Privacy and Security

Introduction

1. This Web site is provided as a public service by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Consumer Product Safety Commission and the U.S. Fire Administration. The site is housed on servers managed by the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency.
2. Information presented on this Web site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

Information collected and stored automatically

1. The information we learn about you from your visit to our Web site 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 Web site, 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 Web site;
   • 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 this Web site from another Web site, the address of that Web site.
   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.

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.
• 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.

Security and Intrusion Detection

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.