document: title: privacy & security statement
text: Thank you for visiting the Department of Labor (DOL) Web site and reviewing our privacy and security statement. DOL is strongly committed to maintaining the privacy of your personal information and the security of our computer systems. With respect to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, DOL makes every effort to ensure compliance with applicable Federal law, including, but not limited to, The Privacy Act of 1974, The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and The Freedom of Information Act.

As a general rule, the Department of Labor does not collect personally-identifying information about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide such information to us. The information we receive depends upon what you do when visiting our site.

If you respond to an on-line request for personal information:

Generally, the information requested by the Department will be used to respond to your inquiry or to provide you with the service associated with the request. However, when this information is requested, the reasons for collecting it with a description of the Department's intended use of the information will be fully described in a customized "Privacy Notice." This Privacy Notice will either appear on the Web page collecting the information or be accessible through a link prominently displayed immediately preceding the information request.

If you visit our site to read or download information, we collect and store the following information:

  * The name of the domain from which you access the Internet (for example, dol.gov, if you are connecting from the Department of Labor's computer account).
  * The date and time you access our site.
  * The Internet address of the Web site from which you linked directly to our site.



The above information is used by software programs on our Web site to create summary statistics which allow us to assess the number of visitors to the different sections of our site, identify what information is of most and least interest, determine technical design specifications, monitor system performance, and help us make our site more useful to visitors.

If you identify yourself by sending an e-mail containing personal information:

You also may decide to send us personally-identifying information, for example your mailing address, in an electronic mail message requesting that information be mailed to you. Information collected in this manner is used solely for responding to requests for information or records. We may forward your e-mail to other Government employees who are better able to respond to you. Should you wish to file a request under FOIA, instructions are provided at: http://www.dol.gov/dol/foia/main.htm

If you link to other sites outside DOL:

Our Web site has many links to other sites. When you link to any of these sites, you are no longer on our site and are subject to the privacy policy of the new site. 

Cookie Use Notice

The U.S. Department of Labor employs "cookies" to provide better service to its customers. The Department does not use cookies to collect any personally identifying information from users or to track user activities beyond our Web site. The Department does not maintain copies of cookies on our Web site after you leave our Web site. 

Cookies are small pieces of temporary data that are exchanged between a Web site and a user's computer which enable a "session," or "dialog," to be established between the two machines. With the session established, the Department is able to tailor its responses (i.e., identify and provide you with the information you want) and help you traverse our Web pages in the most efficient and effective manner possible. The session is often broken when the Department's server does not receive further requests from your computer or you simply exit your browser. 

The Department limits its use of cookies to "session cookies" — types of cookies that are temporarily stored in your computer's memory. Session cookies are normally deleted from a user's computer when the user logs off the computer or the user exits the browser. As of January, 2001, the Department does not issue "persistent cookies" — types of cookies that could be stored permanently on your workstation and reused each time you visit the Department's Web site.

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For security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, our Web site also employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. 

Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and The National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.