Privacy Notice: How NIDA Uses Third-Party Web Sites and Applications

Third-Party Web sites and Applications (TPWA) are Web-based technologies that are not exclusively operated or controlled by NIH, such as non-.gov hosted applications and those embedded on an NIH Web pages that could cause personally identifiable information (PII) to become available or accessible to NIH, regardless of whether NIH solicits or collects it.

As part of the Open Government Directive, NIDA uses a variety of new technologies and social media options to communicate and interact with citizens. These sites and applications include popular social networking and media sites, open source software communities and more. The following list includes the Web sites 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 NIH protects your private information.

Data Safeguarding and Privacy

All uses of Web measurement and customization technologies will comply with existing policies with respect to privacy and data safeguarding standards. Information Systems (IT) systems owned and operated by NIH are assessed using Privacy Impact Assessments posted for public view on the Department of Health and Human Services Web site (http://www.hhs.gov/pia/nih.html). Groups of records that contain information about an individual and are designed to be retrieved by the name or other personal identifier linked to the individual are covered by the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (5 U.S.C. Section 552a). For these records, NIH Systems of Record Notices are published in the Federal Register and posted on the NIH Senior Official for Privacy Web site. For more information, please refer to the NIDA Privacy Policy posted on the NIDA Web site.

Data Retention and Access Limits NIDA will retain data collected using the following technologies long enough to achieve the specified objective for which they were collected. The data generated from these activities falls under the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) General Records Schedule (GRS) 20-item IC "Electronic Records," and will be handled per the requirements of that schedule (http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/grs/grs20.html).

Third-Party Web Sites and Applications

AddThis: NIDA is using the AddThis service to allow visitors to bookmark and share the News in Health Web 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 NIH, these reports do not include any personally identifiable information. The reports are password protected and only available to NIDA managers, members of the NIDA 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

Bit.ly: NIDA uses bit.ly to shorten long URLs for use in email messages, Twitter feeds and on Facebook pages. Bit.ly collects and provides data on how often email recipients, Facebook and Twitter-users click on the shortened URLs distributed by NIDA staff. Bit.ly analytics show how many people clicked on the URLs posted by NIH compared to the total number of clicks on the shortened URLs. Bit.ly analytics do not provide any personally identifiable information about the visitors who opened the shortened links. The Bit.ly Privacy policy is available at: https://bitly.com/pages/privacy

Facebook: NIDA has two Facebook pages—National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and NIDA Drug Facts Week.

On each of the NIDA Facebook pages, NIDA staff posts news and other items of interest to citizens. If you have a FaceBbook account or "Like" NIH 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 NIH staff and other Facebook site visitors. The amount of visible personal information will depend on your own Facebook privacy settings. You can completely avoid displaying any personally identifiable information by not creating an account, not posting comments and not clicking on the "like" options in Facebook. NIDA staff does not collect, use or disclose any information about visitors who comment or "like" the NIDA 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 NIDA managers, members of the NIDA 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/about/privacy/

Twitter: NIDA uses Twitter (http://twitter.com/NIDAnews) to send short messages (up to 140 characters) or "Tweets" to share information about NIDA with visitors and respond to comments and inquiries sent via Twitter to NIDA. While visitors may read the NIDA Twitter feeds without subscribing to them, visitors who want to subscribe to (or follow) NIDA 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 email address. Visitors 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 Web site. NIDA staff members monitor the number of subscribers and respond to comments and queries via Twitter, but the staff never takes possession of the personal information belonging to Twitter followers. NIDA does not collect, maintain, disclose or share any information about people who follow NIDA on Twitter. The Twitter privacy policy is available at: http://twitter.com/privacy

WordPress: NIDA uses the WordPress blog platform to support the Teen Sara Bellum Blog (http://teens.drugabuse.gov/blog/). Visitors who post comments do not need to register, provide their names or supply any other personal information. The blog comments are not collected, processed or reported in any way. When visitors provide their names or other identifying information, that information will appear along with their comments. Although WordPress offers some analytics and usage data to NIDA, these reports do not include any personally identifiable information. The reports are password protected and only available to members of the Communications and Web Teams and other designated staff requiring this information to perform their duties. The WordPress privacy policy is available at: http://wordpress.org/about/privacy/

YouTube: NIDA posts videos on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/NIDANIH) to make them available to all NIDA visitors. You do not need to register with either YouTube or Google (YouTube owner) to watch NIDA 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 NIDA videos, YouTube may associate information about your site use with your YouTube account. If you log on to YouTube and comment on an NIDA 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 NIDA 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