Privacy
Welcome to the State Privacy Officer website.
Our mission:
To promote privacy protection as an essential component of all government work by recognizing and celebrating privacy as a basic human right and assisting designated government entities in mitigating privacy risks that will increase public trust.
Our values:
Integrity: We act according to ethical principles that drive our behaviors.
Transparency: We work in an open way that is easily understood and subject to public examination.
Accountability: We take responsibility and answer the need for change with others as well as within ourselves.
Our Scope: We are responsible for 1000+ designated governmental entities, including cities and towns, counties, school districts, and public institutions of higher education. In summary, the local government entities that are not part of the Executive Branch.
Our Activities:
The team of the State Privacy Officer promotes the Utah Fundamental Privacy Principles and works to minimize privacy risk to individuals. We do so by working with the government entities helping them mature their privacy posture and implement their privacy program.
State Privacy Officer
The State Privacy Officer focuses on the privacy practices of designated governmental entities, including cities, counties, school districts, higher education, and colleges and universities with the goal of improving the protection of the privacy of Utahns.
Overview of our statutory duties:
- To analyze and report on government privacy practices
- To provide educational and training materials
- To identify privacy practices that pose the greatest risk to individual privacy and prioritize those privacy practices for review
- To respond to requests from individuals to review a designated government entity’s privacy practice
- To make privacy recommendations to the State Legislature
The State Privacy Officer is housed the Office of the State Auditor.
Following the passing of House Bill 243 in 2021, State Auditor, John Dougall appointed the State Privacy Officer, Whitney A. Phillips, Ph.D. For more information about the State Privacy Officer and team, please see the State Privacy Officer Page.
How to contact us: Email us at: privacy@utah.gov
To read the latest version of the State Privacy Highlights Newsletter go to the Privacy Highlights page.
To subscribe to the monthly State Privacy Highlights Newsletter, delivered to your inbox, visit http://eepurl.com/iwFowA.