Privacy Policy

Who We Are

The Williamsville Fire Protection District ("WFPD," "the District," "we," or "us") is a unit of local government organized under the laws of the State of Illinois, serving Williamsville and the surrounding areas of Sangamon County. This policy explains what happens to information collected through our website at wvillefire.org.

This policy covers this website only. It does not cover our Facebook page, third-party sites we link to, or information you give us in person, by phone, or on paper.

Information We Collect

We collect information in exactly two ways: when you submit a form, and through the basic technical records that any web server creates.

Membership Interest Form

If you fill out the form on our Join Us page, we collect:

• Your first and last name
• Your email address
• Your phone number
• Your home address
• Your date of birth
• Any prior fire or EMS experience you describe
• Your reason for wanting to join

We ask for date of birth and home address because membership requires that you be at least 18 years old and able to respond to our district. We use this information to contact you, evaluate your interest in membership, and administer the application process.

Open Burning Notification Form

If you notify us of a planned burn on our Open Burning page, we collect:

• Your name
• Your phone number
• The address where the burn will take place
• The planned date and time
• A description of what you intend to burn

We use this information so that our personnel and dispatchers can identify known controlled burns, avoid dispatching apparatus to a reported fire that is actually your permitted burn, and contact you if conditions change or a problem arises.

Technical Information

When you submit a form, our server records your IP address. We use it for one purpose: to limit how many submissions can come from a single source in an hour, which protects our forms from spam and abuse. These rate-limiting records are stored in an obscured form and expire automatically after one hour. Your IP address is also passed along with your submission to our internal records system so we can investigate abuse if it occurs.

Like nearly all web servers, our host may also keep standard access logs. We do not use these logs to build profiles of visitors or to track you across other websites.

What We Don't Do

We want to be specific here, because many privacy policies are vague on this point:

• We do not use cookies on this website.
• We do not use Google Analytics or any other analytics or visitor-measurement service.
• We do not use advertising networks, retargeting pixels, or social media tracking pixels.
• We do not sell, rent, trade, or share your personal information with marketers.
• We do not require you to create an account or log in.

Because we do not track visitors, we do not respond to browser "Do Not Track" signals — there is nothing for us to turn off.

Third Parties

Three outside parties are involved in operating this site:

We also link to our Facebook page. If you follow that link, Facebook's own privacy policy governs what happens next — we have no control over and no visibility into their data practices.

When We Share Information

We share the information you submit only in these situations:

• Within the District. Officers, trustees, and personnel who need the information to do their jobs — for example, reviewing your membership application or logging your burn notification.
• With emergency dispatch and mutual aid partners. Burn notification details may be shared with dispatchers or neighboring departments so a controlled burn is not mistaken for an emergency.
• As required by law. In response to a valid subpoena, court order, or other legal obligation, or where disclosure is necessary to protect someone's safety.
• Under the Illinois FOIA. See the section below.

Public Records and FOIA

This is the part that makes a government privacy policy different from a company's, and we want you to understand it before you send us anything.

The District is a public body subject to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (5 ILCS 140). Information you send us may become part of a public record, and public records can be requested by any member of the public.

FOIA does contain exemptions that protect personal privacy. Section 7(1)(b) of the Act exempts "private information" — including home addresses, personal phone numbers, personal email addresses, and similar identifiers — and Section 7(1)(c) exempts information whose disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. When we receive a request touching records that contain your information, we review it and redact material that the Act exempts.

We cannot, however, promise you absolute confidentiality, because we do not have the final say — the Act does, and so ultimately do the Attorney General's Public Access Counselor and the courts. If you have something sensitive to discuss, please call us at (217) 566-3311 instead of using a web form.

You can learn more on our Transparency & FOIA page.

How Long We Keep Information

As a unit of Illinois local government, we cannot simply delete records whenever we like. The Illinois Local Records Act (50 ILCS 205) governs how long we must keep records and requires approval from the Local Records Commission before many records can be destroyed. We retain form submissions for as long as the applicable records retention schedule requires, and dispose of them only as that law permits.

Spam-prevention rate-limiting data is the exception — it expires automatically about one hour after your submission.

How We Protect Information

This website is served over an encrypted HTTPS connection, and form submissions are transmitted over encrypted connections to our internal records system, which is not publicly accessible and requires authentication. Access is limited to authorized District personnel.

We are also a "data collector" under the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act (815 ILCS 530). If a breach of the security of our system compromised your unencrypted personal information, we would notify you as that Act requires — in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay.

That said, no method of transmitting information over the internet is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise. Please do not use these forms to send us medical information, Social Security numbers, financial account details, or other highly sensitive material.

Children's Privacy

This website is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. Membership with the District requires that you be at least 18 years old, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has submitted information to us through this site, please contact us and we will address it.

Your Choices and Rights

Every form on this site is voluntary. You can always reach us by phone, email, mail, or in person instead of submitting a form online — and browsing this site requires you to give us nothing at all.

If you would like to know what information we hold about you, correct something that is wrong, or ask us to dispose of information we are not required to retain, please contact us. We will do what we can within the limits the Local Records Act places on us.

Broad consumer privacy laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act and the EU General Data Protection Regulation are generally aimed at businesses and do not apply to an Illinois fire protection district serving a local community. We mention this only for clarity — our practice is to collect as little as possible regardless of which laws compel us.

Changes to This Policy

If our practices change — for example, if we ever add a new form or service — we will update this page and revise the "last updated" date above. Material changes will be noted on the page.

Contact Us

Questions about this policy, or about information we may hold about you? Please reach out:

For emergencies, always call 911. This website and its forms are never monitored for emergencies.