NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important
Notices |
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Thank you for visiting NASA and reviewing our policy notices. We
have integrated these statements into a single posting for ease
of use. The following links will help you navigate to a specific
section:
This notice provides NASA's policy regarding the nature, purpose,
use and sharing of any information collected via this Web site.
The information you provide on a NASA Web site will be used only
for its intended purpose. We will protect your information consistent
with the principles of the Privacy Act, the e-Government act of
2002, the Federal Records Act, and as applicable, the Freedom of
Information Act.
Submitting information is strictly voluntary. By doing so, you
are giving NASA your permission to use the information for the intended
purpose. If you do not want to give NASA permission to use your
information, simply do not provide it. However, not providing certain
information may result in NASA's inability to provide you with the
information or services you desire.
There are several types of information we collect. These include:
- Automatically Collected Information
- Information Collected for Tracking and Customization
(Cookies)
- Personal Information
- Information from Children
NASA never collects information for commercial marketing. We will
only share your information with another government agency if it
relates to that agency, or as otherwise required by law. NASA never
creates individual profiles or gives your information to any private
organization.
We collect and temporarily store certain technical information
about your visit for use in site management and security purposes.
This information includes:
- The Internet domain from which you access our Web site (for
example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet
access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect from
an educational domain);
- The IP address (a unique number for each computer connected
to the Internet) from which you access our Web site;
- The type of browser (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer) used
to access our site;
- The operating system (Windows, Unix) used to access our site;
- The date and time you access our site;
- The URLs of the pages you visit;
- Your username, if it was used to log in to the Web site; and
- If you visited this NASA Web site from another Web site, the
URL of the forwarding site.
This information is only used to help us make our site more useful
for you. With this data we learn about the number of visitors to
our site and the types of technology our visitors use.
Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts
are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw
data logs are retained temporarily as required for security and
site management purposes only.
A cookie is a small file that a Web site transfers to your computer
to allow it to remember specific information about your session
while you are connected. Your computer will only share the information
in the cookie with the Web site that provided it, and no other Web
site can request it. There are two types of cookies, session and
persistent. Session cookies last only as long as your Web browser
is open. Once you close your browser, the cookie disappears. Persistent
cookies store information on your computer for longer periods of
time.
NASA Web sites may use session cookies for technical purposes such
as to enable better navigation through the site, or to allow you
to customize your preferences for interacting with the site. A few
NASA Web sites may also make use of persistent cookies to remember
you between visits so, for example, you can save your customized
preference settings for future visits. Each NASA site using persistent
cookies identifies itself as doing so.
At no time is your private information, whether stored in persistent
cookies or elsewhere, shared with third parties who have no right
to that information. If you do not wish to have session or persistent
cookies stored on your machine, you can turn them off in your browser.
However, this may affect the functioning of some NASA Web sites.
Personal Information
If you choose to provide us with personal information, through
such methods as completing a form or sending us an email, we will
use that information to respond to your message and to help us get
you the information or services you have requested.
Remember that email isn't necessarily secure. You should never
send sensitive or personal information like your Social Security
number in an email. Use postal mail or secure Web sites instead.
Some of our Web sites ask visitors who request specific information
to fill out a registration form. For example, vendors looking for
marketing opportunities by visiting our NASA Acquisition Internet
Service site may be asked to register to obtain email notices of
business opportunities. Other information collected at Web sites
through questionnaires, feedback forms, or other means, enables
us to determine visitors' interests, with the goal of providing
better service to our customers.
The Children's Online
Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) governs information gathering
online from or about children under the age of 13. Verifiable consent
from a child's parent or guardian is required before collecting,
using, or disclosing personal information from a child under the
age of 13.
We collect no information about you or your child, other than that
detailed in the previous section, when you visit our web site unless
you choose to provide information to us. When a NASA Web site needs
to collect information about a child under 13 years old, COPPA required
information and instructions will be provided by the specific Web
page that collects information about the child. The Web page will
specify exactly what the information will be used for, who will
see it, and how long it will be kept.
There are several exceptions that permit collection of a child's
email address without receiving parental consent in advance:
- To provide the parents with notice and to seek consent for communications
with the child. Note: this may require collection of the parent's
email address as well.
- To respond to a one time request from a child.
- To respond more than once to a child's request; i.e., subscription
to a newsletter. However, parental consent is required prior to
the second communication.
- To protect the safety of a child who is participating on the
site; i.e., in a chat room.
- To protect the site or to respond to law enforcement; i.e.,
in the case of a Web site compromise.
Personal information about children under 13 years of age may be
needed to respond to his/her communication to us, such as to receive
a poster or to acquire information for a school project. Personal
information about your child will be destroyed immediately upon
completion of its intended purpose. On rare occasions, it may be
determined that a communication from a child under 13 years old
should be maintained for historical purposes. Should such an occasion
occur, NASA will obtain the necessary consent from the child's parent.
Finally, we provide many on-line tools and services in support
of NASA's mission. A child under 13 years old may inadvertently
provide personal information to one of these services. If this should
happen, the information about the child will be deleted immediately
upon discovery.
For site security purposes and to ensure that this Web service
remains available to all users, this Government computer system
employs software programs that monitor network traffic to identify
unauthorized attempts to upload or change information,. Anyone using
this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised
that if such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal
activity, such evidence may be provided to appropriate law enforcement
officials.
Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on NASA servers
are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, including
under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National
Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.
We continually strive to ensure the pages on this Web site are
accessible to individuals with disabilities in accordance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. If you have any difficulty
viewing any page with adaptive technology, please contact the webmaster
for this site, or the
Center Section 508 Coordinator.
Documents on NASA Web sites are presented in many formats. These
formats are generally accessible to users using screen reading software.
Some files on this Web site may be posted as Adobe Acrobat Portable
Document Format (PDF) files. Adobe provides their Acrobat
Reader software as a free download.
NASA links to many Web sites created and maintained by other public
and/or private organizations. NASA provides links to these sites
as a service to our users. The presence of a link is not a NASA
endorsement of the site.
When users follow a link to an outside Web site, they are leaving
NASA and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the
owners/sponsors of the outside Web site(s). NASA is not responsible
for the information collection practices of non-NASA sites.
Date of publication: December, 2005.