ramp leading into Town Hall. For official versions of meeting minutes, please consult the board or committee involved.
The Town of Topsfield website contains many links to other websites for the convenience of its users. It does not guarantee the accuracy, quality, completeness, or reliability of such information and assumes no liability for any misrepresentations that may occur on these external sites. Further the Town of Topsfield does not endorse any opinions or products associated with any of these external sites.
Privacy Policy
Your privacy with respect to the use of this website results from a partnership between the Town and you, the user. At this website, we attempt to protect your privacy to the maximum extent possible. However, because some of the information that we receive through this website is subject to Public Records Law, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 66, Section 10, we cannot ensure absolute privacy. Information that you provide to us through this site may be made available to members of the public under that law. This policy informs you of the information that we collect from you at this site, what we do with it, to whom it may be disseminated, and how you can access it. Based on this information, you can make an informed choice about your use of this site. You can maximize the benefits of your privacy partnership with the Town by making informed choices about whether to share personally identifiable information with us through this site.
Personally Identifiable Information. We use the term "personally identifiable information" to mean any information that could reasonably be used to identify you, including your name, address, e-mail address, Social Security number, birth date, bank account information, credit card information, or any combination of information that could be used to identify you.
Information Voluntarily Provided by You. This site collects voluntary information from you only through the e-mails that you send through this site. E-mails sent by you to this site will contain personally identifiable information.
Information Automatically Collected and Stored by this Site. This site does not currently collect "cookies", but does collect and store indefinitely your Internet Protocol ("IP") address, (which does not identify you as an individual), as well as information about the date and time of your visit, whether a file you have requested exists, and how many "bytes" of information were transmitted to you over the web from this site. We use your IP address to assess the frequency of visits to this site and the popularity of its various pages and functions. We will not attempt to match any personally identifiable information that you provide to us with your IP address, unless there are reasonable grounds to believe that doing so would provide information that is relevant and material to a criminal investigation.
Dissemination of Your Personally Identifiable Information. We do not sell any personally identifiable information collected through this website. However, once you voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to us through an e-mail, its dissemination is governed by the Public Records Law and other applicable laws and regulations. For this reason, part or all of the information you send us may be provided to a member of the public in response to a public records request.
In addition, the information that you voluntarily submit will be disclosed only to Town employees or officials with a "need to know" for purposes of fulfilling their job responsibilities. They will only use the information to answer your questions, respond to any requests for assistance, and fulfill the Town's legal obligations. Where appropriate, we may provide the information submitted by you to the person or company that is the subject of your inquiry, or to a government agency responsible for the matters referred to in your communication.
Security. Because this site does not encrypt incoming e-mail, you should not send information that you consider highly sensitive through this website. We may use software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.
Contact Information. For questions about your privacy while using this website, please contact the webmaster@topsfield-ma.gov.
Hyperlink Policy
Some pages may provide external website links to various community, regional, and governmental organizations that may be of interest to users of this website. These links are provided as a courtesy for the convenience of the users. The Town of Topsfield does not necessarily endorse these organizations, nor does it control the content of the linked websites. The Town of Topsfield reserves the right to deny any and all requests for links, and to sever existing links at anytime.
Questions and requests for links should be addressed to the webmaster@topsfield-ma.gov.
Definitions
Cookies are files that a website can place on your computer. A cookie file contains unique information that a website can use to track such things as your password, lists of web pages you have visited, and the date when you last looked at a specific web page, or to identify your session at a particular website. A cookie file allows the website to recognize you as you click through pages on the site and when you later revisit the site. A website can use cookies to "remember" your preferences, and to record your browsing behavior on the web. Although you can prevent websites from placing cookies on your computer by using your browser's preference menu, disabling cookies may affect your ability to view or interact with some websites.
An "Internet Protocol Address" or "IP Address" is a series of numbers that identifies each computer and machine connected to the Internet. An IP address enables a server on a computer network to send you the file that you have requested on the Internet. The IP address disclosed to us may identify the computer from which you are accessing the Internet, or a server owned by your Internet Service Provider. Because it is machine-specific, rather than person-specific, an IP address is not, in and of itself, personally identifiable information.