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Oregon.gov Website Terms & Conditions

Introduction and Scope

Thank you for visiting the Oregon.gov website, we are happy that you’re here!

These Terms and Conditions are the agreement between any person or entity visiting or interacting with the Sites (“You” or “Your”) and the State of Oregon (“Oregon”). These Terms and Conditions govern Your access and use of Oregon.gov and any other websites or social media accounts operated, controlled, or maintained by Oregon or one of its executive department agencies (“the “Sites”). Please read these Terms and Conditions carefully because by accessing and continuing to access one or more of the Sites, you accept these Terms and Conditions without limitation and modification. You also acknowledge that some Sites have additional terms and conditions for the information and services provided by the agencies operating those Sites and your access and use of those Sites means you also accept those additional terms and conditions.

Oregon operates the Sites for the convenience of its residents and visitors to the state. The content and services provided by the Sites are provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement, or that information is accurate or current at the time it is accessed. You agree to hold harmless and indemnify Oregon and its agencies and officers from and against any damages and liability based on or arising out of your access or use of content on any of the Sites.

Privacy

Personal Information and Public Records

You may be asked or required to submit information that You consider Personal Information (including as defined below) as part of using a Site or using services available through a Site. For purposes of Your use of the Sites and services, we consider "Personal Information" to be information about a person that is readily identifiable to that individual, such as an individual's name, address, and telephone number.

Personal information is collected when consistent with the intent of statute, state policies, and business needs. Personal Information may be exempt from disclosure if disclosure would constitute an unreasonable invasion of privacy under the circumstances.

Most information collected by state government is assumed to be open to the public unless specifically exempted. ORS Chapter 192 contains the Oregon Public Records Law. Under this law, individuals are permitted to request that public officials not disclose a public record that contains their home address and telephone number under certain circumstances. ORS 192.445 specifies how to request non-disclosure.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act

The Sites and services are not designed for, or targeted to reach, children under the age of 13. Children under the age of 13 are not eligible to use services that require submission of Personal Information and should not submit any personal information through a Site, which includes submitting Personal Information to a Site for a user or personalization profile.

If You are a child under the age of 13, You can only set up user profiles or submit Personal Information together with your parent(s) or guardian(s). Please seek guidance from your parent(s) or guardian(s) if you are under the age of 13.

If an Oregon agency opts to collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13 through a Site, the agency collecting the information will provide notice and follow processes in conformance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). For more information on COPPA, please see: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0031-protecting-your-childs-privacy-online.

Information collected while browsing Site web pages

If you browse or download information from a Site, Oregon collects the information below as the standard data collected by all web server software. That collected information is:

  • The Internet Protocol (IP) address of a user connection (but not an email address). The IP address is a numerical identifier assigned either to an internet service provider or directly to a user’s computer. The IP address is used to respond to a browser request. An IP Address is a numerical label, in the format xxx.xxx.xx.xx, used for network interface or location addressing.
  • The domain name assigned to an IP address (if there is one). Example: somename.com
  • The type of browser and operating system used. Example: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT; IE4WDUS-1998101501)
  • The date and time a user visited a Site
  • The web pages or services a user accessed at Site
  • The website a user visited prior to coming to a Site. (Note: this is included so that summary analysis can be done on how visitors get to our site, i.e., from a search engine, from a link on another site, etc.)

Generally, Sites do not track individual user navigation choices and the information listed above is summarized to determine:

  • What organizations are our most frequent users (item 2 above) to better target our content for the audience
  • What browsers are being used on our site to determine what techniques we should use to develop pages that will work with different browsers (item 3 above).
  • How often our pages are being visited (item 5 above)
  • The traffic from organization names such as search engines that direct people to the site (item 6 above)

Some Sites, however, may ask to collect information of an individual to provide services or conduct transactions. Please see Use of Personal Information.

For information security purposes and to ensure Sites and services remain available to users, network traffic is monitored to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. If security monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, system personnel may provide the results of such monitoring to appropriate officials.

Except for investigations authorized by law, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on the Sites are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under state law and federal statutes, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.

Use of Personal Information.

Some Oregon agencies may collect Personal Information to deliver services or conduct transactions. You have the right to review your Personal Information collected by any of the Sites by contacting the agency that provided the service you requested.

Personal Information collected during an online transaction is used for, but not limited to, the following purposes:

  • Create user accounts or complete online transactions (for example, payment of license fees or tax collection), either on a site hosted on Oregon.gov or a third party website.
  • Send email or otherwise contact the individual to confirm a transaction or identify and resolve problems that occurred during the transaction; or
  • Provide information about state agencies, government services, or about Oregon to visitors who elect to receive this notification service.
  • Conduct occasional online surveys to improve Site operation or seek opinions of users. These surveys are entirely voluntary and You may easily decline to participate.

