Privacy & Conditions of Use

Statement of Purpose

CARB maintains arb.ca.gov and all related sub-websites (collectively “CARBIS”) to enhance public access to information and services provided by CARB. CARB's goals include:

Timely and convenient access to CARB publications and information about CARB programs.
Facilitate the distribution of information to the public regarding permit assistance, business assistance and other activities of CARB.
Actively encourage and promote the free exchange of information, ideas and opinions.
Through the use of external links, provide CARBIS site users with convenient access to other resources available on the Internet.
Provide an archive of past program activities for the use of the public and CARB staff.

By continuing to use CARBIS, you agree to and accept all of the CARBIS policies and terms on this webpage below. Otherwise, please log off of CARBIS now.

Privacy

“Personal information”, also known as personal identifying information (PII), is defined as “any information that is maintained by an agency that identifies or describes an individual, including, but not limited to, the individual’s name, social security number, physical description, home address, home telephone number, education, financial matters, and medical or employment history. It includes statements made by, or attributed to, the individual.” (Civ. Code, § 1798.3, subd. (a).) “The term ‘individual’ means a natural person. (Ibid., subd. (d).)

“Electronically collected personal information” (ECPI) means “any information that is maintained by an agency that identifies or describes an individual user, including, but not limited to, the user’s name, social security number, physical description, home address, home telephone number, education, financial matters, medical or employment history, password, electronic mail address, and information that reveals any network location or identity, but excludes any information manually submitted to a state agency by a user, whether electronically or in written form, and information on or relating to individuals who are users serving in a business capacity, including, but not limited to, business owners, officers, or principals of that business.” (Gov. Code, § 11015.5, subd. (d)(1).) “User” means “an individual who communicates with a state agency or with an agency employee or official electronically.” (Gov. Code, § 11015.5, subd. (d)(2).)

CARB respects your right to privacy. Government Code section 11019.9 provides that all departments and agencies of the State of California shall enact and maintain a permanent privacy policy, in adherence with the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Civil Code section 1798 et seq.), that includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the following principles to protect your right to privacy when viewing our pages on our Internet site:

PII may only be obtained through lawful means.
The purposes for which PII are collected shall be specified at or prior to the time of collection, and any subsequent use of the data shall be limited to and consistent with the fulfillment of those purposes previously specified.
PII may not be disclosed, made available, or otherwise used for a purpose other than those specified, except with the consent of the subject of the data, or as required by law or regulation.
PII collected shall be relevant to the purpose for which it is needed.
The general means by which PII is protected against loss, unauthorized access, use, modification, or disclosure shall be posted, unless the disclosure of those general means would compromise legitimate agency objectives or law enforcement purposes.
Individuals have the right to access PII collected from them and maintained by CARB, and to request correction of any inaccuracies in such records.

We collect some PII directly from individuals who volunteer to use some of our services, including this website. Collection of this information is required to deliver the specific services, but use of these services is voluntary.

If you do nothing during your visit to this website but only browse and download information, we also automatically collect and store the following ECPI information about your visit:

The Internet Protocol Address and domain name used, but not your e-mail address. The Internet Protocol Address is a numerical identifier assigned either by your Internet service provider or directly to by your computer. We use the Internet Protocol Address to direct Internet traffic to you and generate statistics used in the management of this site;
The type of browser and operating system you used;
The date and time you visited the site; and/or,
The web pages or services you accessed at the site.

CARB does not place "cookies" on the computers of visitors to our site, except session cookies for our local air district application. However, to ensure that our site is accessible to as many people as possible, we do monitor the aggregate number of visitors to the different pages on our site and also keep track of the various types of web browsers used by our users. The cookies created on your computer by using the website do not contain PII and do not compromise your privacy or security. The main purpose of a cookie is to identify and customize web pages for you. The cookies will remain on your computer unless you delete them. You can manage your cookies by accessing your browser’s preferences menu to prevent them from being placed on your computer or to delete them from your computer. Additionally, information on how to delete cookies from your computer may be found at http://www.aboutcookies.org. You should, however, be aware that some websites may not work properly if you block cookie placement.

Public Disclosure

In the State of California, laws exist to ensure that government is open and that the public has a right to access appropriate records and information possessed by state government. At the same time, there are exceptions to the public's right to access public records. These exceptions serve various needs including maintaining the privacy of individuals. Both state and federal laws provide exceptions to public access of government records.

All PII submitted by a user to this site becomes public record that may be subject to inspection and copying by the public, unless an exemption in law exists. Please note that ECPI is exempt from California Public Record Act requests (Gov. Code,§ 7927.400.) However, California Government Code section 11015.5 (a)(6) prohibits all state agencies from distributing or selling any ECPI about users to any third party without the permission of the user. CARB does not sell any ECPI. CARB may provide or distribute certain lists and statistical reports of regulatory information as provided by law, but ECPI is redacted or aggregated to remove the connection to the individual user.

