About us

Vision

Our vision is to advance and expand privacy-forward practices by building a culture of privacy, preserving the public trust, and fostering innovation while safeguarding personal information.

Mission statement

Our mission is to serve the County of Santa Clara by helping to ensure that privacy is safeguarded and treated with integrity and respect. We believe that the relationships with our stakeholders and commitment to public service are fundamental to building the trust essential to embed privacy by design, assess risk, and provide guidance and training. Through our focus on privacy in technology and developing public-private partnerships, we strive to balance the County’s need to collect and process personal information with its responsibility to protect it.​

Guiding principles

The Privacy Office is guided by the following Privacy Principles (enshrined in Division A16 of the County Code of Ordinances "Privacy Protections") in when performing its functions and duties:

1. Protecting and safeguarding individuals’ fundamental right to privacy is a vital part of the County’s duties.
2. The County seeks to maintain strict compliance with local, state, and federal privacy laws.
3. The County recognizes that the limited and appropriate sharing of personal information between departments enables the County to provide robust, efficient, and evidence-based services and programs to the community.
4. The County strives to balance the County’s need to collect and process personal information when providing services to the community with the County’s responsibility to safeguard personal information.

The County of Santa Clara Privacy Office is a group member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

See Our Work for more information on the Privacy Office