Privacy Notice
The USADF Privacy Program, managed by USADF’s Office of Information Technology and Security, details the Foundation’s compliance with and implementation of the Privacy Act of 1974, Section 208 of the e-Government Act of 2002, along with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and USADF privacy directives. The USADF Privacy Program seeks to integrate privacy protections into USADF, ensuring the protection of the personally identifiable information (PII) that is collected, used, maintained, retained, and shared by USADF.
USADF considers user privacy and security highly important. Please be aware that USADF does not collect personal information when users visit our website, unless s/he chooses to provide that information. However, the USADF does collect some technical information about user visit to USADF.gov.
Note: The Privacy Act of 1974 (as amended by 5 U.S.C. 552a) governing Federal Records concerns any information held in a Privacy Act System of Records (SOR) that can be retrieved by a personal identifier such as name, social security number, or other identifying number or symbol. An individual is entitled to access to his or her records and to request correction of these records if applicable. The Privacy Act prohibits disclosure of these records without the written consent of the individual(s) to whom the records pertain unless one of the twelve disclosure exceptions enumerated in the Act applies. The actual Act can be found at this link: http://www.justice.gov/opcl/privstat.htm.
Please see below sections to see how USADF handles information about user visit to USADF Web site:
Information Collected and Stored Automatically
When you visit USADF.gov, we may store some or all of the following:
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the IP address from which you accessed our site
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the date and time
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the URL of the website from which you linked to our site
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the name of the file or words you searched for
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the pages you visited on our site
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the items clicked on a page
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the browser and operating system used
USADF does not collect or track any personal information through these processes. USADF uses this information, in the aggregate, to make our website more useful to visitors - to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology used, to detect operational problems, and to improve the website's overall security.
Information You Provide to USADF
You may choose to provide your contact information to USADF in order to receive information such as our agency newsletter or to participate in an on-line collaboration forum.
USADF will only use your personal information for the purpose for which it was provided, such as to respond to your message or to provide subscriptions you have chosen. In certain instances, your comment or suggestion may be forwarded to other U.S. government agencies or departments if they are in the best position to respond to your message.
Some of our newsletters are sent using third-party email distribution systems. In these cases, the email privacy policy will be available to you at the time you sign up for the newsletter. A link will be provided at the bottom of each newsletter with instructions on how to unsubscribe.
In certain instances, such as blog comments or discussion groups, the information you provide may be visible to the public. Please do not share any personal information that you do not want made available to the public. USADF is not responsible for how other participants may use your information.
When you voluntarily submit information, it constitutes your consent to the use of the information for the purpose stated. When you click the “Submit” button on any of the Web forms found on our sites, you are indicating your voluntary consent to the use of the information you submit, for the stated purpose.
Security Notice
For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.
Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on the USADF site are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act (Title 18 U.S.C., Sections 1001 and 1030).
If monitoring reveals evidence of possible criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to law enforcement personnel.
Cookies
USADF.gov uses single-session cookies to serve technical purposes (e.g. providing seamless navigation through our site). These cookies do not permanently record data, and they are not stored on your computer's hard drive. The USADF website’s session cookies are only available during an active browser session. When you close your browser, the session cookie disappears.
USADF.gov also uses multi-session cookies to help us understand how people use the site, and how we can make it better. Traffic statistics are collected anonymously and aggregated, and no information is traceable to any specific individual. USADF does not collect PII (personally identifiable information) such as social security numbers, birthdate, or place of birth.
Cookies: Tier 1 (single session) and Tier 2 (multi-session without PII)-are used on USADF.gov in compliance with OMB Memorandum 10-22, Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies (PDF). USADF.gov does not use Tier 3 (multi-session with PII) cookies.
Cookies may also be set by the following third-party providers on USADF.gov
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Google Analytics: (link is external) A Tier 2 cookie sets when the page is loaded - used to improve web metrics capabilities.
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YouTube: (link is external) A Tier 2 cookie sets when the video is played - used to maintain the integrity of video statistics.
Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any PII. You can remove or block cookies by changing the settings of your browser.
Social Media
USADF maintains a blog and profiles on several third-party social media sites. We are present on these sites in order to tell the story of USADF to the American public and globally, especially in the countries where USADF has country programs.
While we encourage commenting and conversation on our social media profiles, please remember that these profiles are public forums and any information provided will be visible to the public. Please do not include personal details such as your telephone number, email address, or any other personal information or PII that you do not want available to the general public.
While some PII may become available to USADF through your use of social media (i.e. we can see your name and picture if you post a comment), we will not be collecting, sharing, or storing that information.
Our presence on social media sites is not intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any third-party company or service provider.
Accessibility
USADF is committed to providing access to all individuals seeking information on USADF.gov. To provide this information, this site has been built to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (as amended). Section 508 requires that all individuals with disabilities (whether federal employees or members of the general public) have access to and use of information and data, comparable to that provided to individuals without disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on us. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader, Braille reader, etc.) and have trouble accessing information on this site, please contact us with the nature of the problem, the URL (web address) of the information you tried to access, and your contact information. We will contact you as soon as possible, and do what we can to provide you with the information you need.
Verification of Content / Further Information
If you would like verification of information released on this USADF Web site, or have any questions or comments about the information presented here, please contact our staff at privacy@usadf.gov.