Privacy and Access

Pursuant to the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of government, it is declared to be the public policy of the state of Illinois that all people are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials and public employees. The access to this information is not intended to be used to violate individual privacy, nor to further a commercial enterprise, nor to disrupt the duly undertaken work of any public body independent of the fulfillment of any of the rights of the people to access to this information.

Information collected and received through the Illinois Department of Transportation's websites may become public record and therefore subject to disclosure under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. It is therefore the policy of the Illinois Department of Transportation that no personal information you provide to us, including, but not limited to, your name, address, telephone number, driver's license number, Social Security number and email address will be sold or rented to any entity or individual or disclosed to any unauthorized entity or individual. The release of personal information by the departments under the control of the governor shall be limited, according to Illinois law, to Illinois government agencies and/or to authorized department contractors or grantees.

"Personal information" is information about an individual that is readily identifiable to that specific individual. Personal information includes personal identifiers such as an individual's name, address, phone number, driver's license number and Social Security number. A domain name or Internet Protocol address is not considered personal information. We collect no personal information about you unless you voluntarily participate in an activity that asks for information (e.g., sending an email or participating in a survey). If you choose not to participate in these activities, your choice will in no way affect your ability to use any other features of the Illinois Department of Transportation's websites. If personal information is requested on the website or volunteered by the user, state law and the federal Privacy Act of 1974 may protect it. However, this information is a public record once you provide it and may be subject to public inspection and copying if not protected by federal or state law.

The Illinois Department of Transportation is committed to complying fully with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Accordingly, if you are under the age of 13, you are not authorized to provide us with personally identifying information, and we will not use any such information in our database or other data collection activities. We appreciate your cooperation with this federally mandated requirement. Users are cautioned that the collection of personal information volunteered by children online or by email will be treated the same as information given by an adult and may be subject to public access.

The Illinois Department of Transportation analyzes our website logs to continually improve the value of the materials available on our site. Our website logs are not personally identifiable.

If, during your visit to the Illinois Department of Transportation's websites, you just browse or download information, the following information about your visit will be retained: 1. Your Internet Protocol address (not the email address). Unique IP addresses are counted to determine the number of visitors to each web page during specific time frames. Analysis of the number of visitors helps to determine how, where or if the page will be delivered in the future. 2. The type of web browser used (Chrome, Safari, etc.). Web pages do not always display the same on every type or version of web browser and thus must be coded for appropriate access.

If during your visit to Illinois Department of Transportation websites you participate in a survey or send an e-mail, the following additional information will be collected: 1. Email correspondence: the email address and contents of the email. We may use your e-mail to respond appropriately. This may be to respond to you, to address issues you identify, to further improve our website, or to forward the email to another agency for appropriate action. 2. Surveys : any information you volunteered in response to a survey. Survey information is used for the purpose designated. The information collected is not limited to text characters and may include audio, video and graphic information formats that you have provided.

The Illinois Department of Transportation's websites may use per-session variables (cookies) to store information within a session. A session is the time from the point when a user logs into a system to the point where data is submitted to a web application. A typical session usually lasts less than one minute. When the session ends, the per-session cookies are deleted from the Internet server's memory cache.

Per-session cookies are frequently used by Active Server Pages running on Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 or later. These cookies store session information as the user navigates to multiple ASP pages in a site.

Persistent cookies, files that are stored on a user's hard drive, are NOT used by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has links to other websites. These include links to websites operated by other government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private businesses. When you link to another site, you are no longer on a site covered by this Privacy Notice. When you link to another website, you are subject to the privacy policy of that new site.

Access to the Illinois Department of Transportation's websites is provided subject to the following terms and conditions. Please read these terms carefully as use of these sites constitutes acceptance of all of the following terms and conditions:

Neither the Illinois Department of Transportation nor any of its employees shall be held liable for any improper or incorrect use of the information described and/or contained herein and assumes no responsibility for anyone's use of the information. In no event shall the Illinois Department of Transportation's websites or its employees be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement or substitute goods or services; loss of use, data or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this system, even if advised of the possibility of such damage. This disclaimer of liability applies to any damages or injury, including but not limited to those caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communication line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of record, whether for breach of contract, tortious behavior, negligence or under any other cause of action.

