Data Privacy

City of Seattle Privacy Principles

Adopted as City Council Resolution #31570 on February 23, 2015, these six principles provide an ethical framework for developing appropriate policies, standards, and practices regarding the public's personal information.

Contact the Privacy Team

Email us at privacy@seattle.gov

We value your privacy

We understand the value of personal information. We protect the personal information we collect from the public. We provide transparency about how we manage the information we collect in order to provide critical and needed services to City residents and visitors.

We tell you how we use your information

When possible, we inform you about the ways we use your personal information at the time we collect it. Whenever possible, we give you a choice about how we use your information.

We tell you how we share your information

We follow federal and state laws about information disclosure whenever we work with outside governmental agencies and when we answer Public Disclosure Requests (PDRs). Business partners and vendors who receive or collect personal information from us or help us to deliver City services must agree to our privacy requirements.

We collect and keep only what we need

We only collect information that we need to deliver City services. We only keep it as long as we are legally required in order to deliver those services. Whenever possible, we tell you when we are collecting this information.

We are accountable

We are responsible for managing your personal information in a manner that is consistent with our commitments and as required by law. We protect your personal information by restricting unauthorized access and by securing our computing resources from threats.

We value accuracy

We work to maintain and use accurate personal information for City business. When practical, we will work to correct inaccurate personal information. We also direct our partners and contracted vendors to follow the same guidelines.