Privacy Policy

NC.gov is striving to provide secure, efficient and friendly digital government experience. This privacy statement addresses the collection, use, disclosure and security of information that may be obtained when you visit North Carolina government websites that have this privacy statement in the footer.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

Any information you provide or otherwise exchange with a State of North Carolina website, including features such as chatbots, is not privileged or confidential. When you visit our website to browse, read pages, submit forms, interact with a chatbot or download information, we automatically collect and store the following information:

• The Internet domain and IP address from which you access our portal;
• The date and time you access our site;
• The pages you visit;
• If you linked to this website from another website, the address of that website.
• IP addresses, which are numbers automatically assigned to a computer when using the Internet;
• The type of browser and operating system used to access the site;
• The search terms used to get to the website, in addition to search terms used in the site’s search engine;
• The dates and times users access the site;
• The type of device used to access the site;
• How often users visit the site;
• The pages users visit within the site; and
• The links made to other websites through this site; and
• The information you exchange with a chatbot on this site.

NC.gov uses this information to help make the site more useful to visitors, to learn about the number of visitors to the site and the types of technology visitors use. If you interact with the chatbot on our website, your submitted question is used only to generate a response. The chatbot itself does not retain or remember what you submit. However, after the response is provided, we may save an anonymized version of the chatbot messages to help improve the service. Your message is protected while being sent by encryption, and any personal information is removed before anything is stored.

Use of Google Analytics

The State of North Carolina uses Google Analytics measurement software to collect the information listed above. The data is automatically sent to Google’s system and the system immediately aggregates the data. The State of North Carolina nor Google ever have access to the specifics of your particular site visits. The staff can only see the aggregate data from all users for a particular time period.

The State of North Carolina gathers this information to improve our websites and has chosen not to share the aggregate data with Google. We may use the aggregated data to share with our partners and contractors to help improve visitor experiences.

The State of North Carolina will collect no personal information about you other than statistical information that can be used to make the site more effective unless you choose to provide that information to us. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, or as otherwise required by law, we do not share any information we receive with anyone else.

Website Security

For website security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage. Use of this site constitutes consent to such monitoring. Unauthorized attempts to upload information and/or change information on this website are strictly prohibited and subject to legal action to include the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.

Public Disclosure

Any information you submit or otherwise communicate on a State of North Carolina website, including use of any feature like a chatbot, may be subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act, Chapter 132 of the North Carolina General Statutes. Government records in North Carolina generally are public in nature. The public policy of the State of North Carolina as established by the General Assembly is to "provide that, as a general rule, the public would have liberal access to public records."

The North Carolina Public Records Law states that public records "shall mean all documents papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data-processing records, artifacts, or other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance in connection with the transaction of public business by any agency of North Carolina or its subdivisions." For information to be confidential, a specific provision must be made in the law.

Information You Send Us, Including Email and Chatbots

If you send us personal information via email, chatbots or by filling out a form on the website, we or a chatbot may use that information in responding to your request. Send only the information that is necessary for us or a chatbot to answer your question or process your request. We may forward your email or other communication to the government employee who can best answer your questions. The information you send to us may be reviewed and used for quality purposes, business purposes of the receiving agency and as allowed by law. We do not disclose, give, sell or transfer any personal information about our visitors, unless required for law enforcement or statute or necessary for a vendor to provide services on our site. The email or other communication is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law.

Cookies

A persistent cookie is generally defined as a piece of data that is stored on the user's hard drive. We do not use persistent cookies on our website or in our web applications.

Temporary or session cookies are used on all NC.gov website pages. These cookies are stored in memory and are only available during an active browser session. Session cookies are also used by some of the applications deployed on our website to temporarily save information entered by a user as long as the user's browser is open. These cookies do not collect personal information on users, and they are erased as soon as you close your web browser. No personally identifiable information about you is maintained as a result of a temporary or session cookie.

You can configure your web browser to accept or decline cookies, or to alert you when cookies are in use. You do not have to accept cookies from us, but if you choose not to, some of the functions on our site may not be available to you.

Interaction with Children Online

The State is committed to the protection of children’s online privacy. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) governs information gathered online from or about children under the age of 13. Verifiable consent from a child’s parent or guardian is required before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from a child under age 13. If a State agency website intends to collect information from children under 13 years old, COPPA-required information and instructions will be provided by the specific web page that collects information about the child. The web page will specify exactly what the information will be used for, who will see it, and how long it will be kept.

Links to Other Sites and Social Media

Our site provides links to other websites. The privacy policies described here do not necessarily apply to any external sites. Read the privacy policies of other sites you visit. Be informed. You are the person best qualified to protect your own privacy.

Where we manage a presence on social media sites to share government information and engage with our audience, we do not collect any personally identifiable information through those sites. We do not use personal information made available by the third-party sites. If you submit a question or comment to us via a social media tool or platform, we may reply directly to you via that platform, but we do not track or record any information about individuals who use or interact with us via those platforms.

Disclaimer and Terms of Use

The State of North Carolina nc.gov disclaimer and terms of use can be found here: nc.gov/disclaimer-terms-use.

Updates

The State of North Carolina reserves the right to modify this privacy policy at any time without prior notice. Any changes will be posted on this page, and your continued use of any State of North Carolina website, including any chatbot or other function offered on the website, after such change constitutes their acknowledgement of this disclaimer in its entirety.