It is the policy of ANR to limit the collection and safeguard the privacy of personal information collected or maintained by ANR. ANR’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.

ANR strives to follow these principles in collecting and managing personal information:

We collect personal information on individuals only as allowed by law. We limit the collection of personal information to what is relevant and necessary to accomplish a lawful purpose of ANR. For example, we may need to know someone’s address, email and telephone number, among other things, to communicate with stakeholders.

Personal information, as defined in the Information Practices Act, is information that identifies or describes an individual including, but not limited to, name, Social Security number, physical description, home address, home telephone number, education, financial matters, and medical or employment history.

We do not collect home, business or e-mail addresses, or account information from persons who simply browse our Internet website. ANR collects personal information about individuals through our website only if an individual provides such information to ANR voluntarily through forms or surveys. The information that ANR automatically collects includes the domain name or Internet Protocol address that relates to the machine used to access ANR ‘s website, the type of browser and operating system used, the date and time when the website is visited, web pages displayed, and any forms that are uploaded.

We use session cookies in some areas of this website to improve the overall usability of the site. Cookies are small text files placed on your computer, often without your knowledge, while visiting certain sites on the Internet used to identify your computer. Cookies are used by ANR to keep users logged into websites after passing through a login page, remember user settings and preferences, and allow for population of login fields. The cookies are not used to collect or store information about you, and non-authenticated visitors to websites will not be tracked.

You can prevent cookies from being placed on your computer by accessing your browser’s preferences menu and deleting existing cookies. There also are commercial programs available to help you manage cookies. Before taking such steps, you should be aware that some websites and services will not work properly if you choose to block the placement of cookies on your computer. You will need to decide whether enabling cookies outweigh privacy concerns.

We strive in each instance to tell people who provide personal information to ANR the purpose for which the information is collected. At the time of collection, we also strive to tell persons who are asked to provide personal information about the general uses that we will make of that information.

We tell people who provide personal information about their opportunity to review that information. ANR allows individuals who provide personal information to review the information and contest its accuracy or completeness.

We only use or disclose personal information for the specified purposes, or purposes consistent with those purposes, unless we get the consent of the subject of the information, or unless required by law or regulation. The Public Records Act exists to ensure that government is open and that the public has a right to have access to appropriate records and information possessed by state government. At the same time, there are exceptions in both state and federal law to the public’s right to access public records. These exceptions serve various needs including maintaining the privacy of individuals. In the event of a conflict between this Policy and the Public Records Act, the Information Practices Act or other law governing the disclosure of records, the applicable law will control.

We use information security safeguards. We take reasonable precautions to protect the personal information collected or maintained by ANR against loss, unauthorized access, and illegal use or disclosure. ANR uses encryption software to protect the security of individuals’ personal information during transmission of such information through ANR’s websites. Such personal information is stored by ANR in secure locations. ANR’s staff is trained on procedures for the management of personal information, including limitations on the release of information. Access to personal information is limited to those members of ANR’s staff whose work requires such access. Confidential information is destroyed according to ANR’s records retention schedule. ANR conducts periodic reviews to ensure that proper information management policies and procedures are understood and followed.

ANR encourages all individuals to use appropriate safeguards to secure their computers and the information on those computers. Please note that our Privacy Policy reflects ANR’s current business practices and is subject to change without notice. If you have questions or would like additional information regarding ANR’s privacy policy, contact our Privacy Office at catherine.montano AT ucop.edu or rgsanchez AT ucanr.edu.