West Virginia State Auditor’s Office

Thank you for visiting the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office website. This site has been designed to make it easier and more efficient for West Virginia citizens and businesses to interact with West Virginia State Government, while also ensuring that your personal information is secure. The West Virginia State Auditor’s Office is committed to preserving your privacy while visiting our Website. This privacy statement addresses the collection, security and disclosure of information that may be obtained through the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office website.

When signing up online for a new “myApps” account the Auditor’s office requests that you provide your social security number as a methodology to identify your state employment by matching this information with the tax and payroll information already in our possession. We do not collect the number during this process. If you do not wish to supply your social security number you must contact your payroll administrator to obtain your EPICS ID number and then call our help desk so that you can be manually set up in the system.

Collection of Information

If you visit a website maintained by the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office in order to read or download information, we may collect the following information:

The name of your domain; for example, "companyname.com";
The IP address of the client accessing the web site;
The type of browser and operating system used to access our sites;
The Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our sites, if applicable;
The pages you visit within the West Virginia State Auditor’s website(s); and
The links made to other websites through our sites.

This information is collected for purposes of determining what information is of most and least interest to all visitors and in improving content and performance of the site. This information is not collected for commercial marketing purposes.

The West Virginia State Auditor’s Office may collect personally identifiable information that you voluntarily provide while visiting a West Virginia State Auditor’s Office maintained website. Examples of personally identifiable information may include (but are not limited to):

An e-mail address, if you are communicating with us through e-mail;
Information you voluntarily submit to the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office for the purposes of completing or submitting an application or form online; and
Other information volunteered, such as vendor profile/contact information, survey information or content of e-mail.

In general, please note the information collected, whether or not personally identifiable, is not limited to text characters and may include audio, video and other graphic formats you send us. Information is retained in accordance with existing laws, rules, regulations, and other policies.

Public Disclosure

The West Virginia State Auditor’s Office does not disclose any personally identifiable information collected online except where permission has been granted, or where the information is public information under the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act W.V.C.A. §§ 29B-1-1 et seq., or other applicable laws. Visitors should be aware that information collected by the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office on its websites may be subject to inspection, if such information is a public record or not otherwise protected from disclosure.

Identity Verification Process

The number of reported cases of identity theft is increasing steadily. From Internet transactions to marketing databases storing valuable consumer information, it’s now easier for anyone to obtain your personal information. In fact, a significant portion of identity theft incidences trace back to the misuse of customer data by an employee of a company with unsafe information handling practices.

At the WVSAO we are committed to the responsible use of data. Our goal is to confirm a person’s identity or age while protecting our users from the overexposure of sensitive information.

The records used to validate your identity come from numerous trusted data sources including property records, department of motor vehicles, State issued identification cards, immigration records, vehicle registrations, professional licenses and more.

What is identity verification?

Also called “identity proofing” or “vetting an ID,” identity verification is used to confirm an identity in instances where the customer is not standing before you to show some sort of picture ID. It’s a real-time, electronic process that validates the personal information provided by a consumer.

Where does all the information come from?

The West Virginia State Auditor's Office has contracted with a third party public records provider to provide knowledge based authentication used to verify an identity can include a person's credit history, self-reported marketing data and public records data. Although the word, “public,” may sound as if the information is accessible by anyone, this is not the case. Public data records include protected information taken from all types of records throughout an individual’s adult life.

What is Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA)?

Knowledge-based authentication, commonly referred to as KBA, is a step beyond basic identity verification to prove that the person providing the identity information truly is that exact person. As its name suggests, KBA is based on some sort of knowledge the individual has. There are two different forms of KBA, dynamic KBA, which the third party that the WVSAO has contracted with uses, and static KBA which is sometimes called shared secrets.

Information Disclaimer

Information provided on websites maintained by the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office is intended to allow the public convenient access to public information. While all attempts are made to provide accurate, current and reliable information, we cannot guarantee that the information will be error-free. Therefore, the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office and respective employees, officers and agencies expressly deny any guarantee of the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published through our websites and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance upon the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information.

Any person who relies upon such information obtained from these websites, does so at his or her own risk. The contents of this website are published for information purposes only and subject to change without notice.