NOAA Privacy Policy

We are committed to the privacy of our visitors. We collect no personal information about you when you visit our Web site unless you choose to provide that information to us.

Here is how we handle information about your visit to our Web site.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically: 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 information like the following concerning 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)
• Your 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
• If you linked to our 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.

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. If such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to appropriate law enforcement officials. Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on this server are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act or other law.

We do not collect personally-identifiable information unless you choose to provide it to us. If you provide us with personally identifiable information, for example by sending an e-mail or by filling out a form and submitting it through our Web site, we use that information only to respond to your message and to help us provide you with the information and services that you request.

Submitting voluntary information constitutes your consent to the use of the information for the stated purpose. When a user clicks the Submit button on any of the Web forms found on our site they are indicating voluntary consent to use of the information they submit for the stated purpose. We do not collect or use information for commercial marketing.

The information we collect is used for a variety of purposes (e.g., comments on proposed rules, license applications, to respond to requests for information about our regulations and policies and to fill orders). We make every effort to disclose clearly how information is used at the point where it is collected so that our users can determine for themselves whether they wish to provide the information.

We may share the information you give us with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency. In other limited circumstances, such as responses to requests from Congress and private individuals, we may be required by law to disclose information you submit. Before you submit personally identifiable information, such as on an online form, you will be advised as to the purpose and how the information will be used.

We destroy the information we collect when the purpose for which it was provided has been fulfilled unless we are required to keep it longer by statute or official policy. Electronically submitted information is maintained and destroyed according to the principles of the Federal Records Act and the regulations and records schedules approved by the National Archives and Records Administration, and in some cases information submitted to us may become an agency record and therefore might be subject to a Freedom of Information Act request.

This site may have links to the Web sites of other federal agencies. There may be links to private organizations, with their permission. Once you go to another site, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site. It is always a good idea to read the Privacy Policy of any Web site that you visit.

“Cookies” are small bits of text that are either used for the duration of a session (“session cookies”), or saved on a user’s hard drive in order to identify that user, or information about that user, the next time the user logs on to a Web site (“persistent cookies”). This Web site does not use persistent cookies or any other persistent tracking technology. One or more of our component sites may use session cookies to provide streamlined navigation. These session cookies are deleted from the component’s server after your session ends and information from them is not collected or saved.

This Web site may offer educational content to children under 13. No personally identifiable information is collected from them unless voluntarily submitted as a request for information or services. The information collected is used to respond to user inquiries or to provide services requested by our users.

SOS Explorer® (SOSx) was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) along with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado. More information about SOSx is available by contacting sos.explorer@noaa.gov.

When you use SOSx, certain information will be gathered and stored about your usage of the application. This information does not identify you personally. We collect and store information as follows:

• NOAA receives aggregate data about the use of SOSx, such as the number of times the applications have been opened or the interactions or actions completed in the application. This is gathered via third-party providers including Unity Analytics. For the mobile version, we also receive aggregate data from the platforms that distribute SOSx to various app stores including Google Play and the Apple App Store, such as the number of people who download SOSx, mobile set-up information (e.g., device model, SOSx version, country, language, and mobile carrier) and crash reports. We do not, however, receive information unique to you or your use of SOSx
• For the mobile version, you may sign up to receive “push notification” messages via a third-party provider. At this time SOSx does not offer push notifications. To make sure messages reach the correct devices, our third-party provider relies on a device token unique to your mobile device. A device token is a unique identifier issued to SOSx by the operating system of your mobile device. While we may be able to access a list of the tokens, neither SOSx nor the tokens will reveal your identity, your unique device ID, or your contact information to us. The third-party provider may collect the following: the time of an event, how a user came to our site, what search engine and search keywords users may have used to get to our site, information about the device our user is on such as their Operating System, and browser, as well as the city, region and country location of users. If, at any time, you wish to stop receiving push notifications, simply adjust your phone settings or remove SOSx. Please consult the privacy policies of these third parties for further information
• NOAA does not disclose, share, sell, or transfer any information about NOAA digital media visitors or users unless required for law enforcement or otherwise required by law
• All data sent and received from SOSx is encrypted during transmission. Since no personally identifiable information is stored there is no way to request that your data is deleted. We destroy the information we collect when the purpose for which it was provided has been fulfilled unless we are required to keep it longer by statute or official policy. Electronically submitted information is maintained and destroyed according to the principles of the Federal Records Act and the regulations and records schedules approved by the National Archives and Records Administration, and in some cases information submitted to us may become an agency record and therefore might be subject to a Freedom of Information Act request

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

NOAA’s digital media are maintained by the U.S. Government and are protected by various provisions of Title 18, U.S. Code. Violations of Title 18 are subject to criminal prosecution in Federal court.

SOSx may have links to other federal agencies or private organizations, with their permission, that contain related content. Once you go to another site, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site. It is always a good idea to read the privacy policy of any website that you visit.