Wasatch County Government – Website Privacy Notice

Wasatch County (County) understands the importance and sensitivity of your personal information, and we have security in place to protect it. Access to your information is limited to those who need it to perform assigned tasks. We restrict access to work areas and use security measures and password-protected computer systems to keep your personal information secure. We follow federal and state laws governing your personal information use. We use your information in written, oral, and electronic formats (and allow others to use it) only as federal and state laws permit. These laws give you certain rights regarding your personal information.

Purpose of Privacy Notice

The County is committed to protecting the personal information of those accessing its website and those accessing County government services in person. This Notice is to inform those accessing the County website at https://wasatchcounty.gov and other website subdomains of the County and those accessing government services in person regarding collecting and using personally identifiable information.

Definition of Personally Identifiable Information

For purposes of this Notice, "personally identifiable information" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual who is the subject of the information. This information could include information that identifies a user by name, account number, physical or mailing address, email address, telephone number, Social Security number, credit or debit card information, or bank account information. This information may include any combination of the above or other personal information that could be used to determine identity.

Personally Identifiable Information Not Routinely Collected

Visitors to the County website do not have to routinely provide personal information to visit the website or to download information. The County may request personally identifiable information from you to provide requested specialized services, but such information is handled as it would be if obtained during an in-person visit to a government office.

We do not collect personal information from visitors to our site unless that visitor explicitly and intentionally provides it. Under no circumstances do we collect any personal data revealing political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health status, or sexual orientation. If you are simply browsing our site, we do not gather any personal information about you.

Information We Gather from You

The County only collects personally identifiable information that is required to provide services. You can decline to provide us with any personal information on the website or in person at any time. However, if you choose to withhold requested information, we may not be able to provide you with the online or government-provided services dependent upon collecting that information.

There are several ways in which you affirmatively provide us with, and consent to our collection of certain personal information:

User Submissions - Some of our online County services allow users to submit suggestions, comments, or requests to us. This submission could be by emailing us, filling out an online form to provide comments and suggestions, or reporting a problem. This data may include personally identifiable information such as name and email address. We will use the information you send us to respond. We may also direct your message to another government agency that can help address your request.

User Accounts - Some digital County services involve the creation of user accounts. Creating an account may involve the submission of personally identifiable information. This information could include a username, password, email address, mailing address, telephone number, full name, employment, and other information. We do not use this information to send commercial and marketing messages. We will only use this information to provide you with government services.

The County will make every reasonable effort to protect your privacy. The County restricts access to your personally identifiable information to employees responding to your request or inquiry. The County does not intentionally disclose any personal information about our users to any third parties inside or outside the County except as required by law or to provide a service for which the County has contracted with a third party.

Information We Automatically Collect and Receive

Like most other websites, the County's website collects certain information automatically and stores it in log files. The information may include internet domain and internet protocol (IP) addresses of the device or network you are using to access our site, the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the Internet, browser type, and operating system used to visit our site, the date and time of when you access our site, other usage information about the use of the County's website, and information on the history of the pages you view. This information does not identify you personally. We do not collect this information to provide targeted advertising. The data collected serve as part of our statistical analysis about the use of our website so we may better design online services and improve access to them. We analyze traffic to our services in various ways, including using third-party services.

Use of Cookies

We use "persistent cookies". We use "temporary cookies" on some parts of wasatchcounty.gov, and such temporary cookies expire at the end of the browsing session. The use of cookies is a standard practice among Internet websites. Most modern Internet web browsers may be customized to reject cookies, to only accept or reject cookies by user intervention, or to delete cookies. Rejecting and/or removing cookies, however, may lead to a loss of functionality on selected pages that require cookies to function fully.

Access to Personally Identifiable Information From Governmental Websites and the Governmental Records Access and Management Act

Wasatch County is a public governmental body subject to Chapter 2, Title 63 of the Utah Code, the law entitled the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA). Information about GRAMA can be found on the Utah State Legislature website at https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title63G/Chapter2/63G-2.html. If an appropriate request is made to the County for information that is subject to disclosure under Chapter 2 and not made confidential elsewhere in the Utah Code, the County may be required to disclose the information requested, even if it may include your personally identifiable information. While Chapter 2 sets the general policies for access to government records in the State of Utah, other sections of the Utah Code as well as other federal laws, also deal with confidentiality issues.

All records that are prepared, owned, received, or retained by a governmental entity that may be reproduced by certain means are considered public unless they are classified private, controlled, or protected, as outlined in GRAMA, or are records to which access is restricted according to court rule, other State law, federal law, or federal regulation. Information that is generally considered public record under GRAMA and not made confidential elsewhere in the Utah Code or by federal law may be subject to electronic access through the County's website. Personally identifiable information is not a classification of records under GRAMA.

