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Privacy Statement and Other Information
About FDA’s Website

Privacy Statement
Links to Other Sites
Web Site Content
Information Quality
Linking To or Copying Information On the FDA Website
Pop-Up Advertisements
Intrusion Detection
Contact Information


Privacy Statement

Introduction

Thanks for visiting FDA’s website. Our privacy policy outlines the information we learn when you visit our site and how we use this information.

We receive two types of information when you visit our site:

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Information Automatically Collected

When you visit a website, certain personal information about you can be collected automatically. When you browse through our site, read pages, or download information, we collect certain information to measure how many visitors come to the different parts of the site so we can make the site more useful.

Example: We use browser information to help us design our site so the greatest number of people can view the pages correctly.

For every visitor, we collect and temporarily store the following information:

"Session Cookies"

Some services on our website use "session cookies." These are:

Note: If you disable cookies in your browser, it may cause problems with searching and displaying information.

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Information You Choose to Provide

We collect and store no other information about you when you visit our site unless you choose to provide it. For example:

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FDA Information Disclosure Policy

FDA will not disclose, give, sell, or transfer any personal information about our visitors unless it is required:

Other possible uses of your information:

Note: E-mail is not necessarily secure against interception. If your communication is sensitive, or if it includes personal information such as your social security number, you can send it by postal mail instead.

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Links to Other Sites

Our website has links to many other federal agencies, and, in a few cases, to private organizations, foreign governments and international organizations. You should be aware that:

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Web Site Content

The health and medical information on our website is not intended to take the place of advice or treatment from healthcare professionals. It is also not intended to substitute for the users' relationships with their own health care/pharmaceutical providers.

The Code of Federal Regulations is the authoritative source for FDA regulations.

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Information Quality

FDA is dedicated to:

Note: In keeping with this commitment and in accordance with Public Law 106-554 and Office of Management and Budget requirements, HHS and FDA have developed information quality guidelines establishing quality assurance policies, standards, and processes.

The HHS guidelines are available at http://www.hhs.gov/infoquality/. The FDA guidelines are at http://www.hhs.gov/infoquality/fda.html.

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Linking To or Copying Information On the FDA Website

Unless otherwise noted, the contents of the FDA Website (www.fda.gov)--both text and graphics--are not copyrighted. They are in the public domain and may be republished, reprinted and otherwise used freely by anyone without the need to obtain permission from FDA. Credit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the source is appreciated but not required.

People are also free to link to any URL on FDA's site. FDA's preference is that people link to the material on the FDA site (rather than copying it to their personal Websites) because the Agency continuously updates the information on the Website as better information becomes available. A person copying documents to another Website, instead of linking to them, would then have to monitor the original documents to know when these documents were updated by FDA or else risk giving bad or incorrect advice to visitors to their Website. Providing consumers or health professionals with advice that is not fully up-to-date can lead to serious public health consequences. Providing industry advice that is not fully up-to-date can lead to companies being out of compliance with regulatory requirements.

If a person, nonetheless, decides to copy content or images, FDA strongly recommends that the copied item lists the date that the material was copied and provides a link back to its source on the FDA Website. Users can then see for themselves if the copied material has been updated or changed.

FDA appreciates being informed about the use of Website materials. Contact FDA, HFI-50, Rockville, MD 20857 or e-mail webmail@oc.fda.gov.

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Pop-Up Advertisements

When visiting our website, your Web browser may produce pop-up advertisements. These advertisements were most likely produced by other websites you visited or by third-party software installed on your computer. FDA doesn’t produce pop-up ads and doesn’t endorse or recommend products or services for which you may view a pop-up ad on your computer screen while visiting our site.

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Intrusion Detection

This site is maintained by the U.S. government and protected by various provisions of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Violations of Title 18 are subject to criminal prosecution in federal court.

For site security purposes and to ensure that the site remains available to all users, we employ software programs that monitor traffic and identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. In the event of authorized law enforcement investigations, and pursuant to any required legal process, information from these sources may be used to help identify an individual.

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Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments about the FDA website, you can contact us by:

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