Effective Date: August 30, 2026
1. Scope and Roles
This Privacy & Cookies notice applies to the Hispanic Heritage Month Maryland website, accounts, organizer features, administrative workflows, event discovery tools, and related Platform services (the "Platform").
Marketus Aurelius, LLC ("Marketus," "we," "us," or "our") owns and operates the Platform. The Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce ("MDHCC") is a separate organization and serves as the licensed program administrator for the Hispanic Heritage Month Maryland initiative. MDHCC administrators may access information made available through the Platform as part of their program administration, outreach, community engagement, communications, reporting, and other activities permitted under MDHCC's own Privacy Policy.
Information made available to or received by MDHCC is also subject to MDHCC's Privacy Policy. That policy supplements this notice with respect to MDHCC's own handling of information; it does not replace this notice as to Marketus's operation of the Platform.
2. Information We Collect
We collect only information reasonably related to operating, securing, measuring, and improving the Platform and administering the initiative.
Information you provide
Account and contact information, such as name, email address, organization affiliation, role, and other information you choose to provide.
Organization profile information, including organization name, logo, description, website, public contact details, location, and related profile content.
Event information, such as event title, description, date and time, venue, event address, categories, images, registration or event links, and organizer information.
Invitation, approval, support, and communication records related to account or Platform administration.
Other information you voluntarily submit through forms, organizer workflows, support requests, or administrative tools.
Usage and technical information
The Platform collects limited usage and technical information so we can understand how the service is being used, evaluate program reach, improve performance, troubleshoot problems, and report aggregate results. This may include:
Session and page-view counts;
Event-detail views and Community Partner profile views;
Clicks to external event, registration, organizer, or sponsor pages;
Calendar-add actions and interactions with list, calendar, and map views;
Use of categories, counties, filters, and search tools;
General referral or campaign information, such as referring domain and campaign parameters;
Timestamps, browser or device type, language, and similar basic technical information; and
Network or security information that may be processed by hosting, authentication, security, or infrastructure providers as part of normal service operation.
We use Platform analytics for aggregate measurement and service improvement, not for behavioral advertising, cross-site profiling, or building individual advertising profiles.
3. Event Location and Geolocation
The map feature plots the location of events using event addresses or location information supplied for the event. The Platform does not request or use a visitor's precise device location or geolocation in order to display the map.
4. Sensitive Information
The Platform is not designed to collect Social Security numbers, government identification numbers, payment-card or banking information, medical information, biometric information, or similar sensitive personal information. Please do not submit such information through event descriptions, organization profiles, support messages, or other Platform fields.
Use of a Hispanic Heritage Month calendar does not mean that Marketus infers or records a visitor's race, ethnicity, religion, or other protected characteristic from browsing activity.
5. How We Use Information
Operate, maintain, secure, and improve the Platform;
Create and manage accounts, organizations, invitations, permissions, and administrative access;
Receive, review, publish, edit, organize, archive, or remove event and organization information;
Provide event discovery, map, calendar, and Community Partner features;
Provide transactional communications, support, security notices, and account-related messages;
Measure audience reach, engagement, event discovery, referral activity, and overall program performance;
Detect abuse, security incidents, fraud, technical errors, or violations of Platform rules;
Comply with legal obligations and protect the rights, safety, and security of users, Marketus, MDHCC, and others; and
Develop de-identified or aggregate statistics, reporting, and performance insights.
6. MDHCC Access and Use
Because MDHCC is the licensed program administrator, information submitted through or generated by the Platform may be available to MDHCC administrators. MDHCC may use information it lawfully receives through the Platform in accordance with its Privacy Policy, including for administration, communications, program improvement, event information, outreach, and Chamber news or updates as described in that policy.
7. How We Share Information
Marketus does not sell personal information collected through the Platform.
MDHCC. Information may be made available to MDHCC in its role as licensed program administrator, as described above.
Service providers. We may use vendors that provide hosting, databases, authentication, email delivery, security, error monitoring, analytics infrastructure, AI-assisted functionality, or other services needed to operate the Platform. They may process information only as needed to provide those services or as otherwise permitted by law.
Legal, safety, and rights protection. We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, legal process, enforce Platform terms, investigate misuse, protect security, or protect the rights or safety of Marketus, MDHCC, users, organizers, or the public.
Business or operational transition. If ownership or operation of the Platform or relevant Marketus assets changes through a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or similar transaction, information may be transferred as part of that transaction subject to applicable law and appropriate safeguards.
