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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 335-07City of Palo Alto City Manager’s Report TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: POLICE DATE:AUGUST 6, 2007 CMR:335:07 SUBJECT:COMMUNITY ALERTING AND EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM - UPDATE ON CMR 305:07 AND JULY 16, 2007 STUDY SESSION This report is an informational report. No Council action is required. BACKGROUND At the July 16, 2007 study session with City Council on the NTI Group, Inc. (NTI) community alerting and emergency notification system, a question was raised concerning the confidentiality and overall data integrity of the information used in the new alerting system. This report provides the Council with additional information. DISCUSSION City staff and NTI Group, Inc. take the privacy of personally identifiable information seriously. NTI employs industry standard security measures and has strict policies against a security breach. To that end, both the City and NTI will do everything within their means to ensure the data integrity of the system is maintained. The core of the NTI-hosted system is an address (location) that is mapped to both a phone number and an individual. Contact information for residents and businesses via the new community alerting and emergency notification system is obtained through two means. Initially, NTI acquires basic contact information for each business and residence location in the City of Palo Alto, including a primary phone number, the address, and a name associated with the primary number. This information is acquired by NTI through 210 providers of public records information (e.g., 411, utility information and other public sources) and state-of-the-art database cleansing techniques are employed to ensure accuracy, while monthly updates keep information as current as possible. No other personally identifiable information (e.g., social security number, drivers license or other similar type of information) are ever obtained through by NTI. In addition, internally, NTI limits employee access to this information and takes steps to ensure the information is never sold or CMR:335:07 Page 1 of 4 misused. The City of Palo Alto is then supplied with a main phone number for each business and residential address. Again, no other personally identifiable information is provided. The other means of gathering contact information is via the Internet using a web portal created by NTI into its system. A person would access this method to add additional contact capabilities (e.g., email address, alternative phone number, etc.). A screen shot the individual log~ng into the portal would see is below. Welcome to the Connect-CTYTM website for the CITY OF PALO ALTO. Please enter your contact information here so local leadership may contact you with important messages in the public interest. I AM A RESIDENT of the CITY OF PALO ALTO and I would like to register my name and phone number(s). HY BUSINESS ADDRESS is in the CITY OF PALO ALTO and I would like to register a contact name and phone number(s) for my business. Add ~ contact lnf0 J I have already registered my contact info, and I would like to edit or delete my contact info. I have already registered a contact for my business, and I would like to edit or delete that contact info. © 2006-2007 The NTI Group, Inc. (NTI). All Rights Reserved Worldwide. When an individual first logs into the NTI web portable, no personally identifiable information is displayed, nor is any of the identifiable information (phone number, address or name) publicly acquired by NTI viewable or ever made available. The resident or business owner, if they choose, adds a new record for themselves, including supplemental or alternative contact information (email, cell phone, etc.) and acknowledges understanding the terms of use for registering this information, which is standard practice for anyone accessing another database system where personal or confidential information is supplied or used. A copy of the current terms of use for reNstration has CMR:335:07 Page 2 of 4 been provided in Attachment A. Should an individual not choose to add any supplemental information, they will be notified by the City using the comanunity alerting and emergency notification system through the publicly available phone number for their residence or business. An additional question was raised during the study session on what information is made available when a person logs into the web portal system to update contact information. To re-emphasize, none of the publicly obtained identifiable information obtained by NTI is viewable at the time of logon. Should a record already exist, the record can be updated or deleted by accessing that record through the web portal. It is conceivable that if someone knew the information a person entered into the system (e.g., first and last name, primary phone number, primary email) he/she could log into the system and modify their record. As an additional security measure, NTI sends an email message to the oriNnator of the record from the primary email address supplied that the record had been either