Introduction
The St. Louis County, Minnesota, website is governed and construed by the laws of the State of Minnesota, including the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. The purpose of our policy is to inform you about the types of information we gather when you visit our website, how we may use that information, and whether we disclose it to anyone.
Terms of Use
By visiting the St. Louis County website, you agree that you will not use the website for any unlawful activity, or use it in a way that would violate the following terms and conditions. Any use of the website shall comply with all St. Louis County, Minnesota, and State of Minnesota laws and regulations as well as with all federal laws and regulations. By use of the website, you acknowledge you have read and agreed to the terms of this policy.
Disclaimer
St. Louis County provides the information on this site as a public service. The information contained in this website was accurate and complete at the time of publication. The County reserves the right to make changes and improvements at any time and without notice, and assumes no liability for damages incurred directly or indirectly as a result of errors, omissions, discrepancies, unauthorized modification of electronic data, errors in transmission, web browser incompatibilities, and other aspects of electronic communications that are beyond the County’s control.
Therefore, use this site for informational purposes only. Do not use it as a substitute for legal or professional advice on any subject. Seek the advice of a qualified professional on any personal decision. If you rely upon the accuracy of information contained on this site in making a decision, you do so at your own risk.
Information accuracy
St. Louis County and its officials, employees, affiliates, agents, and licensors cannot and do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, currentness, non-infringement, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose of the information available through this website. The data and information contained in or attached to any part of the St. Louis County website are not official documents or transactions of St. Louis County. St. Louis County, its officials, employees, affiliates, agents and licensors, shall not be liable to you or anyone else for any loss, injury, or personal injury resulting directly or indirectly from use of the St. Louis County website, caused in whole or in part by its negligence or contingencies beyond its control in procuring, compiling, interpreting, reporting or delivering any information through the St. Louis County website. In no event will St. Louis County and its officials, employees, affiliates, agents, and licensors, be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken by you in reliance on such information. St. Louis County and its officials, employees, affiliates, agents, and licensors shall not be liable to you or anyone else for any damages, including, without limitation, consequential, special, incidental, indirect, or similar damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
You agree that if there is any liability of St. Louis County and its officials, employees, affiliates, agents and licensors, arising out of any kinds of legal claim (whether in contract, tort, or otherwise) in any way connected with St. Louis County website and information in the St. Louis County website, the damages shall not exceed the amount you paid to St. Louis County for the use of the St. Louis County website.
Website Links to Other Sites
This website provides links (also known as hyperlinks). These may include links to websites operated by other government agencies, nonprofit organizations and /or private businesses. This is done as a public service. The County does not endorse nor is responsible for the content of external sites.
The Privacy Policy & Disclaimer set forth herein applies only to the St. Louis County website and websites providing contracted services to St. Louis County. When you follow a link to any other website, you are subject to the privacy policy and disclaimer of that website and we encourage you to examine the privacy policy and disclaimer of that website. Also, please be advised that the links available at any given time are subject to future removal or change at any time.
St. Louis County in no way endorses the opinions, statements, or accuracy of information contained in linked sites. Information from linked sites may be misleading, inaccurate, or incomplete. Rely upon the information at your own risk. Neither St. Louis County, nor any of its agents, officers, or employees warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published on other websites. It does not endorse any content, viewpoints, products, or services on other websites. St. Louis County, its agents, officers, and employees shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of information on other websites. In addition, St. Louis County in no way guarantees the security of any linked site. You assume the risk of any damage the link may cause to your system, as well as the risk of disclosed personal information to third parties.
State law forbids local units of government, including counties, from publishing external links to blogs or websites of political candidates, political committees, political parties or units, campaign committees, or state committees.
Privacy Policy
The website of St. Louis County is subject to the laws of the State of Minnesota, including the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13, as well as federal privacy laws and regulations. The purpose of our policy is to inform you about the types of information we gather when you visit our website, how we may use that information, and whether we may ever have to disclose it to anyone.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to any information you may provide to us or that we may collect offline and/or through other means (for example, at a public meeting, via telephone, or through the US mail).
St. Louis County is committed to preserving the privacy and security of our Site visitors. We employ numerous measures to ensure security and privacy.
We intend to give you as much control as possible over your personal information and we strive to retrieve the minimum amount of information about our visitors necessary to provide an appropriate level of service.
Information Automatically Collected
No personally identifiable information is collected when you simply browse this website or download information from it. We automatically collect and store only the following information about your visit:
- The Internet domain (for example, "SomeCompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account) from which you access our Site.
- The IP address (a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the web).
- The type of browser and operating system used to access our Site.
- The date and time during which you access our Site.
- The pages you visit.
- If you linked to our website from another website, and
- If so, the address of that website.
The above information does not personally identify you. We use it only to help us improve our website. Also, to better serve you, we occasionally use "cookies" to customize your browsing experience. Cookies are simple text files stored by your web browser when you visit a website. They provide a method of distinguishing among visitors to the website. Web browsers normally accept cookies, unless the user has specifically turned the capability off.
Information that You Voluntarily Provide Us
When you send an email to the County web team, your comment or question may be forwarded to other County staff who can better help you. The web team only shares the email with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency, or as otherwise required by law. The County does not use personal data you provide for commercial marketing.
To access certain features and online services available on our site, we may ask you to provide certain demographic information including your gender, year of birth, zip code and country. In addition, if you elect to sign-up to receive particular communications and news updates, you may also be asked to register with us. Such registration may require you to provide personally identifiable information such as your name, mailing address and email address. You agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the site's registration form. If we have reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, or incomplete, we have the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Site (or any portion thereof). Our use of any personally identifiable information you provide to us as part of the registration process is governed by the terms of our Privacy Policy.
Online Payments
This site uses a secure e-commerce function that allows you to submit electronic payments for County products and services. Some of the County’s e-commerce services require you to provide personally identifiable information such as your name and/or mailing address.
We do not store credit card or bank account information. In order to complete an online e-commerce transaction, your personal account information is passed directly to our payment gateway business partners via a secure connection. All financial transactions on our e-commerce servers are protected by Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology utilized by major e-commerce websites. St. Louis County does not share bank account information with anyone, except authorized personnel. Bank account information from payment applications will not be sold, transferred, marketed, disclosed or otherwise shared with any outside entity other than your bank and our bank, except as may be required by law or valid court order.
Security Statement
Security of the information that you provide us is very important to us. This website does not encrypt incoming e-mail or comments. For site security purposes, and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, the County employs software programs 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 this website are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.
Accessibility
St. Louis County makes all reasonable efforts to ensure this website is accessible to all users. We strive to meet the accessibility standards required of federal government websites.
If you experience an accessibility problem with this website, please notify the primary contact email address for the service or information you are viewing. If you should need information in alternate formats, the primary contact can help you obtain the alternate format.
Policy Changes
The County reserves the right to change this policy or to impose new conditions on use of the site at any time. It is the responsibility of individual visitors to inform themselves and monitor the terms of use during each visit.