Privacy and Security Notice

• This Web site is provided as a public service by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
• 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, "youragency.gov" if you connect from a government domain, "yourschool.edu" if you connect from a university's domain, or "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account) 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 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.
• This GLRI Web site currently utilizes "session" cookie technology for several user tools. "Session" cookies are used to distinguish one user from another as they navigate through a tool or application; the cookie disappears when a web user terminates a web session and closes the browser. They are not used to save personal information.
• Where identifying information is asked of you (e.g., to respond to an information request, to send us a comment or question, or to utilize one of our systems designed to provide or store information for you), it is used only for the stated purpose of the tool or system you are using. Refer to that system's "Notice of Use" for details on those policies. In all cases, such information is never sold to third parties. Feel free to use the "contact us" link below if you have any questions regarding information you supply to us.
• Our web site has links to other federal agencies. We also link to other organizations' web sites when we have a good business reason to do so. This does not constitute an endorsement of their policies or products. Once you link to another site, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.
• For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs commercial software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.
• 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.
• 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.
• Information presented on this Web site is considered public information and may be freely distributed or copied. The U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce these documents, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. These documents may be freely distributed and used for non-commercial, scientific and educational purposes. Commercial use of the documents available from this server may be protected under the U.S. and Foreign Copyright Laws. Individual documents on this server may have different copyright conditions, and that will be noted in those documents.
• Your rights as an individual user of this Web page are governed by the Privacy Act of 1974; Title 5, Section 552a.
• If you have any questions or comments about the information presented here, please contact us.