Privacy notice

Preface

King County, as a government entity, conducts public business and its records related to the business of King County are generally available for public review. Nevertheless, King County is committed, to the extent allowable by law, to protect and secure your personal information contained in King County records. This privacy commitment must be balanced with the rights of public access under Chapter 42.17 RCW (www.leg.wa.gov/rcw/index.cfm?fuseaction=chapterdigest&chapter=42.17, Washington Public Disclosure Act) consistent with KCC 2.14.030 (www.metrokc.gov/mkcc/code/05-Title%202.pdf (549K PDF; scroll down to 2.14.030) and any other applicable federal, state, and local statute or regulation.

This privacy notice does not apply to personnel files, job applications, court records, law enforcement investigation, regulatory investigation, assessor records, and recorded documents maintained by the Records, Elections, and Licensing Services division.

Information privacy

King County gathers personal information when it is relevant and necessary to accomplish county business. We only obtain this information through legal means. When King County collects personal information from you, we:

• Tell you why we are collecting this personal information;
• Limit the amount of your personal information that we collect to that which is necessary for the stated purpose;
• Take reasonable steps to use your personal information to the stated purpose;
• Take steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and current;
• Provide your personal information only to authorized King County employees and private contractors or public organizations on a need-to-know basis;
• Do not sell or make your personal information available to others without your consent except when legally required, needed to complete your transaction with the county, or in an extreme emergency that presents a threat of serious injury or loss of life;
• Retain personal information only as long as necessary to conduct county business or only to the extent required by law;
• Dispose of personal information in a secure manner that prevents disclosure;
• Take organizational, technological, and physical measures to securely safeguard personal information.

Information privacy specific to the Internet

We also collect information on our Web site, both anonymous and personal.

• Anonymous information cannot be linked to a specific person, such as user hits, visits and sessions that we track by Internet service provider. We use this information to help us create a better overall experience for our Web site users.
• Cookies are another example of anonymous information that we use. Web site cookies are small text files that are placed on a user's computer by a Web server. We occasionally use cookies to tailor information to the needs of a user's specific browser. Our Web server is not able to determine any data about you nor does it do anything with these cookies.
• Personal information collected on certain King County Web pages is data that you provide to us about yourself. Providing information to us on our Web site is purely voluntary. This information is used to better serve you. Should you choose not to provide information to King County on the Internet, you may provide this information to us in another way, such as visiting a county office during normal business hours or, for some county services, completing your business by mail or telephone.
• When King County collects personal information from children using the Internet, it complies with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.htm

King County's Web site has links to other Web sites, including other government agencies, non-profit organizations and private businesses. When you link to one of these external Web sites, you are no longer on King County's Web site and this privacy notice no longer applies. Instead, you are subject to the privacy notice of that Web site.

Review and correct your personal information

Upon written request to a specific King County agency, you may review personal information that the agency maintains about you and ask that agency to correct errors.

Upon written request to a specific King County agency, you may receive a written statement that generally identifies the known circumstances under which personal information in the agency's public records may be disclosed.

To find out more, contact King County at the e-mail address or telephone number listed below.

Contact information and alternate languages

For privacy inquiries or alternate languages, please contact King County by e-mail at PrivacyContact@kingcounty.gov or leave a telephone message at 206-205-6899. (Languages offered: Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Korean, Laotian and Spanish).

Other King County privacy notices

Some King County organizations may have privacy notices that are more restrictive than this information privacy notice. In that case, the organization's specific privacy notice takes precedence over this information privacy notice. For privacy inquiries specific to a King County organization's privacy notice, please contact that organization directly.