Thank you for visiting the official website of the San Joaquin County. This Privacy Policy outlines the types of information we gather when you visit our website, how that information is used as well as some of the steps we take to safeguard it.

Information Collection

We do not collect personal information about you when you visit our website unless you choose to provide that information to us. we collect limited non-personally identifying information your browser makes available automatically whenever you visit a website. This information includes the Internet Address of your computer or network, the date, time, and page you visited on our site, your browser and operating system, and the referring page (the last webpage you visited before clicking on a link to our site). We use the aggregated information from all of our visitors to measure server performance, analyze user traffic patterns and improve the content of our site. 

We sometimes track the keywords that are entered into our search engine to measure interest in specific topics, but we do not track which terms a particular user enters.

Some of our online services require you to register for an account. We ask you for some personal information in order to create an account (typically your name, email address and a password for your account) and we will use that information to provide the service. For certain services, such as our online payment services, we may request credit card or other payment information which may be stored temporarily in encrypted form on secure servers.

Additionally, the County portal uses software programs for the purpose of monitoring network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations and the security purposes mentioned elsewhere in this notice, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes and are scheduled for regular destruction.

Collection of Personally Identifiable Information

"Personal information" is information about an individual that is readily identifiable to that specific individual. Personal information includes an individual's name, address, and phone number. A domain name or IP address is not considered personal information. The County strives to collect the minimum information necessary to comply with applicable law or provide the requested service.

The County does not sell, rent or otherwise distribute visitor's information, including electronic mail addresses, to any outside company or organization, unless legally required to do so. This applies to information that may be collected on the County's site and on that of any third party with whom the County contracts to provide Internet related services. If you choose to participate in a survey, send an email, or perform other transactions using this portal, the following additional information may be collected:

• Your email address, and contents of emails sent through the portal for purposes of providing you with a response.
• Information volunteered in response to a survey or through online forms for purposes identified by the survey or online form.
• Information volunteered by participating in an online transaction with the County for purposes of completing the transaction only.

The information collected may not be limited to text characters and may include audio, video, and graphic information formats you send us. The information is retained in accordance with the County's policies. We may use your email to respond appropriately. This may be to respond to you, to address issues you identify, to further improve our web site, or to forward the email to another agency for appropriate action. Survey information would be used for the purpose designated.

Notice To County

Communications made through the San Joaquin County website shall in no way be deemed to constitute legal or official notice to the County of San Joaquin, its agencies, officers, employees, representatives, or agents with respect to any existing, pending, or future claim or cause of action against the County of San Joaquin or any of its agencies, officers, employees, representatives, or agents where notice is required by federal, state, or local law. No communication to the County of San Joaquin made through this Web site shall be deemed to constitute legal or official notice for any purpose.

This site is operated and maintained by the County of San Joaquin through the Information Systems Division. Materials and information on the County of San Joaquin's Web site are provided as a public service and intended to afford general guidelines on matters of public interest. Accordingly, the information in this site is not intended to serve as legal, accounting or tax advice. Except for the third party materials described below, the materials and information on this site were generated, compiled, or assembled at public expense and are freely available for non-commercial, non-profit making use, provided the user keeps intact all associated copyright, trademark, and other proprietary notices. The materials and information on this site may not be "mirrored" on another server without the written permission of the County of San Joaquin.

Attempts to upload information or change information on the County of San Joaquin's Web site are strictly prohibited unless specifically authorized in writing by the County.

Information Security

The County has implemented security measures and systems into the design, implementation and day-to-day operation of its portal, underlying servers and networks. The County progressively implements new security measures as they become available on the market. Security measures are primarily to identify and/or block unauthorized intrusions, upload or change information or otherwise cause damage to the County portal.

Electronic Commerce

Users choosing to engage in electronic commerce with the County are ensured reasonable security measures. E-commerce transactions are performed only under tightly controlled circumstances, where there are appropriate technological and other safeguards in place to protect financial and other sensitive data. County e-commerce systems supported on the County's web site ensure financial data remains secure and with individuals and institutions involved in the transaction. Wherever possible, financial information is not collected by the County. Rather, designated banks and financial partners route the data, transfer the funds and confirm payment to both you and the County.

Use of Cookies

Cookies are text files created by your browser and stored on your system to aid in customizing your browsing experience. This portal may use "cookies". Cookies allow information to change as you navigate through this portal. Two types of cookies may be used, "session-only" and "persistent". San Joaquin County uses cookies in the following ways:

• If you wish to access information, the County may use a session-only cookie to reserve storage on your computer in order to pass your inquiry information to a follow-on page for the purposes of retrieving requested information. The session-only cookies are erased either during web browser operation or after your web browser is shut down.
• If you wish to conduct on-line transactions the County may use a session-only cookie when processing your request. The type of information voluntarily submitted to fulfill your request varies by transaction and may include your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, social security or federal identification number, credit card number and expiration date, and/or driver license number.

The County cannot control the use of cookies by sites outside this portal. If you choose to link to a site through the portal, the County cannot control their use of cookies and this privacy policy will not apply.

Health Information

Agencies requesting or providing personally identifiable health care information of this portal are required to certify that its health care data handling and security procedures are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"). If such data and security services are provided to such agency by a third-party provider, the agency shall be responsible for such third party's compliance with HIPAA.

Contact Information

The County is made up of a number of departments. Each department is responsible for the applications it develops including applications that may gather volunteered personally identifying information. In these cases, contact information is provided at the point of information entry allowing the user to contact that department either through e-mail or the phone. Additionally, contact information for the portal is provided and can be used as an initial point of contact in lieu of individual department contacts.

The County's Web sites and the selection of sites to which any of them may be linked are not intended to serve as a forum for free discussion. Instead, these Web pages are posted to serve the County's need to make useful and practical information available to San Joaquin County residents, businesses, and visitors that facilitates provision of a County service.

Links to other sites from the San Joaquin County Web site are provided at the discretion of the County of San Joaquin and are provided as a convenience for users of this site. Sites that are linked from the County of San Joaquin are reviewed periodically to confirm that the link still furthers County purposes. The County reserves the right to refuse to post any Web site link or to delete links already posted at any time without notice. In the event you discover problems with or have concerns regarding the format, accuracy, timeliness or completeness of a linked external website, please contact the organization responsible for the linked external website. The County does not control nor is it responsible for any linked external websites, pages or content.

Intellectual Property

The content of sjgov.org web pages is copyrighted, and contains some third party images/graphics that are used with permission. Users are notified, therefore, that one should presume the need to obtain permission from the copyright holder before reproducing or otherwise using images/graphics from this website. San Joaquin County does not give permission for images to be downloaded or saved for any reason.