Federal Supply Service
U.S. General Services Administration
Privacy Introduction
The privacy to our General Services Administration / Federal Supply Service (FSS) customers and affiliates has
always been of utmost importance to FSS. Per our own policy for personal privacy, FSS will collect no personal
information about you during your visit to our site unless you choose to provide that information to via web based forms or
built in e-mail interfaces.
Although, the following discussion may seem exhaustive, FSS wants to ensure that you, our customer,
fully understands our policy with respect to your privacy. Our goal is to answer all questions
concerning your privacy below.
Information Automatically Collected:
During the duration of your visit to the FSS web sites, certain information is automatically
collected which never identifies the individual, but does provide systemic information so that
we can best manage the performance of our web environment
The only information which is automatically collected during your visit is as follows:
- the name of the domain from which you access the Internet (i.e., erols.com, if you are connecting from an Erols account, or harvard.edu if you are connecting from Harvard University's domain)
- the date and time you access our site
- and the Internet address of the web site from which you linked directly to our site.
- the type of browser you are using to visit the site.
This information enables the FSS web environment to present our data in the best possible method. For
example, a web site may look different when viewed by Microsoft's Internet Explorer versus Netscape's browser. Thus,
our site determines which type of browser you have and presents the web page according to the best
practice for that specific browser.
Date and Time information, the domain you visited us from provide performance statistics so that our
engineers can better tailor the system based on geographical location and time of day visits.
Tracking links let us know how the customer found our site and the information provided by our
site. This gives our web engineers insite as how they can better manage navigation and ensure
our customers find the information they are looking for.
How Does FSS use Cookies ?
A privacy statement can not be complete without discussing the use of Internet cookies.
A cookie is a small piece of information that is sent to your browser -- along with a Web page --
when you access a Web site.
Your browser will only return this cookie information to the domain where the cookie originated
(in this case, gsa.gov).
No other site can request it. A "persistent" cookie is a cookie that has been assigned an expiration value.
When the expiration value is exhausted, the cookie is automatically removed. The term persistent means that the
cookie exists in your browser even after you have shut down the session with the web site. Many sites use
persistent cookies to track your progress through the system and retain information with respect to where you
have visited on the site. "Non-persistent" cookies only manage the session while your browser is open. Once
the browser is closed, the cookie disappears from your system. FSS web sites do not use persistent cookies.
Privacy and correspondence via e-mail:
When you send us personally-identifying information (i.e. an electronic mail message containing a question or comment,
or by filling out a site-form that e-mails us this information), we use this information to respond to your requests.
We may forward your e-mail to other Government employees who are better able to answer you questions.
We want to make it clear that we will not obtain personally-identifying information about you when you visit our site,
unless you choose to provide such information to us.
Personal Information Voluntarily Provided: The System of Records
In a system of records, where traditional paper collections of information are used to suppliment web based
electronic forms, the personal record, in its entirety, whether electronic, paper or both are covered by the
Privacy Act and will be treated as such.
As discussed above. Information that the customer provides to us through our web site, sent by postal, or
provided by some other method of transfer is held in confidence with FSS and is used only for the purposes of
the business transaction it was intended for. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, we do not
share any information we receive with any outside parties.
Security, Intrusion and Detection
This is a Federal Government web site. For site security puposes and to ensure that this service remains
available to all users, this web system employes software programs to monitor network traffic to identify
unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.
Except for authorized law enformement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual
users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other puposes and are scheduled for regular
destruction in accordance with National Archives and Records Administrative Guidelines.
WARNING:
Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service
are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Action of 1986 and the
National Information Infrastructure Protection Act. General Services Administration / Federal Supply
Services will enforce the law to its greatest extent to any individual who tampers with information made
available on this site.
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