Privacy Policy

Santa Barbara County is dedicated to preserving your privacy and security while viewing our website at www.countyofsb.org and related County websites. We strive to retrieve the minimum amount of information from our visitors necessary in order to provide a host of various services and resources.

Santa Barbara County ("the County") reserves the right to change these policies and the corresponding information on this page at any time without prior notice. Personal information may be required by law or in order for us to provide a requested service.

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 may 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 (for example, 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.
• On certain occasions, the public has opportunities to share personal information online with the County in order to facilitate better correspondence and service. This information includes but is not limited to e-mail addresses, responses to surveys, registering for services and new services to be created. Santa Barbara County will not disclose your personal information or use it for purposes other than those specified, without your permission, except as authorized by law.

Site Security

The County uses hardware devices and software programs for the purpose of monitoring network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Anyone using this Web site expressly consents to such monitoring. 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.

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.

Electronic Commerce

Users choosing to engage in electronic commerce with the County are provided 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 are designed so financial data remains secure and with individuals and institutions involved in the transaction. Wherever possible, financial information is not collected by the County. 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". Santa Barbara 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.
• 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).
• 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 may also permit the use of persistent cookies for the collection of website metrics. These cookies do not collect or store any personal information.

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

Links to Third Party Websites

Our website may contain links to information located on websites maintained by other public agencies and private organizations. Once you access an individual document that links you to another website, you are subject to the privacy policy of the website containing that document.

Do Not Track

Please note that we do not alter our Site’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.

Use By Minors

The Site is not intended for use by individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we request that they not provide Personal Information through the Site.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Santa Barbara County may update the Privacy Policy from time to time. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy frequently for any changes.