Department of Mental Health

1.0 INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE

The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (“DMH”, “we”, “us”, “our”, or “ourselves”) recognizes the public’s concern about privacy on the Internet. This Privacy & Security Policy (Policy) establishes how information gathered about you from your visit to this website (together with all services, Content and compilation of all Content from time to time available thereon, “Website”) will be used. Capitalized terms used in this Policy without definition are used in this Policy as such terms are defined in the Terms of Use.

The following describes how information may be collected depending on your activities at this Website:

2.0 PUBLIC RECORDS LAWS AND OTHER LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

As an initial matter, please be advised that we are subject to the public records laws of the State of California (“California Public Records Act”) and that much of the information you submit to us is public information under these laws. Consequently, under certain circumstances, we may be required to disclose such information in accordance with the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements.

3.0 NO UNNECESSARY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION COLLECTED

We will collect no personally identifiable information (e.g., your name, address, e-mail address, credit/debit card number or other information which can be associated with you without additional information) about you when you visit this Website, unless you use our Website to make online payments or as described below.

4.0 INFORMATION COLLECTED AND STORED AUTOMATICALLY

We may collect and store information automatically for statistical purposes. For example, we may count the number of visitors to the different sections of our Website to help us make them more useful. We may also use this information to monitor your compliance with the Terms of Use. The information collected may include such items as the name and domain of the host from which you access the Internet, the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using or your browser software and operating system, and the time and date of your visit. This information does not identify you personally.

5.0 PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION COLLECTED

All information you submit to us through this Website (by e-mail, surveys, or otherwise, as described below), including personally identifiable information, may be subject to the disclosure and access provisions of the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements.

By sending us an e-mail message (e.g., by selecting the ‘Contact Us’ option), you are sending us personally identifiable information (e.g., your name, address, e-mail address, or other information which can be associated with you, etc.). We store this information in order to respond to your request or otherwise address the subject matter of your e-mail.

Also, we may ask you for specific personally identifiable information, such as your name, address and e-mail address, and other pertinent information, through surveys, feedback forms, questionnaires or other means, all with the goal of providing better service. We will only retain the information that you provide in response to the survey, forms, questionnaires, etc.

Please be advised that e-mail messages and these other means generally are not secure and may be subject to the disclosure in accordance with the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements.

6.0 PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION TRANSMITTED AND STORED FOR CREDIT/DEBIT CARD or eCHECK TRANSACTIONS

A user must provide certain contact information, such as name, e-mail and address, and financial information, such as credit/debit card number and the expiration date, in order for you to make an online payment using our Website.

We are committed to data security and the data quality of personally identifiable information that is either available from or collected by our Website. We have taken reasonable precautions to protect such information from disclosure, loss, misuse, or alteration. We require that “secure data networks” be operated, which are protected by industry standard firewalls and password protection systems. Additionally, we require that only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our users.

We require the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) standard transmission encryption to protect transmission of users’ personally identifiable information submitted in connection with credit/debit card or eCheck transactions. SSL is a security technology designed to enable your browser to send and receive information with another server in an encrypted format. Your browser’s security icon, usually located in the top or bottom status bar of your browser’s window, reflects the security condition of the browser. The lock icon indicates that your browser is communicating over a secure link.

We require that all of the personally identifiable information you provide is stored securely.

7.0 USE OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

As described above, a user must provide certain contact and financial information in order to make an online payment using our Website. We require that this information be used for the limited purpose of processing these transactions and as otherwise permitted by the rules and regulations of the applicable credit card associations, debit card networks, credit/debit card issuers, financial institutions and/or credit/debit card processors.

8.0 SHARING OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES

We do not share personally identifiable information with third parties, except (1) as described in this Policy, and (2) as necessary to the companies assisting us with processing credit/debit card transactions through our Website, including credit card associations, debit card networks, credit/debit card processors and banks. In some circumstances, we may also be required by law to disclose certain personally identifiable information in accordance with the disclosure requirements of the California Public Records Act or other legal requirements, or we may disclose such information to law enforcement and/or fraud investigatory agencies.

9.0 CONSEQUENCES OF FAILING TO PROVIDE PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

If you choose not to provide us with your name or other necessary personally identifiable information, you will not be able to use this Website to make an online payment. If you have concerns about privacy and security on the Internet, you can also make a payment by submitting a check or money order, payable to “LAC Dept. of Mental Health”, sent to Los Angeles County Department Mental Health – Executive Office, 550 S. Vermont Avenue, 12th Floor, Los Angeles CA 90020.

10.0 USE OF COOKIES

This Website may use “cookies.” A cookie is a small text file that a Website can place on your computer for the duration of the visit. It is used only for session integrity during the visit to the Website.

Our Website uses only non-persistent temporary cookies and neither places any permanent information on nor retrieves it from the visitor’s computer. If you want to browse this Website without any interruptions, please make sure that your browser is not set to disable placement of cookies on your computer.

11.0 WEBSITE LINKS TO OTHER SITES NOT COVERED BY PRIVACY AND SECURITY POLICY

This Policy describes the information we gather through our Website and how we use such information. Our Website may contain links to documents located on websites maintained by other County departments, public agencies or private organizations. Once you link to another website, you are no longer subject to this Policy, but rather are subject to the privacy and security policy of the website to which you linked. You use that website and anything contained on that website at your own risk.

When you use this Website to make an online payment with a credit/debit card, you will be transferred to a portion of the Website hosted by our contracted payment processing vendor, FIS (Link2Gov) (Payment Processor). Our Payment Processor will prompt you to enter all information necessary to make such payment or purchase, as the case may be, and will thereafter take all steps necessary to process the payment on our behalf. Our Payment Processor has agreed to abide by this Policy while collecting such information and processing such payments on our behalf.

12.0 CHANGES TO YOUR INFORMATION

For information on reviewing and/or making changes to information about you that may be in our records, please feel free to contact us with your updated information by the means set forth at the end of this Policy.

13.0 CONTACT INFORMATION

Should you have any questions regarding this Policy, or your interaction with our Website, please contact us by completing a form on the following hyperlink: https://employee.hr.lacounty.gov/contact-us/ or https://hr.lacounty.gov/contact-us/

14.0 TERMS OF USE

Please also visit our Terms of Use governing the use of our Website.

15.0 CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY AND SECURITY POLICY

We may add to, delete, or change the terms of this Policy from time to time. This document will be updated to reflect new changes. By using our Website, you consent to this Policy, as it is updated from time to time.