Terms of Use

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia provides this website as a convenience to its customers and the general public. By using this website or the information, materials, or other content available on or through it, you agree that such use is governed by the following terms, which include our privacy policy. We reserve the right to change these terms without notice.

Consent to Monitoring

We monitor access to this website and collect certain information regarding such access for statistical and security purposes. Use of this website constitutes consent to such monitoring. If our monitoring reveals possible evidence of criminal activity, we may provide such evidence to law enforcement officials.

Appropriate Use

The content provided on this website may be used for informational, educational, and research purposes only.

Some of the content on this website may be copyrighted. Permission to use such copyrighted material must be obtained from the owner and cannot be obtained from us.

We do not permit the use of our name in any advertising, as an endorsement for any product or service, or for any other commercial purpose.

Unauthorized attempts to upload or change any of the content on this website, to defeat or circumvent its security measures, or to use this website other than for its intended purposes are prohibited.

Links to External Web Sites

We may provide links to external websites as an additional resource for users. Other websites may also link to this one. All such external websites are not on servers that we maintain, nor are they under our control. External websites may contain content that is protected under copyright or other laws with restrictions on its use. We make no warranty, express or implied, regarding, nor do we assume any liability or responsibility for, any content that is available on or through any other website. Neither our inclusion of a link to an external website nor another website’s inclusion of a link to this website implies our sponsorship, endorsement, recommendation, or approval of such other website, the entity or organization managing it, any views expressed on it, or any products or services offered on or through it.

Disclaimer

We take reasonable measures to ensure the reliability and quality of the information, materials, and other content that we produce or make available on or through this website. We may, without notice and from time to time, revise the content available on this website; however, we make no commitment to do so. We assume no liability or responsibility for the accuracy, correctness, completeness, or timeliness of any content available on or through this website, nor do we represent that the use of such content will not infringe privately held rights. All content available on or through this website is provided on an “as is,” “as available” basis. We are not responsible for misprints, errors, omissions, or denial of service or access. By using this website, you assume the risk that its content may be inaccurate, incorrect, incomplete, out-of-date, unsatisfactory for your purposes, or infringing.

We assume no liability or responsibility for any loss, injury, or damage of any kind resulting in any manner from the content of this website, including any computer virus, malicious code, or system malfunction.

The views expressed in Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia publications and working papers are those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia or the Federal Reserve System. Any conclusions that you draw from the content available on or through this website, regardless of whether you received any assistance from us or our employees, are your own and are not to be attributed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Accessibility

We are committed to making every page on this website accessible to the widest possible audience, including people with visual disabilities using screen-reading software.

Trademarks

Logos created by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia are our property and may not be used without permission. FedMail®, FedLine®, and Fedwire® are registered trademarks of the Federal Reserve Banks. Other product and company names mentioned on this site may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Applicable Law

This website site is controlled and operated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia from its offices in the United States of America. By accessing this website, you agree that these terms will be construed and applied in accordance with United States law. If you use this site from a foreign location, you are responsible for compliance with any and all applicable local laws.

The following privacy policy governs this website and its use.

Collection of Personal Information

Except as otherwise stated in this policy, you may visit this website without providing any personal information. However, you may choose to provide us with personal information if, e.g., you subscribe to one of our publications, send us questions through e-mail, answer a user survey, register for an event, apply for a job, or participate in one of our online activities. Any personal information you provide voluntarily through this website may be used to help us better tailor our website, publications, and services to our users’ needs.

This website makes limited use of permanent cookies. We use permanent cookies to track user traffic patterns or in connection with user research (such as to administer a user survey in which no one is invited to participate more than once); this will better enable us to provide you with easy-to-use, high-quality content. This kind of cookie does not record any other information about you, nor can it be used to gather or correlate information about your activities elsewhere on the World-Wide Web. You can disable your browser’s permanent cookies if you wish to prohibit the placing of the cookie.

Transient memory-resident cookies or temporary session cookies are used to maintain a user’s state of navigation during a browser session and expire from memory once the session is ended. We may from time to time use transient memory-resident cookies. In addition, sometimes a third-party vendor will use cookies on one of the websites it operates, hosts, or manages for us in order to administer an online registration process for a conference or workshop. Since a third-party vendor’s website is not operated by us, this privacy policy does not apply to the collection of personal information or any other information by that website.

This website collects and aggregates statistical information about users by performing analyses on the web server’s log files. We use this statistical information to determine, among other things:

• Our website’s most popular pages;
• The browsers and operating systems most often used by visitors;
• The websites and search engines that have referred visitors to our website; and
• The domains from which our users visit us.

Such analyses do not involve personal information. We do not correlate this data with personal information about you. This statistical information, in aggregate form, and without personally identifying you, may be shared with other Federal Reserve Banks or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

Use of Personal Information

Generally, any information collected through this website, whether individual or aggregate, is for Federal Reserve System use only. We do not rent, sell, or share personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies except when we have your permission or under the following circumstances:

• When we retain the services of other Federal Reserve Banks, outside agents, or third parties under contract with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Such personal information is only provided to, and is only used by, those parties in conjunction with the services they provide to us.
• When we are required to disclose personal information about you to government officials or otherwise as required by subpoenas, court orders, legal process, or other legal obligations and to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against claims. We will share and/or use information to investigate, prevent, or take action against illegal activities or suspected fraud.

If you participate in a user survey, your answers and personal information will be analyzed only in the aggregate. The survey may ask whether you are interested in participating in an on-site web usability test in the future. If interested, we will ask for your contact information.

If you provide us with your postal or e-mail address, or telephone or fax number, this information will be used only for the purpose for which you provided it, such as to:

• Provide you with the publications or information you requested;
• Register you for a tour, conference, or other event;
• Clarify your request or registration;
• Correspond with you regarding your job application; or
• Provide you with related information.

When you fill out our online forms, the information will be delivered to a Federal Reserve Bank e-mail address or database. Your online communications are not encrypted. We cannot guarantee the security of any information sent electronically, whether submitted by online form or e-mail.

If you submit credit card information to register for an event online, that information is forwarded to a Verisign-verified merchant committed to providing customers with the highest level of transaction processing security.

If you register for an event online, we may hold on to your registration information for the purpose of contacting you in the future about similar events. If you do not want us to keep your registration information, you must tell us so.

Maintenance of Personal Information

The safeguarding of personal information is important to us. While we endeavor to maintain the security of personal information in our possession, we cannot guarantee such security. We are not responsible for the security of personal information or any other information provided by you while it is being transmitted to our website, through e-mail, or otherwise. Nor are we responsible for what a third party does with any information provided by you.

If you have voluntarily submitted personal information to us and wish to review, update, correct, or delete it, please e-mail your request to: phil.webmaster@phil.frb.org. Please provide the name of the publication to which you subscribe and whether it is a print or electronic publication.

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

This website is not directed to children under the age of 13, nor do we knowingly collect, maintain, or use personal information obtained through this website about children under the age of 13. If a child whom we know to be under the age of 13 sends personal information to us online, we will only use that information to respond directly to the child, notify the parents, or seek parental consent.

Policy Changes

We reserve the right to change this privacy policy at any time without notice. If any change to this policy affects the way we use personal information, we will provide an avenue for you to opt out of such use. Otherwise, we will not provide you with notice of changes to this policy. You are responsible for reviewing this privacy policy from time to time for any such changes.

This privacy policy was last updated August 26, 2008

Contact Information

Questions or comments about this privacy policy, may be directed to our website team at phil.webmaster@phil.frb.org.