Internet Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting Flathead County online.

We respect your privacy and we do not automatically collect any information from visitors for any purpose other than web traffic statistics. This information does not result in the identification of your personal e-mail address or other personal information.

If you choose to share personal information by subscribing to an e-mail list, sending a message, or filling out an electronic form with personal information, the information will only be used for the purposes you authorized. This information may be saved for a designated period of time in order to comply with the State of Montana's archiving policies. However any information disclosed on this website or any correspondence sent to this web site is considered pubic information. Any such information received will not be disclosed unless required by State or Federal laws.

This privacy notice does not apply to personnel files, job applications, court records, law enforcement investigation, regulatory investigation, assessor records, and recorded documents maintained by the Records, Elections, and Licensing Services division.

Information privacy

Flathead County gathers personal information when it is relevant and necessary to accomplish county business. We only obtain this information through legal means. When Flathead County collects personal information from you, we:

• Tell you why we are collecting this personal information;
• Limit the amount of your personal information that we collect to that which is necessary for the stated purpose;
• Take reasonable steps to use your personal information to the stated purpose;
• Take steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and current;
• Provide your personal information only to authorized Flathead County employees and private contractors or public organizations on a need-to-know basis;
• Do not sell or make your personal information available to others without your consent except when legally required, needed to complete your transaction with the county, or in an extreme emergency that presents a threat of serious injury or loss of life;
• Retain personal information only as long as necessary to conduct county business or only to the extent required by law;
• Dispose of personal information in a secure manner that prevents disclosure;
• Take organizational, technological, and physical measures to securely safeguard personal information.

Information privacy specific to the Internet

We also collect information on our Web site, both anonymous and personal.

• Anonymous information cannot be linked to a specific person, such as user hits, visits and sessions that we track by Internet service provider. We use this information to help us create a better overall experience for our Web site users.
• Cookies are another example of anonymous information that we use. Web site cookies are small text files that are placed on a user's computer by a Web server. We occasionally use cookies to tailor information to the needs of a user's specific browser. Our Web server is not able to determine any data about you nor does it do anything with these cookies.
• Personal information collected on certain Flathead County Web pages is data that you provide to us about yourself. Providing information to us on our Web site is purely voluntary. This information is used to better serve you. Should you choose not to provide information to Flathead County on the Internet, you may provide this information to us in another way, such as visiting a county office during normal business hours or, for some county services, completing your business by mail or telephone.

Flathead County's Web site has links to other Web sites, including other government agencies, non-profit organizations and private businesses. When you link to one of these external Web sites, you are no longer on Flathead County's Web site and this privacy notice no longer applies. Instead, you are subject to the privacy notice of that Web site.