Introduction and Scope
These Terms and Conditions are the agreement between any person or entity visiting or interacting with sos.oregon.gov (“You” or “Your”) and the Oregon Secretary of State (“SOS”). These Terms and Conditions govern Your access and use of sos.oregon.gov and any other websites or social media accounts operated, controlled, or maintained by SOS or one of its divisions (“the “Sites”). Please read these Terms and Conditions carefully because by accessing and continuing to access one or more of the Sites, you accept these Terms and Conditions without limitation and modification. SOS operates the Sites for the convenience of Oregon residents and visitors to the state. The content and services provided by the Sites are provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement, or that information is accurate or current at the time it is accessed. You agree to hold harmless and indemnify SOS and its divisions and officers from and against any damages and liability based on or arising out of your access or use of content on any of the Sites.
Privacy
Personal Information and Public Records
You may be asked or required to submit information that You consider Personal Information (including as defined below) as part of using a Site or using services available through a Site . For purposes of Your use of the Sites and services, we consider "Personal Information" to be information about a person that is readily identifiable to that individual, such as an individual's name, address, and telephone number.
Personal information is collected when consistent with the intent of statute, state policies, and business needs. Personal Information may be exempt from disclosure if disclosure would constitute an unreasonable invasion of privacy under the circumstances.
Most information collected by state government is assumed to be open to the public unless specifically exempted. ORS Chapter 192 contains the Oregon Public Records Law. Under this law, individuals are permitted to request that public officials not disclose a public record that contains their home address, personal telephone number, and electronic mail address under certain circumstances. ORS 192.368 specifies how to request non-disclosure.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
The Sites and services are not designed for, or targeted to reach, children under the age of 13. Children under the age of 13 are not eligible to use services that require submission of Personal Information and should not submit any personal information through a Site, which includes submitting Personal Information to a Site for a user or personalization profile.
If You are a child under the age of 13, You can only set up user profiles or submit Personal Information together with your parent(s) or guardian(s). Please seek guidance from your parent(s) or guardian(s) if you are under the age of 13.
If the Oregon Secretary of State (SOS) opts to collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13 through a Site, the SOS will provide notice and follow processes in conformance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). For more information on COPPA, please see:
Protecting Your Child’s Privacy Online.
Information Collected While Browsing Site Web Pages
If you browse or download information from a Site, the SOS collects the information below as the standard data collected by all web server software. That collected information is:
- The Internet Protocol (IP) address of a user connection (but not an email address). The IP address is a numerical identifier assigned either to an internet service provider or directly to a user’s computer. The IP address is used to respond to a browser request. An IP Address is a numerical label, in the format xxx.xxx.xx.xx, used for network interface or location addressing.
- The domain name assigned to an IP address (if there is one). Example: somename.com
- The type of browser and operating system used. Example: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT; IE4WDUS-1998101501)
- The date and time a user visited a Site
- The web pages or services a user accessed at Site
- The website a user visited prior to coming to a Site. (Note: this is included so that summary analysis can be done on how visitors get to our site, i.e., from a search engine, from a link on another site, etc.)
Generally, Sites do not track individual user navigation choices and the information listed above is summarized to determine:
- What organizations are our most frequent users (item 2 above) to better target our content for the audience
- What browsers are being used on our site to determine what techniques we should use to develop pages that will work with different browsers (item 3 above).
- How often our pages are being visited (item 5 above)
- The traffic from organization names such as search engines that direct people to the site (item 6 above)
Some Sites, however, may ask to collect information of an individual to provide services or conduct transactions. Please see Use of Personal Information.
For information security purposes and to ensure Sites and services remain available to users, network traffic is monitored to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. If security monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, system personnel may provide the results of such monitoring to appropriate officials.
Except for investigations authorized by law, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on the Sites are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under state law and federal statutes, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.
Use of Personal Information
The SOS may collect Personal Information to deliver services or conduct transactions. You have the right to review your Personal Information collected by any of the Sites by contacting the SOS.
Personal Information collected during an online transaction is used for, but not limited to, the following purposes:
- Create user accounts or complete online transactions (for example, payment of license fees or tax collection), either on a site hosted on sos.oregon.gov, sos.state.or.us, or a third-party website.
- Send email or otherwise contact the individual to confirm a transaction or identify and resolve problems that occurred during the transaction; or
- Provide information about state agencies, government services, or about Oregon to visitors who elect to receive this notification service.
- Conduct occasional online surveys to improve Site operation or seek opinions of users. These surveys are entirely voluntary and You may easily decline to participate.
Secure Transmission
This site uses the industry standard encryption software Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to enable secure transmission of data. The URL in your browser will change to "HTTPS" instead of "HTTP" when this security feature is invoked. Your browser may also display a lock or key symbol on its task bar to indicate invoked secure transmission. If these indicators are not present, information may be susceptible to interception by other parties. Most internet email communication is not considered secure. If you are communicating sensitive information, consider sending it by postal mail or contacting the agency by phone.
