UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
U.S. COAST GUARD
OFFICE OF BOATING SAFETY

PRIVACY NOTICE

PRIVACY NOTICE

We collect no personal information about you when you visit our Web site unless you choose to provide this information to us. However, we collect and store certain information automatically. Here is how we handle information about your visit to our Web site.

Our Internet privacy policy is:

• You do not have to give us personal information to visit our site.
• We collect personally identifiable information (name, email address, or other unique identifier) only if specifically and knowingly provided by you.
• Personally identifying information you provide will be used only in connection with such purposes as described at the point of collection.
• Information is collected for statistical and/or reporting purposes and the Office of Boating Safety sometimes performs analyses of user behavior in order to measure customer interest in the various areas of our site.
• We do not give, sell or transfer any personal information to a third party.

What We Collect and Store 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 only the following information about your visit:

1. 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;
2. The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
3. The date and time you access our site;
4. The pages you visit; and
5. If you linked to our Web site from another Web site, the address of that Web site.

We use the information we collect to count the number and type of visitors to the different pages on our site, and to help us make our site more useful to visitors like you.

Information Collected from E-mails and Web Forms

You can contact us by postal mail, telephone, or electronically via an on-line form. Before you do, there are a few things you should know. The material you submit may be seen by various people. We may also share it with a wide variety of other government agencies enforcing consumer protection, competition, and other laws. We use the information to improve our service to you or to respond to your request. Sometimes we forward your e-mail to other government employees who may be better able to help you. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, we do not share our e-mail with any other outside organizations.

Also, e-mail is not necessarily secure against interception. If your communication is very sensitive you might want to send it by postal mail instead.

Links to Other Sites

This Web site has many links to other organizations, such as State/Local Governments, Educational Institutions, and Non-Profit Associations. While we offer these electronic linkages for your conveniences in accessing transportation-related information, please be aware that when you exit a Coast Guard Web site, the Privacy Policy stated on our Web sites may not be the same as that on the other Web sites. When you link to another site, you are no longer on our site and are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.

 

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