Sponsors and advertisers do not receive personal information merely because they sponsor or support the initiative. Sponsorship provides recognition and aggregate program reporting only; it does not provide access to individual visitor behavior or personal information.
8. Public Information
Published event listings and public Community Partner profiles are intended for public display. Information placed in public-facing fields may be viewed, copied, linked to, indexed, or shared by members of the public and search engines. Do not place private or confidential information in public-facing fields.
9. Cookies and Analytics
The Platform uses or may use cookies, session storage, local storage, authentication tokens, or similar technologies that are reasonably necessary for login, account security, session continuity, preferences, form state, abuse prevention, and basic service operation.
We collect limited Platform analytics to understand usage and demonstrate the value and reach of the initiative. Where reasonably practical, analytics use aggregate, anonymous, or pseudonymous measurement rather than attaching browsing activity to a person's name or email address. Logged-in status may be necessary for security and Platform functionality, but analytics do not need to identify a person simply to count a page view or event interaction.
Hosting, authentication, database, security, or infrastructure providers may process technical information such as IP addresses, request logs, browser information, or timestamps as part of normal network operation, fraud prevention, troubleshooting, and security. Marketus does not use those logs to sell personal information or build advertising profiles.
The Platform does not use Google Ads, Meta advertising pixels, programmatic advertising networks, retargeting cookies, or similar cross-site behavioral advertising technologies. The Platform does not use an advertising opt-out mechanism because it does not use cross-site behavioral advertising.
Most browsers allow you to delete or block cookies and stored website data. Blocking technologies that are required for authentication or security may prevent account features from working correctly.
10. AI-Assisted Features
Certain administrative or organizer tools may use AI-assisted services to extract, summarize, suggest, or organize information from public event pages or user-provided inputs, including suggesting event details from a public event URL, helping authorized administrators identify possible public event sources or candidate events, or organizing publicly available event information.
A person reviews AI-assisted results before publication or material administrative action. AI does not independently make final decisions about whether an organization is approved, whether an event qualifies for the calendar, whether content violates policy, or whether an account should be suspended.
Relevant prompts, public URLs, or extracted text may be processed by technology service providers to return the requested result. That processing is limited to providing Platform functionality and is subject to applicable vendor, security, and privacy controls.
Do not submit private, login-only, paywalled, confidential, restricted, or sensitive personal information to an AI-assisted feature. AI output can be incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate, and AI assistance does not grant permission to republish protected material. Organizers and administrators remain responsible for reviewing source rights, accuracy, attribution, and whether content is appropriate to publish.
11. Data Retention
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to operate the Platform, maintain account and security records, preserve event history, measure program performance, resolve disputes, meet legal obligations, and maintain appropriate backups. We may aggregate or de-identify information and retain the resulting non-identifying statistics for longer periods.
12. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect Platform information. No website, database, transmission method, or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Users are responsible for protecting account credentials and should notify us promptly of suspected unauthorized access.
13. Your Choices and Privacy Requests
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information associated with your Platform account or submission, subject to reasonable verification and legal or operational exceptions. Where applicable law provides additional privacy rights, including rights under the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, we will honor those rights to the extent they apply to the Platform and the request.
We will not require you to create a new account solely to submit a privacy request. We may retain records that are reasonably necessary for security, legal compliance, dispute resolution, or archival integrity even after a deletion request.
14. Children and Account Eligibility
The public calendar is a general-audience service and may be browsed by families and visitors of any age. Account creation, organization management, and organizer submission features are intended for adults age 18 or older. We do not knowingly use those account features to collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that personal information from a child under 13 was collected through an account feature without appropriate authorization, we will take reasonable steps to delete or disable it.
15. External Websites
Event pages frequently link to independent organizer websites, registration services, ticketing platforms, government sites, schools, venues, and other third parties. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies, not this notice.
16. Changes to This Notice
We may update this notice as the Platform changes, as analytics or service providers change, or as legal requirements evolve. The revised version will be posted with an updated effective date. Material changes may also be communicated through the Platform when appropriate.
Contact
For privacy, technical, accessibility, or Platform-related questions or requests, use the Contact page on Hispanic Heritage Month Maryland.
For questions specifically about MDHCC's own handling of information, contact MDHCC at info@mdhcc.org or review the MDHCC Privacy Policy.