The City of Lakewood is committed to protecting online users’ privacy. We believe that protection of personal privacy on the Internet is our responsibility, to assure citizen confidence, increase participation in online activities, and support effective delivery of municipal services. At www.lakewoodcity.org, we intend to give you as much control as possible over your personal information. The purpose of our policy is to inform you about the types of information we gather when you visit our site, how we may use that information, whether we disclose it to anyone, and the choices you have regarding our use of, and your ability to correct, the information. The following is the privacy policy for Lakewood Online (all pages starting with www.lakewoodcity.org):
§ If you send us an electronic mail message with a question or comment that contains personally identifying information, or fill out a form that e-mails us this inform, we will only use the personally identifiable information to respond to your request, or contact you in the future about municipal matters or analyze Web site trends. We also may redirect your message to another government agency or person who is in a better position to answer your question or request.
§ We collect some information that is used for statistical, analysis and communication purposes that help us manage Lakewood Online and to prospectively communicate to you about Lakewood municipal programs and activities.
§ Information that we collect for statistical purposes: The date, type of browser used, and technical Internet communication protocol data. We collect this information about each user session from our user logs and refer to it in summary form for statistical purposes.
§ Information that you provide us when using our interactive forms and functions: Name, address, telephone number, and other personal and/or business data, depending on the particular service you use. We collect only that data necessary to provide the service that you are requesting or for future communication purposes.
§ Control of personal information: At any time, when accessing our site(s), you, while online, may decline participation in any activity that asks for information (i.e., survey, e-mail or e-commerce). Your choice not to participate will in no way affect your ability to use any other feature on our site(s). In online applications that ask for personal information, you also are provided the option of canceling or “clearing all fields” of information and terminating the application. You also are provided an automatic way to “unsubscribe” to any newsletters, notices, schedules sent to you automatically be e-mail in our various contact services.
§ Use of “cookies”: We do not use “persistent” cookies to collect permanent information. We may use “persistent” cookies (which would be resident on your computer) to increase ease of use. Such a cookie might contain your ID number (if any), thereby relieving you of having to always enter the number. Under this circumstance, we will only use a “persistent” cookie when you give your permission. We may also use “non-persistent” cookies in applications (such as an online job application) that keep track of a user’s online session and make it possible for you to complete a form or use a function, but this cookie disappears when you finish filling out an application, or searching a database.
As a governmental agency, we are governed by the California Public Records Act. Any information that we received through use of our site is subject to the same provisions as information provided on paper. Otherwise, we do not share personal identifying information with any third party without your permission. We disclose only in aggregate form our statistical analyses or demographics of users to third parties. This information is not reported or used in any manner that would reveal personally identifiable information, and will not be released to any outside parties unless we are legally required to do so in connection with law enforcement investigations or other legal proceedings.
