Web Policy

The following represents practices and procedures of The Department of Accounts (DOA) as currently approved by the Comptroller for the state of Virginia. DOA reserves the right to change these practices and procedures at any time without prior notice. The following is not intended and should not be interpreted as a contract of any nature, either stated or implied.

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Privacy Policy

Individuals who visit DOA 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 ensure that we collect only the minimum amount of information needed to meet the purpose for which the network was created.

Though personal information may be required in order for us to provide requested information, in doing so we are subject to the requirements for administering information systems as established in the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act, Chapter 38 of Title 2.2 of the Code of Virginia. Pages that appear after you click on a link may be controlled by a different agency or entity, whose practices are not under DOA's control.

Please see our FOIA page for Freedom of Information Act requests.

Use, collection, and retention of customer information at the Department of Accounts

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the website, read pages, or download information, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you personally. We automatically collect and store only the following information about your visit:

  • The Internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect from a university's domain) and IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our website;
  • The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
  • The date and time you access our site;
  • The pages you visit

We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors -- to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use. We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits.

User Provided Information

We do collect personal information directly from individuals who volunteer to request information from the Department of Accounts. Collecting personal information is necessary to deliver the information and services requested. For example, if you send an e-mail message to DOA we will collect the e-mail address and contents of the message, including audio, video, and graphic information formats you send us. We use your contact information to respond appropriately.

If you choose to provide personally identifying information to us, we will use and disclose it as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not provide your name or other identifying information, it may be impossible for us to refer, respond to, or investigate your complaint or request. We may share your information with contractors acting on our behalf, such as call center operators, who are subject to confidentiality agreements.

DOA appreciates the trust and confidence placed by individuals in providing personal information in order to fulfill their requests.

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA)

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) is a United States federal law, located at Title 15, Section 6501 of the United States Code. The act, effective April 21, 2000, applies to the online collection of personal information by persons or entities under U.S. jurisdiction from children under 13 years of age. It details what a website operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardian, and what responsibilities an operator has to protect children's privacy and safety online including restrictions on the marketing to those under 13.

We do not intentionally collect such information on anyone we know to be under 18 years of age. If such information is inadvertently obtained, the minor's parent or legal guardian may Contact Us for a description of the specific types of personal information collected from the child and the options available to them under law to ensure their child's safety.

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Use of "Cookies"

"Cookies" are small files either stored on a server or sent back to a visiting computer. We do not use persistent "cookies" that collect personally identifying information. Some parts of our site use session cookies. Session cookies are temporary files that are erased when you close all browsers. We use these session cookies for site management purposes and to customize the information presented to you while visiting our site.

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Restrictions on the disclosure of customer information

DOA does not sell or rent subscribers' information to any outside company or organization. We do not reveal specific information about subscribers or other personally identifiable data to unaffiliated third parties for their independent use, except if required to do so by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act or other law.

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Internet Disclaimer

The Virginia Department of Account’s (DOA) website includes hyperlinks to other sites on the World Wide Web that are neither controlled or sponsored by DOA. We have provided these links for your convenience and to give you easy access to other organizations whose expertise may be related to the mission of this agency. Inclusion of these links is not an endorsement by DOA or the Commonwealth of Virginia of the sites’ sponsors or any commercial products.

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Maintenance of accurate information

DOA has established procedures to ensure that information is as accurate and current as is practical. Although we strive to do things right the first time, we also respond to requests to correct dated information in a timely manner.

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Dispute Resolution

Please Contact Us if you think we have not followed our privacy policy in any way.

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Accessibility Policy

The Department of Accounts recognizes the importance of making its digital government services available to the largest possible audience and has attempted to design our sites to be accessible by everyone. Our Web sites are coded to comply with

In addition to these standards, all of our Adobe Portable Documents (pdf) are fully tested for accessibility. Users can get information regarding the accessibility of Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files from the Adobe Accessibility Resource Center.

The Department of Accounts will continue to test future releases of this site and remains committed to maintaining its compliance and serving the widest possible audience for Virginia's digital government services. If you cannot fully access the information on any web page of this site, please Contact Us and we will try to provide the information to you in an alternate format or make the necessary improvements to make the information accessible.

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Viewers, Plug-ins and Browser Components

DOA provides content in several formats that require plug-ins, or separate browser components, for proper viewing. All required plug-ins (except the non-trial version of WinZip) are free to use.

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Linking Policy

This website contains hypertext links to external websites and pages containing information created and maintained by public and private organizations other than DOA. DOA, at its sole discretion, will determine which external websites will be linked. The inclusion of a hypertext link to an external website is not intended as an endorsement of any product or service offered or referenced on the linked website, the organizations sponsoring said website, or any views that might be expressed or referenced in the website.

Hypertext links to external websites and pages may be removed or replaced at the sole discretion of the DOA at any time without notice.

If a hypertext link on the DOA website is not working, please contact our Webmaster by emailing webmaster@doa.virginia.gov or by using the contact information provided on the Contact Us Web page.

See also this policy's Disclaimer section regarding off-site links.

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