Thank you for visiting our website. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) website and our mobile applications are designed to make it easier and more efficient for Georgia citizens and businesses to interact with their State Government. Georgia government strives to provide online resources in a safe, secure manner that respects your privacy when you visit our sites or use our applications.'

This Privacy Notice addresses the collection, use, disclosure, and security of information that may be obtained through the use of website and/or mobile applications maintained by the GDOT.

GDOT is committed to protecting the privacy of our users. The following information explains our current Internet privacy practices but should not be understood as a legally binding document. We reserve the right to amend our Privacy Notice at any time. We will make reasonable efforts to provide notice of significant changes on our website and/or mobile applications.

End User License Agreement

Georgia Laws

We protect our records in accordance with our obligations as defined by applicable Georgia statutes, including, but not limited to the Georgia’s Personal Identity Protection Act (‘PIPA’) under §§10-1-911 et seq. of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Ga. Code Ann.), the Georgia Open Records Act § 50.18.70 et seq. (Ga. Code Ann.), including, but not limited to, the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), the Privacy Act of 1974, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

Essential Information We Collect

If you visit a GDOT website or use one of our mobile applications, the State of Georgia may collect some or all of the following information:

• The name of your domain; for example, "xyzcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account
• An IP address; a number automatically assigned to your computer when you are using the Internet
• The type of browser and operating system used to access our website
• The Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our website
• The pages you visit within the portal
• The links made to other websites through the portal

Additionally, GDOT and/or its licensed application vendor(s) may collect geolocation data when you use our website and/or mobile applications. Geolocation data refers to information that identifies, with reasonable specificity, your physical location or movements, such as GPS coordinates or similar information regarding the location of your device.

When you use GDOT’s website and/or mobile applications, we may collect and process information about your actual location. We use various technologies to determine location, including IP address, GPS, and other sensors that may provide information on nearby devices, Wi-Fi access points, and cell towers.

You can ”Allow”/”Opt-in” or “Not Allow”/ “Opt out” of location services when you use our website or mobile application at any time, through your device settings. However, disabling location services may affect the functionality and features of our website or mobile application.

If, during your visit to the GDOT website, you voluntarily provide personally identifiable information, we will collect such information. Examples of personally identifiable information may include:

• Your name, address, or phone number
• An e-mail address if you are communicating to us through e-mail
• Information you voluntarily submit to the State of Georgia for the purposes of completing or submitting an application or form online
• Other information volunteered, such as vendor profile/contact information, survey information or content of e-mail

In general, please note the information collected, whether or not personally identifiable, is not limited to text characters and may include graphic formats you send us. Information is retained and used in accordance with existing laws, rules, regulations, and other policies.

How the Information Collected is Used

We or GDOT’s licensed application vendor(s) may use all of the above information to track the number of users who visit our site and identify our most popular pages so that we can continue to improve site content and functionality and diagnose problems with our servers. This information is retained for a period of twenty-six (26) months and is not shared with any other third parties. Also any text messaging user opt-in/opt-out data and consent will not be shared by GDOT with any third parties.

Depending on the specific user interaction, the State of Georgia may share personally identifiable information amongst its agencies in order to provide relevant public services or to complete the user interaction. Website visitors and mobile application users should be aware that information collected through the website or mobile applications may be subject to examination and inspection, if such information is a public record or not otherwise protected from disclosure. Neither GDOT or the State of Georgia shares, sells or trades email addresses, demographic information collected on surveys or any other information about our online users. GDOT may disclose user information to comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to any government or regulatory request.

The geolocation data we collect is used to provide and improve our services, provide user support, and to carry out any other purposes described in this Privacy Notice or communicated to you at the time of data collection.

For example, we may use your geolocation data to:

1. Personalize your experience by tailoring content and recommendations based on your location.
2. Provide you with location-based services, such as routing, customer support, and security.
3. Conduct analytics and measurement to understand how our services are used.

This information is collected and aggregated for research, statistical analysis, or other business purposes using third-party or proprietary software programs to create summary statistics. The statistics are used for the purpose of determining what information is of most and least interest to all visitors and identifying system performance or problem areas in order to better plan future portal enhancements. This information is not collected for commercial marketing purposes.

Cookies

When you visit a website or use a mobile application and request information, the site’s server sends the request to you and then breaks the connection. The connection does not resume again until you perform another action. To ensure that we maintain a connection between our server and your computer, we use a standard web technology called “cookies.” A cookie is a very small amount of data that is sent from our server to your computer’s hard drive. In addition, cookies allow us to save the information that you input while progressing through an online transaction. If your browser is not configured to “accept” cookies, you will still be able to access the static information on our website or mobile application, but you will not be able to use certain features, such as our online transactions, personalization settings, and saved preferences.

Links to Other Websites

GDOT’s website and mobile application might include hyperlinks to sites on the World Wide Web or Internet that are neither controlled nor sponsored by GDOT or the State of Georgia. Inclusion of any external hyperlink should not be interpreted as an endorsement by GDOT or the State of Georgia of either the site’s sponsor or any commercial product. Use of external hyperlinks is at your own risk, If you have questions or concerns about a site we link to, please read the privacy and terms and conditions of use information for that site.

Plug Ins

Some files on the GDOT website require free external “plug ins” to be viewed. These software programs include:

If you have difficulty opening files from this site, download and install the latest version of the software.

Security

The GDOT site has security measures in place, including data encryption, secure servers, and firewalls, to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of information under our control. When you browse public areas of the GDOT Website, none of your personal information is captured or stored by GDOT.

When you conduct an online transaction with GDOT, we offer the use of a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption protocol to safeguard your sensitive personal information, including your stored identification and financial data. Information is encrypted from your computer to the Portal computer processing your request.

Firewalls

Our firewalls are a complex system of hardware and software that allow us to strictly regulate information and data that can both enter and exit our servers. This ensures that only authorized access occurs and that GDOT information remains confidential. No user information is stored on our Internet servers. Records are stored in separate databases not directly connected to the Internet.

Secure Sockets Layer

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is an industry standard technology that creates a secure environment for the information transferred between your browser and GDOT. SSL encrypts all information that you input before it is sent to GDOT. Secure data such as your user number, PIN, date of birth, plate number, title number, and credit card information are scrambled in the encryption/cryptography process.

Communicating With Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Notice, the practices of GDOT’s website or mobile applications, or your interaction with GDOT’s website or mobile application, please contact us at GDOTPrivacy@dot.ga.gov, or visit our Contact Us page www.dot.ga.gov/GDOT/pages/ContactUs.aspx ​​​​​