Privacy Policy

At the Lottery’s PWS and affiliated sites, we ask you to provide personal information, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address, or telephone number. We may also collect demographic information, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites.

In order to access some Lottery services, you will be asked to sign in with an e-mail address and password, which we refer to as your my.lottery credentials. You can use the same credentials to sign in to many different Lottery sites and services, as well as those of select Lottery partners. By signing in on one Lottery site or service, you may be automatically signed into other Lottery sites and services.

As part of creating your credentials, you may also be requested to provide questions and secret answers, which we use to help verify your identity and assist in resetting your password, as well as an alternate e-mail address. Some services may require added security, and in these cases, you may be asked to create an additional security key. Finally, a unique ID number will be assigned to your credentials which will be used to identify your credentials and associated information.

We may collect information about your interaction with Lottery sites and services. For example, we may use website analytics tools on our site to retrieve information from your browser, including the site you came from, the search engine(s) and the keywords you used to find our site, the pages you view within our site, your browser add-ons, and your browser's width and height. We may also use technologies, such as cookies and web beacons (described below), to collect information about the pages you view, the links you click and other actions you take on our sites and services. Additionally, we collect certain standard information that your browser sends to every website you visit, such as your IP address, browser type and language, access times and referring Web site addresses. We also provide Web site analytics tools on Lottery-affiliated sites and services, and we may collect information about page views on these third party sites as well.

When you receive newsletters or promotional e-mail from the Lottery, we may use web beacons (described below), customized links or similar technologies to determine whether the e-mail has been opened and which links you click so that we may provide you more focused e-mail communications or other information.

In order to offer you a more consistent and personalized experience in your interactions with the Lottery, information collected through one Lottery service may be combined with information obtained through other Lottery and Lottery-affiliated services. We may also supplement the information we collect with information obtained from other companies. For example, we may use services from other companies that enable us to derive a general geographic area based on your IP address in order to customize certain services and information to your geographic area.

The Lottery collects and uses your personal information to operate and improve its sites and services. These uses may include providing you with more effective customer service; making the sites or services easier to use by eliminating the need for you to repeatedly enter the same information; performing research and analysis aimed at improving our products, services and technologies; and providing an experience that is customized to your interests and preferences.

We also use your personal information to communicate with you. We may send certain mandatory service communications such as welcome letters, prize reminders, information on technical service issues, and security announcements. Some Lottery services may send periodic member letters that are considered part of the service. We may also occasionally send you product surveys or other communications to inform you of other products or services available from the California Lottery.

Personal information collected through Lottery sites and services may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which the Lottery or its affiliates, subsidiaries or service providers maintain facilities. The Lottery abides by the framework and limitations as set forth in the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Title 1.8 (commencing with Section 1798) of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code).

Except as described in this statement, we will not disclose your personal information outside of the Lottery and its contracted affiliates without your consent.

We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as processing and delivery of mailings, providing customer support, hosting websites, processing transactions, or performing statistical analysis of our services. Those service providers will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and are prohibited from using it for any other purpose.

We may access or disclose information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property the Lottery or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the services; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Lottery employees, customers or the public.

You may have the ability to view or edit your personal information online. In order to help prevent your personal information from being viewed by others, you will be required to sign in with your credentials (e-mail address and password). You can access and update your profile on calottery.com by visiting the my.calottery Profile Center.

Some Lottery sites or services may collect personal information that is not accessible via the links above. However, in such cases, you may be able to access that information through alternative means of access described by the service. Or you can write us by using our Web form, and we will contact you within 30 days regarding your request.

You can stop the delivery of future e-mail communications from Lottery sites and services by following the specific instructions in the e-mail you receive. You may also have the option of proactively making choices about the receipt of e-mail communications from particular Lottery sites or services by visiting and signing into the my.calottery Profile Center. The my.lottery Profile Center allows you to choose whether you wish to receive e-mail communications from the Lottery and to subscribe or unsubscribe to newsletters about our products and services.

The Lottery is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. The Lottery and its partners use a variety of security technologies and procedures to prevent your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the personal information you provide on computer systems with limited access, which are located in controlled facilities. When we transmit highly confidential information (such as an e-mail address, unique ID number or password) over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Information stored by Lottery partners is contained within secured networks accessible only by a limited number of personnel who have agreed to comply with the California Lottery's privacy and security policies. Although we cannot guarantee the confidentiality of the information provided, neither the California Lottery nor its suppliers will voluntarily disclose any personal information collected except 1) when required by law to do so, 2) when disclosure is necessary to protect the California Lottery's rights or property, or 3) during emergencies when the California Lottery believes physical safety is at risk.

If a password is used to help protect your accounts and personal information, it is your responsibility to keep your password confidential. Do not share this information with anyone. If you are sharing a computer with anyone you should always log out before leaving a site or service to protect access to your information from subsequent users.

Services offered by the Lottery are intended for adult audiences. It is unlawful for persons under the age of 18 to access Lottery products and services and the Lottery does not knowingly provide products or services to minors. When a Lottery site does collect age information, and users identify themselves as under 18, the site will block such users from providing personal information and from access to Lottery products and services.

