Botetourt County endeavors to collect only the minimum amount of information necessary to meet the purposes for which the website was created. The Privacy Policy outlines the types of information the County gathers on visitors to our website, as well as the steps we take to safeguard that information. Botetourt County reserves the right to amend the Privacy Policy at any time, without prior notice. The Privacy Policy is not intended and should not be interpreted as a contract of any nature, stated or implied.

Information Collection

• We do not collect personal information about visitors to the website unless the visitor chooses to provide that information.
• We collect limited, non-personally-identifying information that browsers make available automatically whenever someone visits a website. Such information includes the internet address of the computer or network, the date, time, and page visited, the browser and operating system, and the referring page (the last webpage visited before clicking on a link to the County's website).
• The County uses the aggregated information from all visitors to measure server performance, analyze user traffic patterns, and improve the content of the County's website.
• We track the keywords entered into the search engine to measure interest in specific topics, but that information is not linked to a specific visitor.
• Some online services require visitors to enter some personal information. For certain services, such as online tax payment services, it may be necessary to provide credit card or other payment information, which may be stored temporarily in encrypted form on secure servers, but not with Botetourt County. All online credit card transactions are handled by PayPal, a third-party website.

Links to Other Websites

Some of the links on the County website lead to third-party websites. The presence of these links does not imply, and should not be interpreted as, endorsement, sanction, approval, or authorization of these sites or content. Botetourt County makes no guarantee or warranty, express or implied, concerning the content or accuracy of any material on any external website.

Restrictions on the Disclosure of Customer Information

We do not sell or rent customers' information to any outside company or organization. We do not reveal specific information about visitors or other personally identifiable data to unaffiliated third parties for their independent use, except if required to do so by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act or other law.

Limiting Employee Access to Information

Our Technology Services team is instructed to limit employee access to personally identifiable information to only those employees who need access to perform their assigned duties. The network manager is instructed to enforce with its staff their responsibilities in protecting subscribers' information.

Cookies

"Cookies" are small files either stored on a server or sent back to a visiting computer. The County may use cookies when providing online services. Cookies are used to improve service quality and not to track any personal information. The use of cookies is a standard practice among Internet websites and most web browsers may be customized to reject cookies, to only accept or reject cookies by user intervention, or to delete cookies. However, some features of the County website may not function properly without cookies.

Site Security

We use best practices to monitor network traffic and identify unauthorized attempts to access information or otherwise cause damage to the County website. Unauthorized attempts to access, alter, or destroy data are prohibited and may result in criminal prosecution.