The USASpending.gov site 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 (e.g., names, email addresses, telephone numbers) only from those individuals who provide the information to us. You are not required to provide us personal information to visit USASpending.gov. If you choose to provide us with information through an e-mail message, form, survey, when contacting the site through the Feedback form at Contact Us, 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. We want to make it clear that we will not obtain information about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide such information to us.
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 USASpending.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.
Cookies
The 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 the site, 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 USASpending.gov provides.
Instructions for disabling or opting out of cookies in the most popular browsers are located at http://www.usa.gov/optout_instructions. 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.
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.
NOTE: View or print the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) performed on USAspending.gov.
