Recovery.gov 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
Recovery.gov collects personal information -- names, email addresses, telephone numbers -- only from those individuals who provide the information when contacting the site through the Feedback form at Contact Us. You are not required to provide us personal information to visit Recovery.gov. 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. It is our general policy not to make personal information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents.
Information Collected and Stored Automatically
When you browse, read pages, or download information on Recovery.gov, 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 Recovery.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 Recovery.gov.
- The pages you visit.
- If you linked to the Recovery.gov 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 Recovery.gov, 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 Recovery.gov’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.
Recovery.gov 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.”
Recovery.gov uses persistent cookies to help us recognize new and returning visitors to Recovery.gov. 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 Recovery.gov provides.
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 Recovery.gov.
Children's privacy
Recovery.gov complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying FTC regulation that protects the privacy of children using the Internet. Recovery.gov does not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under 13. The site is not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under 13. It is possible that by fraud or deception, Recovery.gov may receive information pertaining to children under 13. If notified of this, as soon as the information is verified, the parents are contacted for consent or the information is deleted from the servers.
Security
Recovery.gov 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 for Recovery.gov.
Linking
Recovery.gov may contain links to websites created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. Recovery.gov provides these links as a service to our users. When users link to an outside website, they are leaving the Recovery.gov 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.
For further information about Recovery.gov’s privacy policy, please contact the Recovery.gov Senior Official for Privacy at privacy@ratb.gov, or call (202) 254-7900![]( "Call: (202) 254-7900")
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Privacy Impact Assessments
Privacy Impact Assessment for 1512 Data System (PDF 15 KB)
Privacy Impact Assessment for Registration System (PDF 18 KB)