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Summary

DOT has about 152,000 web pages available for public access through its Internet home page. OIG and GAO identified unauthorized use of 23 persistent cookies--one of the principal technologies used to collect information from web visitors. While not intentionally designed to collect personally identifiable information from web visitors, these persistent cookies were placed on web visitors' machines and present a privacy violation. As of February 20, the use of these 23 persistent cookies has been eliminated or the associated web sites have been disabled. Also, we found no privacy concerns with web sites managed by DOT contractors. This report was required by the Omnibus Appropriations Act for FY 2001.