The purpose of this statement is to define the City of Los Angeles' policy with regards to the collection and use of personally identifiable information (any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual who is the subject of the information).
The City will make every reasonable effort to protect your privacy. It restricts access to your personal identifiable information to those employees that will respond to your request. The City does not intentionally disclose any personal information about our users to any third parties inside or outside the City except as required by law. The City only collects personally identifiable information that is required to provide service. You can decline to provide us with any personal information on any site on the Internet at any time. However, if you should choose to withhold requested information, we may not be able to provide you with the online services dependent upon the collection of that information.
Access to personally identifiable information in public records at state and local levels of government in Los Angeles is controlled primarily by the California Public Records Act (Government Code Section 6250, et seq.). Information that is generally available under the Public Records Act may be posted for electronic access through the City's web site. While the Public Records Act sets the general policies for access to City records, other sections of California code as well as federal laws also deal with confidentiality issues. E-mail addresses obtained through the web site will not be sold or given to other private companies for marketing purposes. The information collected is subject to the access and confidentiality provisions of the Public Records Act, other applicable sections of the California code as well as federal laws. E-mail or other information requests sent to the City web site may be maintained in order to respond to the request, forward that request to the appropriate agency within the City, communicate updates to the City page that may be of interest to citizens, or to provide the City web designer with valuable customer feedback to assist in improving the site. Individuals can cancel any communications regarding new service updates at any time.
Some City applications use "cookies." A cookie is a small data file that certain web sites write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user id that the site uses to track the pages you have visited. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie is only a text file and cannot read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Cookies can track user traffic patterns, recognize your computer's browser when you return, and could provide personalized content without requiring sign-in. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. However, they may be required to use some of the web applications on the City's site.
The City of Los Angeles is committed to data security and the data quality of personally identifiable information that is either available from or collected by our web site and has taken reasonable precautions to protect such information from loss, misuse or alteration. The City operates "secure data networks" protected by industry standard firewalls and password protection systems. Only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our users. When a City application accepts credit cards or any other particularly sensitive information for any of its services, it encrypts all ordering information, such as your name and credit card number, in order to protect its confidentiality.
Unless otherwise prohibited by state or federal law, rule or regulation you will be granted the ability to access and correct any personally identifiable information. We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access to review or make corrections to your information. Each City service that collects personally identifiable information will allow for review and update of that information.
Non-city web sites may be linked through the City's web site. Many non-city sites may or may not be subject to the Public Records Act and may or may not be subject to other sections of California Code or federal law. Visitors to such sites are advised to check the privacy statements of such sites and to be cautious about providing personally identifiable information without a clear understanding of how the information will be used. Visitors may also wish to consult privacy guidelines such as those recommended by the Online Privacy Alliance.