modified or updated. Should an inappropriate access occur, the resident or business owner would then notify the City or NTI that their information had been improperly accessed. The Police Department will ensure this information is clearly articulated during training and outreach on the system. NTI uses secure transmissions with its clients and no confidential information is never transmitted between NTI and its clients using email, and is only transmitted using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption for sharing information. Staff queried vendors specifically on this topic during the evaluation process and made additional inquiries following the study session. NTI indicated that of the approximately 13,000 clients, it has never received a complaint regarding a breach of security for this information. In addition, none of the customers contacted by staff indicated that they have ever had a problem with security or integrity of data. POLICY IMPLICATIONS This ageement is consistent with existing City policy. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIE~V This contract service is not subject to CEQA pursuant to Title 14 California Code of Regulations Section 15061(b)(3), and it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility of a significant effect on the environment. CMR:335:07 Page 3 of 4 ATTACHMENTS Attachment A - Terms of Use PR_EPAR_ED BY: DEPARTMENT HEAD: SHERYL A. Tei~Services" ~r Police Chief CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: ~ Assistant City Manager CMR:335:07 Page 4 of 4 CITY OF PALO ALTO: Self-Service Web Portal - Terms Of Use Page 1 of 6 Print this document Terms of Use for Registration (Effective as of December 5, 2005) Your state, town, city, village, county, or borough (each, a "Municipality"), has subscribed to the Connect-CTYTM service ("Service") to augment its ability to notify you and other residents and businesses of matters of community interest. These Terms of Use ("TOU"), govern the registration of contact information by you and the provision of the Service within the Municipality’s jurisdiction. The Service is owned by The NTI Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("NTI" or "we" or "our" or "us"). NTI provides the Service subject to your compliance with these TOU and any applicable notices and guidelines on this Website ("NTI Website" or "Website’), which are incorporated in the TOU by reference. NTI reserves the right to change these TOU from time to time without notice to you. The registration, and continued registration, by you of your contact information on the NTI Website, constitutes your agreement to the terms and conditions of the TOU. If you do not accept this TOUI do not register your contact information. YOUR SOLE REMEDY FOR DISSATISFACTION WITH THE SERVICE IS TO DELETE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION FROM THIS WEBSITE. YOUR AGREEMENT WITH US REGARDING COMPLIANCE WITH THIS TOU BECOMES EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY UPON REGISTRATION OF YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION. THE MOST CURRENT VERSION OF THIS TOU, WHICH SUPERCEDES ALL PREVIOUS VERSIONS, CAN BE REVIEWED BY CLICKING ON THE "TERMS OF USE" HYPERLtNK LOCATED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE REGISTRATION PAGE ON THE WEBSITE. To delete your contact information or contact us about other problems with the.Service, please scroll down to Section 2 - Your Privacy. THE CONNECT-CT¥ SERVICE. The Service will entitle specific officials in your Municipality (from departments such as health, police, fire, emergency management, utility, public works, sanitation, mayor’s office), to broadcast a mass notification to residents and businesses in your community, via an automated telephone system and/or e-mail. These notifications may be about such events as weather alerts, health warnings, missing people, natural disasters, water main breaks, power outages, detours and road closures, crime prevention, flood alerts, and fires. The notification may be sent to the entire community or to an affected area, and may be sent to the residential/business telephone, cell phone, and/or email address (depending on thecontact information contained in our database). BUT NOTE: The Service is not a replacement for First Responders such as, for example purposes only, 911, fire, police, emergency medical, and public health; instead, the Connect-CTY service may be used to augment First Responder services that have already been notified and deployed. REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS AND OBLIGATIONS. In order to receive notifications, we recommend that you register your contact information ("Contact Data") on the Registration Page. Although our system includes numbers from commercially available telephone databases, these databases may not contain the most up-to-date information for your landline number. Also, if you have a non-published or unlisted number, or if you are on a Do Not Call List, or have a cell phone, or Internet phone service, your Municipality and NTI may not have access to that information and you should register your Contact Data to receive notifications, tn