What
is The Cool Spot?
The Cool Spot is a Web site for
middle school students about alcohol. It is sponsored
by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
(NIAAA), the nation’s lead agency supporting
research into the causes, prevention, and treatment
of alcohol problems. The NIAAA is a component of the
National Institutes of Health, an agency within the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Cool Spot is committed to
providing an engaging, safe, and secure Web site.
To show our commitment to the privacy and security
of our visitors, The Cool Spot adheres to the requirements
of the Children's
Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) regarding
personally identifiable information for children 13
years of age and under. Our policy is to create content
that requires as little collection of information
from our visitors as possible, and we take special
measures to help kids maintain and protect their personal
privacy.
Interactive Features
To fully engage The Cool Spot
visitors and to enhance their experiences, there are
several interactive features on the site. In some
instances, users may choose to submit information
about ways they avoid alcohol use or resist peer pressure.
Users are discouraged from providing names, and no
personally identifiable information will be retained
or archived on the site.
Security
The Cool Spot maintains an online
environment that protects the security, privacy and
integrity of all information collected and used within
the site. Information is stored within server facilities
that use the latest industry standards and practices
for protecting information.
Advertising
The Cool Spot does not accept
paid advertising in any form, from any organization.
Links to other sites
The Cool Spot is dedicated to
providing as safe an environment as possible for visitors
while they are on our site. To enhance the information
on our site, we may link to other sites for related
content, but we cannot be responsible for the information
contained there. If a visitor leaves our site through
a link on one of our pages, a box is displayed alerting
the visitor that they are no longer surfing on our
site. For the online safety of kids as well as parents
and teachers, we advise that users check the privacy
policies of these sites as well. Parents should also
review the content of the sites their children visit,
to ensure that it is appropriate for them.
Aggregate Log File Data
Log data is information automatically
collected from the computers of site visitors. Log
data includes such things as the types of computer
operating systems, the types of Internet browsers,
and the names of the users' Internet Service Providers.
It can be viewed only in terms of statistical data
and does not include any information that is personally
identifiable. This data is used to ensure that the
site is accessible to all users. Log data also includes
quantitative information such as which site pages
and activities are accessed most often, how long a
user stays on the web site, how a user gets to the
web site, and what keywords a user types into a search
engine to find our site. This information is used
only to aid future site development by showing which
features and pages users visit most and helps us to
improve the site for our visitors.
- IP Addresses.
IP addresses, which are identification numbers assigned
to your specific computer, are collected and used
only to gather broad demographic information and
are not shared with any outside person or group.
We do not use IP addresses to personally identify
users.
- How We Collect Aggregate Log File Data.
Aggregate log data is collected automatically. The
user voluntarily provides all other information
collected on the site. Cookies, which are pieces
of code embedded into users' computers by web servers,
are not used at The Cool Spot.
Email Inquiries
When inquiries are E-mailed to
us, we store the question and the E-mail address information
so that we can respond electronically. Unless otherwise
required by statute, we do not identify publicly who
sends questions or comments to our web site. We will
not obtain information that will allow us to personally
identify you when you visit our site, unless you chose
to provide such information to us.
Questions about NIH privacy policies should be sent
to the NIAAA Privacy Act Officer through NIAAA
Webmaster.
Contact Us
The Cool Spot welcomes your suggestions,
comments and concerns about privacy issues. Please
contact us at NIAAA
Webmaster or write to:
The Cool Spot
National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
5635 Fishers Lane, Room 3098, MSC 9304
Bethesda, MD 20892-9304 |