Privacy Policy
Protecting your personal information and privacy is important to the Library. We collect, use, and share information obtained from our online visitors and subscribers to Short Message Service (SMS) notifications only in the following ways:
We will only collect personal information that you voluntarily provide.
We will only use the personal information you provide for its intended purpose.
We will only disclose personal information to a government agency if required by law.
We will only disclose personal information to contractors or associates to carry out your requests; these third parties follow our privacy policy or prominently display their own.
We will not disclose your personal information to other outside parties without first obtaining your permission.
We provide a safe online environment for children and follow COPPA principles.
We have implemented safeguards to protect any information collected.
For more information follow these links:
- Types of Information Collected
- Automatically Collected Information
- Information Collected for Measurement and Customization (Cookies)
- Children's Privacy Policy
Types of Information Collected The Library collects several types of information, although never for commercial marketing use:
- Automatically Collected Information
- Information Collected for Measurement and Customization (Cookies)
The Library has implemented safeguards to protect this information, including only providing access to designated Library staff members that require this access to perform their duties.
Automatically Collected Information The Library of Congress strives to provide the best experience for our Web and SMS users. To that end, the Library automatically collects and stores the following non-personally identifiable information:
- The name of the domain from which you access the Internet,
- The Internet Protocol address of your Internet provider's gateway, or in some cases, the computer you are using,
- The date and time you access the Library's site,
- The URL of the pages you visit and files you download,
- The Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site,
- Characteristics of your system, and
- Search terms used to come to the site and while on the site (in aggregate only).
This information allows us to improve our website design, presentation and system performance. We collect this information from users who read, browse and/or download information from the Library's websites.
Additionally, if you choose to receive our Library Alerts via text message delivered to cell phones by SMS messaging, we automatically collect your cell phone number so we can send you the Library Alerts. You can opt out of our Library Alerts at any time.
Information Collected for Measurement and Customization (Cookies)
The Library wants to provide our users with the best online experience possible. As such, we use commercial software products to analyze and report on aggregated web metrics data. This data is generally retained indefinitely to support the mission of our Library of Congress web properties.
The Library uses three types of information collecting tools on its various websites: session cookies, persistent cookies, and other customization tools. "Cookies" are small files that a website transfers to your computer to allow the site to remember specific information. If you do not want cookies to be transferred to your computer, you may choose to opt out of their use by modifying your browser options. While you will still be able to access most features of the Library's websites, certain features may not work as well or may be unavailable to you.
Session cookies do not contain personal information and once you close your browser, the cookies disappear. The Library uses session cookies on our site for technical purposes such as to enable you to more easily navigate throughout the Library's websites. Session cookies only collect non-personally identifiable data.
Persistent cookies store information on your computer for longer periods of time and across multiple sessions. The Library never uses persistent cookies to collect personal identifiable information about our website visitors. The Library uses persistent cookies to improve our web metrics by distinguishing between new and returning visitors; to prevent repeated prompting to complete our customer satisfaction survey, to anonymously aggregate data on how visitors use our sites and to "remember" preferences that you voluntarily provide in order to create a more seamless experience.
Customization tools allow you to voluntarily provide information to personalize and improve your online experience on a particular Library website. This information is saved on our servers.
Personal Information
In order to use certain features of the Library's websites, you may need to submit personal information so we can respond appropriately. We will inform you what information we require and will only use it for the stated purpose. Examples include making a purchase from the Library's online gift shop, requesting a response on a feedback form and participating in the Library's wikis or blog areas. By providing the information, you are giving consent to the Library to use the information for the stated purpose; if you do not want to provide the information, the feature will not be available to you.
Occasionally, we may associate or contract with third parties in order to better serve you, for example, to fulfill your online order, or provide you with requested information or email updates, to collect your voluntarily provided feedback. Those sites will either follow our privacy policy or display their own. Except for the foregoing exceptions and for authorized government law enforcement activities, the Library does not provide personal information to outside organizations without first obtaining your permission.
Children's Privacy Policy
Children are naturally curious about our world and the Library considers it part of its mission to reach out to them in creative and educational ways that protect their privacy. Certain Library websites offer educational content to children under 13 and this privacy policy, which complies with COPPA (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), will be available at these sites by a link.
Some of these sites provide games and activities, and occasionally, we collect personally identifiable information in order to complete the one-time game or activity. We do not use the information for any other purpose and delete the information as soon as practical. For example, in our Lifelong Literacy area, children can create an online picture postcard and email it to a friend. In order to send the online postcard, we need both email addresses as well as the child's first name so that the recipient will know who sent the card. This information is not retained. If the child chooses to post the online postcard in our gallery, we will not post any personally identifying information.
If we become aware that a child under the age of 13 has made a request for information, for example through our Ask a Librarian forms, we will respond to the request and any identifying information will be deleted once we have responded. Similarly, if we become aware that a child under 13 posted personally identifiable information on any of our websites, we will also delete that information.
The Library will disclose information about a child under the age of 13 if it is necessary to protect the child or the site itself, or to respond to law enforcement.
We take children's privacy very seriously, and encourage parents to contact us with any questions or concerns they may have via the web form at www.loc.gov/contact/web-site-comments/. Additionally, if parents want us to delete any collected personally identifiable information about their children under the age of 13, they can also contact us at the website address listed above.
Linking to the Library's Website
As a publicly supported U.S. Government institution, the Library generally does not own rights in its collections and what is posted on its website. Therefore, it does not charge permission fees for use of such material and generally does not grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute material on its website. However, the Library requests that your link to the Library's website be presented in a manner that does not give the impression that the Library is making an express or implied endorsement of any good or service provided on your website and that the link is presented in a manner that clearly indicates that the user is leaving one site and accessing another.
About Our Web Surveys
The Library uses various types of online forms and surveys to collect opinions and feedback from a random sample of visitors. Primarily, the Library uses the ForeSee Results' American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) online survey on an ongoing basis to obtain feedback and data on visitors' satisfaction with various Library of Congress web properties. The ACSI survey invitation pops up for a random sample of visitors; it is voluntary and does not collect personal information. The Library may also use other third party forms and surveys allowing you to provide feedback. All information you submit is voluntary.
If you are randomly selected, a pop-up window will lead to the survey. The survey uses a persistent "cookie" to recognize that you have been invited to complete the survey and block subsequent prompts. If you have set up your Internet browser to ignore or disable pop-ups, you will not be able to be randomly selected for the survey. If you have disabled JavaScript in your browser, but are interested in responding to our survey if randomly selected, you will want to enable JavaScript and reload the website now.
If you get the survey pop-up request, please consider completing it for us. Thank you for your time and comments.
August 11, 2014