Website Privacy Policy
Overview
Thank you for visiting the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) website, Genome.gov. Protecting your privacy is very important to us. Our website links to other NIH sites, federal agency sites, university/research institution sites and occasionally to private organizations. Once you leave Genome.gov, you are subject to the privacy policy for the site(s) you are visiting. We do not collect any personally identifiable information (PII) about you during your visit unless you choose to provide it to us.
We do, however, collect some data about your visit to our website to help us better understand how the public uses the site and how to make it more helpful. We collect information from visitors who read, browse and/or download information from our website. NHGRI never collects information for commercial marketing or any purpose unrelated to the NHGRI mission and goals.
Types of Information Collected
When you browse through any website, certain information about your visit can be collected. We automatically collect and store the following information about your visit:
- The domain from which you access the Internet.
- The IP Address (a number that is automatically assigned to a computer when surfing the Web).
- The date and time of your visit.
- The pages you visited.
- The address of the website you came from when you arrived at our site (such as google.com or bing.com)
- The keywords you may enter into our search engine.
We use this information to measure the number of visitors to our site and to help make our site more useful to visitors.
Methods of Collecting Information
Genome.gov uses both the Webtrends Analytics and Google Analytics measurement software to collect information from the above list automatically and continuously. We use this information to measure the number of visitors to our site and its various sections and to distinguish between new and returning visitors to help make our site more useful to visitors. However, no personally identifiable information (PII) is collected.
NHGRI staff conducts analyses and reports on the aggregated data from Webtrends and Google Analytics. The reports are only available to NHGRI website managers, members of their Communications and Web Teams, and other designated staff who require this information to perform their duties.
NHGRI retains the data from Webtrends and Google Analytics only as long as required by law or needed to support the mission of the NHGRI website.
Use of Cookies
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memo M-10-22, Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies [whitehouse.gov] allows Federal agencies to use session and persistent cookies.
When you visit any website, 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 while you are connected.
The cookie makes it easier for you to use the dynamic features of Web pages. Cookies from NHGRI Web pages only collect information about your browser's visit to the site. 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 Web browser is open. Once you close your browser, the cookie disappears. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer for longer periods.Temporary (Session) Cookies
We use session cookies for technical purposes such as improving navigation through our site. These cookies let our server know that you are continuing a visit to our site. The "session" cookie is not permanently stored on your computer. The cookie and the information about your visit are automatically destroyed shortly after you close your browser to end the session.
The OMB Memo 10-22 Guidance 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."
NHGRI uses Google Analytics, which relies on session cookies, to track site usage for Genome.gov. However, no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is collected.
Persistent Cookies
Genome.gov does not use persistent cookies.
The OMB Memo M-10-22 Guidance allows Federal agencies to use persistent cookies, which remain on your computer between visits to a website until they expire. The Guidance 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."
Opting Out/Disabling Cookies
If you do not wish to have session or persistent cookies placed on your computer, you can disable them using your Web browser. If you opt out of cookies, you will still have access to all information and resources on Genome.gov.
Instructions for disabling or opting out of cookies in the most popular browsers are located at http://www.usa.gov/optout_instructions.shtml. Please note that by following the instructions to opt out of cookies, you will disable cookies from all sources, not just those from Genome.gov.
Protecting Personal Information
You do not have to give us personal information to visit the NHGRI website. If you choose to provide us with additional information about yourself through an e-mail message, form, survey, etc., we maintain the information only as long as needed to respond to your question or to fulfill the stated purpose of the communication.
For further information about NIH privacy policy, please contact the NIH Senior Official for Privacy at privacy@mail.nih.gov, call (301) 451-3426, or visit http://oma.od.nih.gov/ms/privacy/privacyact.html.
Disclosure
NHGRI does not disclose, give, sell or transfer any personal information about our visitors, unless required for law enforcement or by statute.
P3P Compliance
NHGRI's public websites comply with P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences Project) protocols. Our machine-readable P3P policy can be viewed at http://www.genome.gov/w3c/p3p.xml. Questions about NHGRI privacy policies should be sent to the NHGRI webmaster at: Questions and Feedback.
Site Security
NHGRI websites are maintained by the U.S. Government. They are 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.
3rd Party Websites and Applications
Third-party websites and applications (TPWA) are Web-based technologies that are not exclusively operated or controlled by NHGRI, such as non-.gov hosted applications and those embedded on an NHGRI Web pages that could cause personally identifiable information (PII) to become available or accessible to NHGRI, regardless of whether NHGRI solicits or collects it.
As part of the Open Government Directive, Genome.gov uses a variety of new technologies and social media options to increase government transparency, enhance information sharing, promote public participation, and encourage collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institutes of Health, and NHGRI. These sites and applications include popular social networking and media sites, open source software communities and more. The following list includes the websites and applications we use and their purposes. For any sites or applications that collect PII, this list also includes details on information collected and how NHGRI protects your private information.