Cookies
A cookie is a small text file created by a web server and stored on your computer hard drive. Cookies save unique information that the web server can access while you are browsing our website. Typically, cookies save information such as your site preferences, the date you last looked at a specific page, or a random number used to identify your particular web session. Cookies help us measure how many visitors come to our web site and how many of these visitors are new or returning.
Cookies placed on your computer by our web management tools are written so they can only be used by our web tools, and they only retrieve specific information. We do not gather information from you, from other cookie files, or access any other information on your computer.
Most web browsers allow you to deny or accept the cookie feature (refer to your browser's help function for details). You can control the use of cookies on your computer, and even eliminate them. However, eliminating cookie use may interfere with the function of some sos.oregon.gov website services.
Social Media Terms and Moderation Guidelines
Our social media accounts are limited public forums for Oregonians and those interested in the work of the SOS. Please note that posting comments through any SOS social media account does not constitute a request for assistance or notice of a complaint to or regarding the programs that the SOS administers. To make such a request, file a complaint, or otherwise communicate with us, you are welcome to contact the SOS directly through our main website at
sos.oregon.gov. We welcome comments on our social media accounts. However, public comments do not reflect the views of the SOS. The SOS does not guarantee that the information contained in public comments is correct.
Social Media Terms of Service
When engaging with the SOS on social media, you are subject to the Terms of Service (TOS) of the host site. We encourage you to review the host site’s TOS prior to engaging on social media accounts.
Moderation Policy
If you do decide to post content, please keep in mind that the SOS’s social media accounts are used to engage with all members of the public. The SOS reserves the right to moderate discussion on social media to ensure that its forums are a safe place for everyone.
Communicating differing viewpoints that compliment, criticize, or discuss the decisions, actions, and policies of the SOS is permitted within the guidelines below. While the SOS does not discriminate against any views, we do reserve the right to remove or hide any of the following, or turn off comments altogether:
- Comments or commenters that discriminate against an individual or group of persons based on perceived race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, gender identity, housing status, or any other class protected by law.
- False statements that are assertions of fact that cause damage to the reputation of another. This does not include opinions.
- Comments or commenters that threaten (a stated intent to inflict harm or loss on another) any person or organization.
- Comments or commenters that are off-topic from the post or from the identified purpose of the forum.
- Comments or commenters that suggest or promote illegal activity (such as attempting to commit a crime, committing a crime, or encouraging others to commit a crime).
- Comments or commenters that promote or oppose any person campaigning for election to a political office or that promote or oppose any ballot measure.
- Comments or commenters that violate a legal ownership interest of any other party (i.e. copyright or trademark infringement).
- Solicitations, advertisements, or endorsements of any financial, business, or commercial entity.
- Comments or commenters that disclose information which the SOS is required to keep confidential by law or administrative rule, or that may compromise the safety or security of the state, including state employees, or that compromise an open investigation the SOS is engaged in or aware of.
- Content that includes sensitive personal identifying information, including, but not limited to, social security numbers, financial account numbers, driver’s license numbers, addresses, phone numbers, or an individual’s place of employment or school. This includes a practice referred to as “doxxing” (e.g. where personally identifying information about an individual is revealed).
- Spam (advertisements, content that links to external sites, or images).
- Links to malware.
Disclaimers and Other Legal Notices
Links to other sites
The Sites may have links to third-party websites operated by other government agencies, nonprofit organizations, private businesses, and other entities. When you use and follow one of these links, you are no longer on an SOS Site and these Term and Conditions will not apply and your use of those third-party sites is subject to their privacy policy, terms conditions, or terms of use.
All links to third-party websites are provided for Your convenience. Neither the SOS nor any of its officers or employees warrant or represent the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published by these third-party sites, nor do they endorse any content, viewpoints, products, or services linked from these systems, and therefore cannot be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of the information on these third party sites. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current and any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from these third-party sites does so at their own risk.
Advertising on Domain “sos.oregon.gov”
Advertising by private entities is prohibited on the domain "sos.oregon.gov". The SOS does not endorse or sponsor the products, services or information appearing in advertisements on privately owned websites.
Trademarks
Oregon-Owned Trademarks – Some of the content on sos.oregon.gov and other Sites include trademarks owned by the State of Oregon or its agencies. You may display these Oregon-owned trademarks so long as the context of your use is truthful and not misleading about the either services provided under that trademark or the trademark’s ownership.
Third-Party Trademarks - Some of the content on sos.oregon.gov and other Sites may include names, tradenames, or trademarks owned by third parties which are the property of their respective owners. The appearance or inclusion of these third-party trademarks is not an endorsement by the SOS of the products or services sold under those third-party trademarks. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions grants you any rights in those trademarks.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Notice
If you believe there is content appearing on sos.oregon.gov or any of the Sites that infringes your copyright, you may send a copy of your claim to
SOS_DMCA@sos.oregon.gov. To be effective notice, however, your claim must be in writing and contain the following information:
- Physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, and that is sought to be removed or have access disabled. This identification must be specific enough to permit location of the material;
- Contact information at which the owner of the material (and owner’s agent for the complaint, if applicable) may be contacted;
- A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
- A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.