order to register your Contact Data, you will be asked to input certain information ("Account Information"). In consideration for the ability to register your Contact Data to receive notifications via the Service, agree to the following: a.You and not NTI, are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of your Contact Data, and you agree to update the Contact Data when required; b.You will not "Spoof" or otherwise impersonate any individual or entity, falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your identity or affiliation in any way, or forge, delete or alter any part of TCP/IP packet header or sender identification information in any e-mail or other transmission; c. You will only register Contact Data for another person if you have that person’s express permission; d. You wil! keep your Account Information secure; https://portaI.nticonnectcty.com/tandc.aspx?eiid=1207B6088 C3477A7627B &fUserRole=... 7/17/2007 CITY OF PALO ALTO: Self-Service Web Portal - Terms Of Use Page 2 of 6 e.You are responsible for all unauthorized use or misuse of your Account Information due to your disclosure of your Account Information or lack of care in protecting Account Information; f.You will not attempt to intercept, redirect or otherwise interfere with communications intended for others; g.You will not hold us, our affiliates, officers, employees and/or shareholders up to public scorn or ridicule; h.You will not engage in any activity that would subject us or our service providers to civil or other liability; i.You will not make false or unverified complaints against any other subscriber, or otherwise abuse any complaint response procedure established with respect to the Service; j.You agree to immediately notify NTI by telephone and email (at the contact information listed at the end of this page), of any unauthorized use of any Account Information or any other breach of security pertaining to your Contact Data; k.You agree to exit from your account at the end of each session; I.You are prohibited from any conduct that may compromise security or tamper with system resources, Account Information, or the Contact Data. If you become involved in any violation of NTI’s system security, NTI reserves the right to release your details to law enforcement authorities and system administrators at other sites in order to assist them in resolving security incidents. The following activities are expressly prohibited: i.The use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security (e.g., password guessing programs, cracking tools or network probing tools); ii.Attempting to log into or otherwise obtaining or seeking to obtain unauthorized access to any account. This includes, for example: (x) accessing data or information not intended for you or your use, (y) attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of NTI’s services, or (z) tampering, hacking, modifying or otherwise corrupting, circumventing or breaching security or authentication measures without proper authorization; ill.Transmitting material that contains viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or any other computer programming routines or engines with the intent or effect of damaging, destroying, disrupting or otherwise impairing a computer’s functionality or the operation of NTI’s services; and m.You agree that NTI is not responsible for the timeliness, miss-delivery, deletion, or failure to store any of your Contact Data. n.You understand and acknowledge that NTI does not pre-screen communications sent by the Municipality and we are not responsible for screening or monitoring any messages, although we reserve the right to do so. 2.YOUR PRIVACY a.How is your Contact Data Used? Your Contact Data will be used by your Municipality to send notifications to you. b.How can you update, correct, or remove your Contact Data? Co You can edit or delete your Contact Data by logging onto your account at any time. It is your responsibility to promptly update changes in your Contact Data, and keep all information accurate, current, and complete. If you receive communications from your Hunicipality and wish to stop receiving notifications, what do you do? In addition to deleting your Contact Data from your account, you should contact the agency or entity in your Municipality that dispatched the original communication to you and instruct them to remove your contact details from its contact list. NT! has no control or authority to force your Municipality to remove your contact information. Please also understand that it may be impossible to completely delete your information without some residual information being retained because of backups. d.If you believe that someone entered your Contact Data without your consent: https://p~rta1.ntic~rmectcty~c~m/tandc.aspx?eiid=12~7B6~88C3477A7627B&fUserR~~e=... 