The privacy, confidence, and trust of individuals who visit SAWPA's web site are important to us.

COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

No personally identifying information is collected at this site unless provided voluntarily by you while participating in the specific activity that asks for the information.  SAWPA may collect two kinds of information; anonymous information and personally identifiable information.

Anonymous Information

Information that does not identify specific individuals and is automatically transmitted by your browser.  This information can consist of:

• The Uniform Resource Locator (URL or Address) of the web page you previously visited

• The domain names and/or IP addresses which are numbers that are automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are connected to the Internet or World Wide Web

• The browser (and version) you are using to access the site.

This information is used to help improve our web site.  None of this information can be linked to any individual.

Personally Identifiable Information

Information that could be collected include:

• Name

• Address

• Email Address

• Telephone number

• Credit/Debit card information (Note: at the current time, SAWPA does not collect this information, and has no plans to do so in the immediate future. However, SAWPA may need to collect this information in the future)

SAWPA will make every reasonable effort to protect your privacy. We restrict access to your personally identifiable information to those employees that will respond to your request.  SAWPA does not intentionally disclose any personal information about our users to any third parties except as required by law.

SAWPA 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 online services dependent on the collection of that information.

CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RECORDS ACT

Access to personally identifiable information in public records in public agencies such as SAWPA 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 SAWPA's web site.  While the Public Records Act sets the general policies for access to agency records, other sections of California statutes as well as federal laws also deal with confidentially issues.

E-MAIL ADDRESSES

E-mail addresses obtained through the web site will not be sold or given to private companies for marketing purposes. SAWPA, its consultants, and its member agencies may use these addresses to provide SAWPA-related news or information on other events sponsored or supported by the agency.

The information collected is subject to the access and confidentiality provisions of the Public Records Act, other applicable sections of California statutes as well as federal laws.  E-mail or other information requests sent to SAWPA or its web site may be maintained in order to respond to the request, forward that request to the appropriate staff member (within the agency) or to an external agency (if appropriate), communicate updates to the SAWPA web site that may be of interest to the requestor, or provide to the web designer with valuable customer feedback to assist in improving the site.  Individuals can cancel any communications regarding follow-up communications at any time by informing the SAWPA Webmaster (click on the contacts page link above).

COOKIES

Cookies are small text files placed on your computer, often without your knowledge, while visiting certain sites on the Internet. They are used to identify your computer. For example, cookies are used by some sites to greet you personally, to post a list of your favorite books to purchase, to remember what you had in your shopping basket the last time you visited.

On this Web site, cookies are generally not used. However, a temporary cookie may be placed on your computer for applications such as online registration forms that can be sent electronically. The session cookies are used to facilitate the interaction between you and the fields in the form. The cookies are not used to collect or store information on you and do not track you if you return to our Web site. The cookie is temporary and will be deleted when you exit your browser.

You can prevent cookies from being placed on your computer by accessing your browser's preferences menu and deleting existing cookies. There also are commercial programs available to help you manage cookies. Before taking such steps, you should be aware that some Web sites may not work properly if you choose to block the placement of cookies on your computer. You will need to decide whether enabling cookies outweigh privacy concerns.

MINOR'S PRIVACY POLICY

Generally, SAWPA will not collect information regarding age of any person that contacts SAWPA. Also, the site does not contain information that is specific to children. Therefore, any information collected on SAWPA's site from children under the age of 13 are subject to the same guidelines as the general privacy policy. 

If SAWPA develops web-based activities that involve collection of information from minors, the following guidelines will also apply:

• Information that could be collected from or for a minor includes but might not be limited to name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, school, and hobbies.

• Parental (including legal guardian) information

• Parental consent will be obtained before collecting, using or disclosing personal information about a child

• If any information practices change in a "material" way, new consent will be obtained from the parents.  This includes changes in the kind of materials being collected, a change in how the materials are being used, or if there is a change in the third parties that have access to the information

• Parents will be able to review the personal information collected from their children which includes verification of the identity of the requesting parent.

• Parents will be allowed to revoke their consent and delete information collected from or for their children on written request.  When consent is revoked, the website will stop collecting, using or disclosing information for or from that child.  Revocation may end a child's participation in an activity if the information collected is necessary for participation on the website.
   

Copyright: Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, 2002
Last modified 07/23/2004