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Thank you for visiting NASA and reviewing our policy notices. We have integrated
these statements into a single posting for ease of use. The following links
will help you navigate to a specific section:
Privacy Policy
This notice provides NASA's policy regarding the nature, purpose, use and
sharing of any information collected via this Web site. The information you
provide on a NASA Web site will be used only for its intended
purpose. We will protect your information consistent with the principles
of the Privacy Act, the e-Government act of 2002, the Federal Records Act,
and as applicable, the Freedom of Information Act.
Submitting information is strictly voluntary. By doing so, you are
giving NASA your permission to use the information for the intended purpose. If
you do not want to give NASA permission to use your information, simply do
not provide it. However, not providing certain information may result in NASA's
inability to provide you with the information or services you desire.
There are several types of information we collect. These include:
- Automatically Collected Information
- Information Collected for Tracking and Customization (Cookies)
- Personal Information
- Information from Children
NASA never collects information for commercial marketing. We will only share
your information with another government agency if it relates to that agency,
or as otherwise required by law. NASA never creates individual profiles or
gives your information to any private organization.
Automatically Collected Information
We collect and temporarily store certain technical information about your
visit for use in site management and security purposes. This information includes:
- The Internet domain from which you access our Web site (for example, "xcompany.com" if
you use a private Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if
you connect from an educational domain);
- The IP address (a unique number for each computer connected to the Internet)
from which you access our Web site;
- The type of browser (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer) used to access
our site;
- The operating system (Windows, Unix) used to access our site;
- The date and time you access our site;
- The URLs of the pages you visit;
- Your username, if it was used to log in to the Web site; and
- If you visited this NASA Web site from another Web site, the URL of the
forwarding site.
This information is only used to help us make our site more useful for you.
With this data we learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types
of technology our visitors use.
Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made
to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are retained
temporarily as required for security and site management purposes only.
Information Collected for Tracking and Customization (Cookies)
A cookie is a small file that a Web site transfers to your computer to allow
it to remember specific information about your session while you are connected.
Your computer will only share the information in the cookie with the Web site
that provided it, and no other Web site can request it. There are two types
of cookies, session and persistent. Session cookies last only as long as your
Web browser is open. Once you close your browser, the cookie disappears. Persistent
cookies store information on your computer for longer periods of time.
NASA Web sites may use session cookies for technical purposes such as to enable
better navigation through the site, or to allow you to customize your preferences
for interacting with the site. A few NASA Web sites may also make use of persistent
cookies to remember you between visits so, for example, you can save your customized
preference settings for future visits. Each NASA site using persistent
cookies identifies itself as doing so.
At no time is your private information, whether stored in persistent cookies
or elsewhere, shared with third parties who have no right to that information.
If you do not wish to have session or persistent cookies stored on your machine,
you can turn them off in your browser. However, this may affect the functioning
of some NASA Web sites.
Personal Information
If you choose to provide us with personal information, through such methods
as completing a form or sending us an email, we will use that information to
respond to your message and to help us get you the information or services
you have requested.
Remember that email isn't necessarily secure. You should never
send sensitive or personal information like your Social Security number in
an email. Use postal mail or secure Web sites instead.
Some of our Web sites ask visitors who request specific information to fill
out a registration form. For example, vendors looking for marketing opportunities
by visiting our NASA Acquisition Internet Service site may be asked to register
to obtain email notices of business opportunities. Other information collected
at Web sites through questionnaires, feedback forms, or other means, enables
us to determine visitors' interests, with the goal of providing better service
to our customers.
Interaction with Children
The Children's Online Privacy
Protection Act (COPPA) governs information gathering online from or
about children under the age of 13. Verifiable consent from a child's parent
or guardian is required before collecting, using, or disclosing personal
information from a child under the age of 13.
We collect no information about you or your child, other than that detailed
in the previous section, when you visit our web site unless you choose to provide
information to us. When a NASA Web site needs to collect information about
a child under 13 years old, COPPA required information and instructions will
be provided by the specific Web page that collects information about the child.
The Web page will specify exactly what the information will be used for, who
will see it, and how long it will be kept.
There are several exceptions that permit collection of a child's email address
without receiving parental consent in advance:
- To provide the parents with notice and to seek consent for communications
with the child. Note: this may require collection of the parent's email address
as well.
- To respond to a one time request from a child.
- To respond more than once to a child's request; i.e., subscription to a
newsletter. However, parental consent is required prior to the second communication.
- To protect the safety of a child who is participating on the site; i.e.,
in a chat room.
- To protect the site or to respond to law enforcement; i.e., in the case
of a Web site compromise.
Personal information about children under 13 years of age may be needed to
respond to his/her communication to us, such as to receive a poster or to acquire
information for a school project. Personal information about your child will
be destroyed immediately upon completion of its intended purpose. On rare occasions,
it may be determined that a communication from a child under 13 years old should
be maintained for historical purposes. Should such an occasion occur, NASA
will obtain the necessary consent from the child's parent.
Finally, we provide many on-line tools and services in support of NASA's mission.
A child under 13 years old may inadvertently provide personal information to
one of these services. If this should happen, the information about the child
will be deleted immediately upon discovery.
Web Site Security Notice
For site security purposes and to ensure that this Web service remains available
to all users, this Government computer system employs software programs that
monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change
information,. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring
and is advised that if such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or
criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to appropriate law enforcement
officials.
Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on NASA servers are
strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, including under the Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection
Act of 1996.
Accessibility Statement
We continually strive to ensure the pages on this Web site are accessible
to individuals with disabilities in accordance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
If you have any difficulty viewing any page with adaptive technology, please
contact the webmaster for this site, or the
Center Section 508 Coordinator.
Documents on NASA Web sites are presented in many formats. These formats are
generally accessible to users using screen reading software. Some files on
this Web site may be posted as Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF)
files. Adobe provides their Acrobat
Reader software as a free download.
Linking Policy and Disclaimer of Endorsement
NASA links to many Web sites created and maintained by other public and/or
private organizations. NASA provides links to these sites as a service to our
users. The presence of a link is not a NASA endorsement of the site.
When users follow a link to an outside Web site, they are leaving NASA and
are subject to the privacy and security policies of the owners/sponsors of
the outside Web site(s). NASA is not responsible for the information collection
practices of non-NASA sites.
Date of publication: December, 2005.
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