Privacy Policy Notice
Harris County maintains this web site as a public service to provide available service
and information to our constituents. The purpose of this policy is to explain how
Harris County handles information collected from you during your visit to the County
web site. It is important to keep in mind that Harris County does not collect personally
identifiable Information (name, address, e-mail address, social security number,
or other unique identifiers) on our web site unless we specifically advise you that
we are doing so.
Please Note: All information collected or maintained by Harris
County is subject to the Texas Public Information act (chapter 552, Texas Government
code)
How we handle the information we gather when you visit our web site:
We collect and store only the following information about you: The name of the domain
from which you access the Internet (i.e., erols.com, if you are connecting from
an Erols account, or harvard.edu if you are connecting from Harvard University's
domain); the date and time you access our site; the item you requested from the
server; and the Internet address of the web site from which you linked directly
to our site. If your browser accepts cookies we may use a cookie to determine if
you are a repeat or new visitor, or to understand how many different visitors come
to our sites. 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 or look at individuals' usage behavior.
If you identify yourself by sending an E-mail:
When you send us personally identifying information, (e.g., in an electronic mail
message containing a question or comment), or by filling out a form that E-mails
us this information, Harris County will use this information to respond to your
request. We may also forward the information you submit (including your E-mail address)
to other Government employees, who are better able to answer your questions.
We want to make it clear that we will not obtain personally identifying information
about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide such information
to us. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, or as otherwise required
by law, we do not share any information we receive with any outside parties.
Links to other sites:
The documents posted on this Website may contain hypertext links or pointers to
information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These
links and pointers are provided for visitors' convenience. Harris County does not
control or guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any linked information
from non-Harris County sites.
Cautionary Note: The Harris county privacy policy only applies
to this web site. When you follow a link to another site, even the sites of state
agencies, local governments, and local Harris County officials, this policy
will not apply. You should check the privacy policy of each of these
sites if you have concerns about how they handle personally identifiable information.
The inclusion of links or pointers to Web sites is not intended to assign importance
to those sites or the information contained therein, nor is it intended to endorse
or recommend any views expressed, or products or services offered on these sites.
Personalization:
Some Harris County sites allow you to personalize them, either by selecting sets
of content to place on a web page or by clicking on an icon indicating a desire
for a certain kind of content. In some cases, you are asked to "register"
in order to get this personalized content. If you provide personally identifying
information when registering for personalized content, that information is used
to deliver the content to you. The information is not shared with third parties.
Security:
For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available
to all users, Harris County web servers employ industry-standard methods to monitor
network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information,
or otherwise cause damage. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change
information on Harris County servers are strictly prohibited and may be punishable
by law, including 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 Harris County
What is a Cookie?
A cookie is a small piece of information that is sent to your browser-- along with
a Web page-- when you access a Web site. There are two kinds of cookies. A session
cookie is a line of text that is stored temporarily in your computer's RAM. Because
a session cookie is never written to a drive, it is destroyed as soon as you close
your browser. A persistent cookie is a more permanent line of text that gets saved
by your browser to a file on your hard drive. Depending on your browser settings,
you may receive notification that a given site is requesting cookie information,
possibly with an expiration date. Persistent cookies have an expiration date in
the future. Session cookies have no date associated with them.
Harris County’s Use of Cookies:
The site will create a session cookie whenever you access Harris County. The session
cookie is destroyed as soon as you close your browser. Harris County does not create
persistent cookies.
County Seal:
It is a violation of the law to use the Harris County Seal in an unauthorized manner.
It is strictly prohibited for anyone to use the Harris County Seal or any other
official logo on the Harris County web site to imply an official endorsement, recommendation,
partnership or other relationship with Harris County without the express written
consent of Harris County.