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FEMA Privacy Policy

Introduction

  1. This World Wide Web (WWW) site is provided as a public service by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA.

  2. Information presented on this FEMA WWW site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

Information collected and stored automatically

  1. The information we learn about you from your visit to our website depends upon what functions you perform when visiting our site.

  2. For site management, information is collected for statistical purposes. This government computer system uses software programs to create summary statistics, which are used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas.

  3. 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 the following information about your visit:

    • 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;

    • The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;

    • The date and time you access our site;

    • The pages you visit; and

    • If you linked to the FEMA 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 use. We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits.

Cookies

FEMA uses cookies on its websites solely to allow complex, software user-driven applications to function correctly. For example, FEMA's online ordering services for U.S. Fire Administration and the FEMA Flood Map Store publications allow users to shop through online catalogs. When a user "checks off" a publication, the transaction consists of a separate "signal" that is sent by the user's computer to FEMA's site. In order to maintain a complete record of the total order, the FEMA server sends a "cookie" back to the user's computer solely for the purposes of identifying that user's order. The only information collected during this process is related to that particular publication order. This information is not retained after the online order is sent or completed. FEMA's use of cookie technology is not otherwise designed, intended or used to collect, store or analyze information pertaining to Internet users.

Security and Intrusion Detection

Unauthorized attempts to defeat or circumvent security features, to use the system for other than intended purposes, to deny service to authorized users, to access, obtain, alter, damage, or destroy information, or otherwise to interfere with the system or its operation is prohibited. Evidence of such acts may be disclosed to law enforcement authorities and result in criminal prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-294), (18 U.S.C. 1030), or other applicable criminal laws.

  1. For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs software programs to monitor host and network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.

  2. 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 guidelines.

  3. 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."

Last Modified: Thursday, 04-Jun-2009 12:55:37 EDT

References