CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE PRIVACY STATEMENT

Thank you for visiting the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) website. DRE is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. The privacy and security of your personal information is of the utmost importance to us. We collect relevant personal information through lawful means to protect and serve the interests of the public in real estate licensing and enforcement. DRE communicates the purpose for which the information will be used at, or prior to, the time of collection. Any subsequent use will be consistent with the original purpose.

By visiting this web page, you are accepting the policies and practices described in this Notice. This Notice covers the following topics:

 

PERSONAL INFORMATION AND YOUR RIGHTS

"Personal information" is information about a natural person that is readily identifiable to that specific individual. Pursuant to Civil Code 1798.3(a), personal information includes, but is not limited to, such information as an individual's name, address, and phone number. A domain name or Internet Protocol address is not considered personal information; however, it is considered "electronically collected personal information".

According to Government Code §11015.5, "Electronically collected personal information" means any information that is maintained by an agency that identifies or describes an individual user, including, but not limited to, his or her name, social security number, physical description, home address, home telephone number, education, financial matters, medical or employment history, password, electronic mail address, and information that reveals any network location or identity, but excludes any information manually submitted to a state agency 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.

The only "electronically collected personal information" DRE automatically collects are domain names, Internet Protocol addresses and statistical information about which DRE webpages you visit. If you voluntarily participate in an activity that asks for specific information (i.e. completing a request for assistance, sending an e-mail or participating in a survey) more detailed data will be collected. If you choose not to participate in these activities, your choice will in no way affect your ability to use any other feature of DRE's website.

If any type of personal information is requested on the website or volunteered by the user, state law (Civil Code §1798 et seq. and Government Code §11015.5(a)(5)) and federal law (Privacy Act of 1974) may protect it. However, nondescript data from your information used for things like general statistics may be a public record and may be subject to public inspection and copying if not otherwise protected by federal or state law.

INFORMATION COLLECTED AND HOW IT IS USED

DRE collects the personal information listed below to respond to your requests.

REGISTRATION

DRE uses your name, address, and email address to contact you about services on our website, such as when you register for events and workshops.

EMAIL

You may choose to provide DRE with personal information like an email with a comment or question. We will use that information to respond to your inquiry. Sometimes we may forward your email to other state agencies who may be better able to help you, and this staff may be employed by a different agency within the State. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations or, as required by law, we do not share our email with any other organizations.

 

WHAT HAPPENS TO INFORMATION YOU SUBMIT TO US?

If you choose to provide DRE with your personal information, the information will only be used for the purposes for which it was provided and will not be shared with another entity except as prescribed by law. We may use electronically collected information to improve our service to you or to respond to your request.

 

A SPECIAL NOTE ON MINORS

Minors are not eligible to use DRE services, and we ask that minors (a person under 18 years of age) do not submit any personal information to DRE.

We recognize the importance of protecting privacy where minors are involved. We are committed to protecting the privacy of minors and do not knowingly collect personal information from minors or create profiles of minors through our website. Users are cautioned, however, that the collection of personal information submitted online or in an e-mail will be treated as though it was submitted by an adult. DRE strongly encourages parents, guardians and adults to be involved in the internet activities of their children or other minors they are responsible for and to provide guidance whenever minors are asked to provide personal information online. If you believe a minor has provided us with personal information, we ask that a parent or guardian contact us at address below.

 

COOKIES

When you visit a website, a small file called a cookie can be sent to your computer. This cookie collects information about how you browse the site.

Using our site requires you to allow per-session cookies.

Session cookies are:

  • Stored in the memory of your computer.
  • Only available during an active browser session.
  • Erased as soon as you close your Web browser.

If you do not enable cookies, some functions of our site may not work properly.
Go to whatismybrowser.com and search for Enable Cookies (third-party site) to find your browser and learn how to enable cookies.

COOKIES DO NOT CONTAIN PERSONAL OR CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

Cookies may contain "electronically collected personal information." According to Government Code Section 11015.5, electronically collected personal information means any information that is maintained by an agency that identifies or describes an individual user, including, but not limited to, his or her name, social security number, physical description, home address, home telephone number, education, financial matters, medical or employment history, password, electronic mail address, and information that reveals any network location or identity, but excludes any information manually submitted to a state agency 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.

DRE will not distribute or sell any electronically collected personal information about users to any third party without obtaining the user's written consent. In addition, electronically collected personal information is exempt from disclosure when a request is made under the Public Records Act.

"Electronically collected personal information" that DRE automatically collects includes your domain name or Internet Protocol address and statistical information about which DRE web pages you visit. If you voluntarily participate in an activity that asks for specific information (i.e., completing a request for assistance, registering for account access, sending an e-mail, or participating in a survey), more detailed data will be collected. If you choose not to participate in these activities, your choice will in no way affect your ability to use any other feature of the website.