AddThis
Genome.gov uses the AddThis service to allow visitors to bookmark and share site content on a variety of social media sites. Visitors who use the AddThis service to share content do not need to register or provide any personal information. The AddThis service providers collect non-personal data, including the aggregate and summary statistics on browsers and usage patterns. AddThis also uses non-personal data to manage the service efficiently and diagnose server problems. Although AddThis offers some analytics and usage data to NHGRI, these reports do not include any personally identifiable information. The reports are password protected and only available to Genome.gov site managers, members of the Genome.gov Communications and Web Teams, and other designated staff requiring this information to perform their duties. The AddThis Privacy policy is available at: http://www.addthis.com/privacy.
ShareThis
Genome.gov uses the ShareThis service to allow visitors to bookmark and share site content on a variety of social media sites. Visitors who use the ShareThis service to share content do not need to register or provide any personal information. The ShareThis service providers collect non-personal data, including the aggregate and summary statistics on browsers and usage patterns. ShareThis also uses non-personal data to manage the service efficiently and diagnose server problems. Although ShareThis offers some analytics and usage data to NHGRI, these reports do not include any personally identifiable information. The reports are password protected and only available to Genome.gov site managers, members of the Genome.gov Communications and Web Teams, and other designated staff requiring this information to perform their duties. The ShareThis Privacy policy is available at: http://sharethis.com/privacy.
Goo.gl
NHGRI uses goo.gl (Google URL shortener) as a linking tool to its various social media sites. From the Genome.gov home page, users can click on hyperlinked icons for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, where they will be taken to the corresponding social media site via the goo.gl-shortened hyperlink. Goo.gl collects and provides data on how often users click on the shortened URLs. Goo.gl analytics do not provide any personally identifiable information about the visitors who opened the shortened links. Google's Privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy/privacy-policy.html.
Qoo.ly via SocialReport
NHGRI uses SocialReport to capture analytics for our social media pages. In order to capture the information, the following must be done within SocialReport:
- Create a "campaign", which allows you to publish a message to your various social media accounts either simultaneously or separately. This allows you to track public interest in what you posted over time.
- Create a shortened URL, using built-in URL shortener, in the format of qoo.ly.
Qoo.ly URLs are shortened URLs for use in email messages, Twitter feeds and on Facebook pages. No personal information is captured with the analytics report. Only the geographic region where from where the visits originate, the number of clicks and activity for the day are captured. The SocialReport privacy policy is available at: http://www.socialreport.com/privacy-policy.html.
NHGRI has two Facebook pages — Genome.gov | National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and National DNA Day. The privacy policies for the Facebook pages are located on these sites.
On each of the NHGRI Facebook pages, NHGRI staff posts news and other items of interest to users. If you have a Facebook account or "Like" NHGRI Facebook pages, you can post comments or click on the "like" option for individual entries. If you comment or click on the "like" button, personally identifying information will be visible to NHGRI staff and other Facebook site visitors. The amount of visible personal information will depend on your own Facebook privacy settings. You can avoid displaying any personally identifiable information by not creating an account, not posting comments, and not clicking on the "like" options in Facebook.
NHGRI staff does not collect, use, or disclose any information about visitors who comment or "like" the NHGRI Facebook sites. Facebook collects and reports on non-personally identifiable information about activities on Facebook pages. This information is password-protected and only available to NHGRI managers, members of the NHGRI Communications and Web Teams, and other designated staff who require this information to perform their duties. The Facebook Privacy Policy is available at: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php.
NHGRI has two Twitter feeds — Genome_gov and DNA Day. We use Twitter to send short messages (up to 140 characters) or "tweets" to share information about NHGRI with our audiences and respond to comments and inquiries sent via Twitter to NHGRI. While users may read the NHGRI Twitter feeds without subscribing to them, users who want to subscribe to (or follow) NHGRI Twitter feeds must create a Twitter account at www.twitter.com.
To create an account, you must provide some personal information, such as name, user name, password and e-mail address. You have the option to provide additional personal information including a short biography, location or a picture. Most information you provide for a Twitter account is available to the public, but you can modify how much of your information is visible by changing your privacy settings at the Twitter.com website.
NHGRI staff members monitor the number of subscribers and respond to comments and queries via Twitter, but the staff never uses the personal information of their Twitter followers. NHGRI does not collect, maintain disclose, or share any information about people who follow NHGRI on Twitter. The Twitter privacy policy is available at: http://twitter.com/privacy.
YouTube
NHGRI posts videos on its YouTube channel, GenomeTV, to make them available to all Genome.gov visitors. You do not need to register with either YouTube or Google (YouTube owner) to watch NHGRI videos. When visitors watch videos, YouTube may record non-personally identifiable information about its site usage, such as channels used, videos watched and data transfer details to improve its services. If you log on to the YouTube site before watching NHGRI videos, YouTube may associate information about your site use with your YouTube account. If you log on to YouTube and comment on an NHGRI video, any personal information you included when registering for your account will be visible to visitors who click on the comment. If you do not log in before watching NHGRI videos posted on YouTube, your site use will not be associated with you or a YouTube account. The YouTube privacy policy is available at: http://www.youtube.com/t/privacy.
Last Updated: August 30, 2011
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