Privacy Policy

The Orange County Water District ("OCWD") and Orange County Sanitation District ("OCSD") are committed to protecting your on-line privacy and the confidentiality of personal information you may provide while interacting with the Groundwater Replenishment System ("GWR System" or "System") on the Internet. This policy seeks to clarify our privacy policy.

Collection of Personal Information
The GWR System staff does not automatically collect personally identifiable information about visitors who do no more than browse the System Web site or download information from it. We do not release information about the collection of IP addresses to any third party, except under court order. While we maintain logs of user activity in order to help us manage the Web site, the information stored in these logs does not identify users personally. The logs store such things as the domain name and IP addresses used to access our Web site; the type of browsers and operating systems used by site visitors; the date and time of site visits; and the pages accessed. The GWR System staff may use this information to help improve the Web site and its features.

Personal Information You Send
The OCWD and OCSD value both your use of this site and feedback you provide. If you participate in a survey or send us an e-mail, your e-mail address and the other information you volunteer will be collected. In addition, visitors who request information through this site may be required to furnish additional information to enable us to provide the information requested. The additional information collected will be no more specific than if the visitor were requesting the service by any other means, including by telephone or an in-person visit to an OCWD or OCSD facility. We may share this information with other public agencies or organizations if such action is required to provide the assistance you are requesting.

Security of Your Personal Information
With the importance of protecting user personal information in mind, we do not rent, sell or give away any information identifying you individually to third parties for marketing or mailing list purposes without your permission.

Public Records
As governmental agencies, we are governed by the California Public Records Act. (California Government Code section 6250 et seq.) As such, most business you conduct with the OCWD becomes a public record and is open for public inspection. Public records may be posted on the Web site for electronic access. Records posted on the Web site are also available for public inspection by requests made in person, by mail or by telephone at the appropriate OCWD office.

Cookies
The OCWD and OCSD make reasonable efforts to avoid the use of "cookies," the data files stored on your computer by your Web browser which provide information about you. Cookies may be used on our site when needed to maintain the functionality of an interactive application and are used only during the session in which you access the interactive application. Cookies created on your computer by using this Web site do not contain personal information and do not identify you individually. The cookie feature is used to store a temporary identifying tag on your computer. Depending on the settings of your browser or other methods, you can refuse or delete cookie files from your computer. Turning off the cookie option may limit your access to interactive applications of the System's Web site. Neither OCSD nor OCWD is responsible for any damages arising from the transmission of information as a result of cookies created by the GWR System website.

Sending E-Mail
If you send the GWR System an e-mail that includes personal information, we normally will use the information only to respond to your message. However, we may forward your e-mail to another agency if we believe that agency is better prepared to answer your question. We do not use information received in e-mails to create personal profiles, and we do not give or sell e-mail information to others for commercial purposes. If you send us a threat or a message that describes or promotes unlawful activity, we will forward the e-mail to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically
We may analyze user traffic patterns on our Web site from information automatically provided by your browser when you visit our site. This information includes the IP address of your computer or network, the date, time, and page(s) you visited on our site, your browser and operating system, and the referring page (the last Web Page you visited before accessing our Web site). We may also use the aggregated information from all of our visitors to measure server performance and improve the content of our Web site.

Links to Other Sites
The GWR System may provide links to Web pages that are not part of the System Web site. The privacy policies and procedures described here do not necessarily apply to those sites. We suggest that site visitors contact these sites directly for information on their data collection and privacy policies.

Site Security
We monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or to otherwise cause damage to the Web site. Anyone using the GWR System Web site expressly consents to such monitoring.

Minors Privacy Policy
On a voluntary basis, we may use this Web site to collect information from minors which is related to youth education programs and other activities. Any information collected by the System Web site from children aged 13 and under is subject to the same guidelines of the OCWD and OCSD's general privacy policy as well as the following guidelines:

The OCWD and OCSD will obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information about any child.

If the OCWD or OCSD substantially changes its practices regarding the collection, use, or disclosure of information collected from children, parents will be informed of the changes and new parental consent will be obtained. Examples of substantive changes include what material is collected, how the information may be used, and third party access to that information.

Upon verification of a parent's identity by the OCWD or OCSD, the parent will be able to review the personal information collected from their child upon request.

Parents may revoke their consent, and the OCWD and OCSD will delete information collected from or for their children upon request. When consent is revoked, the Web site will stop collecting, using, or disclosing information from or for that child. Revocation may end a child's participation in an activity if the information collected was necessary for participation in a particular activity on the Web site.