We respect your right to privacy and will protect it when you use our Web site. This Privacy Policy explains our online information practices only, including how we collect and use your personal information. It does not apply to third-party Web sites that you are able to reach from our applications, nor does it cover practices of other areas within the Department of Transportation. We encourage you to read those privacy policies to learn how they collect and use your information.

This policy covers the National Highway Institute (NHI) Web site.

The National Highway Institute is the training arm of the Federal Highway Administration. The NHI Web site collects some personal information that identifies the User. For individuals that register for Web Conference Training Events, Self-paced Online Courses, Web Conferences, NHI Catalog Requests, they fill out a form that collects: work address, telephone numbers, work e-mail address, and title. In addition, it collects this information from organizations that want to host NHI courses in order to establish a scheduled session of a course that can be viewed on the NHI Web site. Information that is entered by an individual can only be corrected by calling the NHI Training Team at 703-235-0534.

The NHI Web site does not automatically collect any information.

Our principal purpose for collecting personal information online is to provide you access to authorized NHI Training events, Online Courses, Web Conferences and to establish and host a NHI course at your locations. We collect information to:

• Schedule training sessions
• Invoice customers for training purchased
• Respond to your complaints/requests
• Reply to your "feedback comments"

We may share personally identifiable information you provide to us online with representatives within the Department of Transportation's Operating Administrations and related entities, other federal government agencies, or other named representatives as needed to speed your request or transaction.
Also, the law may require us to share collected information with authorized law enforcement, homeland security, and national security activities. See the Privacy Act of 1974 below.

Throughout our applications, we will let you know whether the information we ask you to provide is voluntary or required. By providing personally identifiable information, you grant us consent to use this information, but only for the primary reason you are giving it. We will ask you to grant us consent before we use the information you provide for any secondary purposes, other than those required under the law.

A "cookie" is a small text file stored on your computer that makes it easy for you to move around our applications without continually re-entering your name, password, preferences, for example. We only use "session" cookies on our Web site. This means we store the cookie on your computer only during your visit to our application. After you close your browser or turn off your computer, the cookie disappears with your personal information.

Properly securing the information we collect online is a primary commitment. To help us do this, we take the following steps to:

• Employ internal access controls to ensure the only people who see your information are those with a need to do so to perform their official duties;
• Train relevant personnel on our privacy and security measures to know requirements for compliance;
• Secure the areas where we hold hard copies of information we collect online;
• Perform regular backups of the information we collect online to insure against loss;
• UUse technical controls to secure the information we collect online including but not limited to:
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL),
• Encryption,
• Firewalls,
• Password protections;
• We periodically test our security procedures to ensure personnel and technical compliance;
• We employ external access safeguards to identify and prevent unauthorized tries of outsiders to hack into, or cause harm to, the information in our systems.

Tampering with a FHWA Web site is against the law. Depending on the offense, it is punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.

The Privacy Act of 1974 protects the personal information the federal government keeps on you in systems of records (SOR) (information an agency controls recovered by name or other personal identifier). The Privacy Act regulates how the government can disclose, share, provide access to, and keep the personal information that it collects. The Privacy Act does not cover all information collected online.
The Act's major terms require agencies to:

• Publish a Privacy Act Notice in the Federal Register explaining the existence, character, and uses of a new or revised SOR;
• Keep information about you accurate, relevant, timely, and complete to assure fairness in dealing with you;
• Allow you to, on request, access and review your information held in an SOR and request amendment of the information if you disagree with it.