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An official website of the United States government

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

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Web Site Disclaimer

Thank you for visiting our HHS web site and for reviewing our Disclaimers and Web Policy page. Our policy is clear:

We collect no information about you, other than information automatically collected and stored (see below), when you visit our web site unless you choose to provide that information to us.

(NOTE: For information on the Medical Privacy Rule, please go to www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/.)

Information Automatically Collected and Stored:

When you browse through any web site, certain personal information about you can be collected. We use Google Analytics to collect and analyze this information. Google Analytics uses a persistent cookie to track your usage of our site. This is classified as a Tier 2 usage under OMB Memorandum M-10-22.

We automatically collect and temporarily store the following information about your visit:

  • the name of the domain you use to access the Internet (for example, aol.com, if you are using an American Online account, or stanford.edu, if you are connecting from Stanford University's domain);
  • the date and time of your visit;
  • the pages you visited; and
  • the address of the web site you came from when you came to visit.

Unless it is specifically stated otherwise, no additional information will be collected about you. If you wish, you may opt out of Google Analytics by disabling cookies in your browser. If you choose to opt out of Google Analytics tracking, you will still have access to all of the information on this site.

We use the summary statistics to help us make our site more useful to visitors, such as assessing what information is of most and least interest to visitors, and for other purposes, such as determining the site's technical design specifications and identifying system performance or problem areas.

Personally Provided Information:

You do not have to give us personal information to visit our web sites.

If you choose to provide us with additional information about yourself through an e-mail message, form, survey, etc., we will only maintain the information as long as needed to respond to your question or to fulfill the stated purpose of the communication.

However, all communications addressed to the agents of HHS are maintained, as required by law, for historical purposes. These communications are archived on a monthly basis, but are also protected by the Privacy Act which restricts our use of them, yet permits certain disclosures.

Disclosure:

HHS does not disclose, give, sell or transfer any personal information about our visitors, unless required for law enforcement or statute.

Endorsement Disclaimer - Links to Other Sites

Our web site has links to many other federal agencies, and in a few cases we link to private organizations. You are subject to that site's privacy policy when you leave our site. We are not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private Web sites.

Reference in this web site to any specific commercial products, process, service, manufacturer, or company does not constitute its endorsement or recommendation by the U.S. Government or HHS. HHS is not responsible for the contents of any "off-site" web page referenced from this server.

Endorsement Disclaimer - Pop-Up Advertisements

When visiting our Web site, your Web browser may produce pop-up advertisements. These advertisements were most likely produced by other Web sites you visited or by third party software installed on your computer. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services does not endorse or recommend products or services for which you may view a pop-up advertisement on your computer screen while visiting our site.

Information Disclaimer

The information provided using this web site is only intended to be general summary information to the public. It is not intended to take the place of either the written law or regulations.

Intrusion Detection:

This site is maintained by the U.S. Government. It is protected by various provisions of Title 18, U.S. Code. Violations of Title 18 are subject to criminal prosecution in federal court.

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, we employ software programs to monitor traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. In the event of authorized law enforcement investigations, and pursuant to any required legal process, information from these sources may be used to help identify an individual.

Systems of Records:

Information originally collected in traditional paper systems can be submitted electronically, i.e., electronic commerce transactions and information updates about eligibility benefits. Electronically submitted information is maintained and destroyed pursuant to the Federal Records Act, and in some cases may be subject to the Privacy Act. If information that you submit is to be used in a Privacy Act system of records, there will be a Privacy Act Notice provided.

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