Note: This website links to documents located on websites maintained by various agencies and organizations. Once you access an individual document that links you to another website, you are subject to the privacy policy of the website containing that document.

This is how we handle information we learn about you from your visit to our website. The information we receive depends on what you do when you visit our site.

If you visit our site to browse, or to read or download information:

We collect and store: the name of the domain and host from which you access the Internet (for example, aol.com or princeton.edu); the Internet protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using; the browser software you use and your operating system; the date and time you access our site; and the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site.

We use this information to measure the number of visitors to the different sections of our site, and to help us make our site more useful. Generally, we delete this information after one year.

We do not use "cookies" on this site.

[A "cookie"is a small text file that a website can place on your computer's hard drive in order, for example, to collect information about your activities on the site or to make it possible for you to use an online "shopping cart" to keep track of items you wish to purchase. The cookie transmits this information back to the website's computer which, generally speaking, is the only computer that can read it. Most consumers do not know that "cookies" are being placed on their computers when they visit websites. If you want to know when this happens, or to prevent it from happening, you can set your browser to warn you when a website attempts to place a "cookie" on your computer.]

If you choose to identify yourself when contacting us online:

We use personally identifying information from consumers in various ways to further consumer protection activities. We collect this information under the authority of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Act, other laws enforced or administered by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and laws enforced by other participating government agencies.

We may enter the information you send into a database maintained by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to make it available to FTC attorneys and investigators involved in law enforcement. We may also make the information available through an encrypted password-protected website to a wide variety government agencies in ICPEN countries enforcing consumer protection and related laws. Complaints that are incomplete or on unrelated subjects may not necessarily be entered into the database.

When you submit a complaint via our econsumer.gov online complaint form, you may be contacted by the FTC or any of the government agencies with access to your complaint.

In limited circumstances, including pursuant to requests from the United States Congress, United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from private individuals, or in accordance with FTC public record rules, the FTC may disclose certain information you submit. In addition, government agencies with access to your complaint may use it to gather other information in connection with their consumer protection activities. In some cases, national laws may require disclosure of this other information.

If you use our online form, the information you provide is up to you. If you don't provide your name or other information, it may be impossible for us to refer, respond to, or investigate your complaint or request.

Information submitted through the online complaint form may also be used in aggregate form to analyze trends and statistics, that may be released to the public. This aggregate information will not contain your personal identifying information.

If you want to access your complaint:

If you have submitted a complaint via the online complaint form and it has been entered into our complaint database, you can access it to update or correct it by contacting us and identifying your complaint by its reference number. The reference number will be at the top of the e-mail you receive verifying receipt of your complaint. You must use this reference number to positively identify the record.

The U.S. Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 may provide you additional rights to get information about you that is in our records. To learn more about the circumstances under which you can get and correct this information, visit our Freedom of Information Act page.

Here's what you should know about the security of the information you provide to us:

We use secure socket layer (SSL) encryption to protect the transmission of information you submit to us when you use our secure online forms. All the information you provide us through these forms is stored securely.

If you send us an email, you should know that email is not necessarily secure against interception.

If you experience technical problems with the operation of this website, contact our Webmaster.