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Legal Information

The concept of online privacy includes the right to decide what personal information you choose to submit online, and how that information will be used, if at all. To protect user privacy, GPO follows Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recommendations and other suggestions regarding Internet privacy policy for Federal Government Web sites. In doing so, we strive to make users aware of the kinds of information we collect from them, explaining why we collect that information, how we use it, and whether it will be shared with others.

Information Collected AutomaticallyWhen users surf the GPO Web site or hosted Federal Web sites, GPO collects the following data for statistical purposes only:

  • the IP address from which users access our Web site;
  • the date and time of their visits;
  • the URLs of the pages that they view;
  • WAIS searches and retrievals, including search terms.

We use these statistics to make improvements to GPO.gov, not to identify individual users or their searches. We do not enable cookies to monitor usage or to gather users' personal information.

Information Collected via Correspondence with GPO
Personal information submitted by a user in comments or questions via phone, fax, or e-mail is not distributed to parties outside of GPO. Identifying information, such as name, e-mail address, and phone or fax number, is used only for responding to users' comments or questions, and is not made available for other purposes.

Definitions
Cookies:
Cookies are small pieces of information that Web servers or pages store on a user's hard drive. There are two types of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Both types of cookies allow Internet servers to "remember" specific information about a user. Web sites use them primarily to personalize their sites for individual users, to keep track of orders when users purchase products, and to target advertising toward users based on the information that they access. However, session cookies will "remember" that information for only as long as you explore a Web site during one "session", or visit to the Web site. Session cookies will not "remember" information about you when you return to the site for subsequent visits. However, persistent cookies will "remember" this information for more than one session. OMB has decided that persistent cookies should not be allowed on Government Web sites, except in "the most unusual of circumstances." GPO currently follows this recommendation.

Encryption: Encryption technology ensures the protection of personal information via private, secure transactions. View encryption information for the U.S. Government Online Bookstore.

Security
Site security is the concept of monitoring network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on GPO's servers.

In the case that suspicious activity of this sort arises, a user's personal information may be tracked to identify a possible threat. This is the only reason that GPO will ever collect personal information and/or monitor user activity without asking permission or giving prior notice.

Note: To assist users in finding official Government information, we provide links to other Web sites. Once users have left gpo.gov and entered another site, they are subject to the policies and legal notices on that site.

Copyright Status Notice
Unless specifically stated otherwise, all information on the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) website is in the public domain, and may be reproduced, published or otherwise used without GPO's permission.

Some photographs in major banners and navigation headings are commercially licensed and cannot be reproduced, published or otherwise used.

GPO Privacy Program

The United States Government Printing Office (GPO) places a high priority on protecting information in identifiable form that is collected, used, maintained, and disseminated by the Agency. For additional information, go to GPO Privacy Program.