Information Definition
Date Date of visit
Time Time of visit
Client IP Address Your Internet Protocol address – Your computer's address
Server IP Address Internet Protocol address of our Web server – Our server's address
Referrer Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the Web page that sent the requested file
URI Stem Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that is the target of your action
HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol – Software that runs the Web
HTTP Status Codes that indicate the condition of the request, report errors, and other necessary information (e.g., "404 Requested Page Not Found.")
HTTP Sub status Codes that further narrows down the condition of the request.
HTTP Request URL The address of the Web page or file you requested
Method The HTTP method used in your request
Bytes Sent Amount of data you downloaded during your visit
Bytes Received Amount of data you uploaded during your visit
Time Taken Length of time your transaction took, in milliseconds
User Agent Name and version of your Web browser or other software that requested information from us
Protocol Version Version of HTTP used by your Web browser
User Agent The browser that you are using
Cookie A small text file, primarily used to keep session state for the visitor. We limit our use of cookies as stated above.
 

SECURITY

DRE put security measures in place to safeguard and protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, and loss. Our policy limits access to personal information to employees who have an established business need for the personal information including those directly involved in providing the services you requested. We use security technologies to protect all of your information on our entire website from unauthorized viewing or corruption, by either internal or external sources, and to protect against loss, unauthorized access/viewing/use/modification or disclosure. To help you conduct business with us safely and privately, we require that you use the latest version of your browser.

There are things you can do to protect your privacy. Be sure to update your browser and operating system regularly. For more information on how you can protect your privacy, go to the Privacy Enforcement and Protection page at oag.ca.gov/privacy on the Office of the Attorney General website.

 

DISCLOSURE AND SHARING

In the State of California, laws exist to ensure that government is open and transparent and that the public has a right to access appropriate records and information in its possession. At the same time, there are exceptions to the public's right to access public records. These exceptions serve various needs including maintaining the privacy of individuals. Both state and federal laws provide these exceptions.

All information collected at this site becomes public record that may be subject to inspection and copying by the public, unless an exemption in law exists. In the event of a conflict between this Privacy Notice and the Public Records Act, the Information Practices Act or other law governing the disclosure of records, the Public Records Act, the Information Practices Act or other applicable law will control.

 

LINKS TO OTHER SITES

Our website has links to sites we felt might be useful to you. When you link to another site, you are no longer on DRE's site and are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.

This website and the information it contain are provided as a public service by DRE. This system is monitored to ensure proper operation, to verify the functioning of applicable security features, and for comparable purposes. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring. Unauthorized attempts to modify any information stored on this system, to defeat or circumvent security features, or to utilize this system other than its intended purposes are prohibited and may result in criminal prosecution.

 

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

DRE attempts to maintain the highest accuracy of content on its website. Any errors or omissions should be reported for investigation.

DRE makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the absolute accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this website and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this website. No warranty of any kind, implied, expressed, or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third-party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from computer virus, is given with respect to the contents of this website or its hyperlinks to other Internet resources. References or links in this website to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name are for the information and convenience of the public, and do not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the State of California, or its employees or agents.

 

OWNERSHIP

In general, information presented on this web site, unless otherwise indicated, is considered in the public domain. It may be distributed or copied as permitted by law. However, DRE does make use of copyrighted data (e.g., photographs) which may require additional permission prior to your use. To use any information on this web site not owned or created by DRE or the State, you must seek permission directly from the owning (or holding) sources. DRE shall be free to use, for any purpose, any ideas, concepts, or techniques contained in information provided through this site.

 

ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You can review any personal information we collect about you and bring any inaccuracies to our attention. To access your records, submit a request to our contact address below.

You have the right to review any personal information DRE collects about you. If you request all or a portion of the personal information collected about you by DRE, we will provide you with the personal information requested and explain how we use the information. You may request changes to your personal information you believe is incorrect by submitting a written request that credibly shows the error. If you believe that your personal information is being used for a purpose other than the purpose for which it was submitted, you may contact us to so we can rectify the misuse. In all cases, DRE will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.

Please note that requesting personal information from a state agency under false pretenses is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $5,000 and/or one year in prison (Civil Code Section 1798.56)

Please contact the Privacy Officer (contact information below) to see records containing personal information about you and/or request corrections to these records.

 

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

DRE may update and revise its Privacy Policy. We will post any privacy policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, DRE will provide a more prominent notice.

 

CONTACT US

If you have any questions or concerns about this policy or request information, contact DRE's Privacy Officer by writing to:

    DRE Privacy Office
    651 Bannon Street
    Sacramento, CA 95811
    (877) 373-4542
    Email: DREPrivacy@dre.ca.gov

EFFECTIVE DATE

    11/13/2025

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