Please be assured that the privacy of our visitors is of utmost importance to us. We collect no personally identifiable information about you when you visit our site unless you choose to provide that information to us.

We want to inform you that, for each HTTP request (which is what your web browser generates when you request a page or part of a page from a website) received; we collect and store only the following information, in what is called a log file:

• the date and time
• the originating Internet Protocol (IP) address (this address can refer to a specific computer; more frequently, commercial Internet providers use a temporary IP address that does not link to a specific computer)
• the type of browser and operating system used (if provided by the browser)
• the URL of the referring page (if provided by the browser)
• the object requested
• completion status of the request
• pages visited

The information above is also collected on EPA websites by Google Analytics on behalf of EPA.  The Envirofacts Web Application www.epa.gov/enviro uses Tier 2 persistent cookies as a tool to improve EPA web metrics.  Tier 2 persistent cookies do not collect any personally identifiable information, but only those metrics listed above.  Unless you first opt-out (see below), the computer-programming code used to collect these web metrics will automatically set a persistent cookie in the browser of the computer you are using to access www.epa.gov/enviro

Traffic statistics for www.epa.gov/enviro are only reported to us anonymously and in the aggregate, and no information provided by Google Analytics is traceable to any specific individual.  You can opt-out by changing the cookie settings in your browser.  For instructions on how to disable cookies in some of the most popular web browsers, visit http://www.usa.gov/optout_instructions.shtmlExit.  Google also provides an Opt-Out Browser Add-on for newer browsers: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptoutExit.  Opting-out will still allow you to obtain comparable information from EPA websites. 

EPA does not disclose, give, sell or transfer any personal information about our visitors, unless required for law enforcement or by statute. We may store non-personally identifiable information we collect (such as search engine queries and anonymous survey responses), in accordance with Records Schedule 095, to help us better understand and meet the needs of our visitors. We may share non-personally identifiable information with others, including the public, in aggregated form (for instance, in a list of our most popular search engine queries), in partial or edited form (such as in a report summarizing responses to a questionnaire), or verbatim (for example, in a complete listing of survey responses that do not include personally identifiable information or IP addresses). 

For more information about privacy and security for all other EPA pages on www.epa.gov, please refer to our EPA Privacy and Security Notice.   For more information about the federal government’s use of persistent cookies, please refer to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Memo Guidance for the Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies (9 pp, 102 K, About PDF)Exit.