7/17/2007 CITY OF PALO ALTO: Self-Service Web Portal - Terms Of Use Page 3 of 6 eo Please contact at If you believe that someone is making inappropriate.use of your Contact Datar such as to send you telemarketing messages or unsolicited commercial emails or SPAM, or you are experiencing other problems with the Service: Please contact us at 866-HELP-NTI ((866) 435-7684) or use the contact information at the end of this TOU. f. Factors beyond our control. You understand and accept that no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be :[00% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect Contact Data, you acknowledge that: (a) there are security and privacy limitations of the Internet which are beyond our control; (b) the security, integrity and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and us through the NTI Website cannot be guaranteed; and (c) any such information and data may be viewed or tampered with in transit by a third party. g.Privacy Policy. The information we obtain through your use of the Service, is subject to our Privacy Policy, which is specifically incorporated by reference into this TOU. Please read our Privao/Policy for more information. Changes to the Privacy Policy will be effective immediately upon notice thereof, which will be given by means of a written announcement on the home page and/or Registration or Client sign-in page (as applicable) of the NTI Website. LIMITED LICENSE. We gra-ht you a limited, revocable, and nonexctusive license to use the NTI Website to register your Contact Data or to review information about our company. As a condition of your use of any of this Website, you warrant to NTI that you will not use the NTI Website for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by the TOU. The limited license set forth in this Section means that you may NOT: (i) modify, download, or publicly display, the NTI Website, or any portion thereof, or the Content (as defined below) except caching or as necessary to view content; (ii) make any use of the NTI Website or the Content other than for permissible uses as described in these TOU; (iii) create any derivative work based on either the NTI Website or the Content; (iv) collect account information for the benefit of another party; (v) use any meta tags or any other ’hidden text’ utilizing our name or the NTI Marks (as described below), without the express written consent of N-I-I; (vi) use software robots, spiders, crawlers, or similar data gathering and extraction tools, or take any other action that may impose an unreasonable burden or toad on our infrastructure; or (vii) co-brand, frame, or hyper-link to the NTI Website, without the express written permission of NTI. For purposes of these TOU, "co-branding" means to display a name, logo, trademark, or other means of attribution or identification of any party in such a manner as is reasonably likely to give a user the impression that such other party has the right to display, publish, or distribute the NTI Website or the Content. You agree to cooperate with NTI in causing any unauthorized co- branding, framing or hyper-linking immediately to cease. THIRD pANTY SITES AND INFORMATION. The NTI Website may contain links to other websites, which are not maintained by, or related to, NTI. We do not investigate, monitor, or check these websites for accuracy or completeness, and the inclusion of any linked website on the NTI Website does not imply approval or endorsement of the linked website by NTI. As such, we are not responsible for the content, accuracy or opinions expressed in such third party websites. If you decide to leave the NTI Website and access these third- party sites, you do so at your own risk. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFORMATION. The material and content including, but not limited to, text, graphics, Iogos, button icons, images, audio clips, data compilations, and software, and the compilation thereof, accessible from the NT~ Website (.’Content’), is the property of NTI or the party that provided or licensed any part of the Content to NTI. As such, the Content may not be copied, distributed, republished, uploaded, posted, or transmitted in any way without the prior written consent of NTI. The trademarks, Iogos, and service marks displayed on the NTI Website, are the registered and unregistered marks of NTI, our affiliates, our licensors or our partners, in the United States and other countries, and are protected by United States and international trademark laws. NTI is the exclusive owner of all rights, title and interest in and to the NTI Services. The NTI logo, the PACE logo, the NTI word mark, NTI Technologies, One https://portal.nticonnectcty.com/tandc.aspx?eiid= 1207B6088C3477A7627B&fUserRole=... 7/17/2007 CITY OF PALO ALTO: Self-Service Web Portal - Terms Of Use Page 4 of 6 Penny Per Student Per Day, NTI Group, The NTI Group, NTI Group of Companies, Partnership for Academic and Community Excellence, No Hardware. No Software. No Additional Phone Lines., The Recognized Leader In School-to-Parent Communications, Better To Have It And Not Need It, Than Need It And Not Have It...., I’m OKAY Call, Connect-ED, Get Connected With Connect-ED, NTI Connect-ED, Because Communication Matters, NTI Connect-CTY, Connect-CTY, Connect-GOV, Connect-NIL, NTI Connect-CTY, and the Connect-CTY logo (collectively the "NTI MarEs"), are trademarks or service marks of The NTI Group, Inc~ Except as set forth in the .limited license below, or as required under any applicable law, neither the Content, the NTI Marks, nor any other portion of the NTI Website may be used, reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, accessed, modified, or otherwise exploited, in full or in part, for any purpose without the prior written consent of the Legal Department at NTI. All contents of the NTI Website: Copyright © 2004-2007 The NTI Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. 