Intended Use

1.1 Purpose

This policy recognizes that it may be necessary to include links on the Serve Washington website to websites outside Serve Washington’s control. The purpose of this policy is to clearly state that the Serve Washington website is not a public forum for communication and debate.  Links to external websites from Serve Washington pages are established and retained at the discretion of Serve Washington. The policy also provides guidelines on when links to external sources are inappropriate.

The Purpose of the Serve Washington website is to promote public service to citizens and businesses by:

  • Expanding business and citizen access to government services and government information;
  • Offering an easy and convenient process to conduct online transactions with State government;
  • Accelerating the delivery of quality online government services;
  • Improving the level of customer service from State government; and
  • Extending online government services to all citizens in Washington State.

1.2 Definitions

“Serve Washington website” shall mean the Internet portal operated and maintained by Serve Washington. Serve Washington is not a forum for public communication and debate. The criteria outlined in this Policy have been established to ensure that the Serve Washington website remains a non-public forum.

“Serve Washington Internet Properties”, “Serve Washington web pages” and “web pages operated by Serve Washington” shall mean web pages whose content is under the direction and control of Serve Washington, including the Serve Washington Public website, and other Serve Washington websites. (These terms do not include intranet sites controlled or operated by Serve Washington.)

“Purpose” shall mean the stated purpose of the Serve Washington website in this policy.

“External website” shall mean all websites other than the Serve Washington website.

1.3 Applicability

This policy applies to the Serve Washington website and other Serve Washington Internet properties. Links to the following types of web pages may be included in the Serve Washington website:

  1. Other Governmental Units & Educational Institutions — Serve Washington may provide links to other federal, state, and local governmental units that provide additional services and information that the Serve Washington website users may find of interest.
  2. Private Organizations — Serve Washington may provide links to private organizations if these organizations offer services that complement the Purpose, information and services offered by Serve Washington and if the links meet the Acceptance Criteria stated in this policy.

Serve Washington may provide links to websites that are not controlled, maintained, or regulated by Serve Washington, and as such Serve Washington is not responsible for the content of those websites.

Use of information obtained from External websites is voluntary. Any information obtained from an External website is not guaranteed by Serve Washington and the user should review the accuracy of any information before relying upon it. Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, or otherwise does not represent endorsement or recommendation by Serve Washington.

1.4 Guidelines for Establishing a Link from the Agency’s website to an External website

Using the following Acceptance Criteria, Serve Washington will review every link and decide whether it is appropriate and relevant:

  1. The External website corresponds with the Purpose of Serve Washington.
  2. The External website is appropriate with respect to the Purpose of Serve Washington. An inappropriate website may include, but is not limited to:
  • A commercial website which charges a fee for products or services online;
  • A website that exhibits hate, bias, discrimination, pornography, libelous or otherwise defamatory content;
  • A website that advocates or promotes the use of alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs;
  • A website that lobbies, advocates, or advances the policies and priorities of a particular industry, organization or enterprise. This includes sites of non-profit organizations;
  • A website that belongs to or supports a political affiliation;
  • A website that furthers the agenda of a political organization or candidate running for office;
  • A website that promotes or makes available adult or sexually oriented entertainment or materials;
  • A website that promotes, opposes, or makes available weapons or gambling.

Additionally, Serve Washington reserves the right to deny links if it determines that a website contains misleading or unsubstantiated claims, conflicts with the Purpose of Serve Washington or does not meet one or more of the criteria set forth in this policy.

1.5 Guidelines for Establishing a Link To the Serve Washington website From an External website

Advance permission to link to the Serve Washington website is not necessary; however, website users should be aware that the Serve Washington website sub pages, including the pages of other state agencies and local governments, may change at any time without notice. Anyone linking to the Serve Washington website should continuously verify links to sub pages.

Anyone linking to the Serve Washington website shall not display the Serve Washington web pages within frames, present the Serve Washington content as its own, or otherwise misrepresent the Serve Washington content, and they should not misinform users about the origin or ownership of the Serve Washington content. Certain information on Serve Washington may be trademarked, service-marked, or otherwise protected as intellectual property. Protected intellectual property must be used in accordance with state and federal laws and must reflect the proper ownership of the intellectual property.

1.6 Link Oversight and Monitoring

Serve Washington shall establish procedures to monitor the implementation and continuing oversight of this policy.

These procedures shall include:

  1. A process to review all new requests for links from a Serve Washington web page to another web page to ensure compliance with this policy prior to granting the request; and
  2. A quarterly review of not less than seven (7) percent or a quantity of thirty-five (35) of the then current external content links for each Serve Washington Internet Property, whichever is less, to ensure that such links still comply with this policy.

1.7 Removal of Content

Serve Washington reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to remove links if it determines that an External website contains misleading or unsubstantiated claims, conflicts with the Purpose of Serve Washington, or does not meet one or more of the criteria set forth herein.

Links from the Serve Washington website will be reviewed regularly and may be removed for any of the following reasons:

  • The link no longer points to the original information or resource to which it was intended to point;
  • The website contains inaccurate or misleading information or has changed such that it is no longer in compliance with the acceptance criteria;
  • Access to the information has become difficult due to non-standard formatting, lengthy download times, or intrusive advertising;
  • The website is permanently unreachable or remains unavailable for a lengthy period.

Removal of external links on the above bases will be permitted whether or not Serve Washington is legally obligated to act upon any information of which it is aware.