USTDA has always taken pride in our customer service. Through regular mail, faxes, and now e-mail, we work hard at making your business more effective by sharing the information we have on the latest infrastructure development projects around the world.

However, you should know that we take every precaution possible to protect your privacy. The following is our official policy on what we do with the personal information you provide us.

1. Signing the USTDA Guestbook
   We do not collect any personal information from you unless you specifically provide it while visiting the USTDA Website. When you sign the USTDA Guestbook, the information that you provide is collected into a firewall protected database that is used internally in two different ways. If you check the box indicating that you would like to be on the USTDA E-Mail Update List, we use that address on a bi-weekly basis to send you a link to the USTDA Pipeline. If you do not check this box, we store your information in the same secure database. From time to time, we search that database for a specific region or sector of interest and may send you information about a relevant USTDA event either by e-mail, regular mail, or by fax.

   In order to promote U.S. export opportunities, USTDA may also share the information in the USTDA Guestbook with contractors that carry out USTDA activities, other government trade agencies, or interested entities that share the USTDA mission (e.g., trade associations, multilateral development banks, etc.) Please also see number 5 below.




2. Consultant Database
   USTDA's Consultant Database is housed on a secure server (SSL) with a Thawte Certificate to help us verify a secure connection with your browser. In order for us to authenticate your identity - and therefore prevent others from logging in under your name and tampering with your account - you are required to log in with a username and a password. The User ID and Password that you enter is checked against a secure database housed on the server. Once verified, your browser is issued a temporary "session" that expires upon
   • your logging out of the Consultant Database area, or
   • if your browser is left idle for more than 40 minutes.


3. Cookies
   USTDA does not use "cookies" on its website. Cookies are bits of information that are set on your computer so that the issuing server or third-party servers may track your on-line traffic.



4. Internet Domain Information
   While you browse the USTDA Website, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information, however, does not identify you personally. We collect and store only the following information about your visit:
   
   • A. The Internet domain from which you access our Website. The Internet domain could be "the name of the university.edu" if you visit from a university's domain, "the name of the agency.gov" if you visit from a government domain, or "the name of the company.com" if you visit from a private company;
     
   • B. If you linked to the USTDA Website from another site, we track the referring page;
     
   • C. The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
     
   • D. The date and time you access our site; and
     
   • E. The pages that you visit on the USTDA Website.
   
   
5. General
   The USTDA Guestbook information, as well as Internet Domain Information, e-mail or other written or electronic contact with USTDA, may be released if requested by Congress, other government agencies, or individuals, but only to the extent allowed by the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act and other relevant laws.