Although the data found using the Illinois Department of Transportation systems have been produced and processed from sources believed to be reliable, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made regarding accuracy, adequacy, completeness, legality, reliability or usefulness of any information. This disclaimer applies to both isolated and aggregate uses of the information. The Illinois Department of Transportation provides this information on an "as is" basis. All warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, freedom from contamination by computer viruses and non-infringement of proprietary rights are disclaimed. Changes may be periodically made to the information herein; these changes may or may not be incorporated in any new version of the publication. If you have obtained information from any of the Illinois Department of Transportation's web pages from a source other than the Illinois Department of Transportation pages, be aware that electronic data can be altered subsequent to original distribution. Data can also quickly become out of date. It is recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of any data associated with a file and that the originator of the data or information be contacted with any questions regarding appropriate use. 

The Illinois Department of Transportation is a distributor of content sometimes supplied by third parties and users. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including information providers, users or others, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Illinois Department of Transportation and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The Illinois Department of Transportation's website contains links to other related Internet sites and resources. The Illinois Department of Transportation is not responsible for the contents of any off-site pages referenced. The user specifically acknowledges that the Illinois Department of Transportation is not liable for the defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of other users, links or third parties and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with the user. Links from the Illinois Department of Transportation's web pages to other sites do not constitute an endorsement from the Illinois Department of Transportation. These links are provided as an information service only. It is the responsibility of the user to evaluate the content and usefulness of information obtained from other sites. Since the Illinois Department of Transportation is not responsible for the availability of these outside resources or their contents, you should direct any concerns regarding any external link to its site administrator or webmaster.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, resources that are free and publicly available one day may require a fee or restricted access the next, and the location of items may change as menus, home pages and files are reorganized. The user expressly agrees that use of the Illinois Department of Transportation's websites is at the user's sole risk. The Illinois Department of Transportation does not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted or error free. The documents and related graphics published on this server could contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically added to the information herein. The Illinois Department of Transportation and/or its respective agencies and programs may make improvements and/or changes in the information and/or programs described herein at any time.

The Illinois Department of Transportation, as developer and manager of this website, has taken several steps to safeguard the integrity of its communications and computing infrastructure, including but not limited to authentication, monitoring, auditing and encryption. Security measures have been integrated into the design, implementation and day-to-day practices of the entire Illinois Department of Transportation operating environment as part of its continuing commitment to risk management.

This information should not be construed in any way as giving business, legal or other advice, or warranting as fail-proof, the security of information provided via Illinois Department of Transportation websites.

Construction of the disclaimers above and resolution of disputes thereof are governed by the laws of the state of Illinois. The laws of the state of Illinois shall apply to all uses of this data and this system. By use of this system and any data contained therein, the user agrees that use shall conform to all applicable laws and regulations and user shall not violate the rights of any third parties.

According to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, 5 ILCS 140/1, pursuant to the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of government, it is declared to be the public policy of the state of Illinois that all people are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials and public employees consistent with the terms of this Act. Such access is necessary to enable the people to fulfill their duties of discussing public issues fully and freely, making informed political judgments and monitoring government to ensure that it is being conducted in the public interest.

For information regarding access to IDOT's records, as well as which records are available for reasonable public inspection, please view the following policy:

• 2 Illinois Administrative Code 1226; Access to Records of the Department of Transportation

For IDOT FOIA requests, please contact:

According to 5 ILCS 120/Open Meetings Act, it is the public policy of Illinois that public bodies exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business and that the people have a right to be informed as to the conduct of their business. In order that the people shall be informed, the General Assembly finds and declares that it is the intent of this Act to ensure that the actions of public bodies be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.

IDOT participates in task forces and committees that are sometimes subject to the OMA such as the Illinois Traffic Records Coordinating Committee. Procurement meetings with vendors are also subject to to the OMA.