The
California Department of Consumer Affairs
is committed to the free flow of information
that can help consumers make good marketplace
decisions. The Department is also committed
to promoting and protecting the privacy rights
of individuals, as enumerated in Article 1
of the California Constitution, the Information
Practices Act of 1977, and other state and
federal statutes.
It is the policy
of the Department of Consumer Affairs and
its constituent agencies to limit the collection
and safeguard the privacy of personal information
collected or maintained by the Department
or by any of its constituent agencies. The
Department's information management practices
are consistent with the Information Practices
Act (Civil Code Section 1798 et seq.), the
Public Records Act (Government Code Section
6250 et seq.), Government Code Sections 11015.5
and 11019.9, and with other applicable laws
pertaining to information privacy.
The Department
follows these principles in collecting and
managing personal information:
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We
collect personal information on individuals
only as allowed by law. We limit the collection
of personal information to what is relevant
and necessary to accomplish a lawful purpose
of the Department. For example, we need to
know someone's address, telephone number and
social security number, among other things,
to properly identify the person before issuing
a professional license. Personal information,
as defined in the Information Practices Act,
is information that identifies or describes
an individual including, name, social security
number, physical description, home address,
home telephone number, education, financial
matters, and medical or employment history.
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We do not collect home, business or e-mail
addresses, or account information from persons
who simply browse our Internet Web sites. The
information that we automatically collect includes
your domain name or Internet Protocol address,
the type of browser and operating system you
used, date and time you visited the site, Web
pages you visited, and any forms you downloaded.
Cookies are simple text files stored on your
computer by your Web browser. We do not use
cookies to collect or store personal information.
We collect personal information about you through
our Web site only if you provide it to us voluntarily
through e-mail, registration forms, or surveys.
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We
tell people who provide personal information
to the Department the purpose for which the
information is collected. We tell persons
who are asked to provide personal information
about the general uses that we will make of
that information. We do this at the time of
collection. With each request for personal
information, we provide information on the
authority under which the request is made,
the principal uses we make of the information
and the possible disclosures we are obligated
to make to other government agencies and to
the public.
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We
use personal information only for the specified
purposes, or purposes consistent with those
purposes, unless we get the consent of the
subject of the information, or unless required
by law or regulation. The Public Records
Act exists to ensure that government is open
and that the public has a right to have access
to appropriate records and information possessed
by state government. At the same time, there
are exceptions in both state and federal law
to the public's right to access public records.
These exceptions serve various needs including
maintaining the privacy of individuals. In
the event of a conflict between this Policy
and the Public Records Act, the Information
Practices Act or other law governing the disclosure
of records, the applicable law will control.
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We
use information security safeguards. We
take reasonable precautions to protect the
personal information on individuals collected
or maintained by the Department against loss,
unauthorized access, and illegal use or disclosure.
On our Web sites, we protect the security
your personal information during transmission
by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software,
which encrypts the information you type in.
Personal information is stored in secure
locations. Our staff is trained on procedures
for the release of information, and access
to personal information is limited to those
staff whose work requires it. Confidential
information is destroyed according to the
Department’s records retention schedule.
The Department conducts periodic audits to
ensure that proper information management
policies and procedures are being followed.
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We
will provide additional explanations
of our
privacy policy if requested. If you have
further questions about the Department's
privacy
policy, you may write or call the California
Office of Privacy Protection,
1625 North Market, Suite N324,
Sacramento, CA, 95834,
866-785-9663, email privacy@dca.ca.gov
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