Of the information we learn about you from your visit to "www.nih.gov," we store only the following: the domain name from which you access the Internet (such as "aol.com"), the date and time you access our site, terms entered into our search engine, and the Internet address of the web site from which you direct-linked to our site. This information is used to measure the number of visitors to the various sections of our site and to help us make our site more useful to visitors. We do not attempt to associate this information with individual users. Unless it is specifically stated otherwise, no additional information will be collected about you.

When inquiries are E-mailed to us, we store the question and the E-mail address information so that we can respond electronically. Unless otherwise required by statute, we do not identify publicly who sends questions or comments to our web site. We will not obtain information that will allow us to personally identify you when you visit our site, unless you chose to provide such information to us.

E-mail sent to NIH may be seen by a number of people who are responsible for answering questions. If the information specialist who answers the mail does not know the answer to your question, your query may be forwarded to another NIH employee more experienced in that area. On occasion, we may conduct a study concerning the types of questions sent to us. These studies involve coding the queries to see if there are recurring problems that users are having in finding information. The knowledge gained by these studies is used to improve our Web site in order to make it more responsive to the needs of our users. We do not forward your mail outside of NIH nor do we collect your name and e-mail address for any purpose other than to respond to your query. Nevertheless; you should be aware that e-mail is not necessarily secure against interception. If your communication contains sensitive or personal information, you may want to send it by postal mail. This statement applies to the central NIH home page. Other organizations at NIH may process their mail differently. Please check their sites for additional privacy information.

About "Cookies"

While visiting sites within the NIH.GOV domain, you may occasionally encounter a Web page that employs œcookies”. A cookie is a small file that a Web site transfers to your computer's hard disk allowing our server to "remember" specific information about your session while you are connected.

Requests to send cookies from NIH Web pages are not designed to collect information about you, but only about your browser "session." The cookie makes it easier for you to use the dynamic features of these Web pages. The cookie and the information about your session will be destroyed automatically shortly after you close your browser--it is not permanently stored on your computer. Unless an NIH web page specifically notifies you otherwise, we will not collect and maintain personal information about you.

To protect your privacy, be sure to close your browser completely after you have finished conducting business with a Web site that uses cookies. If you are concerned about the potential use of information gathered from your computer by cookies, you can set your browser to prompt you before it accepts a cookie. Most Internet browsers have settings that let you identify and/or reject cookies.

Questions about NIH privacy policies should be sent to the NIH Privacy Act Officer.