The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a Federal Government regulatory agency, provides these World Wide Web pages as a public service.
Copyright
Copyright
Providing the public with vital safety information over the Internet and the World Wide Web is an essential part of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) effort to carry out its mission. Information presented on these pages is public information. You may freely distribute, copy, or link to any of the information presented. If you do so, please use appropriate byline/photo/image credit.
Information Collection
User Information
We do not attempt to identify users of the site or their usage habits. The exceptions to this are the questionnaires listed in "Report an Unsafe Product" on our home page, which are entirely voluntary, and authorized law enforcement investigations. The only "cookies" that are written to a user's computer contain data sent during the process of reporting injuries or hazards, using on-line query systems, or subscribing to our mailing list. The data sent for such a "cookie" is only a random computer-generated number for use regarding session continuity, which does not enable us to identify you and contains no information provided by you.
If you identify yourself by sending an E-mail to CPSC or filling out a web site form, any personal information provided is used only to respond to your message, and will not be disclosed outside of the agency without explicit permission. If you join one of CPSC's email subscription lists, your email address will be used for that purpose only and will not be disclosed outside of the agency. If the purpose of the email or form is to file a complaint about the safety of a consumer product, the information (which is collected by authority of 15 U.S.C. 2054) will be entered into a database by a Consumer Product Safety Commission contractor. The information may be shared with product manufacturers, distributors, or retailers, but again, no names or other personal information will be disclosed without explicit permission.
Statistical Information
In order to manage our site, we collect some information for statistical purposes. This is standard information which is automatically collected and stored in log files; it does not identify a visitor personally. This government computer system uses software programs to analyze the data and furnish statistics. We use the statistics for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest to users, improving technical design specifications, and identifying performance or problem areas.
Below is an example of the information written to log files based on a standard request for a World Wide Web document:
xxx.yyy.com, -, 5/8/99, 3:37:51, W3SVC, WEB, cpsc.gov, 2125, 332, 7485, 200, 0, "GET, /index.html, Mozilla/4.04 [en] (Win95; U), http://www.consumer.gov/index.html, 123.123.23.12-1633920240.29265185, -,
xxx.yyy.com (or 123.123.23.12)-- this is the host name (or IP address) associated with the requester (you as the visitor). In this case, (....com) the requester is coming from a commercial address. Depending on the requester’s method of network connection, the host name (or IP address) may or may not identify a specific computer. Connections via many Internet Service Providers assign different IP addresses for each session, so the host name identifies only the ISP. The host name (or IP address) will identify a specific computer if that computer has a fixed IP address.
5/8/99, 3:37:51 -- this is the date and time of the request.
W3SVC, WEB, cpsc.gov -- this is the name of the service, server computer name, and server host name (or IP address).
2125, 332, 7485 -- this is the processing time, bytes received, bytes sent.
200, 0 -- these are the status codes - 200 is OK - the request was filled, and 0, there were no Windows NT errors.
GET, /index.html -- GET is the operation performed, followed by the location of the requested file.
Mozilla/4.04 [en] (Win95; U) -- this identifies the type of browser software and operating system used to access the page, which may affect the design parameters to use in constructing the pages.
http://www.consumer.gov/index.html -- this indicates the last page the person viewed, which indicates from where people link to our Web pages and how they move around in our web site.
123.123.23.12-1633920240.29265185, - -- session ID if appliable
Requests for other types of documents use similar information. No other user-identifying information is collected.
The log files are destroyed after three years.
Policy On Internet Web Site Links With Other Organizations
CPSC recognizes that an open Internet policy, with respect to the dissemination of information via its web site, is an ideal way to deliver safety information to the widest possible audience.
In accomplishing its safety mission, CPSC also recognizes the importance of the global marketplace and, therefore, does not preclude links from international sites.
Links IN -- Other Organizations' Links To CPSC's Web Site
CPSC welcomes links to any part of its site (www.cpsc.gov) from all who wish to do so. However, no link may present or display a product or activity in a way that states or implies CPSC endorsement.
Links OUT -- CPSC's Links To Other Organizations
CPSC's web site has links to other Federal government sites. CPSC will not consider requests to "out-link" to private, commercial or other non-Federal web sites.
From time to time, CPSC also may decide on its own, not based on any request, to out-link to a non-Federal web site. This would be a Commission decision, where such a link would clearly support the agency's mission of preventing deaths and injuries from consumer products, and where it is clearly determined that it would not in any way jeopardize the agency's independent, regulatory status. Such a link may be short or long-term, at the discretion of the Commission.
Privacy Policy
We will not collect personal information about any visitor to this site unless it is voluntarily given to us.
Privacy Impact Assessments
CPSC is responsible for ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of the information it collects on members of the public, business partners, and its own employees. These people have a right to expect CPSC will collect, maintain, use and disseminate identifiable personal information only as authorized by law and as necessary to carry out agency responsibilities.
Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) are performed on computer systems and applications in order to evaluate any risks these systems may pose to personally identifiable information.
Systems of Records
The Privacy Act requires agencies to publish in the Federal Register notices of new or substantially altered systems of records, that is, systems from which personal information, confidential or not, is retrieved by personal name or identifier.
CPSC reviews each system of record notice biennially to ensure it accurately describes the system of records. All systems containing personally identifiable information are reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that holdings are accurate, relevant, timely and complete and necessary for the proper performance of a documented agency function.
Security
To ensure the security of the site and to ensure that the service remains available to all users, this government security system employs software programs to monitor network traffic so we can identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.
Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited. Such attempts may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.
Questions
For any questions about this policy, Phil Margolies, Webmaster, (301-504-6987) (pmargolies@cpsc.gov).