Individuals who visit the Bossier Parish web site are important to us. Because visitors to our website are important, we do not capture personal information about them without their permission. We endeavor to collect only the minimum amount of information needed to meet the purposes for which the web site was created.

Public Disclosure

All information collected on the Bossier Parish web site will be treated the same as any written communication and is subject to the confidentiality and public disclosure provisions required by law.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

Visitors to the Bossier Parish web site

We may collect some or all of the following information about visitors who view or download information from our web sites:

The information we collect is used to improve the content of our web services and help us understand how people are using our services. We analyze our web site logs to continually improve the value of the materials available on our site. The information in our website logs is not personally identifiable, and we make no attempt to link it with the individuals that browse our website.

Some of this statistical information, such as a running count of the number of visitors, may be displayed on the web site or shared with other parish governments departments to aid in the provision of better service to the public.

Personally Identifiable Information

"Personally identifiable information" is information about a person that is readily identifiable to that specific individual. It includes, for example, an individual's name, street address, e-mail address, or phone number.

Personally identifiable information will not be collected unless you voluntarily send an e-mail message, fill out and send an online form, or fill out personal information and send in a survey. Your choice not to participate in these activities will not impair your ability to access certain information or obtain a service online.

Unless specifically protected under state law, any information provided may be inspected by the public or disclosed in a legal proceeding.

E-mail Senders

E-mail messages, sent to any Bossier Parish address, will be treated the same as any other written communication. They may be subject to public inspection or legal disclosure and may be saved for a period of time before they are destroyed. E-mail or other information requests sent to the parish web site may be maintained in order to respond to the request, forward that request to the appropriate agency, or to provide the web designer with valuable customer feedback to assist in improving the site. E-mail addresses obtained as a result of a request to the parish site will not be sold or given to private companies for marketing purposes.

Electronic Form Filers

Any other information provided by a visitor at the request of an agency of Bossier Parish, such as the completion and electronic filing of a form, will be considered to be voluntarily provided by the visitor and will be treated in the same manner as information provided in written form or in person during a visit to the agency. Information provided may be subject to public inspection and legal disclosure and may be saved for a period of time before it is destroyed. It may be shared with another parish or state agency for appropriate action.

Surveys

Surveys will be used for the purpose stated. If personally identifiable information is collected it may be subject to public inspection and legal disclosure and may be saved for a period of time before it is destroyed.

Cookies

In order to better serve you, the user, we use cookies for certain types of online transactions.

Cookies are small text files that a web server may ask your web browser to store, and to send back to the web server when needed. Cookies may be used to store a transaction identifier or other information a user may provide. We use cookies in the following ways:

• Complex transactions: Cookies are used to store and retrieve unique transaction identifiers or other server-generated or user-provided information in complex, multi-page web applications. This allows us to distinguish between different users, and to use information provided at one stage of an application at a later time (for instance, items placed in a 'shopping cart' might need to be displayed on a later 'check-out' screen). When we use cookies in this way, the cookie is stored on your web browser only temporarily; the cookie is destroyed at the end of the transaction or at the end of the browser session.
  
• Customized Services: Cookies may also be used to automatically identify a particular user to the system, in order to provide a customized service, such as a personalized web page. In this case, a cookie containing a unique user identifier will be permanently stored on your web browser. We do not store sensitive information in such cookies; only a unique user identifier or generic preference values are stored. Personal information you give us for processing a transaction or using one of our personalization features, may be stored on our secure web server.

We do not use cookies in order to track your visit to our web site.

The "help" portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies or how to disable cookies altogether. However, cookies allow you to take full advantage of many of the MyBossier web site, and we recommend that you set your web browser to accept cookies.

If you have further questions about cookies, the Computer Incident Advisory Capacity unit that monitors computer problems for the U.S. Department of Energy issued a study on March 12, 1998 of the risks of cookies to users, titled Information Bulletin I-034: Internet Cookies.

You can refuse the cookies or delete the cookie file from your computer by using any of the widely available methods.

Disclaimer

Neither Bossier Parish, nor any agency, officer, consultant or employee of the Bossier Parish warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published on the Bossier Parish web site, nor endorses any products or services linked from this system, and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information. Portions of the information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this system does so at his or her own risk.

Various web sites may be linked through the Bossier Parish web site. Visitors to those sites are advised to check the privacy statements of those sites and be cautious about providing personally identifiable information without a clear understanding of how the information will be used. This Privacy Statement does not apply to non-Bossier Parish websites linked to the Bossier Parish web site.

Contact Information

To offer comments about the Bossier Parish web site or about information presented in this Privacy Statement, contact [email protected]