PII includes personal details that may be used to identify you. If you enter PII on our site, it's only used for the purpose you enter it for, and is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974, the E-Government Act of 2002 and the Federal Records Act.

You don’t have to provide PII to visit our site, or answer the questionnaire. If you complete an online registration, you're asked to share PII that is used mostly to determine if you qualify under a declared disaster.

You may give us PII when you ask for information or send an email, but we never ask for PII through email, and never collect information to use for marketing.

FEMA may review data internally for quality control purposes. But we only share your PII with another government agency if your request relates to that agency. Then only with your permission or as required by law.

To learn more, see the privacy documents below:

• Disaster Recovery Assistance Files System of Records DHS/FEMA-008 (April 30, 2013 78 FR 25282)
• Disaster Assistance Improvement Plan (DAIP) DHS/FEMA/PIA-012(a) (November 16, 2012)
• Quality Assurance Recording System (QARS) DHS/FEMA/PIA-015 (November 10, 2010)
• Quality Assurance Recording System DHS/FEMA-002 (February 15, 2011 76 FR 8758)

The public reporting burden for data collection on our site is estimated at about 18 minutes for registration and  2.5 minutes for the questionnaire. The estimate includes time to read instructions, research, gather and maintain the records needed, and complete and submit the registration form.

The data is required for you to get or keep benefits. But you don’t have to respond unless a valid OMB control number is listed on the form.

You may send comments about the accuracy of the estimate or suggestions for reducing it to one of the addresses below. But please do not send any completed forms.

• For registration:

  Information Collections Management
  Department of Homeland Security
  Federal Emergency Management Agency
  1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA 20598-3005
  Paperwork Reduction Project (1660-0002)

• For the questionnaire:

  U.S. Department of Labor, Benefits.gov / GovLoans.gov Office
  FPB, Room N-4309
  Washington, DC 20210

Google Analytics is a tool the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has set up on DisasterAssistance.gov. This tool helps us gather data about actions and traffic on our site.

To get the data, Google puts a 3-month persistent cookie on your device. The cookie is sent automatically, but you can choose not to accept it. This won’t change what you can see on the site. You can also delete cookies at any time through your browser’s Options tab.

If you choose not to accept cookies and you answer the questionnaire, just be aware that your answers won’t be saved when you leave the page. You’ll need to answer the questions again.

Visit USA.gov for opt-out instructions for common browsers.

If you allow the cookie, it records non-identifiable data like:

• Your Internet provider including location information
• Session connection speed
• Address of any website used to link to our site
• Pages you visit and content downloaded
• Count of unique visits to a page and the site
• Time spent on a page and the site

The cookie sends data to Google’s system which immediately compiles it, but it doesn’t monitor or record your actions after you leave our site.

We only see data for specific time-periods, and the data is kept only as long as required by our records retention policy. This data is used internally and may be shared with our partners and contractors to help us make improvements to the site.

Google Analytics doesn’t tell us who you are or allow us to get your identity. Google never has access to the details of your session including PII entered on the application, and we don’t share our compiled data with them.

To learn more about DHS’s use of Google Analytics, see Google Analytics DHS/ALL/PIA-033 (June 9, 2011).

We use SurveyMonkey online surveys to get feedback from a random sample of visitors. You can also give us feedback anytime by taking the feedback survey. We read and compile the survey data, and use it internally to help make site improvements based on visitor needs.

The survey doesn’t collect PII and you don’t have to take it. If you decline, it won’t change how the site looks or functions.

Some content on our site requires you to have plug-ins to view it. Plug-ins are software that work with your browser to give it abilities it may not have. Most software vendors offer plug-ins for computer platforms types like Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. We’re offering these links from our Download Plug-ins page to make it easier for you to view content on our site.

You may also need plug-ins to view content on linked external websites. These sites are not within our control and may not follow the same privacy or accessibility policies required for our site. When you go to other websites, you are subject to the policies of that site.

DisasterAssistance.gov does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.