Terms of Use and Privacy Information
for http://nicic.org
By using the National Institute of Corrections Community site, you agree to the following:
- You understand that these sites may experience failures or other service outages without notice.
- You will not hold the INSTITUTE or the creators, operators, or related entities to the sites responsible or liable ("indemnify and hold harmless") for the inability to connect to or use the sites, or for any loss or corrupted data, or for any defamatory or offensive material(s) which you may encounter on or originating from the sites, or for the conduct, opinions, or publications of any user, or for any other problem whatsoever related to the use or existence of the sites.
- You understand that the INSTITUTE has no obligation to acknowledge, mediate, or otherwise settle any disputes or differences in opinion that may arise between users.
Additional terms and conditions are listed below.
The National Institute of Corrections Community site include a discussion area that allows feedback and interaction among users. The INSTITUTE encourages the free expression of your ideas and opinions as long as they are responsible, free of insult, respectful of others, do not make public accusations related to specific corporations, individuals, or contracts, and conform to the site purpose. Please see the home page for links to appropriate contacts to file specific complaints, etc. However, we do not control or censor messages, information, or files delivered to discussion groups. It is a condition of your use of the discussion area that you do not:
- Falsely present yourself as a representative, employee, or official of a governmental entity by accidental or deliberate means including misleading or confusing statements in your postings.
- Stray from the discussion topic, or make personal attacks on other website users and/or participants (personal attacks are defined as comments that reflect upon the person instead of their opinion), or make specific accusations regarding individual corporations or contracts (please see the home page for links to appropriate contacts for specific complaints).
- Post or transmit any slanderous, defamatory, obscene, indecent, pornographic, profane, violent, abusive, insulting, threatening, offensive or harassing comments and/or information of any kind. We will not tolerate such postings, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense.
- Post or re-post a message excessively, especially unsolicited advertisements, even if they are directly or indirectly related to the purpose of the site. Advertising of any kind, including non-profit organizations, is not permitted.
- Add or post any copyrighted material to the site, without written permission of the copyright owner.
The INSTITUTE and the creators, owners, operators, or related entities to the sites have no obligation to monitor the discussion groups. However, they reserve the right at all times to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any law and regulation and to edit, refuse to post, or to remove any information or links, in whole or in part, that are in violation of these terms and conditions or of applicable law.
The INSTITUTE and the creators, owners, operators, or related entities to the site, reserve the right to temporarily or permanently suspend or ban a user or IP address, without warning or notice for any violation of these terms.
We collect no personal information about you when you visit our website unless you choose to provide this information to us. However, we collect and store certain information automatically. Here is how we handle information about your visit to our website.
What We Collect and Store Automatically
If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the website, read pages, or download information, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you personally. We automatically collect and store only the following information about your visit:
- The IP address (an IP address is a number that is assigned to each computer connected to the Internet) from which you access our website;
- The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
- The date and time you access our site;
- The pages you visit; and
- 5. If you linked to our website from another website, the address of that website.
We use the information we collect to count the number and type of visitors to the different pages on our site, and to help us make our site more useful to visitors like you.
If You Choose to Provide Personal Information
You may choose to provide us with personal information on this website, including name, organization, and e-mail. This information is collected only if specifically and knowingly provided by you. Personally identifying information you provide will be used by the Institute only in connection with this web site or for such other purposes as are described at the point of collection. We do not give, sell or transfer any personal information to a third party.
This website uses personal information for four purposes:
- If you choose, you may have new information from this web site sent to your email address. This subscription service is optional and may be turned off at any time by following the instructions found in the area where you initially subscribed to the service. If you are unable to locate this area or need assistance with your subscription, you can contact the webmaster@nicic.org.
- If you choose, you may have your personal information displayed in the in various areas in this web site. This information will be displayed publicly on this website. Any area of our site that could potentially display this information publicly will also provide a way for you to hide or remove this information.
- If you choose, you may indicate your name, organization, and/or email address when you submit forms on this web site. If you provide this information in a public zone such as the Corrections Community, it will be displayed publicly on this site along with your discussion or comments. Information you provide in other areas of our site will not be public.
- The Institute designed this site to maximize participation of multiple parties in the Corrections Community. If you choose to submit your email address on this site, the Institute may contact you via email regarding this planning process, including notifications of public meetings, follow-up surveys, and other forms of outreach. If you would not like to be contacted, please notify the site administrator at webmaster@nicic.org.
If You Send Us E-mail
You may choose to provide us with personal information as an e-mail with a comment or question. We use the information to improve our service to you or to respond to your request. Sometimes we forward your e-mail to other government employees who may be better able to help you. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, we do not share our e-mail with any other outside organizations.
Use of Cookies or Other Tracking Devices
A persistent "cookie" is a small text file that is stored on your computer and makes it easy for you to move around a Web site without having to continually re-enter your name, password, preferences, etc. By selecting options like "Remember me on this web site", or "Remember my password", etc. you are electing to allow a persistent cookie from this web site to be placed on your computer. This cookie is only used for your convenience and not to store personal information or to monitor your activities outside of our web site. You can forcibly remove cookies from our web site using the instructions within the web site or by contacting the webmaster@nicic.org for assistance.
Securing the Information We Collect Online
We are committed to properly securing the information we collect online. To help us accomplish this, we take the following steps:
- We employ internal access controls to ensure that only people who see your information are those with a need to do so to perform their official duties;
- We train relevant personnel on our privacy and security measures so that our personnel know what is required for our compliance;
- We regularly back up the information we collect online to insure against loss;
- We use technical controls to secure the information we collect online, including: encryption, firewalls, password protections, etc.;
- We periodically test our security procedures to ensure personnel and technical compliance; and
- We employ external access safeguards to identify and prevent unauthorized attempts or outsiders to hack into, or cause harm to, the information in our systems.
Tampering with this web site is against the law. If anyone tries to tamper with it, they may be punished under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.
Links to Other Sites
Our website has links to a limited number of public and private organizations. When you link to another site, you are no longer on this site and are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.