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Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting PandemicOversight.gov and for reviewing our Privacy Policy. PandemicOversight.gov is the official government website created by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee as required by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Pub. L. No. 116-136 (CARES Act).

We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of our users. We collect no information about you, other than information automatically collected and stored when you visit our website, unless you choose to provide information to us through our Feedback form or the Hotline.

Information that is automatically collected and stored:

  • The name of the domain you used to access the Internet (for example, xcompany.com or xcompany.net, or yourschool.edu, if you are connecting from a college or university domain);
  • Date and time of your visit
  • Pages visited
  • Address of the website you came from

We use this information for statistical purposes and to help us make our site more useful to visitors. Unless specifically stated otherwise, no additional information will be collected about you.

Disclosure

We will not disclose, give, sell, or transfer any personal information about you, unless required for law enforcement or by statute.

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 the website 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.

Cookies

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memo M-10-22: Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies allows federal agencies to use “sessions and persistent cookies.”

When you visit any website, its server may generate a piece of text known as a "cookie" that is placed on your computer. This cookie text allows the website to "remember" visitors' preferences, surfing patterns, and behaviors while they are connected to the site. The cookie also makes it easier for you to use the dynamic features of web pages.

Cookies on PandemicOversight.gov pages only collect information about the browser you’re using when you visit the site. The cookies do not collect any personal information about you.

There are two types of cookies: single session (temporary) and multi-session (persistent). Single session cookies last only as long as your 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 10-22 Guidance defines our use of session cookies as "Usage Tier 1-Single Session." The guidance states, "This tier encompasses any use of single session web measurement and customization technologies."

Persistent Cookies: We use persistent cookies to enable Google's Universal Analytics (a third-party analytics provider)  to differentiate between new and returning visitors to our site. A Google's Universal Analytics persistent cookie remains on your computer for six months. Knowing if a user has visited PandemicOversight.gov within the past six months tells us the difference between visitors and "unique visitors" or those who visit our website more than once during this time period. This is an industry standard and provides high-level information on the breadth of traffic to and content usage of our given digital services. It is a powerful, invaluable metric because it's the only measure that accurately calculates how many individual users visited PandemicOversight.gov in a given time. Combined with total visits, it tells a more comprehensive story about our users and their visit patterns.

Google Universal Analytics does not collect personally identifiable information through these cookies and does not combine, match, or cross-reference PandemicOversight.gov information with any other information. PandemicOversight.gov does not access or store the raw information collected through these cookies. We do view aggregate statistical analyses prepared by Google Universal Analytics, but these analyses do not include any personally identifiable information. We do not sell, rent, exchange, or otherwise disclose this information to persons or organizations.

The OMB Memo 10-22 Guidance defines our use of persistent cookies as "Usage Tier 2-Multi-session without Personally Identifiable Information (PII)." The guidance states, "This tier encompasses any use of multi-session Web measurement and customization technologies when no PII is collected." If you do not wish to have session or persistent cookies stored on your machine, you can opt out or disable cookies in your browser. You will still have access to all information and resources on PandemicOveright.gov. However, turning off cookies may affect the functioning of the website. Be aware that disabling cookies in your browser will affect cookie usage at all other websites you visit as well.

Linking

The site contains links to websites created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. We provide these links as a service to our users. When users link to an outside website, they are leaving the PandemicOversight.gov and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the owners/sponsors of the outside website(s).

Page last modified: 08/24/2021