Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office (SCDA) website. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve our communities. We maintain a website to engage with members of our community. Our website(s) have the below legal policies, restrictions, and disclaimers of liabilities (“policies”). By using this website, you are consenting to these policies. These policies may be changed from time to time with or without notice.

Disclaimer

The SCDA is not responsible for any linked content that is not from the web address suffolkcountyny.gov/da, nor do we endorse the content or guarantee its accuracy or legality. This includes social media links and links to other County websites. You may link other websites to our website; however, we reserve all rights to our content as per applicable laws, including copyright, and you may not use our seal or logo unless permission is granted. As it is copyrighted, copying, reproducing, or distributing any part of this website or content is prohibited without the prior written consent of the SCDA, except press releases that include credit to the SCDA. Improperly representing a third-party website as official SCDA content may be criminally prosecuted. The information on our website is in the public domain unless noted otherwise. Information from email subscriptions and alerts may be personal to the subscriber and shall be considered confidential unless noted otherwise. If the content is generated by external entities, such as the County executive, their policies on the ownership and classification of the content are controlling, and for questions you must reach out to that organization. In no way is the SCDA responsible for determining or conveying the copyright status of website content.

While the SCDA seeks to make accurate, accessible, and contemporaneous content, in no way does the SCDA make any claims, guarantees, promises, or other potentially legally binding statement to the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, accessibility, suitability, or other aspect of the included content. The SCDA disclaims all liability for the content of the website, and no warranty of any kind, including third party, express or implied, is made to the content of this website or any links to any external content. Nothing on this website shall be construed as a promise in any form to engage in any activities, including but not limited to a criminal investigation or prosecution. If any pending criminal matters are discussed on this website, all charges are merely accusations and all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty by the applicable tribunal.

The SCDA is a prosecutorial office and does not represent any individuals. In no way does using this website grant any rights to legal representation, and the information contained on this website does not constitute legal advice. The SCDA urges individuals with legal issues to consult a private attorney. The SCDA does not endorse the viewpoints of any individual or entity, governmental or private, by the inclusion of their content or information on this website. The SCDA does not endorse, recommend, or favor any commercial product, process, service, or entity by use of its service or posting of its link or logo, including but not limited to social media companies. The SCDA is not responsible for social media content that links or posts to SCDA content or it’s website. The SCDA translation function may not give you an exact translation all of the time, and relying on the translation is done so at the individual’s own risk.

Any user of this website agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the SCDA and its employees, agents, or individuals and organizations under its control, and the SCDA website and it’s contributors, any entity created jointly among them and their affiliates, employees, directors, officers, and agents, from and against all claims and expenses, including attorney fees, arising out of the use of the website or other online SCDA service in reference to any claim, however caused, on any theory of liability, whether contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence). We would like to remind website visitors that no system is fully secure.

Privacy Policy

The SCDA automatically collects and stores certain data when you visit our website. This may include:

1. The IP address and domain name used to access the website
   
2. The type of web browser and computer operating system used to access the website, including if it was desktop or mobile device
3. The web pages, content, and services accessed
4. The date and time the website was accessed
5. What language the computer that accessed the website is programmed to display
6. If you are using accessibility devices such as a screen reader or plain text browser feature

The above is not considered personal information for the purposes of this policy. This data is used for the SCDA to make decisions on website content and to analyze trends, as well as assisting in maintaining the security of SCDA systems. This information is neither collected for nor sold for commercial marketing purposes, and we do not convey this information to a third party unless used solely for technical purposes of maintaining website and related infrastructure functionality. If required for security purposes, this data may be provided to the relevant law enforcement officials.

You may also provide data to the SCDA voluntarily, such as by completing our contact form. This information is considered personal information and is treated with confidentiality. This information is collected and stored as a part of this process. This information will only be used for authorized government purposes, such as responding to you, connecting you to the correct department, investigating the matter, security purposes, or forwarding your information to the appropriate external governmental office. Providing us this information suffices as consent to the collection and use of this information for purposes related or reasonably ascertainable to the nature and terms in which the information was collected, such as to provide our newsletter or to connect you with SCDA services.

We do not knowingly collect personal information of any kind from children or create data profiles, such as for data analytics purposes, of children. By using this website, you represent that you are at least 18 years of age and that your data will be treated as if it was submitted by an adult, and may, unless exempted by law, be subject to public access. The SCDA strongly encourages parents, teachers, and guardians to be proactively involved in their children’s online activities and discourage their children from submitting data in any website portal.

Unless required by law, the SCDA will not disclose personal information submitted on our website without express consent. Laws and regulations such as the Freedom of Information Law may require disclosure through legal order, such as a subpoena. Consent cannot be required for compliance with these laws, and any information submitted on our website is submitted with the knowledge that it may be subject to these laws.

The SCDA is required by multiple laws to retain data submitted on this website for a certain period. The SCDA will comply with these laws and regulations, and typically stores this data temporarily and destroys the information when legally allowed to. However, data involving lawsuits and legal actions may be required to be retained indefinitely. By submitting data on the SCDA website, you are acknowledging that it may be retained in accordance with these requirements.

The SCDA may use cookies to improve, customize, or enable your use of this website. Cookies are text files stored by your web browser that contains basic information to distinguish you from other users. To block the use of these, you may be able to use your browser settings to do so. However, this means that selections on our website, such as language choice, may not be remembered for future uses. You can submit a request to the SCDA for access to personal information you have submitted to this website, but be aware that proof of identity will be required.

The SCDA website uses features such as embedding social media feeds in your home page. The SCDA also shares content on these services. If you visit their website, you may be subject to their terms of service which may include collecting your information and they may sell your information to third parties. The SCDA has no control of their activities and expressly disclaims any and all liability for the activities of these companies or entities, including their data collection policies. The SCDA website also uses some third-party technological solutions for our website, such as for data analytics and for facilitating content subscriptions. The SCDA also has no control over these third-party activities or policies, and expressly disclaims any and all liability for the activities of these companies or entities, including their data collection policies.

Here are the privacy policies of the third-party websites used by the SCDA on our website:

Google Analytics and Youtube:

https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies?hl=en-US

For further information on our privacy statement, disclaimer, or our website, please contact the SCDA through our website ‘Contact the DA’ function, or by mail at 725 Veterans Memorial Highway, Building 77, Hauppauge, NY 11788.