Terms of Use

Thank you for visiting the County of Sonoma's public web site. This site has been designed to assist visitors in locating and using local government resources and services. The County of Sonoma is committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to this web site. As a result, you should be aware of the following information regarding data collection on this web site.

Visitors to the County of Sonoma web site are not required to enter personally identifiable information to access data and services. As a convenience, many departments and agencies offer assistance through the web site as an alternative to calling, writing or visiting their offices. To receive assistance through the web site a visitor may be asked to voluntarily supply personal information such as:

• Name
• Email Address
• Mailing Address
• Phone Number

This information is used by County of Sonoma personnel for internal purposes and is never sold to outside agencies. We do not collect or use this information for commercial marketing.

We automatically collect usage statistics including your domain name or Internet Protocol address, and statistical information about which web pages you visit.

If you voluntarily participate in an activity that asks for specific information (i.e., completing a request for assistance, personalizing the content of the web site, sending an e-mail, or participating in a survey) more detailed data will be collected. If you choose not to participate in these activities, your choice will in no way affect your ability to use any other feature of the web site.

If any type of personal information is requested on the web site or volunteered by the user may be protected by State or federal privacy laws. However, this information may be a public record once you provide it, and may be subject to public inspection and copying if not otherwise protected by federal or State law.

Like most web sites, we collect anonymous statistical information about the visitors who use the information and services we provide. The data we gather is used to analyze the performance of our hardware and software systems, determine the needs and interests of web site visitors and improve the overall effectiveness of our web site. This includes information such as:

• Web domain (www.google.com, www.bing.net, etc.)
• Internet connection´s IP address (192.168.0.270, etc.)
• Web browser brand and version (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari etc.)
• Operating system and version (Windows Version, Apple, Linux, etc.)
• Errors in the pages viewed (Hyperlink errors, missing pages, etc.)
• Time required to open and view files

Please note that electronic mail is sent to the County of Sonoma email system and may be subject to archiving and review by someone other than the intended recipient.

In the County of Sonoma, laws exist to ensure that government is open and that the public has a right to access appropriate records and information possessed by local government. At the same time, there are exceptions to the public’s right to access public records. These exceptions serve various needs including maintaining the privacy of individuals. Both State and federal laws provide exceptions.

All information collected at this site becomes public record that may be subject to inspection and copying by the public, unless an exemption in law exists. In the event of a conflict between this Terms of Use and the Public Records Act, the Information Practices Act, or other law governing the disclosure of records, the Public Records Act, the Information Practices Act, or other applicable law will control.

A cookie is a small text file containing a random and unique alphanumeric identifier that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your web browser (unless you set your browser to reject cookies) that enables our systems to recognize your browser.

We do not store any personally identifiable information in cookies.

In some cases our websites use browser cookies to maintain session and preference information, or provide other complex functionality. In some sites, cookies are used to capture IP addresses for statistical analysis. You may adjust your Internet browser to disable the use of cookies and other web technologies; however, some features of this website may be disabled (such as preferences selected during a previous visit) if you block these technologies.

Our web site has links to sites we feel might be useful to you and which may provide services. When you follow a link to another site, you are no longer on our site and are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.

The County of Sonoma accepts no responsibility for the content or accessibility of the external websites or external documents linked to on this website.

This web site and the information it contains are provided as a public service by the County of Sonoma. This system is monitored to ensure proper operation, to verify the functioning of applicable security features, and for comparable purposes. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring. Unauthorized attempts to modify any information stored on this system, to defeat or circumvent security features, or to utilize this system for other than its intended purposes are prohibited and may result in criminal prosecution.

We may collect or receive Personal Information directly from you, or from other sources via Social Networking Sites. If you log on to the Service with your login credentials from a social networking site (e.g., Facebook, Google, Instagram, etc.), we may receive Personal Information about you from such Social Networking Site (which may include your name, email address, profile picture URL, and encrypted access credentials), in accordance with the terms and conditions (e.g., terms of use and privacy policy) of the Social Networking Site. We may encrypt and store this information so that it can be used for the purposes explained in this statement, and verified communication between our site and the Social Networking Site. 

For example, if you log on using Facebook Connect, with your permission Facebook will provide us your basic information (which may include your name, email address, profile picture URL, and encrypted access credentials), in accordance with Facebook’s terms and conditions.

Any information retrieved from a Social Networking Site will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you log on to our service using a Social Networking Site, the associated Social Networking Site will know that you have logged onto our site, and will display the County of Sonoma App as one of your applications with authorized access. We work with the Social Networking Site’s application protocol interface (developer API) in a way that allows you to authorize us access to your account on that Social Networking Site on your behalf. In order to provide this authorization, you do not provide us your user name or password to the Social Networking Site, instead it is given directly to the Social Networking Site API via our site. Once authorized by you, the Social Networking Site provides an encrypted token, which we verify via the Social Networking Site API. This allows the Social Networking Site to recognize us when we ask, on your behalf, for access to your basic account information needed for our services. 

We do not act on your behalf to perform any actions via the Social Networking Site with the authorized access provided (e.g., create posts, etc), nor do we share any of your account information that our services have access to.

You may revoke our access to any Social Networking Site at any time by removing the app in the appropriate settings from within your account settings on the applicable Social Networking Site.

The County makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of web content, however, the County makes no guarantees or assurances that the information displayed is absolutely accurate or error-free, and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this web site.

No warranty of any kind, implied, express, or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from computer virus, is given with respect to the contents of this web site or its hyperlinks to other Internet resources.

References or links in this web site to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name are for the information and convenience of the public, and do not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the County of Sonoma. This Use Policy is subject to change without notice.

In general, information presented on this web site, unless otherwise indicated, is considered in the public domain. It may be distributed or copied as permitted by law. However, the County does make use of copyrighted data (e.g., photographs) which may require additional permissions prior to your use. In order to use any information on this web site not owned or created by the County, you must seek permission directly from the owning (or holding) sources.

The County shall have the unlimited right to use for any purpose, free of any charge, all information submitted via this site except those submissions made under separate legal contract. The County shall be free to use, for any purpose, any ideas, concepts, or techniques contained in information provided through this site.

Should you have questions about our Terms of Use or other practices relating to our web site please contact the Webmaster:

Webmaster
Information Systems Department, County of Sonoma
370 Administration Drive
Santa Rosa, CA 95403