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Privacy and Security

1. The Washington Headquarters Services Web site, www.whs.mil, is provided as a public service by the Information and Communications Office of the WHS Administration and Program Support Division in compliance with DoD Web Policies and Guidelines and DoD Principles of Information.

2. Information presented on Washington Headquarters Services is considered public information and may be distributed or copied unless otherwise specified. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

3. Privacy Act Advisory - If you choose to provide us with personal information – like filling out a Contact Us form with e-mail and/or postal addresses – we only use that information to respond to your message or request. We will only share the information you give us with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency, or as otherwise required by law. We never create individual profiles or give it to any private organizations. Washington Headquarters Services never collects information for commercial marketing. While you must provide an e-mail address or postal address for a response other than those generated automatially in response to questions or comments that you may submit, we recommend that you NOT include any other personal information, especially Social Security numbers. The Social Security Administration offers additional guidance on sharing your Social Security number.

4. For site management, information is collected for statistical purposes. This government computer system uses software programs to create summary statistics, which are used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas.

5. 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.

6. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes and are scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration guidelines.

7. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.

8. If you have any questions or comments about the information presented here, please contact Washington Headquarters Services at information@whs.mil.

9. Cookie Disclaimer - Washington Headquarters Services does not use persistent cookies (persistent tokens that pass information back and forth from the client machine to the server). Washington Headquarters Services may use session cookies (tokens that remain active only until you close your browser) in order to make the site easier to use. The Department of Defense DOES NOT keep a database of information obtained from these cookies.

   You can choose not to accept these cookies and still use the site, but it may take you longer to fill out the same information repeatedly and clicking on the banners will not take you to the correct link. Refer to the help information in your browser software for instructions on how to disable cookies.