Recovery.gov is committed to protecting
the privacy and security of visitors to the site. The online privacy policy is
outlined below. If you have questions about this policy, please
contact.us.
Collection and disclosure of information
The
site collects personal information -- names, email addresses, telephone numbers
-- only from those individuals who provide the information when contacting the
site through the Feedback form at Contact Us. You are not required
to provide us personal information to visit Recovery.gov. If you choose to
provide us with additional information about yourself through an e-mail message,
form, survey, etc., we maintain the information only as long as needed to
respond to your question or to fulfill the stated purpose of the communication.
It is our general policy not to make personal information available to anyone
other than our employees, staff, and agents.
Information Collected and Stored Automatically
When you
browse, read pages, or download information, certain technical information about
your visit is gathered and stored:
- 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're surfing the web) from which you access
Recovery.gov.
- The type of browser (Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer) and operating
system (Windows, Mac, Unix) used to access our site.
- The date and time you visit the site.
- The pages you visit.
- If you linked to the site from another website, the address of that website.
This information is used to help us make the site more useful. We never
track or record information about individuals and their visits.
CookiesThe Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) Memo M-10-22,
Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization
Technologies allows federal
agencies to use session and persistent cookies.
When you
visit Recovery.gov, its server may generate a piece of text known as a "cookie" to
place on your computer. The cookie allows the server to "remember" specific
information about your visit, and makes it easier for you to use the dynamic
features. Requests to send cookies from the site's pages are designed to collect
information about your browser session only; they do not collect personal
information about you.
There are
two types of cookies, single session (temporary) and multi-session (persistent).
Session cookies last only as long as your browser is open. Once you close your
browser, the cookie disappears. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer
for longer periods.
The site uses session
cookies for technical purposes, such as improving site navigation. These cookies
let us know that you continue to visit to our site. The session cookies are not
permanently stored on your computer; the cookie and the information about your
visit are automatically destroyed shortly after you close your browser and end
the session.
The OMB Memo defines
our use of session cookies as “Usage Tier 1—Single Session.” The policy says,
“This tier encompasses any use of single session Web measurement and
customization technologies.”
The site uses
persistent cookies to help us recognize new and returning visitors. Persistent
cookies remain on your computer until they expire. We do not use this technology
to identify you or any other individual site visitor.
The OMB Memo defines
our use of persistent cookies as "Usage Tier 2 -- Multi-session without
Personally Identifiable Information (PII)." The policy says, "This tier
encompasses any use of multi-session Web measurement and customization
technologies when no PII is collected."
If you do not wish to
have session or persistent cookies placed on your computer, you can disable them
using your browser. If you opt out of cookies, you will still have access to all
information and resources Recovery.gov provides.
Instructions for
disabling or opting out of cookies in the most popular browsers are located at
http://www.usa.gov/optout_instructions.shtml. Please note that by
following the instructions to opt out of cookies, you will disable cookies from
all sources, not just those from this site.
Children's privacy
The site complies with the Children's
Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying FTC
regulation that protects the privacy of children using the Internet. The site
does not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under
13 and is not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under
13. It is possible that by fraud or deception, the site may receive information
pertaining to children under 13. If notified of this, as soon as the information
is verified, the parents are contacted for consent or the information is deleted
from the servers.
Security
The site maintains a variety of physical,
electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect personal information, for
example, commercially reasonable tools and techniques to protect against
unauthorized access to the site's systems. Personal Information is restricted to
those who need such access in the course of their duties.
Linking
The site may contain links to websites created
and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. The site provides
these links as a service to our users. When users link to an outside website,
they are leaving the site and are subject to the privacy and security policies
of the owners/sponsors of the outside website(s).
Changes to this policy
As practices change, this policy
may change as well. Changes to the policy shall not apply retroactively.
For
further information about Recovery.gov’s privacy policy, please contact the
Recovery.gov Senior Official for Privacy at privacy@ratb.gov, or call (202)
254-7900
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