Note that a "user has the option of having the user’s personal information discarded without reuse or distribution, provided that the appropriate agency official or employee is contacted after notice is given to the user." (Gov. Code, § 11015.5, subd. (a)(4).) CARB will not be responsible for information you provide us that is subsequently displayed by Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine. Please contact CARB’s privacy officer at 916.445.0628 or privacy@arb.ca.gov if you want to request that we discard your PII.

In the event of conflict between this Privacy and Conditions of Use Policy and the Public Records Act, the Information Practices Act, or other law governing the disclosure of records, the Public Records Act, the Information Practices Act, or other applicable law will control.

Request for Assistance

Any information you provide to us will only be shared with entities involved in your case as necessary. Information you provide may be included with other consumers' information to be used for statistical reporting, trending data, and/or investigative actions. For example, we may need to retain information that becomes part of an enforcement action or consumer complaint case for a period of time after the closing date of the case.

If you provide us with information regarding an issue that does not fall within our regulatory jurisdiction, we may refer your information to the appropriate local, state, or federal agency on your behalf.

Public Comments & Surveys

Please note that under the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code, § 7920.000 et seq.), your written and oral comments, attachments, and associated contact information (e.g. your address, phone, email, etc.) become part of the public record and can be released to the public upon request. Additionally, this information may become available via Google, Yahoo, and any other search engines. The information collected is not limited to text characters and may include audio, video, and graphic information formats you send us.

The information is retained in accordance with Government Code § 11015.5.

Sending CARB Emails

You may choose to provide us with personal information, as in e-mail with a comment or question. We use the information to improve our service to you or to respond to your request. Sometimes we forward your e-mail to other state employees who may be better able to help you, and this staff may be employed by a different agency within the state. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations or, as required by law, we do not share our e-mail with any other organizations.

We use your e-mail to respond appropriately. This may be to respond to you, to address issues you identify, to further improve our website, or to forward the e-mail to another agency for appropriate action.

Registration

In those instances in which registration is required, use your real name and address in the registration process. Users are reminded to remember their password and do not share your password.

Order Forms

If you place an order with us, we request information from the user on our order form. A user must provide contact information (like name and shipping address) and financial information (like credit card number and expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill your order/request. If we have trouble processing an order, this contact information is used to get in touch with you.

A Special Note About Children

Children are not eligible to use services that require submission of personal information, and we require that minors (under the age of 18) do not submit any personal information to us. This includes submitting personal information to CARB as part of a user profile or personalization profile. If you are a minor, you can use these services only if used together with your parents or guardians. If you are a minor, you should seek guidance from your parents.

If the CARB decides to begin collecting personal information from children, it will notify parents that it is being requested, disclose the reasons for collecting it, and disclose our intended use of it. CARB will seek parental consent before collecting any personally identifiable information. If it does collect it, parents may request information on the type of data being collected, view their child's information, and, if they choose, prohibit the state from making further use of their child's information. CARB will not provide personal information about children to third parties.

Feedback Information

Any information provided to CARB through the CARBIS website and received by CARB on a non-confidential basis allows free and unrestricted use of the information by CARB.

General Disclaimer and Unauthorized Use

CARB shall not be responsible for any errors or omission in the content of CARBIS, and reserves the right to make changes without notice. All information, software, or other materials obtained from the CARBIS (collectively CARB Material) is provided on an "as is" and “as-available” basis, without warranties of any kind. CARB expressly disclaims any and all warranties concerning the CARB Material and/or the related intellectual property, whether express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, presence or absence of errors, whether now known or discoverable.

The entire risk of acting on information obtained from the CARBIS, including the entire costs of all necessary remedies, is with those who choose to act on such information and not the State of California or CARB. In addition, neither the State of California nor CARB is responsible for the content of files which are uploaded for inclusion within the CARBIS.

The user assumes full responsibility for the files he/she uploads and/or downloads and/or views including data destroyed by viruses or other computer initiated problems. CARB and the State of California will not be liable for special, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages, or damages for lost profits, loss of revenue, or loss of use, arising out of or related to the CARB website or the information contained in it, whether such damages arise in contract, negligence, tort, under statute, in equity, at law or otherwise. If you find any error or emission, we encourage you to report them to the contact listed in that Webpage area.

The contents of the CARBIS do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of CARB, nor does any mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation of use.

You agree not to use the CARBIS for any illegal purpose or activity, or to discuss or advocate any illegal activities, whether in private or in public. You agree not to do anything that may damage CARBIS, or the computer hardware, software, or data files related to CARBIS, in any way.

