Data You Give Us Directly
Search Queries
A name or place entered in a search box is sent directly to the outside company operating that tool. The provider processes the query and supplies its result. Otsego County Criminal History does not keep or record those submitted search terms on its own systems.
Messages and Contact Submissions
An email sent to us may be retained so that we can answer it. We keep the message within our organization unless disclosure is required by a valid legal duty.
Data We Gather Automatically
When the website loads, its systems may automatically receive basic technical and visit details:
- Page-view times and the length of visits
- The pages viewed during a session
- Device category and operating system
- Browser name and version
- The referring website, when available
- The device's assigned IP address
Cookies and Analytics
Small files called cookies may be stored on a visitor's device. They help show broad patterns such as popular Otsego County resource pages and points where visits end. Analytics providers combine that traffic information. Browser controls can refuse cookies, although blocking them may change how some functions behave.
What We Do With This Data
- Routing a submitted query to the search partner that runs the tool
- Finding and correcting performance or technical faults
- Measuring which record-resource pages are useful
- Operating the website and keeping pages responsive
- Displaying advertising that may reflect visitor interests
No Criminal-Record Data on File
Otsego County Criminal History does not build, keep, or sell a database of personal criminal records. It publishes general directions to the Otsego County Sheriff, the courts, New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, and the New York State Sex Offender Registry. Visitor information is not assembled into a consumer report or a file about another person, and the site is not a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Third-Party Search Partners
Outside companies supply the search tools. Their privacy terms, retention periods, and sharing rules apply to information entered there. We do not control those policies. Read the relevant provider policy before sending a query.
Links to Other Websites
Links may lead to Otsego County offices, New York courts and agencies, legal resources, or outside tools. Once a visitor leaves this website, the destination's privacy policy controls that visit. Review it before providing personal information.
Advertising providers may use their own systems to follow activity across websites for interest-based ads. That process occurs under the provider's controls.
Who Might See Your Data
We do not sell personal data. Limited information may be available to:
- Analytics providers measuring visits and site performance
- Outside search providers receiving a query submitted to their tool
- Advertising networks serving content on these pages
- Government or law-enforcement bodies acting under a valid legal order
How We Protect Your Data
Reasonable, commonly used safeguards protect information within our control. No internet-connected service can promise perfect security, however, and we cannot guarantee that a breach will never occur.
Users Under 18
The website is intended for adults, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone younger than 18. If we learn that a minor supplied such data, we will remove it.
Your Data Rights
Rights can vary with the law that applies to a visitor. New York's Freedom of Information Law, Public Officers Law Article 6, governs access to government agency records, while Executive Law §837 governs DCJS criminal-history repository and dissemination functions. Those public-record rules do not turn this private site into a government custodian. Subject to applicable law, a visitor may:
- Request access to personal information we retain
- Ask that inaccurate retained information be corrected
- Seek deletion where the governing law permits it
- Decline certain forms of processing when that right applies
Updates to This Policy
This policy may be revised. A changed version will be placed here with a new effective date, so returning visitors can review the current practices.
Effective date: August 1, 2026