The Department of FISCal (FI$Cal) is committed to promoting and protecting the privacy rights of individuals as enumerated in Article 1 of the California Constitution, the Information Practices Act of 1977, and other State and federal laws.
It is the policy of FI$Cal to limit the collection and safeguard the privacy of personal information collected or maintained by the department when individuals visit the FI$Cal website. FI$Cal ’s information management practices conform to the requirements of the Information Practices Act (Civil Code Section 1798 et seq.), the Public Records Act (Government Code Section 6250 et seq), Government Code Sections 11015.5 and 11019.9, and other applicable laws pertaining to information privacy. Electronically collected personal information is exempt from requests made under the Public Records Act.
FI$Cal collects personal information on individuals only as allowed by law.
FI$Cal values and protects the privacy of individuals to collecting personal information when it is necessary for carrying out an authorized business function. For example, FI$Cal may need to know an individual’s email address and phone number to respond to inquiries or request for assistance.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is only obtained through lawful means and for what is relevant and necessary to accomplish the purpose for which it is collected.
Any personal information obtained will not be sold, disclosed, made available, or otherwise used for a purpose other than that specified, except with the consent of the subject of the data, or as required by law or regulation. FI$Cal secures PII against loss, damage, modification, unauthorized access, or disclosure as required by law and policy by ensuring that the appropriate physical, technical, and administrative controls are in place. This includes limiting access to such information to staff who need it in the course and scope of their jobs. FI$Cal sets appropriate computer, network, and Internet technical security controls at the employee and departmental levels to prevent unauthorized access to personal information. Some of these security controls are password and user identification verification, data encryption, confidential transmissions, secure storage areas, and audit trails.
FI$Cal does not collect, distribute, or sell home, business, or email addresses, or account information from persons who simply browse our Internet website.
FI$Cal collects personal information about individuals through our website only if an individual provides such information to FI$Cal voluntarily through forms, email subscription lists, and surveys, or if it is required through the FI$Cal system.
Email is considered a communication tool. Any data sent by email is not secured or encrypted by FI$Cal. If a user sends FI$Cal an email message, the email address and the information submitted will be collected and may be provided to other State agencies to serve the department’s needs. Users are prohibited from sending any confidential or personal information such as Social Security Number (SSN) via e-mail.
Government Code § 11015.5 prohibits all state agencies from distributing or selling any electronically collected personal information, as defined above, about users to any third party without the permission of the user. FI$Cal does not sell any “electronically collected personal information.” Any distribution of “electronically collected personal information” will be solely for the purposes for which it was provided to us.
FI$Cal may use session cookies in some areas of the FI$Cal website to improve the overall usability of the site.
Cookies are simple text files that identify the user’s computer to the FI$Cal internet site. This website may place and subsequently retrieve cookies. Cookies do not contain personal or confidential information and will only be used to monitor activity.
How to clear cookies in Chrome:
- Open Chrome.
- In the top right-hand corner of the browser, you will see three dots, which indicates a settings menu. Click on the dots.
- Scroll down to and click on “Delete Browsing Data….”. A separate section will open up.
- Under the “Basic” tab, you can customize the specific time range for when to delete cookies. Three checked boxes show which browsing data you can delete: browsing history, cookies and other site data, and cached images and files.
- Make sure that “Cookies and other site data” and unselect (if they are checked) “Browsing History” and “Cached images and files”.
- Finally, you can complete the deletion by clicking “Delete data.”
How to clear cookies in Firefox:
- Open Firefox.
- In the upper right-hand corner of the browser, click the menu bars, which look like three parallel lines, and and scroll down to click the “Settings”.
- From Settings, click on “Privacy and Security” in the left hand navigation bar.
- Scroll down to see “Cookies and Site Data”. Select “Clear Data”.
- Be sure that only “Cookies and site data” is checked, and then select the time frame for which you would like to delete your cookies.
- Finally, click “Clear”.
How to clear cookies in Microsoft Edge
- Open Microsoft Edge.
- Click on the three dots menu at the top right navigation and select “Settings.”
- On the left side menu scroll to “Cookies and site permissions”.
- In the body portion click “Manage and delete cookies and site data”.
- Click on “See all cookies and site data” then click on the button right above list that says “Remove all”. Then click “Clear”.
FI$Cal strives in each instance to inform people who provide personal information to FI$Cal of the purpose for which the information is collected.
In addition, FI$Cal uses Google Analytics to help improve its website, to track how many people visit it, and to help understand how visitors interact with it so that it can be improved. When users view information on FI$Cal ’s external website, some non-confidential data may be collected, such as the time and date of access and where the user went during the visit.
If you do nothing during your visit to the web site but browse or download information, we automatically collect and store the following information about your visit:
- A partial Internet Protocol address and domain name is collected, but not the e-mail address. The partial Internet Protocol address is used to direct Internet traffic to you without identifying you individually and generate statistics used in the management of this web site;
- The type of browser and operating system you used;
- The date and time you visited this web site;
- The web pages or services you accessed at this web site;
- The web site you visited prior to coming to this web site;
- The web site you visit as you leave this web site, and;
- If you downloaded a form, the form that was downloaded.
This information does not identify you personally and is used for gathering web site statistics. To helps us to analyze our web site to improve the function and services. Individuals have the right to have any electronically collected personal information deleted without reuse or distribution.
Individual users have the right to access information about themselves and may request a correction of any inaccuracies in such records or ask for their electronically collected personal information to be deleted without reuse or distribution by contacting FI$Cal’s privacy officer at FiscalPrivacyOfficer@fiscal.ca.gov or 1-855-FISCAL0 (1-855-347- 2250) (Toll Free).
Questions concerning this policy should be directed to FI$Cal’s information security officer and privacy officer by email at FiscalPrivacyOfficer@fiscal.ca.gov or via regular mail to Privacy Officer, 2000 Evergreen St., Sacramento CA 95815-3839.