Certain pages on the Lottery’s Public Website that are not controlled by access through a my.lottery account are accessible to the general public, including minors, for informational and research purposes only. The Lottery does not condone use of Lottery services by minors and known instances of use of Lottery services by a minor will result in investigation by the Lottery’s Security and Law Enforcement Division (SLED).

We encourage you to talk with your children about communicating with strangers and disclosing personal information online as well as the dangers of problem gambling. You and your child can visit the Lottery's website for additional information about problem gambling.

The Lottery’s public website sites use "cookies" which enable you to sign in to our services and to help personalize your online experience. A cookie is a small data file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies contain information that can later be read by a Web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. Cookies used by Lottery sites and services cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to store your preferences and other information on your computer in order to save you time by eliminating the need to repeatedly enter the same information and to display your personalized content on your later visits to these sites. Lottery sites and services also use cookies as described in the Collection of Your Personal Information section of this privacy statement.

Cookies used when visiting and searching informational content on the Lottery’s public website are non-persistent (and become invalid after 5 minutes) and will not transmit any personal data to the Lottery.

When you sign in to the Lottery site and services using your my.lottery ID, we store your unique ID number, and the time you signed in, in an encrypted cookie on your hard disk. This cookie allows you to move between services on the site without having to sign in again on each page. When you sign out, these cookies are deleted from your computer. We also use cookies to improve the sign in experience. For example, your e-mail address may be stored in a cookie that will remain on your computer after you sign out. This cookie allows your e-mail address to be pre-populated, so that you will only need to type your password the next time you sign in. If you are using a public computer or do not otherwise want this information to be stored, you can select the appropriate radio button on the sign-in page, and this cookie will not be used.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to sign in or use other interactive features Lottery sites and services that depend on your my.lottery ID.

If you choose to accept cookies, you also have the ability to later delete cookies that you have accepted. In Internet Explorer 7, you can delete cookies by selecting “Tools”, “Delete browsing history” and clicking the “Delete Cookies” button. If you choose to delete cookies, any settings and preferences controlled by those cookies will be deleted and may need to be recreated.

Lottery web pages may contain electronic images known as Web beacons - sometimes called single-pixel gifs - that may be used to assist in delivering cookies on our sites and allow us to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver personalized services. We may include Web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or our newsletters in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.

The Lottery prohibits Web beacons on our sites from being used by third parties to collect or access your personal information.

(1) Notice is hereby given to the user that he or she has the option of having his or her personal information discarded without reuse or distribution, provided that the appropriate agency official or employee is contacted after notice is given to the user.

(2) Notice is hereby given to the user that any information acquired through the user’s interaction with this website is subject to the limitations set forth in the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Title 1.8 (commencing with Section 1798) of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code).

(3) Notice is hereby given to the user that neither the Lottery nor its suppliers shall distribute or sell any electronically collected personal information about users to any third party without the permission of the user.

(4) Notice is hereby given to the user that electronically collected personal information is exempt from requests made pursuant to the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1).

(5)The agency official who is responsible for records requests, as specified by subdivision (b) of Section 1798.17 of the Civil Code, or the agency employee designated pursuant to Section 1798.22 of that code, as determined by the agency, who is responsible for ensuring that the agency complies with requests made pursuant to this section is:

Ken Weidmann
Public Records Act Coordinator
California State Lottery
600 N. 10th Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
(916) 322-5659
PRACoordinator@calottery.com

(6) The Lottery or its suppliers shall not distribute or sell any electronically collected personal information about users to any third party without prior written permission from the user, except as required to facilitate users’ access to Lottery sites and services, investigate possible violations of Section 502 of the Penal Code or as authorized under California law, including but not limited to the Information Practices Act of 1977 and the California Public Records Act. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to prohibit a state agency from distributing electronically collected personal information to another state agency or to a public law enforcement organization in any case where the security of a network operated by a state agency and exposed directly to the Internet has been, or is suspected of having been, breached.

For purposes of this privacy policy:

“Electronically collected personal information” means any information that is collected and maintained by the Lottery that identifies or describes an individual user. This may include a user’s name, home address, home telephone number, financial information, password, electronic mail address, and information that reveals any network location or identity, but excludes any information manually submitted to the Lottery by a user, whether electronically or in written form, and information on or relating to individuals who are users serving in a business capacity, including, but not limited to, business owners, officers, or principals of that business.

“User” means an individual who communicates with a state agency or with an agency employee or official electronically.

If you have questions regarding this statement, you should first contact us via one of the options listed in the Contacting Us section below.

We will occasionally update this privacy statement to reflect changes in our services and customer feedback. When we post changes to this Statement, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of this statement. If there are material changes to this statement or in how the Lottery will use your personal information, we will notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes prior to implementing the change or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to periodically review this statement to be informed of how the Lottery is protecting your information.

The Lottery welcomes your comments regarding this privacy statement. If you have questions about this statement, please contact us by using our Web form or write us at the California Lottery, 600 North 10th Street, Sacramento, CA 95811.

To find the California Lottery office in your area, see http://www.calottery.com/AboutUs/Locations/

© 2009 California State Lottery. All rights reserved.