Use of Email Addresses

Email addresses obtained as a result of a request made on the County website will not be sold or provided to private companies by the County for marketing purposes. The information collected is subject to the access and provisions of GRAMA, other applicable sections of the Utah Code, or federal law. Email or other information requests sent to the County website may be retained to respond to the request, forward that request to the appropriate department, communicate updates to the County webpage that may be of interest to citizens, or provide the County web team with valuable customer feedback to assist in improving the site. Individuals will be allowed to "opt-out" at any time of any communications regarding new service updates.

Third-party Services

Wasatch County contracts with third parties for certain services. These services include but are not limited to web traffic monitoring, website optimization, form submissions, workflow tools, and financial transactions.

The County's website uses YouTube API Services to help retrieve and display YouTube videos and video information. The data is publicly available information, including the following for videos and playlists: titles, descriptions, IDs, channel IDs, and thumbnails.

Usage of YouTube videos and YouTube video information is subject to the YouTube terms of service (www.youtube.com). The County does not access, use, or collect any personal information in its use of YouTube API Services, but Google may do so. Please see Google Privacy and Terms (https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US) for more information on how Google might use your personal data when interacting with its services.

What Happens After You Provide Personal Information

We intend to collect information to provide users with smooth and efficient County service experiences. We generally respond to any email questions, requests for services, and other inquiries that we receive. We may retain this correspondence to improve our services, website, and other disclosed purposes. We may retain contact information to send individual updates or other important information.

Data Security

The County is committed to data security and the data integrity of personally identifiable information that is either available from or collected by governmental websites as well as other means and takes reasonable precautions to protect personally identifiable information from loss, misuse, or alteration. We maintain physical, technical, and administrative safeguards. We update and test our security technology on an ongoing basis. We restrict access to your personal data to those employees who need to know that information to provide benefits or services to you. When a County application accepts credit cards or any other particularly sensitive information for any of its services, it encrypts all ordering information, such as your name and credit card number, to protect its confidentiality. However, as with any transmission over the Internet, there is always some element of risk involved in sending personal information.

Unless otherwise prohibited by state or federal law, rule, or regulation, an individual can access and correct personally identifiable information whether the information inaccuracy was accidental or created by unauthorized access. Visitors should be aware, however, that even though protections are in place, the County cannot guarantee against the occurrence of hardware failure, unauthorized intrusion, or other technical problems.

Non-County Websites

Various non-county websites may be accessed via links on the County's website. Many of these sites, including private sector sites, are not subject to GRAMA and may also not be subject to other sections of the Utah Code or federal law. Visitors to those sites are advised to check the privacy notices of these sites and be cautious about providing personally identifiable information without a clear understanding of how the information will be used. Visitors may want to consult guidelines on protecting their personal information, such as those recommended by the Privacy Alliance, at http://www.privacyalliance.org/protection/.

The County is not responsible for the privacy practices, privacy notices, or content regarding these other sites.

Information Storage

Records obtained from the County's website and other sources are retained, following the County's records retention schedule. Retention timelines can vary depending on what kind of information you provide.

Sharing Information

We may share information or statistics with third parties or the public in an anonymous form that does not directly identify you. This sharing would typically be done to assess an online County service. No personally identifiable information would be released. Additionally, if a user is having issues with an online County service, we may share information with outside parties to the extent necessary to troubleshoot the issues or enhance the system's performance.

If We Are Required by Law to Disclose Information

Under certain circumstances, the law may require us to disclose certain information to law enforcement authorities. The County may provide to the appropriate authorities suspicious emails, electronic threats, unauthorized access, or any information on illegal activity.

Children's Information

Our online County services are intended for use by adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. However, we also do not try to determine whether a visitor is underage. Users should be aware that personally identifiable information submitted to wasatchcounty.gov by minors will be treated as information given by an adult and may become subject to Public Records Requests as controlled primarily by GRAMA. If you are a parent or legal guardian of a child under the age of 13 who you believe has submitted personal information using our Services, please contact the Wasatch County Information Systems department immediately.

Changes to this Privacy Notice and Security Policy

The County may change this Privacy Notice from time to time and reserves the right to do so without notice.

How to Contact Us

Questions regarding this Privacy Notice should be directed to the Wasatch County Information Systems Department. They can be reached at (435) 657-3500 or via email at tech@wasatch.utah.gov. Please specify in the subject line of your email "Privacy Notice".

Effective Date of this Notice: October 1, 2024