Rural Development Policies and Links
Rural Development Policies and Links
Privacy Policy
Our privacy policy is clear: We
will collect no personal information about you when you visit our website unless
you choose to provide that information to us. For more information, please
visit:
Rural Development Privacy Policy
Accessibility
Rural Development maintains an
Accessibility Statement and Resources page at:
Rural Development Accessibility
Nondiscrimination
Rural Development maintains a
Nondiscrimination Statement at:
Nondiscrimination Statement
Freedom of Information Act
The Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) -- Title 5 of the United States Code, Section 552 -- became law in 1966.
FOIA provides any person the right to request access to Federal agency records
or information. All United States government agencies are required to disclose
records after receiving a written request for them, except for records that are
protected from disclosure by the nine exemptions and three exclusions under the
FOIA. This right of access is enforceable in court. The Federal FOIA does not
provide access to records held by State or local government agencies, or by
private businesses or individuals. All States have their own statutes governing
public access to state and local records. State agencies should be consulted for
further information about them.
For more information about Rural
Development and the FOIA, please visit:
Freedom of Information Act
Digital Rights and Copyright
Most information presented on
Rural Development's website is considered public domain information. Public
domain information may be freely distributed or copied, but use of appropriate
byline/photo/image credits is requested. Attribution may be cited as follows:
USDA Rural Development.
Some materials on the Rural
Development site are protected by copyright, trademark, or patent, and/or are
provided for personal use only. Such materials are used by Rural Development
with permission, and we have made every attempt to identify and clearly label
them. You may need to obtain permission from the copyright, trademark or patent
holder to acquire, use, reproduce or distribute these materials.
Trademark
Congress has not granted Rural
Development a trademark. Use of the Rural Development symbol is stated below:
The Rural Development symbol [is]
used to identify the agency in all information materials for all media generated
by the agency. If written permission has been obtained from Rural Development
Legislative and Public Affairs Staff, private sector partners may display the
Rural Development symbol. However, it must not appear to constitute warranty of
private sector organizations, products, services or endeavors (unless there is a
legal agreement to do so). The symbol shall not be displayed in a manner that
could be construed as favoring one private organization or product over
another.
Links to Other Sites
The Rural Development website has
links to other sites. Once you access another site through a link that we
provide, you are subject to the copyright and licensing restrictions of the new
site.
It is your sole responsibility, as
the user of this site, to carefully examine the content of the site and all
linked pages for copyright and licensing restrictions and to secure all
necessary permissions.
No Fear Act
In May 2002, President Bush signed
legislation called the No FEAR Act (Notification and Federal Anti-Discrimination
and Retaliation Act of 2002). This law became effective on October 1, 2003. The
primary purpose of the Act is to improve agency accountability for
antidiscrimination and whistleblower laws.
Rural Development data related to
the No Fear Act is at:
Rural Development No Fear Act Data
Quality of Information
Rural Development strives to
ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility and integrity of the
information that we disseminate to the public.
More information about Rural
Development and information quality is at:
Quality of Information
Website Security
The USDA Rural Development website
is provided as a public service.
Information presented on the Rural
Development website is considered public information and may be distributed or
copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.
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.
For site security purposes and to
ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government
computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify
unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause
damage.
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 the
National Archives and Records Administration General Schedule 20.
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 of 1996.
Information posted on this site
complies with the standards set forth in the
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.
Information posted on this site
may be changed and re-posted. If there are discrepancies between the information
on the Internet and the Department's official version or federal regulation
publication, those official publications take precedence.
Web Content Publishing Schedule
Section 207(f)(2) of the
E-Government Act of 2002 requires Federal agencies to develop an inventory of
information to be published on their websites, establish a schedule for
publishing information, make those schedules available for public comment, and
post the schedules and priorities on the website.
To view Rural Development's
inventory and/or submit comments, please visit the
USDA Web Content Inventory
Disclaimer
Effort has been made to provide
accurate and complete information. However, we cannot guarantee that there will
be no errors. Neither the U.S. Government, USDA, nor USDA Rural Development
assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any
information, product, or process disclosed herein, or represents that use of
such information, product, or process would not infringe on privately owned
rights.
The Rural Development website
contains links to various other federal and state agencies and private
organizations. These links are maintained solely for the user's information and
convenience. Once you link to another site, please be aware that you are then
subject to the policies of the new site. In addition, please note that Rural
Development does not control and cannot guarantee the relevance, timeliness, or
accuracy of these outside materials. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers
to particular items in hypertext is not intended to reflect their importance,
nor is it intended to constitute approval or endorsement of any views expressed,
or products or services offered, on these outside web sites, or the
organizations sponsoring the web sites.
Comments or Questions
If you have any comments or questions about the policy information on this page,
please send them to
Rdwebmaster@usda.gov. Comments or questions specifically related to
computer or systems security should be directed to Rural Development's
Information Systems Security Staff at
security.mail@stl.rural.usda.gov.
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