Privacy & Security Policy

Thank you for visiting the website ("Site") of the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works ("DPW"). We recognize your concern about privacy and security on the Internet. This Privacy & Security Policy describes the kind of information gathered about you from your visit to this Site and establishes how we will use such information. We refer you to the body of the Terms of Use for any definitions of capitalized terms used in this Privacy & Security Policy without definition.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS.


Information Subject to Public Records Laws and Other Legal Requirements

As an initial matter, please be advised that we are subject to the public records laws of the State of California ("California Public Records Act") and that much of the information you submit to DPW is public information under these laws. Consequently, under certain circumstances, we may be required to disclose such information in accordance with the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements.

No Unnecessary Personally Identifiable Information Collected

We will collect no personally identifiable information (e.g., your name, address, e-mail address, credit/ debit card number, bank account number, or other information which can be associated with you without additional information) about you when you visit this Site, unless you use our Site for processing payment transactions or otherwise choose to provide that information to us. The personally identifiable information collected through our Site and the personally identifiable information you otherwise choose to provide to us will be used and retained as described in the remainder of this Privacy & Security Policy.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

We may collect and store some information automatically when you visit our Site for statistical purposes. For example, we may count the number of visitors to the different sections of our Site to help us make our Site more useful to its users. We may also use this information to monitor your compliance with the Terms of Use. The information collected may include such items as the name and domain of the host from which you access the Internet, the Internet Protocol ("IP") address of the computer you are using, your browser software and operating system and the time and date of your visit. This information does not identify you personally. We may retain this information for at least five (5) years.

Personally Identifiable Information Collected from E-mails, Surveys, Etc.

By sending us an e-mail (e.g., by selecting the Contact Us option), you may be sending us personally identifiable information (i.e., your name, address, e-mail address or other information which can be associated with you without additional information). We store this information in order to respond to your request or otherwise address the subject matter of your e-mail.

Also, from time to time, we may ask you for specific personally identifiable information in the form of a survey, feedback form, questionnaire or other means, all with the goal of providing better service. We will only retain the information that you provide in response to the survey, etc.

We may ask visitors who request specific information to fill out a registration form. For example, vendors requesting access to Requests for Bids, Requests for Proposals or homeowners or businesses requesting Permits, may be asked to provide their names, addresses, e-mail addresses and other pertinent information to ensure processing and delivery of the information requested.

You should know that e-mail and these other means generally are not secure and may be subject to the disclosure requirements of the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements.

Personally Identifiable Information Transmitted and Stored for Payment Transactions

A user must provide certain contact information, such as name, telephone number, e-mail and address, and financial information, such as a credit/ debit card number and the expiration date, and bank account and routing number, in order for us to process payment transactions over the Internet. Below is what you should know about the security of personally identifiable information you provide to us in order for us to process these transactions:

DPW is committed to data security and the data quality of personally identifiable information that is either available from or collected by our Site. We have taken reasonable precautions to protect such information from disclosure, loss, misuse or alteration. We require that "secure data networks" be operated, which are protected by industry standard firewalls and password protection systems. We require that only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our users.

We require the use of Secure Socket Layer ("SSL") standard transmission encryption to protect transmission of users' personally identifiable information submitted in connection with payment transactions. SSL is a security technology designed to enable your browser to send and receive information with another server in an encrypted format. Your browser's security icon, usually located in the top or bottom status bar of your browser's window, reflects the security condition of the browser. The lock icon indicates that your browser is communicating over a secure link. Your internet browser must support the SSL encryption protocol. Mozilla Firefox 2.x or higher and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x or higher will support this feature.

We require that all the information you provide to us in this manner is stored securely subject to the disclosure requirements of the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements.

Use of Personally Identifiable Information

As described above, a user must provide certain contact information and financial information in order for us to process payment transactions submitted through our Site. We require that this information be used only for the limited purpose of processing these transactions and as otherwise permitted by the rules and regulations of the applicable credit card associations, debit card networks, credit/ debit card issuers, credit/ debit card processors, and electronic funds transfer associations. We do not permit this information to be used for marketing purposes and we require that be retained for at least five (5) years in accordance with banking and accounting requirements.

Sharing Personally Identifying Information with Third Parties

We do not share personally identifiable information with third parties, except that we will provide the necessary personally identifiable information, including credit/ debit card numbers and bank account numbers, to the companies assisting us with processing payment transactions through our Site, including credit card associations, debit card networks, credit/ debit card issuers, credit/ debit card processors, electronic funds transfer associations, and banks. In some circumstances, we may also be required by law to disclose certain personally identifiable information in accordance with the disclosure requirements of the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements or we may disclose such information to law enforcement and/or fraud investigating agencies.

Consequences of Failing to Provide Personally Identifiable Information

If you choose not to provide us with your name or other necessary personally identifiable information, you will not be able to complete the payment transactions using our Site. If you have concerns about privacy and security on the Internet, you also have the option of visiting us in person at 900 South Fremont Avenue, Alhambra, California 91803 to receive our services.

Use of Cookies

A "cookie" is a small text file that a website can place on your computer for the duration of your visit to the website. It is used for session integrity and anonymous traffic data during your visit to the website and not for any marketing purposes.

A stored "cookie" is a small text file that a website can place on your computer's hard drive to collect information about your activities on the site. The cookie transmits this information back to the website's computer which, generally speaking, is the only computer that can read it. Most users do not know that "cookies" are being placed on their computers. If you want to know when this happens or to prevent it from happening, you can set your browser to warn you when a website attempts to place a "cookie" on your computer.

Getting Access to Information; Changing Information

For information on reviewing and/or making changes to information about you that may be in our records, please send us an e-mail by selecting the Contact Us option or call us at 626-458-5100.

Site Links to Other Websites Not Covered by Privacy & Security Policy

This Privacy & Security Policy describes the information we gather through our Site and how we use such information. Our website may contain links to documents located on Site maintained by other County departments, public agencies or private organizations. Once you access an individual document that links you to another website, you are no longer subject to this Privacy & Security Policy, but rather are subject to the privacy and security policy of the website containing the document. You use that document and Site at your own risk.

NOTE: When you use this Site to complete a payment transaction, you will be transferred to a portion of this Site hosted by our contracted payment processing vendor ("Payment Processor"). Our Payment Processor will prompt you to enter all information necessary to make payment transaction and will thereafter take all steps necessary to process the payment transaction on our behalf. Our Payment Processor has agreed to abide by this Privacy & Security Policy while collecting such information and processing such transaction on our behalf.

Contact Information

Should you have any further questions regarding this Privacy & Security Policy or your interaction with our Site, please email us.

Terms of Use

Please also visit our Terms of Use governing the use of our Site.

Changes to the Privacy & Security Policy

We may add to, delete or change the terms of this Privacy & Security Policy from time to time. This document will be updated to reflect such changes. By using our Site, you consent to this Privacy & Security Policy, as it is changed from time to time.

Updated: 05/28/2014