6m INFORMATION AND PRESS RELEASES. The NTI Website contains information and press releases about us. While this~information was believed to be accurate as of the date prepared, we disclaim any duty or obligation to update this information or any press release. Information about companies other than ours contained in any press release or otherwise, should not be relied upon as being provided or endorsed by us. 7.ACCURACY OF INFORMATION. We attempt to be as accurate as possible when describing NTI’s services; however, to the extent permitted by applicable law, we do not warrant that the Content available on the NTI Website is accurate, complete, reliable, current, or error free. All of the information in the NTI Website, whether historical in nature or forward-looking, speaks only as of the date the information is posted on the NTI Website, and NTI does not undertake any obligation to update such information after it is posted or to remove such information from the NTI Website if it is no longer accurate or complete. INDEMNIFICATION. You ~ill indemnify and hold NTI, its subsidiaries, affiliates, licensors, content providers, service providers, employees, agents, officers, directors, and contractors("Indemnified Parties") harmless from any breach of the TOU by you, including any use of Content other than as expressly authorized in the TOU. You also agree to indemnify us for any loss, damages, or costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, resulting from your use of software robots, spiders, crawlers, or similar data gathering and extraction tools, or any other action you take that imposes an unreasonable burden or load on our infrastructure. You agree that the Indemnified Parties will have no liability in connection with any such breach or unauthorized use, and you agree to indemnify any and all resulting loss, damages, judgments, awards, costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees of the Indemnified Parties in connection therewith. INTERNATIONAL 0SE. Although the NTI Website may be accessible worldwide, we make no representation that materials on the NTI Website are appropriate or available for use in locations outside the United States, and accessing them from territories where their contents are illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access the NTI Website from other locations do so at their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws. Any offer for any product, service, and/or information made in connection with the NTI Website is void where prohibited. NOTICES. All notices to us must be in writing and may be made either via e-mail or conventional mail. Notices to us must be sent to the attention of Legal Department at businessaffairs@nti~lroup.com if by e-mail, or at Legal Department, The NTI Group, Inc., 15301 Ventura Blvd., Bldg. B, Suite 300, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403, if by conventional mail. Notices to you may be given via the NTI Website. Any notices or communication will be deemed delivered to the party receiving such communication (1) on the delivery date if delivered personally to the party; (2) two business days after deposit with a commercial overnight carrier, with written verification of receipt; (3) five business days after the mailing date, if sent by US mail, return receipt requested; (4) on the delivery date if transmitted by confirmed facsimile; or (5) on the delivew date if transmitted by confirmed email. 11.NO WARRANTY; DISCLAINER You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy your particular requirements for accuracy of data input and output, and for maintaining a means external to the NTI Website for any reconstruction of any lost data. NTI does not assume any responsibility or risk for your use of the Internet. The NTI Website and the Service are provided "AS IS", and NTI expressly disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, and specifically disclaims any warranty of merchantability, non-infringement of third party rights, data security or fitness for a particular purpose, with respect to the Service or any portion thereof. We reserve the sole right to modify or discontinue the NTI Website, including any features therein, at any time with or without notice to you, and will not be liable https://p~rta~.n~tc~rmectcty.c~m/tandc.aspx?eiid=12~7B6~88C3477A7627B&fUserR~e=... 7/17/2007 CITY OF PALO ALTO: Self-Service Web Portal - Terms Of Use Page 6 of 6 original objectives and intent as reflected in the original provision. CONTACT INFORMATION: The NTI Group, Inc. Attn: Legal Department 15301 Ventura Boulevard Bldg, B, Suite 300 Sherman Oaks, CA 91403 Email: businessaffairs@ ntigroup.com https://p~rta1~ntic~nnectcty.c~rn/tandc.aspx?eiid=12~~B6~88C34~~A~62~B&fUserR~~e=... 7/17/2007