This system is monitored to ensure proper operation, to verify the functioning of applicable security features, and for comparable purposes. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring. Unauthorized attempts to modify any information stored on this system, to defeat or circumvent security features, or to utilize this system for other than its intended purposes are prohibited and may result in criminal prosecution.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the State of California, CARB, and any of their board members, officers, employees, agents, representatives, and successors-in-interest, from any and all liabilities, losses, damages, claims and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising directly or indirectly out of the use of CARBIS by you or any of your agents.

Disclaimer on the Use of CARB's Listserve Features

For more information, refer to CARB's list server disclaimer information.

Disclaimer of Duty to Continue

Due to the dynamic nature of the Internet, resources that are free and publicly available one day may require a fee or restricted access the next, and the location of items may change as menus, home pages, and files are reorganized. User expressly agrees that use of the CARBIS website is at the user's sole risk. Neither CARB nor any of its respective employees warrant that the service will be uninterrupted or error free.

Links to External Sites

Other websites are invited to include links to the CARBIS website. While we appreciate it if you let us know who you are and what part of our site you are linked to, permission is not required.

However, we ask you not to lift information from this site for placement on another website. If you do lift information, do not attribute that lifted information to CARB. Our information is updated frequently, and we need to be certain that only current information is posted and attributed correctly to CARB. CARB does not control other websites and their resources, and we can not endorse them. CARB will not be held responsible for their availability, content, or accuracy. Therefore, we ask you to directly link to our website where we are in control of the timelines and accuracy of the provided information.

CARB may, at its discretion, create links to other websites that meet the following criteria.

The external link will assist CARB in fulfilling its mission.
The external link will provide information of value to CARB customers.
The organization being linked to is not engaged in any legal or enforcement proceedings with CARB.
The external website is managed in a professional manner (i.e., fully operational and available most of the time, etc.).
If the external website is a commercial site, the site owner is either an active partner in one of CARB's programs, or supplies information or products that support the principles of CARB.
The external website does not contain information that would offend common standards of decency and propriety.

CARB will remove any external link that does not continue to meet these criteria. External links do not imply any State of California or CARB's endorsement of the opinions or ideas expressed therein, or guarantees the validity of the information provided. The user specifically acknowledges that CARB is not liable for the defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of other users, links, or third parties and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with the user and understands that by linking to another site, you are no longer on our site and are subject to the Privacy and Conditions of Use policies of the new site.

CARB reserves the right to modify the above criteria and add/delete links based upon the modification at any time and without notice. We request that you not post offensive messages or encourage others to do so. You agree to adhere to these policies and notify the system operator immediately when you discover any violations of these rules.

Confidential and Copyright Information

Pursuant to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (18 U.S.C. 2510, et. seq.), notice is hereby given that there are no facilities provided by this system for sending or receiving truly private or confidential electronic communications.

All files uploaded to the CARBIS by users for access by the user community shall not require any remuneration from the sender. All such files become public property and are downloaded and operated at the user's risk. Files for which monetary remuneration is requested will be removed. For your convenience, we are providing a link to CARB's, "How to Request Public Records" that may aid in understanding the California Public Records Act and how it relates to confidential or trade secret information provided to the CARB.

CARB may also make use of copyrighted data (e.g., photographs) on our website which may require additional permissions prior to your use. In order to use any information on this website not owned or created by the CARB, you must seek permission directly from the owning (or holding) sources.

California Air Pollution Control Laws are available on our website. However, the ability to take full advantage of some of the functionality of CARBIS (such as database searching) may depend upon the individual user's browser. If you have questions, contact CARB's webmaster or call (916) 322-3260.

If you are not prepared to abide by any of the above CARBIS policies, please log off now.

Access for Persons with Disabilities or with Limited English Proficiency

This site includes accessibility features to accommodate the needs of disabled users. If you need information about these features or have suggestions, contact CARB's Office of Communications at (916) 322-2990.

CARB does not discriminate on the basis of disability in access to its programs. This website and the information it contains are provided as a public service.

TTY/TDD/Speech-to-Speech Users May Dial 7-1-1 for the California Relay Service or 1-800-735-2922 (Voice) or for Speech-to-Speech use 1-800-854-7784.

For an accessible version of any document on this website, contact CARB's webmaster.

Contact

Questions about the content of a specific portion of the CARB website should be referred to contacts listed on individual pages or CARB's webmaster.

If you have any comments or questions regarding the privacy policy, compliance, or complaints related to privacy or personal information access requests contact the Privacy Officer at privacy@arb.ca.gov or (279) 216-0303.

Privacy Office Mailing Address

California Air Resources Board
Attention: Privacy Officer
P.O. Box 2815, Sacramento, CA 95812

By continuing to use CARBIS, you agree to and accept all of the CARBIS policies and terms on this webpage above. Otherwise, please log off of CARBIS now.