External Link Policy

 

It is the purpose of the County of Santa Barbara website to provide accurate, non-editorial content that will inform Santa Barbara County citizens about the services, issues, operations and projects of Santa Barbara County government. In addition, the website will be used to facilitate the delivery of direct services provided by the Santa Barbara County government to its citizens and other customers. All Santa Barbara County government offices, departments, agencies, governing bodies, boards, and commissions are eligible to submit content or request the posting or hypertext linking to appropriate information to support their mission or service initiatives.

 

The County Webmaster, a member of the Information Technology Division, General Services Department, is responsible for the management and oversight of the Santa Barbara County website. Comments about this site are welcome from any source and are always greatly appreciated.

 

The security of the information you provide to the Santa Barbara County is important to us. However, the Santa Barbara County site includes links to other sites, and when you choose to visit those sites, we are not responsible for their privacy policies or how they treat user information. In addition, we may permit third parties to offer registration-based services through our site. We are not responsible for the actions and policies of these third parties, and you should review the privacy policies of these parties when supplying personally identifiable information to them.

 

Links from Santa Barbara County Website

 

Organizations wishing to establish external links on the County's website must submit an external link application. This form will contain all information necessary to verify the facts stated and is necessary to establish that the proposed link is in compliance with this policy.

 

External links may be made to websites that meet the following criteria, as determined by the County Webmaster:

  • Sites that are owned and managed by a state, local or federal governmental agency or local school board.
  • Sites that are maintained by an organization that receives direct financial support from the County.
  • Sites that have a direct contractual relationship with the County for the provision of goods and/or services.
  • Sites that provide a unique online resource that will assist in the provision of services and/or information that compliment the purpose of the County’s web presence as outlined above.
  • Sites that provide of non-profit/non-religious services that support the mission of the County of Santa Barbara.
  • Entities that the County has an existing formal, contractual relationship with through direct funding, or co-partnership on programs.

 

External links will not be made to sites that fall within any of the following criteria, as determined by the County Webmaster:

  • Sites that are owned or managed by a political party, candidate or special interest group or are of a political nature that are associated with, sponsored by or serving a candidate for elected office, any political party or organization supporting or seeking to defeat any candidate for elective office or ballot proposal.
  • Sites that are owned, managed or provide content for commercial entities, that do not have a direct contractual relationship with the County for the provision of goods and/or services.
  • Sites containing any materials that may reasonably be considered scurrilous or offensive. Offensive materials are defined as sexual content or images, slurs against race, religious or political beliefs, age, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or physical attributes.

 

The County of Santa Barbara reserves the right to 1) deny an external link application as to any person, business or organization when it is determined, following review of a complete application, that the entity or organization for which application is made does not meet the criteria set forth in this policy; 2) deny an external link application as to any person, business or organization which fails to provide all required information, or fails to provide truthful information.

 

Removal of Content

 

The County Webmaster reserves the right to remove any external link if the nature of the organization or business to which the link relates no longer complies with the County’s external link policy; 1) to discontinue an external link at any time if entities’ website provides or promotes false, slanderous, illegal, immoral, or incorrect information at any time, or 2) to revise this policy without prior notice when to do so is deemed to be in the best interests of the County.

 

The County Logo is a trademark of the County of Santa Barbara. Any use of the materials stored on the County’s website is prohibited without the written permission of the County of Santa Barbara. The County of Santa Barbara retains all intellectual property rights including copyrights on all text, graphic images and other content. This means that the following acts or activities are prohibited without prior, written permission from the County of Santa Barbara: 1) modify and/or re-use text, images or other web content from a County server; 2) distribute the County’s web content; or 3) “mirror” the County’s information on a non-County server.