Thank you for visiting the AESDirect Internet web site and reviewing our privacy policy. The purpose of this policy is to explain how we handle information we collect from you during your visit to our web site. It is important to keep in mind that we do not collect personally-identifiable information (name, address, e-mail address,social security number, or other unique identifiers) on our web site unless we specifically advise you that we are doing so.

Policy for All Visitors

Information Collected and Stored Automatically: When you visit our web site to read pages or download information, we automatically collect and store the following non-identifying information:

• The Internet protocol (IP) address from which you access our web site. An IP address is a unique number that is automatically assigned to the computer you are using whenever you are surfing the web.
• The type of browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, and operating system, such as Windows 98 or Linux, used to access our site.
• The date and time our site is accessed, for the purpose of monitoring demand.
• The pages visited, for the purpose of improving the usefulness of our web site by providing helpful links and removing pages that are not read.
• The last site you visited, if that site contained a link to a Census Bureau web page, which indicates how you found this site.

This information does not identify you personally. We maintain the above information in system logs. We use this information to make our site more useful to visitors by learning the number of visitors to our site, the number of pages served, and the level of demand for specific pages. We do not track or record information about identifiable individuals and their visits.

We generally do not use cookies, which are files or file entries placed on your computer's hard drive by a web site that allows monitoring of your use of the site. Some activities, such as using the American FactFinder, do require the use of transient cookies. Transient cookies are only held in memory and go away when you exit the browser.

Information Collected from e-mail: When you send us personally-identifying information in an e-mail, we use the information you provide only to help us gather the information you might request. In an effort to respond to your request, information you submit may be viewed by various people within the Census Bureau. Public notices issued by the Bureau in which interested persons are invited to comment by e-mail will contain a notice of what we intend to do with the data gathered. Once received, the information in your e-mail is protected in accordance with law (e.g., the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act).

Security, Intrusion, and Detection: For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. An e-mail is not necessarily secure against interception. Whether or not an e-mail is encrypted in transmission depends on your software.

Links to Other Web Sites: Our web site contains links to other federal agencies, international agencies, and private organizations. Once you link to another site you are subject to the policies of the new site.

Policy for Registration and Users of AESDirect

AESDirect permits submission of export information over the Internet. The following additional policies apply to personally-identifiable information provided in response to a Census Bureau survey or census.

To respond to a survey or census via the Internet, you will have to provide us personally-identifying information. For each survey and census, we provide an explanation to respondents about the confidentiality of the data and the laws that protect that data (e.g., Title 13, United States Code Section 9 (a)).

To protect your privacy, in the remote chance that your survey or census responses are intercepted, all web data submissions are encrypted.

AESDirect uses transient cookies. Transient cookies are only held in memory and go away when you exit the browser.

[Additional information on Encryption and Cookies in AESDirect]

Questions concerning this policy may be addressed to: boc-support@tradegate2000.com, attn: Policy Office.