Secure transmission

This site uses the industry standard encryption software Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to enable secure transmission of data. The URL in your browser will change to "HTTPS" instead of "HTTP" when this security feature is invoked. Your browser may also display a lock or key symbol on its task bar to indicate invoked secure transmission. If these indicators are not present, information may be susceptible to interception by other parties. Most internet email communication is not considered secure. If you are communicating sensitive information, consider sending it by postal mail or contacting the agency by phone.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file created by a web server and stored on your computer hard drive. Cookies save unique information that the web server can access while you are browsing our website. Typically, cookies save information such as your site preferences, the date you last looked at a specific page, or a random number used to identify your particular web session. Cookies help us measure how many visitors come to our web site and how many of these visitors are new or returning.

Cookies placed on your computer by our web management tools are written so they can only be used by our web tools, and they only retrieve specific information. We do not gather information from you, from other cookie files, or access any other information on your computer.

Most web browsers allow you to deny or accept the cookie feature (refer to your browser's help function for details). You can control the use of cookies on your computer, and even eliminate them. However, eliminating cookie use may interfere with the function of some Oregon.gov website services.

Social Media Terms

Some Oregon agencies operate accounts on popular internet platforms intended for the sharing or creation of information or expression of opinions, for example: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube (“Social Media”). Agencies that operate Social Media accounts do so for various purposed, including but not limited to providing timely information about events or incidents of public interest, maintaining transparency about the agency’s operations, or for sustaining public relations.

These Social Media Terms apply as the minimum standards for Your engagement with an Oregon agency’s Social Media account and are in addition to the policies or use terms that You agreed to with each Social Media platform. Please note that an agency may supplement these Social Media Terms with additional terms or may have their own policies altogether which are not included here.

User Content

Depending on the Social Media platform, a state agency may, at its sole discretion, permit submission of comments, opinions, files, images, materials, pictures, or other content (“User Content”) by You to the agency’s Social Media account page for display or other purposes. Submission of User Content to an agency’s Social Media account page is subject to the following:

  • You represent and warrant: (1) You have the rights necessary in the User Content to allow the agency to display, post, or otherwise use the User Content, and (2) The User Content is not subject to any obligation of confidentiality,
  • You grant non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide rights for the display or any other uses of the User Content to Oregon and its agencies, including for purposes, uses, or displays different from the context or intent of the initial submission on a Social Media platform.
  • You agree that allowing display of User Content is not an endorsement by either the State of Oregon or its agencies of that User Content or the opinions expressed in the User Content;
  • You acknowledge and agree that neither the State of Oregon nor its agencies are required to moderate User Content whether submitted by you or other users, and that neither the State of Oregon nor its agencies assume any liability for the User Content under any legal theory of any jurisdiction. You further acknowledge and agree that within the within the functional capabilities of the Social Media platform and subject to Oregon public records requirements, the State or Agency has the sole discretion to (1) delete User Content with language the State or Agency deems offensive, abusive, derogatory, or threatening harm to other person(s) or property, (2) block users who are or have submitted such User Content, and (3) to conduct such removal without prior notice.

Disclaimers and Other Legal Notices

Links to other sites

The Sites may have links to third-party websites operated by other government agencies, nonprofit organizations, private businesses, and other entities. When you use and follow one of these links, you are no longer on an Oregon Site and these Term and Conditions will not apply and your use of those third-party sites is subject to their privacy policy, terms conditions, or terms of use.

All links to third-party websites are provided for Your convenience. Neither the State of Oregon nor any of its agencies, officers, or employees of the State of Oregon warrant or represent the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published by these third-party sites, nor do they endorse any content, viewpoints, products, or services linked from these systems, and therefore cannot be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of the information on these third party sites. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current and any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from these third-party sites does so at their own risk.

Advertising on Top Level Domain “Oregon.gov”

Advertising by private entities is prohibited websites hosted on the top level domain “oregon.gov”. Neither Oregon nor its agencies endorse or sponsor the products, services or information appearing in advertisements on privately owned websites.

Trademarks

Oregon-Owned Trademarks – Some of the content on Oregon.gov and other Sites include trademarks owned by the State of Oregon or its agencies. You may display these Oregon-owned trademarks so long as the context of your use is truthful and not misleading about the either services provided under that trademark or the trademark’s ownership.

Third-Party Trademarks - Some of the content on Oregon.gov and other Sites may include names, tradenames, or trademarks owned by third parties which are the property of their respective owners. The appearance or inclusion of these third-party trademarks is not an endorsement by the State of Oregon or its agencies of the products or services sold under those third-party trademarks. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions grants you any rights in those trademarks.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Notice

If you believe there is content appearing on Oregon.gov or any of the Sites that infringes your copyright, you may send a copy of your claim to egov.copyright@das.oregon.gov. To be effective notice, however, your claim must be in writing and contain the following information:

  • Physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
  • Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, and that is sought to be removed or have access disabled. This identification must be specific enough to permit location of the material;
  • Contact information at which the owner of the material (and owner’s agent for the complaint, if applicable) may be contacted;
  • A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  • A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.