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NIH Rheumatology Training Program

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
National Institutes of Health
Department of Health and Human Services
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Privacy Policy

Privacy Statement

Protecting your privacy is very important to us. We do not collect any personally identifiable information (PII) about you during your visit to the Rheumatology Training Progeam website 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. The NIH Rheumatology Training Program never collects information for commercial marketing or any purpose unrelated to its mission and goals.

When inquiries are e-mailed to us, we store the question and the E-mail address information so that we can respond electronically. Unless otherwise required by statute, we do not identify anyone who sends questions or comments to our Web site. We will not obtain any information that will allow us to personally identify you when you visit our site, unless you chose to provide such information to us.

Types of Information Collected

When you browse through any website, certain information about your visit can be collected. We automatically collect and temporarily store the following type of information about your visit:

We use this information to measure the number of visitors to our site and its various sections and to help make our site more useful to visitors.

How NIH Rheumatology Training Program Collects Information

NIH Rheumatology Training Program uses Webrends and Google Analytics software to collect the information in the bulleted list in the "Types of Information Collected" section above. The software collects information automatically and continuously. No personally identifiable information is collected. The NIH Rheumatology Training Program staff conducts analyses and reports on the aggregated data. The reports are available only to the NIH Rheumatology Training Program staff who require this information to perform their duties.

The NIH Rheumatology Training Program retains the data from Webtrends and Google Analytics results as long as needed to support the mission of the NIH Rheumatology Training Program website.

How NIH Rheumatology Training Program Uses Cookies

The Office of Management and Budget 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 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 the NIH Rheumatology Training Program 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.

Session Cookies: We use session cookies for technical purposes such as to enable better navigation through our site. These cookies let our server know that you are continuing a visit to our site. The OMB Memo M-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."

Persistent Cookies: We may use persistent cookies to enable our measurement software to differentiate between new and returning NIAMS visitors. Persistent cookies remain on your computer between visits to the NIH Rheumatology Training Program website until they expire. 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."

How to Opt Out or Disable 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 at the NIH Rheumatology Training Program website. 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 the NIH Rheumatology Training Program.

How Personal Information Is Protected

If you choose to provide us with personally identifiable information, that is, information that is personal in nature and which may be used to identify you (for example, through an e-mail message), we will maintain the information you provide only as long as needed to respond to your question or to fulfill the stated purpose of the communication. If we store your personal information in a record system designed to retrieve information about you by personal identifier (name, personal e-mail address, home mailing address, personal or mobile phone number, etc.), so that we may contact you, we will safeguard the information you provide to us in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (5 U.S.C. Section 552a).

If NIAMS operates a record system designed to retrieve information about you in order to accomplish its mission, a Privacy Act Notification Statement should be prominently and conspicuously displayed on the public-facing website or form which asks you to provide personally identifiable information. The notice must address the following five criteria:

How the NIH Rheumatology Training Program uses third-party websites and applications

Third-Party Websites and Applications (TPWA) are web-based technologies that are not exclusively operated or controlled by the NIAMS, such as non-.gov hosted applications and those embedded on one of our web pages that could cause personally identifiable information (PII) to become available or accessible to the NIH Rheumatology Training Program, regardless of whether the NIH RHeumatology Training Program solicits or collects it.

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 the NIH Rheumatology Training Program are assessed using Privacy Impact Assessments posted for public view on the Department of Health and Human Services website (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 website. For more information, please refer to the NIH Privacy Policy posted on the NIH.gov website. When web measurement and customization technologies are used, the Privacy Policy/Notice must state:

Data Retention and Access Limits

The NIH Rheumatology Training Program 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).

Facebook

The NIH Rheumatology Training Program has one facebook page. The NIH Rheumatology Training Program staff posts news and other items of interest to citizens. If you have a Facebook account or "like" these pages, you can post comments on some pages 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 the NIH Rheumatology Training Program 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. The NIH Rheumatology Training Program does not collect, use or disclose any information about visitors who comment or "like" these pages. Facebook collects and reports on non-personally identifiable information about activities on Facebook pages. This information is password protected and only available to the NIH Rheumatology Training Program designated staff who require this information to perform their duties. The Facebook privacy policy is available at: http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.

This page last reviewed on June 21, 2012