Privacy Policy
Links to Other Websites - A Disclaimer
This website provides links to other websites as a convenience to our citizens. These include links to websites operated by other government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private businesses. When you use one of these links, you are no longer on this website and this Privacy Notice will not apply. When you link to another website, you are subject to the privacy policy of that website.
When you follow a link to one of these websites neither Deschutes County, nor any agency, officer, or employee of Deschutes County warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published by these external websites, nor endorses any content, viewpoints, products, or services linked from these systems, and can not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of their information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from these systems does so at his or her own risk.
Information Collected When You Browse the County Website
If you browse or download information during your visit to this website, we collect and store only the standard data collected by all web server software. That information is:
- The Internet Protocol (IP) address used for your connection. The IP address is a numerical identifier assigned either to your Internet service provider or directly to your computer. We use the Internet IP to respond to your browser request. Example: 122.125.36.42;
- The domain name assigned to your IP Address (if there is one). Example: somename.com;
- The type of browser and operating system you used. Example: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT; IE4WDUS-1998101501);
- The date and time you visited this website;
- The web pages or services you accessed at this website; and
- The website you visited prior to coming to this website. (Note: this is included so that summary analysis can be done on how visitors get to our website, i.e., from a search engine, from a link on another website, etc.).
We do not track individual user navigation choices. We do, however, summarize the information listed above to determine:
- what organizations are our most frequent users (item 2 above) to better target our content for the audience.
- what browsers are being used on our website to determine what techniques we should use to develop pages that will work with different browsers (item 3 above).
- how often our pages are being visited (item 5 above).
- the traffic from organization names such as search engines that direct people to the website (item 6 above)
For website security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this website may monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. If security monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, system personnel may provide the results of such monitoring to appropriate officials. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the state law and federal statutes including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.
Public Disclosure
All information on this website is a public record unless an exemption in law exists. ORS Chapter 192 contains the Oregon Public Records Law.
In the State of Oregon, laws exist to ensure that government is open and that the public has a right to access appropriate records and information possessed by government agencies. At the same time, there are exceptions to the public's right to access public records based on the privacy of individuals. Both state and federal laws provide exceptions. We may request personally identifiable information from you in order to provide requested services, but such information is handled as it would be for an in-person visit to a governmental office.
Personal Information and Nondisclosure
"Personal information" is information about a person that is readily identifiable to that individual, such as an individual's name, address and telephone number. Such personal information may be exempt from disclosure if disclosure would constitute an unreasonable invasion of privacy under the circumstances. A domain name or Internet Protocol (IP) address is not considered personal information. Most information collected by state government is assumed to be open to the public unless specifically exempted. ORS Chapter 192 contains the Oregon Public Records Law. Under this law, individuals are permitted to request that public officials not disclose a public record that contains their home address and telephone number under certain circumstances. ORS 192.445 specifies how to request non-disclosure.
All information collected at this website becomes a public record unless an exemption in law exists. ORS Chapter 192 contains the Oregon Public Records Law.
See Public Disclosure section above for more information on email privacy.
Requesting Personal Information Inspection
You have the right to review information collected about you by this website. Contact the Deschutes County Webmaster (webmaster@deschutes.org) with your request.
Secure Transmission
This website uses the industry standard encryption software Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to enable secure transmission of data. The URL in your browser will change to "HTTPS" instead of "HTTP" when this security feature is invoked. Your browser may also display a lock or key symbol on its task bar to indicate invoked secure transmission. If these indicators are not present, information may be susceptible to interception by other parties. Most Internet e-mail communication is not considered secure. If you are communicating sensitive information, consider sending it in by postal mail or contacting the agency by phone.
Cookies
A cookie is a small text file created by a Web server and stored on your computer hard drive. Cookies save unique information that the Web server can access while you are browsing our website. Typically, cookies save information such as your website preferences, the date you last looked at a specific page, or a random number used to identify your particular Web session. Cookies help us measure how many visitors come to our website and how many of these visitors are new or returning.
Cookies placed on your computer by our Web management tools are written so they can only be used by our Web tools, and they only retrieve specific information. We do not gather information from you, from other cookie files, or access any other information on your computer.
Most Web browsers allow you to deny or accept the cookie feature (refer to your browser's help function for details). You can control the use of cookies on your computer, and even eliminate them. However, eliminating cookie use may interfere with the function of some Deschutes County website services.
Contact Information
If you have questions about the information presented in this privacy policy, have comments on the Deschutes County website, or wish to request correction of factual errors in your personally identifiable information, please contact the Deschutes County Webmaster by mail at 14 NW Kearney, Bend, Oregon 97701 Attn: Information Technology or email webmaster@deschutes.org.
