Purpose

We appreciate your visit to the Galveston County website.  This website is provided as a public service to our constituents to assist them in interacting with their local government.  This policy describes privacy practices regarding information collected from visitors to this website.

Information Collected

Galveston County does not collect Personal Identifiable Information (PII) such as name, address, e-mail address, social security number, driver’s license number or other unique identifiers without your knowledge.  The following information is automatically collected and stored:

• Browser used to access the website
• Status as new or repeat visitor (if browser accepts cookies)
• Page Load time
• Operating system used
• Date and time you visited
• Length of time you visited
• Web pages or services you accessed
• Referring URL, if any
• Search engine and search phrases used to find this site
• Amount of data transferred
• IP address assigned to your ISP or your computer
• Location assigned to your IP address
• Geographic location (City and Country)
• Name of the ISP assigned to your IP address

How and Why We Use Information Collected

Galveston County uses Google Analytics* and Pingdom tools to gather analytics data from website your visit to ensure your experience is optimized for high usability.  Forms may exist throughout the site, requesting information, or by clicking a link to send an email; however, the County will only use this information to respond to your request.  Galveston County does not sell or distribute the information collected for commercial or marketing purposes.

We use this information to understand how different visitors use the web site. When we examine this data, it is always presented in an aggregate form except as outlined in the Security section at the bottom of this document, we do not track individual’s usage behavior.

Information collected by Galveston County is subject to disclosure under state and federal law, as well as to comply with legal obligations, such as a law, subpoena, court order or other legal process.

*Google Analytics

For more details on what information is gathered by Google Analytics, please visit Google’s Privacy Policy.

Links to Other Sites

There may be documents or links posted on this site to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations.  These links are provided for your convenience only.  A link does not indicate an endorsement of the content, accuracy, viewpoint, opinions, policies, products, or accessibility of that particular site.

Note: This policy only applies to this site.  When you a follow a link to another site, even the site of state agencies, government entities, and Galveston County officials, this policy will not apply.  You should check the privacy policy of each of those sites if you have concerns about how they handle personally identifiable information.

Language Translation Disclaimer

The information on Galveston County’s website is originally published in English.  Sections of the site use translation software that allows for real-time translation of information into other languages.  Although we use high-quality, translation tools, translations from English may not always be accurate.  Galveston County does not warrant such translations and disclaims any responsibility for inaccurate translations.  Readers relying on precise information should check with the original English versions.

Social Media

Galveston County uses social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to keep people informed about news and updates. Any comments or posts made on these social media pages are generally viewable by the public and additionally may be made public under the Texas Public Information Act.  Users of social media services must follow the rules and agreements of the platform they are using.  For more information about the Texas Public Information Act please see http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/requestors.shtml.

Security

For website security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, Galveston County web servers employ industry-standard methods to monitor network traffic. This helps us to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on Galveston County servers are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, per the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act. In the specific context of this security monitoring, there is no expectation of privacy. However, only in the case of actual law enforcement investigations, will we attempt to identify individual users or their usage habits.

Cookies and Galveston County

Galveston County uses only first-party cookies to gather analytical data. First-party cookies are directly stored by the web site. These cookies allow us to collect analytics data, remember language settings and perform other useful functions that provide a good user experience.

County Seal

It is a violation of the law to use the Galveston County seal in an unauthorized manner. It is strictly prohibited for anyone to use the Galveston County seal or any other official logo on the Galveston County web site to imply an official endorsement, recommendation, partnership or other relationship with Galveston County without the express written consent of Galveston County.

Change to this Policy

We may update this policy from time to time and without prior notice to you to reflect changes in our practices with respect to the site.

Contact information

Galveston County provides contact information on most department home pages throughout the website.  Please see the department that relates directly to your question as needed.  For questions regarding this privacy policy, please contact the Office of Information Technology (OIT) Service Desk at tickets@galvestoncountytx.gov.