• a federal, state or local governmental agency or public school;
• a community organization that receives funding from the City of Allen;
• a City board, commission or committee;
• agencies, organizations and companies sponsoring or otherwise participating in City activities as related to that City activity;
• companies or non-profit organizations that provide a public service to the community;
• companies and organizations that provide life-sustaining, public safety and public health information;
• an established news-gathering organization, being either a newspaper of regular, paid circulation or a television station that provides local news regularly and maintains a national network affiliation; and local "web portals" which direct users to community services in the City of Allen.

The City will not consider providing a link to the following types of websites:

• businesses or non-profit organizations unless they fit any of the criteria stated above;
• political campaigns and endorsements;
• political organizations or other organizations advocating or opposing a local, state or federal issue or ballot proposal;
• adult material not related to health education;
• promotion of illegal materials or information, such as hate speech or obscene content;
• religious organizations or the promotion of religious information; and
• individual or personal websites.

Certain private websites to which the City of Allen may provide an external link may include advertising or promotional material in the information display. The City of Allen is not responsible for nor supports or promotes such advertising.

Links to the City of Allen's Website

It is not necessary to obtain advance permission to link to the City of Allen's website if you are making a simple link to the homepage. Please note the City of Allen may change URLs and subpage paths at any time.

Links to the City's website must not be made within frames or otherwise present the City's content as that of an outside site. Any link to the City's site should be a full forward link that passes through the client browser to the City's site unencumbered. The BACK button should return the viewer to the external website, if they wish to back out of the City's website. Although content on the City's website is public information, the City of Allen maintains and will defend a copyright interest in these pages.

Do not link directly to individual graphics or tables within the City's websites, especially in an effort to place the downloading burden on the City's server. Such action may be considered a misuse of City resources. Contact the City of Allen's Public Information Office to get permission to use a copy of City's graphics on external websites.

Removal Process

The City of Allen may remove any external link for the following reasons:

• the website no longer fits the aforementioned criteria;
• the link no longer points to the original information or resources for which it was approved;
• the link points to information that is inaccurate, misleading or otherwise violates the aforementioned criteria;
• access to the information has become difficult due to non-standard formatting, lengthy download times or intrusive advertising; and
• the link is permanently unreachable or remains unavailable for a lengthy period.