Information Automatically Collected and Stored:

When you browse through any web site, certain personal information about you can be collected. We automatically collect and temporarily store the following information about your visit:

• the name of the domain you use to access the Internet (for example, aol.com, if you are using an American Online account, or stanford.edu, if you are connecting from Stanford University's domain);
• the date and time of your visit;
• the pages you visited; and
• the address of the web site you came from when you came to visit.

We use this information for statistical purposes and to help us make our site more useful to visitors. Unless it is specifically stated otherwise, no additional information will be collected about you.

Session and Persistent Cookies

When visiting websites, a small text file called a "cookie" may be placed on your computer. This allows us to collect non-PII data while you are navigating through the website. We use two types of cookies on its websites:

• Session cookies are temporary text files that expire when you leave our websites. When cookies expire, they are automatically deleted from your computer.
• Persistent cookies are multi-session cookies that are stored on your computer and expire 30 days after your last visit to our websites. After 30 days, they are automatically deleted from your computer. We use persistent cookies to collect non-PII data about users who frequently visit our websites and to test variations of our site design and content to optimize our webpages. In the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memo 10-22 Guidance, our use of persistent cookies is defined as "Usage Tier 2 Multi-session without Personally Identifiable Information (PII)," which "encompasses any use of multi-session Web measurement and customization technologies when no PII is collected."

If you do not want cookies placed on your computer, you can set your browser to block them. Blocking these cookies from your computer will not affect your access to the content and tools in our websites. Instructions to opt out are available on https://www.usa.gov/optout-instructions.

Personally Provided Information:

You do not have to give us personal information to visit our web sites.

If you choose to provide us with additional information about yourself through an e-mail message, form, survey, etc., we will only maintain the information as long as needed to respond to your question or to fulfill the stated purpose of the communication.

Disclosure:

We do not disclose, give, sell, or transfer any personal information about our visitors, unless required for law enforcement or statute.

Intrusion Detection:

This site is maintained for the U.S. Government. It is protected by various provisions of Title 18, U.S. Code. Violations of Title 18 are subject to criminal prosecution in federal court.

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, we employ software programs to monitor traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. In the event of authorized law enforcement investigations, and pursuant to any required legal process, information from these sources may be used to help identify an individual.