Privacy

FederalRegister.gov is an authorized service of the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO). We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your visits to this website. We follow OMB recommendations and best practices for protecting Internet privacy. Outlined below is our online privacy policy. If you have questions about this policy, please let us know.

Collection and Disclosure of Information

When visitors to a website communicate information that can be directly or indirectly associated with a specific person, we call this personally identifiable information (PII), and it includes, for example, names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. We don’t require that you include personally identifiable information when submitting questions or comments. If you send us PII through this website, we do not use it for any purpose other than to respond to you. Please do NOT include any personal information relating to Social Security numbers, tax ID numbers, or similar information that could compromise your personal privacy.

If you send us questions or comments, we may post that material and our response in a knowledge base of issues and answers. If you include PII in questions or comments, we will exclude it from the knowledge base, but we may be required to retain that information as a Federal record.  Federal records could become public information under some circumstances, as required by law.

FederalRegister.gov never collects information or creates individual profiles for commercial marketing.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

When you visit the FederalRegister.gov website, we may store some or all of the following:

• the Internet address from which you access the web site;
• date and time;
• the Internet address of the website from which you linked to our site;
• the name of the file or words you searched;
• items clicked on a page; and
• the browser and operating system used.

This information is used to measure the number of visitors to the various sections of our site and identify system performance or problem areas. We also use this information to help us expand the coverage of the site, to analyze patterns of usage, and to make the site more useful. However, this information is not used for associating search terms or patterns of site navigation with individual users. We periodically delete web logs.

When you visit a website, web servers may generate pieces of information known as “cookies.” Some cookies collect personal information to recognize your computer in the future. FederalRegister.gov uses per-session cookies to serve technical purposes, such as providing seamless navigation through our website. These cookies do not permanently record data and they are not stored on your computer’s hard drive. FederalRegister.gov’s per-session cookies are stored in memory and are only available during an active browser session. When you close your browser, these cookies disappear.

Current OMB policy permits agencies, within defined limits, to use persistent cookies to improve the performance of websites through web analytics and customization technologies. FederalRegister.gov uses persistent cookies to measure and customize the user experience and we follow OMB approved practices and observe the defined limits. You can opt-out of persistent cookies by adjusting the settings on your web browser (instructions on how to do so are located at http://www.usa.gov/optout_instructions.shtml). Opting out will still give you access to comparable information and services as users who have not opted out. It is our general policy not to make any information collected available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents for the uses outlined above.

User Accounts

When you voluntarily register for a user account on the FederalRegister.gov web site, we ask you to supply some personal information about yourself. An e-mail address and username are required; other information is optional but may be needed to complete specific tasks. Being able to identify users allows us to support content contributed by the public and to provide a more personalized experience of our website. If there are any issues related to your user account, we may use your email address and username to contact you about the issues involved.

Unauthorized Use and Security

This website is an official United States Government System. It is intended for use by the public to view and retrieve Federal Register files and related information. This Government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring. If such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, we may provide that evidence to appropriate law enforcement officials. Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on our servers are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.

Disclaimer of Endorsement

The information posted on the FederalRegister.gov website includes hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations and individuals. FederalRegister.gov provides these links and pointers solely for our users’ information and convenience. When you select a link to an outside website, you are leaving the FederalRegister.gov site and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the outside website.

We do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of information contained on a linked website.

We do not endorse the owners, content, or views of linked websites.

We cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked websites. Users must request such authorization from the sponsor of the linked website.

We are not responsible for transmissions users receive from linked websites.

We do not guarantee that outside websites comply with Section 508 (accessibility requirements) of the Rehabilitation Act.