OIG PRIVACY POLICY
We respect your right to privacy and will protect it when you visit our website. 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 websites that you are able to reach from this website, 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.
What We Automatically Collect Online
We collect information about your visit that does not identify you personally. We can tell the computer, browser, and web
service you are using. We also know the date, time, and pages you visit. Collecting this information helps us design the
site to suit your needs. In the event of a known security or virus threat, we may collect information on the web content you
view.
Other Information We May Collect
When you visit our website, we may request and collect the following categories of personal information from you:
- Contact information
- IDs and passwords
Why We Collect Information
Our principal purpose for collecting personal information online is to provide you with what you need and want, address
security and virus concerns, and to ease the use of our website. We will only use your information for the purposes you
intended, to address security or virus threats, or for the
purposes required under the law. See “Choices on How We Use the Information You Provide” to learn more.
- Responding to your complaints
- Replying to your “feedback comments”
Sharing Your Information
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. In a government-wide effort to combat security and virus
threats, we may share some information we collect automatically, such as IP address, with other federal government agencies.
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)
Choices on How We Use the Information You Provide
Throughout our website, 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 using your voluntarily provided information for any secondary
purposes, other than those required under the law.
Cookies or Other Tracking Devices
A "cookie" is a small text file stored on your computer that makes it easy for you to move around a website without
continually re-entering your name, password, preferences, for example. We only use “session” cookies on our website. This
means we store the cookie on your computer only during your visit to our
website. After you turn off your computer or stop using the Internet, the cookie disappears with your personal information.
Securing Your 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
- Use 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 OIG's website 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.
More Information
For more information or for comments and concerns on our privacy practices, please contact our Privacy Officer, James
Heminger, by email at James.f.Heminger@oig.dot.gov or by phone at
202.366.1498.
|
Our P3P Policy
Our P3P policy can be viewed in Internet Explorer by clicking on the View menu item, and then selecting Privacy
Report... on the drop-down menu. Click on any page originating on our server in the window, and click the Summary
button.
Protecting Children
This site has been rated as safe through the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). Parents concerned with what their
children view online should download the free ICRA filtering tool to block out sites identified as potentially harmful. To find out
more, click on the button below.
We do not intentionally collect information from children under the age of 13. If in the future we choose to collect
personal information from children, we will comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Privacy 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 provisions 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; and
Allow you to, on request, access and review your information held in a SOR and request amendment
of the information if you disagree with it.
|
When the OIG collects information from you online that is subject to the Privacy Act (information kept in an
SOR), we will provide a Privacy Act Statement specific to that collected information. This Privacy Act Statement tells you:
The authority for and the purpose and use of the information collected subject to the Privacy Act
Whether providing the information is voluntary or mandatory
The effects on you if you do not provide any or all requested information
|
|
|
|