Privacy Policy

Individuals who visit the Maine.gov website are important to us. Because visitors to our website are important, we do not capture personal information about them without their permission. We endeavor to collect only the minimum amount of information needed to meet the purposes for which the website was created.

Use of This Policy

Various websites are linked through the Maine.gov website. State and local government agencies may have their own privacy statements posted on their sites, which take precedence over this policy. The Maine.gov Privacy Statement does not apply to non-Maine State Government websites that may be linked from Maine.gov. Visitors should read the privacy policies of individual sites and be cautious about providing personally identifiable information without a clear understanding of how the information will be used.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

Public Disclosure
All information collected on the Maine.gov website will be treated the same as any written communication and is subject to the confidentiality and public disclosure provisions of 1 MRSA Chapter 13.

Visitors to the Maine.gov Website
We may collect some or all of the following information about visitors who view or download information from our website:

The information we collect is used to improve the content of our web services and help us understand how people are using our services. We analyze our website logs to continually improve the value of the materials available on our site. The information in our website logs is not personally identifiable, and we make no attempt to link it with the individuals that browse our website. Some of this statistical information, such as a running count of the number of visitors, may be displayed on the website or shared with other state governments to aid in the provision of better service to the public.

Personally Identifiable Information
"Personally identifiable information" is information about a person that is readily identifiable to that specific individual. It includes, for example, an individual's name, street address, e-mail address, or phone number.

Personally identifiable information will not be collected unless you voluntarily send an e-mail message, fill out and send an online form, or fill out personal information and send in a survey. Your choice not to participate in these activities will not impair your ability to access certain information or obtain a service from state government (though you may not be able to complete the transaction or service online). Unless specifically protected under state law, any information provided may be inspected by the public or disclosed in a legal proceeding.

E-mail Messages
E-mail messages, sent to any Maine State Government address, will be treated the same as any other written communication. They may be subject to public inspection or legal disclosure and may be saved for a period of time before they are destroyed. E-mail or other information requests sent to the state website may be maintained in order to respond to the request, forward that request to the appropriate agency, or to provide the web designer with valuable customer feedback to assist in improving the site. E-mail addresses obtained as a result of a request to the state site will not be sold or given to private companies for marketing purposes.

Electronic Forms
Any other information provided by a visitor at the request of an agency of Maine State Government, such as the completion and electronic filing of a form, will be considered to be voluntarily provided by the visitor and will be treated in the same manner as information provided in written form or in person during a visit to the agency. Information provided may be subject to public inspection and legal disclosure and may be saved for a period of time before it is destroyed. It may be shared with another state agency for appropriate action.

Surveys
Surveys will be used for the purpose stated. If personally identifiable information is collected it may be subject to public inspection and legal disclosure and may be saved for a period of time before it is destroyed.

InforME Subscribers
The Information Resource of Maine collects, retains and utilizes personal information about its customers only when they volunteer to subscribe to InforME. The information is used to administer subscriber accounts and to provide products, services and other opportunities requested by InforME subscribers. Records containing personal information about InforME subscribers are confidential and may only be released with the express written permission of the subscriber pursuant to the provisions of 1 MRSA Chapter 14.

Cookies
In order to better serve you, the user, we use cookies for certain types of online transactions. Cookies are small text files that a web server may ask your web browser to store, and to send back to the web server when needed. Cookies may be used to store a transaction identifier or other information a user may provide.

We use cookies in the following ways:

• Complex transactions: Cookies are used to store and retrieve unique transaction identifiers or other server-generated or user-provided information in complex, multi-page web applications. This allows us to distinguish between different users, and to use information provided at one stage of an application at a later time (for instance, items placed in a 'shopping cart' might need to be displayed on a later 'check-out' screen). When we use cookies in this way, the cookie is stored on your web browser only temporarily; the cookie is destroyed at the end of the transaction or at the end of the browser session.
• Customized Services: Cookies may also be used to automatically identify a particular user to the system, in order to provide a customized service, such as a personalized web page. In this case, a cookie containing a unique user identifier will be permanently stored on your web browser. We do not store sensitive information in such cookies; only a unique user identifier or generic preference values are stored. Personal information you give us for processing a transaction or using one of our personalization features, may be stored on our secure web server.