1. disasterhelp.gov is one of 24 eGovernment initiatives sponsored by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) focused on improving services to the citizen. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been designated the managing agency partner for this initiative.

2. This World Wide Web (WWW) site is provided as a public service by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, (FEMA) and it's initiative partners.

3.Information presented on this WWW site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

4. This WWW site references and links to a large number of public and private sites. We have provided a link to these sites because they have information that may be of interest to our viewers. FEMA does not necessarily endorse the views expressed or the facts presented on these sites. FEMA does not endorse any commercial products that may be advertised or on these sites. The FEMA Privacy Notice Policy does not apply on these sites. Please check the site for its Privacy Notice.

1.The information we learn about you from your visit to our website depends upon what functions you perform when visiting our site.

2.For site management, information is collected for statistical purposes. This government computer system uses software programs to create summary statistics, which are used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas.

3.If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the website, read pages, or download information, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you personally. We automatically collect and store the following information about your visit:

-The Internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect from a university's domain) and IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our website;

- The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;

- The date and time you access our site;

- The pages you visit; and

- If you linked to disasterhelp.gov from another website, the address of that website.

We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors -- to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use. We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits.

The only cookies FEMA uses on its web are those that allow several complex software user-driven applications to work correctly. For instance, our online ordering services (for publications of the U.S. Fire Administration and for the FEMA Flood Map Store) allow users to "shop" through the catalog. As a user goes through and checks off a series of publications, each transaction is a separate "signal" sent between their computer and ours. In order to maintain a complete record of the total order, the FEMA server sends a cookie to identify that user's order. The only information collected is related to that particular publication order and this information is NOT retained once the order is sent.

This is the state of technology on the Web. There currently exist no non-cookie applications for this multi-order function.

Please be assured that FEMA's use of cookie technology is NOT a covert attempt to either collect or analyze information on Internet users.

Information Collected from E-mails and Web Forms

If you identify yourself by sending an E-mail or using Web Forms:

You also may decide to send us personally-identifying information, for example, in an electronic mail message containing a complaint or compliment. We use personally-identifying information from viewers in various ways to further the usefulness and accuracy of the information contained on our Web site or to add new sections and services. Visit Feedback, http://www.fema.gov/feedback/, to learn what can happen to the information you provide us when you send us e-mail.

We want to be very clear: We will not obtain personally-identifying information about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide such information to us.

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

2.Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes and are scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration guidelines.

3. 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."