Data You Send to Us
If you write to the contact address, the message and details you include are available to the operators so they can answer. Avoid sending identification documents or sensitive personal details unless the request truly needs them. Information typed into a search widget is sent to the third-party provider that powers that widget; our own pages do not keep a copy of the search submission.
Routine Technical Logs
Hosting systems may record an IP address, browser type, pages viewed, referrer, and time of access. These ordinary logs help maintain security, diagnose failures, and understand page traffic in aggregate. Cookies or similar tools may support basic analytics or advertising measurement where the hosting arrangement uses them.
How We Use Collected Data
We use contact messages to respond, technical data to keep the pages working, and aggregate measures to improve the Los Banos reference. We do not sell a visitor list or build a personal profile of readers from the public-record topics they view.
Links to Outside Portals
The pages link to Merced County offices, California services, courts, libraries, archives, and third-party search tools. Once a visitor follows an external link or submits a form there, that provider's privacy policy and terms govern the information it receives. Sponsored search results are supplied by a third party and are not controlled by this reference.
Who Can Process the Data
Hosting and technical service providers may process server logs in order to deliver and secure the pages. Analytics or advertising partners may receive the limited automatic data described above when those services are enabled. Information may also be disclosed when a valid legal process requires it. We do not disclose contact messages for unrelated purposes.
Steps Used to Protect It
The pages use an encrypted connection, and logs are retained only as long as the operational need requires. There are no visitor accounts on the reference, so no password or user profile is maintained here. No online safeguard is perfect, but access is limited to the services needed to run the pages.
Visitors Under 18
The reference is intended for adults and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a person under 18. If a parent or guardian believes a minor sent information to the contact address, use that address to ask for review and deletion.
Your California Data Rights
Depending on the circumstances, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, Civil Code section 1798.100 and following sections, may provide rights to know, access, correct, delete, opt out of sale or sharing, and limit certain uses of sensitive personal information held by a covered business. California's Delete Act, Civil Code section 1798.99.80 and following sections, adds duties for registered data brokers and a centralized deletion mechanism administered by the California Privacy Protection Agency.
Because this reference keeps little direct data, a request normally involves checking the contact mailbox and applicable server logs. Use the Contact page to ask. Public deeds, court files, voter records, vital records, and other records held by California, Merced County, or Los Banos offices are outside our control. A deletion request for a government record must go to its custodian and may be limited by the law that makes the record public or confidential.
Changes to This Policy
When the collection or use described here changes, an updated version will be posted on this page. Continued use after an update means the revised policy applies to later visits. The date and wording of the posted policy are the best guide to the current practice.