Introduction
This website is the official website of the Department of Public Safety (DPS) operated for authorized use only and provided as a public service.
This Privacy Notice describes DPS’s privacy practices regarding information that we may collect, including what information is collected and how that information is used.
DPS protects all information transmitted consistent with applicable law. Your privacy and our site security are important to DPS. We understand that you are aware of and care about your own personal privacy interests, and we take that seriously. This Privacy Notice describes DPS’s policies and practices regarding its collection and use of your personal data and sets forth your privacy rights. We recognize that information privacy is an ongoing responsibility, and so we will from time to time update this Privacy Notice as we undertake new personal data practices or adopt new privacy policies.
This Website Privacy Notice applies to all pages operated by DPS. However, this Notice does not apply whenever you leave the DPS-operated website and follow a link to another website, including the websites of other governmental entities.
Data Protection Officer
DPS has appointed a senior agency official for privacy (also known as a data protection officer or data privacy officer) if you have any questions or concerns about our data privacy policies or practices.
Meghan W. Frkuska
Chief Privacy Officer
5805 N. Lamar
Austin, TX 78752
How we collect and use (process) your personal information
DPS collects personal information about certain people as authorized by law. We only share your personal information when we are legally required to do so. We also use your information to provide you with various governmental services such as driver license services or fingerprinting for background checks. DPS may also be required by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide personally identifiable information to the appropriate governmental authorities. We reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we in good faith believe to be unlawful.
Release of information
All information collected or maintained by DPS is subject to the provisions of the Texas Public Information Act (Texas Government Code Chapter 552). The email address used by a member of the public to communicate electronically with a state agency is generally confidential but is subject to exceptions listed in Texas Government Code Section 552.137.
DPS complies with the State Website Linking and Privacy Policy that the Department of Information Resources maintains. DPS encourages organizations that link to this website to comply with the provisions of the State Website Linking and Privacy Policy, especially regarding protection of the privacy rights of individuals, and to make reasonable efforts to provide accessible sites.
Use of the DPS Website
As is true of most other websites, DPS’s website collects certain information automatically and stores it in log files. The information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system, and other usage information about the use of DPS’s website, including a history of the pages you view. We use this information to help us design our site to better suit our users’ needs. We may also use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website, analyze trends, track visitor movements, and gather broad demographic information that assists us in identifying visitor preferences.
Sending us email
By sending us an email, such as a request for information, you may be sending us personal information (such as your name, address, or email address). We may collect and store the name and contact information of the requestor allowing DPS to respond to the email.
When and how we share information with others
Information about you is stored in the United States. Information we collect about you will be processed in the United States. DPS uses data sharing and security in its contracts and as required by law and best practices.
Security of your information
To help protect the privacy of data and personally identifiable information you transmit through use of this site, we maintain physical, technical, and administrative safeguards. We update and test our security technology on an ongoing basis. We restrict access to your personal data to those parties who need to know that information to provide benefits or services to you or as required by law. In addition, we train our employees about the importance of confidentiality and maintaining the privacy and security of your information. We commit to taking appropriate disciplinary measures to enforce our privacy responsibilities.
Data storage and retention
Your personal data is stored in the United States by DPS on its own servers and on the servers of the cloud-based database management services that DPS engages with. DPS retains data for the duration required by our records retention schedule for ongoing daily business, to analyze the data for DPS’s own operations, and for historical and archiving purposes. For more information on where and how long your personal data is stored, and for more information on your rights of erasure and portability, please contact our data protection officer.