Privacy Policy

About our Privacy Policy

The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) only collects personal information to the extent necessary to provide services or benefits. We do not sell or rent user information to any outside company or organization. We do not reveal specific information about users 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 (FOIA)     or other law.

VDSS Privacy Policy and Program Manual   

VDSS Privacy Complaint Form   

E-mail

If you decide to send us an electronic mail message (e-mail), the message will usually contain your return e-mail address. If you include personally-identifying information in your e-mail because you want us to address issues specific to your situation, we may use that information to respond to your request. Sometimes, we forward your e-mail to other state agencies that may be better able to help you or answer your question. We do not distribute lists of e-mail addresses.

VDSS is pleased to respond to general e-mail inquiries concerning its services, but state and federal laws do not allow us to provide personal, confidential or case-specific information through this forum. Also, e-mail inquiries sent to VDSS are not secure or confidential.

Interactive Forms

On some of our Web pages we offer interactive forms that let you voluntarily submit personal information (such as your e-mail address, name and address). This occurs when you are requesting information, ordering publications or registering for various conferences, workshops or training sessions offered by VDSS. All submitted information is used only for the expressed purposes for which it is intended and is not made available to any third party.

Statistical Information

If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the Web site, read pages or download information, our Web site's server may automatically record some general information about your visit, such as:

• The Internet domain for your Internet service, such as "xcompany.com" or "xcompany.net" if you use a private Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect from a college or university domain and IP address (a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our site
• The type and version of browser (such as "Chrome version X" or "Internet Explorer version X") that you use and the type of operating system you use (such as Apple/Mac, Unix/Linux or Windows)
• The date and time of your visit, and web pages that you viewed on our site
• The address of the previous website you were visiting, if you clicked through to us from another website

We use this information for statistical analysis to help us make our site more useful to visitors. This information is only used internally, does not record information about individuals and will be used only for internal management purposes.

Security

The Virginia Department of Social Services uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) as the encryption protocol for all transactions involving personal information on this website. The SSL protocol has become the universal standard on the Web for authenticating sites and for encrypting communications between users and Web servers.

The user can confirm a Web server's identity on such an encrypted page by clicking on either a padlock or key icon appearing at the bottom of the page.