Thank you for visiting the U.S. Department of Agriculture website and
reviewing our privacy statement. Our privacy policy is clear: We will
collect no personal information about you when you visit our website unless
you choose to provide that information to us.
Here is how we handle information about your visit to our website:
Information Collected and Stored Automatically
If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the website, read
pages, or download information, we will gather and store certain information
about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you
personally. We automatically collect and store only the following information
about your visit:
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The Internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private
Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect from a university's
domain) and IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically
assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which
you access our website;
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The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
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The date and time you access our site;
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The pages you visit; and
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If you linked to the U.S. Department of Agriculture website from
another website, the address of that website.
We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors
- to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology
our visitors are using. We do not track or record information about individuals
and their visits.
If You Send Us Personal Information
If you choose to provide us with personal information, as in an e-mail
to the Secretary or someone else or by filling out a form with your personal
information and submitting it to us through our website, we use that information
to respond to your message and to help us locate for you the information
you have requested. We treat e-mails the same way that we regard letters
sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We are required to maintain
many documents under the Presidential Records Act for historical purposes,
but we do not collect personal information for any purpose other than
to respond to you. We only share the information you give us with another
government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency, or as otherwise
required by law. Moreover, we do not create individual profiles with the
information you provide or give it to any private organizations. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture does not collect information for commercial
marketing.
When You Visit USDA Agency/Staff Office Websites
Please read the USDA Agency/Staff Office Privacy Statement when you visit
those websites. Where necessary, an Agency/Staff Office may have additional
privacy criteria, conditions, or information that you should know.
Links to Other Sites
Our website has links to many other federal agencies. In a few cases
we link to private organizations, with their permission. Once you access
another site through a link that we provide you are subject to the privacy
policy of the new site.
Website Security
Information presented on the USDA website is considered public information
and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image
credits is requested.
- 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.
- 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
General Schedule 20.
- 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.
Comments or Questions
If you have any comments or questions about the information presented
here please forward them to howard.baker@usda.gov.
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