Lake County Indiana Government Websites - Privacy Statement

The Lake County Indiana Government is committed to the privacy of web visitors. The Lake County Indiana Government will also attempt to provide a safe and secure environment. This Privacy Statement describes the online data collection and usage policies and practices that apply to the Lake County Indiana Government websites (collectively the "LC Websites" which include but are not limited tolakecounty.in.gov and reserve.lakecountyin.org and permits.lakecounty.in.gov and clerk.lakecounty.in.gov and auditor.lakecounty.in.gov). By accessing or registering as a user of the LC Websites, you confirm that you have read and understand this Lake County Indiana Government Website Privacy Statement, and that you consent to the policies and practices described in this Statement.

The LC Websites may contain links to other websites over which the Lake County Indiana Government has no control. The Lake County Indiana Government is not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of other websites that you may link to from the LC Websites. You should review the privacy policies of any other website you may link to, so that you understand how they collect, use and share your information. This Privacy Statement applies solely to the information gathered by the LC Websites.

Your data will be stored and processed in the United States. If you access the LC Websites from any other country, your usage of this site constitutes consent to the transfer of your data out of your country and to the United States.

Collection and Retention of Information

The LC Websites may request that you provide personal information, including your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, driver's license number, social security number, contact information, billing information including credit card number and other information. In other areas, the LC Websites may collect demographic information that is not unique to you such as your ZIP code, age, preferences, and gender. We may also gather certain information about your use of our site, such as what areas you visit and what services you access. Moreover, there is information about your computer hardware and software that is or may be collected by the LC Websites. This information may include your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses.

Please remember that if you post any of your personal information in public areas, such as in boards, online forums or chat rooms, such information may be collected and used by others over whom the Lake County Indiana Government has no control. The Lake County Indiana Government is not responsible for the use made by third parties of information you post or otherwise make available in public areas.

We may retain the information we gather about you in an effort to make your repeat visit with us more efficient, practical, and relevant. Of course, you can correct or update your account profile at any time. Moreover, you can delete your personal information from our database or close your account at any time, in which event we will remove all our copies of your account profile information except for an archival copy which is not accessible on the Internet.

How We Use the Information We Gather

The Lake County Indiana Government may use your contact information in order to send you e-mail or other communications regarding the business you conduct on LC Websites. You may have the option to elect to receive additional information such as free informational newsletters from the Lake County Indiana Government relating to topics that may be of special interest to you, such as public meeting schedules or other events.

The LC Websites has an area where you can submit feedback. Any feedback you submit in this area becomes our property, and we will use such feedback (such as positive or negative feedback) to enhance our services to you. We may also contact you for further information.

Disclosure of Information

The Lake County Indiana Government will not disclose to third parties your personal and/or demographic information except as set forth in the following two subparagraphs.

The Lake County Indiana Government may disclose such information to companies and individuals we employ to perform functions on our behalf. Examples may include hosting our Web servers, analyzing data, processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. These companies and individuals will have access to your personal information as necessary to perform their functions, but they may not share that information with any other third party.
The Lake County Indiana Government may disclose such information if legally required to do so, if requested to do so by a governmental entity or if we believe in good faith that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of The Lake County Indiana Government; (c) prevent a crime or protect national security; or (d) protect the personal safety of users or the public.
Updating Your Information

You may review, correct, update or change your account profile information at any time. Simply log into your account, go to your Account Profile, review your account information and, if you wish, edit it with the options provided.

Use of Cookies

The LC Websites will use "cookies" to personalize and maximize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard drive by a web server. Cookies are not used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to your computer, and can only be read by a Web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize lakecountyin.org pages, or register for services, a cookie helps us to recall your specific information (such as user name, password and preferences). Because of our use of cookies, we can deliver faster and more accurate results and a more personalized site experience. When you return to the LC Websites, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the features that you customized. We also use cookies to track click streams and for load balancing.

You may have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline all cookies if you prefer. Alternatively, you may be able to modify your browser setting to notify you each time a cookie is tendered and permit you to accept or decline cookies on an individual basis. If you choose to decline cookies, however, that may hinder performance and negatively impact your experience on the LC Websites.

Security

The Lake County Indiana Government has implemented reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration or disclosure. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat those measures or use your personal information for improper purposes.

Changes to Privacy Statement

If we decide to change our Privacy Statement, we will post those changes here so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information, and to whom we will disclose it. If at any time, you have questions or concerns about the lakecounty.in.gov Privacy Statement, please feel free to email us at webmaster@lakecountyin.org.

Contact Information


We welcome your comments concerning this Privacy Statement. If you believe that we have not adhered to this Statement, please contact us by e-mailing us at webmaster@lakecountyin.org. We will use reasonable efforts to determine and remedy the problem.