Website Use Guidelines

The City of Livermore’s Official Website (“website”) is a fundamental communication tool for providing City information and interactive services to its residents and the Internet connected world. The purpose of the website is to encourage user participation in City government, to enable electronic service delivery to the public, and to communicate with residents and businesses. 

Materials and information on the City’s website are provided as a public service and intended to afford general guidelines on matters of public interest. Accordingly, the information in this site is not intended to serve as legal, accounting, or financial advice. 

The City of Livermore has links to other websites. These may include links to websites operated by other government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private businesses. When a user links to another site, the user is no longer on the City’s website and the City’s policies no longer apply. 

Communications made through the City of Livermore’s website shall in no way be deemed to constitute legal or official notice to the City, its agencies, officers, employees, representatives, or agents for any purpose. 

Accessibility Guideline 

The City of Livermore recognizes the importance of making City information available to the largest possible audience and has attempted to design its website to be accessible by everyone. This website was coded to comply with both the Americans with Disabilities Act (Section 508) and the Priority 1 Level Checkpoints of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. The City will continue to develop future releases of this site and remains committed to maintaining its compliance and serving the widest possible audience. As City staff develop and post website content, they should ensure materials remain accessible by posting well-structured content, easy-to-use navigation menus, alternative text for images and graphics, web-ready and machine-readable PDFs, etc. Tools such as Adobe’s PDF Accessibility Checker are available to monitor and ensure accessibility of City information to all residents.

Google Translation 

The primary language used for the content of the City of Livermore’s website is English. A free translation service provided by Google® is available through the links provided that offer immediate translation of our webpages using Google's software. Computerized translations are only an approximation of the website's original content. The translation should not be considered exact. The City of Livermore does not warrant the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information translated by this system. In addition, some applications, files or items cannot be translated including graphs, photos or portable document formats (pdfs). As a convenience, a link has been provided to Google® translation site. The use of Google translation service does not constitute the City’s endorsement of Google’s service. Other translation services may be used to view our site. Any person or entities that rely on information obtained from translation sites does so at his or her own risk. 

Copyright Policy 

The City of Livermore logo is copyrighted. The City of Livermore retains all intellectual property rights including copyrights on all text, graphics images, photographs, and any other content unless stated otherwise. 

Privacy Policy 

Purpose 

The City of Livermore recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of the users of this website. In demonstrating the City’s commitment to individual privacy, this policy governs any personal information supplied to the City via this website. The City's goal in collecting personal and transactional information via the website is to provide visitors the most personalized and effective service possible. The City will make every effort to protect online information with the same diligence that the City protects information obtained through other means. 

The City of Livermore does not give or sell such personal information to third parties or private organizations. However, personal information submitted to the City may be subject to disclosure to another party pursuant to various provisions of California law, including, but not limited to, the California Civil Discovery Act of 1986 and the California Public Records Act. 

Information Collection 

The City of Livermore does not use its website to collect personally identifiable information for any purpose other than to respond to a user's request or input, or to complete an online transaction. However, the City does gather usage summary statistics that do not personally identify users for site management and other purposes, such as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, identifying system performance issues, to detect errors, and for security reasons. 

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, the City and its website provider employ software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are or will be made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Anyone using this website expressly consents to such monitoring. 

User Provided Personal Information 

The user does not have to provide personal information to visit the City’s website or download information from the site. However, the City’s website does offer users the opportunity to create a personalized browsing experience that may not be available if the user chooses to withhold certain information. 

To the extent a user chooses to use the City’s personalized browsing experience, the user may be asked to provide certain personal information. User-provided personal information will only be that which is necessary to provide the information or services the user requests, just as a person might provide such information when visiting City Hall or another City of Livermore office in person. 

Likewise, if a user chooses to provide the City of Livermore with personal information, such as sending an email to a City employee or by filling out and submitting an online form or survey located on the City’s website, the City may use that information to respond to the user's message and to assist in obtaining information the user may have requested. On occasion, the City may forward a user’s message to another government agency that is better able to respond. The City treats e-mails and submitted online forms the same way it treats letters to a Councilmember or a City department. 

The user provided personal information is subject to the same controls and uses as that collected by City of Livermore offices visited in person. The City limits employee access to personally identifiable information to only those employees who need access in order to perform their assigned duties. 

Minor's Privacy Policy and Parental Consent. [Parent includes legal guardian] 

Parental consent must be obtained before a minor user provides any personal information to the City. A parent may revoke their consent and the City will stop using information from or for that child. Revocation may end a child's participation in an activity if the information collected was necessary for participation. 

