PRIVACY AND SECURITY POLICY

1.0 INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE

The County of Los Angeles ("LACO", "County", "we", "us" or "our") recognizes the public's concern about privacy on the Internet. This Privacy & Security Policy (Policy) establishes how information gathered about you from your visit to this Website (together with all services, contents and compilation of contents from time to time available thereon, "Website") will be used. Capitalized terms used in this Policy without definition are used in this Policy as such terms are defined in the Terms of Use.

The following describes how information may be collected depending on your activities at this Website:

2.0 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 us 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.

3.0 NO UNNECESSARY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION COLLECTED

We will collect no personally identifiable information (e.g., your name, address, email address, credit/debit card number or other information which can be associated with you without additional information) about you when you visit this Website, unless you use our Website to pay for your public health license or permit or you otherwise choose to provide that information to us. The personally identifiable information collected through our Website may be used by County and/or contracted operators of County for limited marketing purposes and as otherwise described in the remainder of this Policy.

4.0 INFORMATION COLLECTED AND STORED AUTOMATICALLY

We may collect and store information automatically for statistical purposes. For example, we may count the number of visitors to the different sections of our Website to help us make them more useful. 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 or your browser software and operating system and the time and date of your visit.

5.0 PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION COLLECTED

All information you submit to us through this Website (by e-mail, surveys, or otherwise, as described below), including personally identifiable information, may be subject to the disclosure and access provisions of the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements.

By sending us an e-mail message (e.g., by selecting the "Contact Us" option), you are sending us personally identifiable information (e.g., your name, address, email address, or other information which can be associated with you, etc.). We store this information in order to respond to your request or otherwise address the subject matter of your email.

Also, we may ask you for specific personally identifiable information, such as your name, address and email address, and other pertinent information, through surveys, feedback forms, questionnaires or other means, all with the goal of providing better service.

Please be advised that email messages and these other means of communication generally are not secure and may be subject to the disclosure in accordance with the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements.

6.0 PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION TRANSMITTED AND STORED FOR CREDIT/DEBIT CARD TRANSACTIONS

A user must provide certain contact information, such as name, email and address, and financial information, such as credit/debit card number and the expiration date, in order to pay for your public health license or permit using our Website.

We are committed to data security and the data quality of personally identifiable information that is either available from or collected by our Website. 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. Additionally, we require that only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by you.

We require the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) standard transmission encryption to protect transmission of users' personally identifiable information submitted in connection with credit/debit card 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. All the personally identifiable information you provide is stored securely.

7.0 USE OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

As described above, a user must provide certain contact and financial information in order to pay for your public health license or permit using our Website. This information is used for the limited purpose for 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 and/or credit/debit card processors.

8.0 SHARING OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES

We do not share personally identifiable information with third parties, except that we will provide personally identifiable information as described in Section 3.0 of this Policy and to the companies assisting us with processing credit/debit card transactions through our Website, including credit card associations, debit card networks, credit/debit card processors 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 investigatory agencies.

9.0 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 use this Website to pay for your public health license or permit. If you have concerns about privacy and security on the Internet, you also have the option to by mail or in person.

Payments by mail should be sent to:

Department of Public Health
P.O. Box 54978
Los Angeles, CA 90054-09781

Payments in person can be made in one of several offices around the County. You can find a list of these payment locations here:
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/DSE/districtOffices.htm

10.0 USE OF COOKIES

This Website may use "cookies." A cookie is a small file stored on your computer by a Website, which gives you a numeric user ID and stores certain information about your activity on the site. We use cookies and other electronic devices to establish a user session and monitor certain usage while you are on our site.

Your usage is tracked primarily so that we can (a) if necessary, modify the website according to your usage to make the information you are looking for easier to find in the future, and (b) maintain sufficient hardware, software and personnel to provide you with a high level of service. The cookies and electronic devices passed to you are seamless that do not reveal your personal identity and will not follow you as you surf on to other websites.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but most allow you to instruct your browser to prevent the use of cookies. However, if you disable this feature, certain aspects of our website may not function properly.

11.0 WEBSITE LINKS TO OTHER SITES NOT COVERED BY PRIVACY AND SECUIRTY POLICY

This Policy describes the information we gather through our Website and how we use such information. Our Website may contain links to documents located on websites maintained by other County departments, public agencies or private organizations. Once you open another website, you are no longer subject to this Policy, but rather are subject to the privacy and security policy of the website to which you linked. You use that website and anything contained on that website at your own risk.

When you use this Website to pay for your public health license or permit using a credit/debit card, you will be transferred to a portion of the Website hosted by our contracted payment processing vendor, FIS (Payment Processor). Our Payment Processor will prompt you to enter all information necessary to make such payment or purchase, as the case may be, and will thereafter take all steps necessary to process the payment on our behalf. Our Payment Processor has agreed to abide by this Policy while collecting such information and processing such payments on our behalf.

12.0 CHANGES TO YOUR INFORMATION

For information on reviewing and/or making changes to information about you that may be in our records, please feel free to contact us with your updated information by the means set forth at the end of this Policy.

13.0 CONTACT INFORMATION

Should you have any questions regarding this Policy, or your interaction with our Website, please contact us by sending an email to ehpermits@ph.lacounty.gov , or by mail to 5050 Commerce Drive, Baldwin Park, CA 91706 (Attention: Licensing and Permitting).

14.0 TERMS OF USE

Please also review the Terms of Use (above) governing the use of our Website.

15.0 CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY AND SECURITY POLICY

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

Last Updated: 06/30/2014