Oregon Secretary of State

Corporation Division Privacy and Disclosure Policy

​​​​​Corporation Division Website Privacy, Refund Policy, and Information Disclosure Notice

Thank you for visiting the Corporation Division website. This notice addresses privacy concerns about the information collected on this site.

The following topics are covered:
  1. Disclaimer
  2. System Availability Policy
  3. Information Collected When You Browse This Site
  4. Public Records Statement
  5. Public Disclosure
  6. Requesting Personal Information Inspection
  7. Refund Policy
  8. Links to Other Sites
  9. Personal Information and Nondisclosure
  10. Email
  11. Viruses
  12. Forms
  13. Secure Transmission
  14. Cookies
  15. Asking questions about this policy

Disclaimer
Neither the Corporation Division, nor any agency, officer, or employee of the State of Oregon warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published by this system, nor endorses any content, viewpoints, products, or services linked from this system, and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this system does so at their own risk.

System Availability Policy
In order to provide you​ with the most up-to-date information possible, some of our services may be unavailable between the hours of 11:30 p.m. and 3 a.m. Pacific Time. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience and ask that you check back with us at a later time.
 
Information Collected When You Browse This Site
If you do nothing during your visit to this website but browse or download information, we automatically collect and store the standard data collected by all web server software. That information is as follows:
  1. The Internet Protocol (IP) address and domain name used (but not the e-mail address). The IP address is a numerical identifier assigned either to your Internet service provider or directly to your computer. We use the Internet IP to respond to your browser request.
    Example: 122.125.36.42;
  2. The Domain domain name (DNS) assigned on the Internet to your IP Address (if there is one). Example: somename.com;
  3. The type of browser and operating system you used.
    Example: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT; IE4WDUS-1998101501);
  4. The date and time you visited this site;
  5. The web pages or services you accessed at this site; and
  6. The website you visited prior to coming to this web site. (Note: this is included so that summary analysis can be done on how visitors get to a site, i.e., from a search engine, from a link on another site, etc.)
We do not track individual user navigation choices. We do, however, summarize the information listed above 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 can use to develop pages that will work with different browsers (item 3 above).
  - how often our pages are being used (item 5 above).
  - by the traffic from organization names such things as the search engines that are good at directing people to the site (item 6 above).
 
For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this site may monitor network traffic 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 authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the state law and federal statutes including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.
 
Public Records Statement
Information reported to the Corporation Division is subject to Oregon's public records law ORS Chapter 192, and may be made available on our web site and to other parties upon request.
 
Public Disclosure
All information collected at this site becomes a public record unless an exemption in law exists. ORS Chapter 192 contains the Oregon Public Records Law.
 
In the State of Oregon, laws exist to ensure that government is open and that the public has a right to access appropriate records and information possessed by state government. At the same time, there are exceptions to the public's right to access public records that serve various needs including the privacy of individuals. Both state and federal laws provide exceptions. We may request personally identifiable information from you in order to provide requested services, but such information is handled as it would be on an in-person visit to a governmental office.
 
Requesting Personal Information Inspection
You have the right to review information collected about you by this site. Contact the agency that provides the service you requested.
 
Refund Policy
All fees for Business Registry, Notary Public, and Uniform Commercial Code transactions are nonrefundable and payable in advance.
 
In the event of an overpayment, a written request for the return of the overpayment is required. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks to receive your overpayment.
 
Links to Other Sites
The Corporation Division site has links to other web sites. These include links to web sites operated by other government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private businesses.
 
When you link to another site, you are no longer on the Corporation Division website and this Privacy Notice will not apply. When you link to another web site, you are subject to the privacy policy of that new site.
 
Personal Information and Nondisclosure 
"Personal information" is information about a natural person that is readily identifiable to that individual, such as an individual's name, address, and telephone number. Such personal information may be exempt from disclosure if disclosure would constitute an unreasonable invasion of privacy under the circumstances. A domain name or Internet Protocol (IP) address is not considered personal information. 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 and telephone number under certain circumstances. ORS 192.445 and OAR 137-004-0800 specify how to request nondisclosure.
 
Email
If you send us an electronic mail message with a question or comment that contains personal information, or fill out a form that sends us this information electronically, we may use the information for other purposes.
 
Note:
The Corporation Division does not open unsolicited emails that have attachments, due to the wide varieties of viruses.
 
The information collected is subject to the access and confidentiality provisions of the Oregon law including ORS Chapter 192.
 
Viruses
To reduce the likelihood of damage from computer viruses, the Corporation Division uses virus protection software on its computer systems and regularly updates the software. Although unlikely, it is possible that data you request for download from our website may contract a virus and become corrupted before it reaches your computer. The Corporation Division is not responsible for files that may become corrupted as the data travels through the Internet.
 
Forms
Each electronic form that collects personal information on this site may be used for other purposes.
 
Secure Transmission
For secured-data transmission, this site uses the industry standard encryption software, Secure Socket Layer (SSL). 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, any information is susceptible to interception by other parties. Most Internet email communication will not be secure. If you are communicating sensitive information, you might want to consider sending it in by postal mail.
 
Cookies
A cookie file is a small text file created by a web site on your computer hard drive that contains unique information the site can use to track such things as passwords, lists of pages you've visited, the date when you last looked at a specific page or to identify your session at a particular web site. A cookie is often used in commercial sites to identify the items selected for a specific shopping cart application. If cookies are used on the web site their use will be clearly marked. While most browsers have an option that allows you to control the use of cookies, their use might provide some features that cannot be used if cookies are turned off. Each application start page where cookies are used will have a specific statement that explains the use of the cookies, what information is being stored and whether the information is deleted or retained for future use when you complete your session.
 
Asking questions about this policy
If you have questions about this policy contact the Corporation Division​.
​​ ​​​​​