Cookies 

Cookies or other technology may transfer information from the City of Livermore's website to the user’s hard disk for recordkeeping purposes. Cookies or similar technology can make the Internet more useful by storing information about the user’s preferences on a particular site. The use of cookies or similar technology is an industry standard, and many major websites use them to provide useful features for their users. Cookies in and of themselves do not personally identify users, although they do identify a user's computer. The only personal information cookies can contain is information the user supplies. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. The user can set their computer to refuse cookies. However, the user may not be able to take full advantage of the City’s Website if this is done. 

Electronic Commerce 

Users choosing to engage in electronic commerce with the City are provided reasonable security measures. Electronic-commerce transactions are performed only under tightly controlled circumstances, where there are appropriate technological and other safeguards in place to protect financial and other sensitive data. The electronic-commerce opportunities on the City’s website are intended to securely deliver financial data between individuals and institutions involved in a transaction. Wherever possible, financial information is not collected by the City. Rather, designated banks and financial partners route the data, transfer the funds and confirm payment to both the user and the City. The specific terms of service for particular electronic-government capabilities are provided at the access points for the services. 

Encryption and Security 

Unless a particular web page on the City of Livermore's website indicates that encryption technology is being used, the user should not assume that information uploaded through that web page to the City’s website is secure. If a user submits information to the City through a web page containing visible indicators of active encryption technology, the City will take all reasonable precautions to safeguard the confidentiality of such information, but shall not be held liable for any injury caused by the disclosure of that information, whether caused by security breach, accident, inadvertence, or any other act resulting in disclosure. The user can identify an encrypted page because the web address in the browser will start with https. 

Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on the City of Livermore website are strictly prohibited and may be punishable as provided by law. 

External Link Policy 

At times the City of Livermore provides opportunities on its website to allow links to external websites consistent with this policy. This policy is not intended to, and does not, create a public forum. The City’s sole and limited purpose in allowing external links is to provide information about governmental services and resources, programs and services that the City sponsors or in which it participates, and other services, events or programs that promote tourism for the City. Any links allowed by the City must not compromise the security and integrity of the City’s website. The City expressly reserves the right to terminate, in its sole discretion, the opportunity to link to external Websites without recourse by any linked website. 

If the City provides an opportunity for external links, their placement shall be limited to the number and locations specified by the City. 

Consistent with the foregoing policy, it is the City's policy to limit external links to the following kinds of entities and organizations: 

1. Third parties providing programs and services sponsored by the City or in which it participates; 
2. Government entities; 
3. Public Utilities; 
4. Health care service providers; 
5. Public, private and for-profit educational institutions located within Alameda County; 
6. Chamber of Commerce, Livermore Downtown, Inc., and/or Visitors Bureau; 
7. Museums, libraries, historical organizations and similar kinds of established organizations that provide cultural resources to residents and visitors of the City; 
8. Entities and organizations whose primary purpose is to provide the location, telephone number and/or description of tourism events for the City of Livermore.

Entities and organizations wishing to establish external links on the City's official website must submit a request via email to info@LivermoreCA.gov.

In the email, requestors must include all information necessary to establish that the proposed link complies with this policy, including the following details: the type of entity/organization they represent; the homepage link of the entity/organization; confirmation that the entity/organization website has no known security issues and does not promote false, slanderous, illegal, immoral, or incorrect information; the external link requesting to be shared; and any additional supporting information.

The City of Livermore reserves the right to 1) deny an external link application as to any person, business or organization when it is determined, following review of a complete application, that the entity or organization for which application is made does not meet the criteria set forth in this policy; 2) deny an external link application as to any person, business or organization which fails to provide all required information, or fails to provide truthful information; 3) remove any external link if the nature of the organization or business to which the link relates no longer complies with the City's external link policy; 4) to discontinue an external link at any time if entities’ websites provide or promote false, slanderous, illegal, immoral, or incorrect information at any time; 5) to revise this policy without prior notice when to do so is deemed to be in the best interests of the City; or, 6) to terminate the opportunity to allow external links to the City’s website or a particular page on the website. 

The City of Livermore is neither responsible nor liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions arising out of the use of the website or with respect to the material contained on the Website, including without limitation, any material posted on the website or for any viruses or other contamination of users systems. The City website and all materials contained on it are distributed and transmitted “as is” without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitations, warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The City of Livermore is not responsible for any special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages that may arise from the use of, or the inability to use, the website and/or the materials contained on the website whether the materials contained on the Website are provided by the City of Livermore or a third party. The City is not responsible or liable for any viruses or other contamination of computer systems.

The City of Livermore is not responsible for, and accepts no liability for, the availability of these outside resources. Linked websites are not under the control of, nor maintained by, the City. The City is not responsible for the content of these websites, which can and do change frequently; nor for any internal links the displayed websites contain. In addition, inclusion of the linked websites does not constitute an endorsement or promotion by the City of any persons or organizations sponsoring the displayed website.