Privacy

Your privacy is very important to us. Our policy is to collect no personal information about you when you visit the Division of Library & Information Services web site, unless you consent to make such information available to us.

The online databases accessed through the Division of Library & Information Services use cookies to authenticate registered users. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard drive via your web browser so the file can later be read by that browser. These cookies allow registered users access to the online databases without requiring re-entry of library bar codes. These cookies verify a valid library card; however, they do not identify individual users.

We use server log analysis tools to create monthly summary statistics of our Web site's usage. These statistics are used to reflect usage summaries such as: general access (number of hits received), resources accessed (our most and least popular pages), visitors and demographics (IP addresses and domains), activity statistics (most/least active days), technical statistics (client errors), referrers and keywords (search engines and sites that point to our site), and browsers and platforms. This information is collected so that the content of the site can be improved, and your personal information is not identified.

Electronic mail questions or comments or web forms sent to the Division of Library & Information Services containing personally identifiable information will be used only to respond to your request. We may redirect your message to another government agency or person in order to better answer your question.

If you choose to share personal information, such as by applying for a library card, sending a message, or filling out an electronic form with personal information, the information will be saved for a designated period of time in order to comply with the state of Florida's archiving policies. However, information will not be disclosed to third parties or other government agencies, unless required by state or federal law. Please note that Florida's public records law requires that all information received in connection with state business be made available to anyone upon request, unless the information is subject to a specific statutory exemption.

Security

This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. The Department uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to safeguard your sensitive personal information during the library card application process. Using this widely accepted form of encryption, your transaction is secured from your personal computer to the Department of State computers processing your request, and the processing computers are located behind a secure firewall. This method protects your personal information such as residential address and phone number, and business contact information. Unauthorized use of this Web site is an offense under the Florida law.

This notice should not be construed in any way as guaranteeing, or warranting as fail proof, the security of information exchanged via Department web sites.

Any changes to our privacy promise will be communicated through the Division of Library & web site at least 30 days in advance of implementation. Information collected before changes are made will be secured according to the privacy policy in effect prior to the change.

Links

This web site contains links to other sites. Even though we attempt to ensure the accuracy and usefulness of our own Web site, we make no claims about the accuracy of materials and Web sites other than our own. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy and/or security practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy and/or security statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.