PRIVACY POLICY

Thank you for visiting my online office. Through this web site, I try to better serve the people of California by communicating important information about legislative and public policy issues as quickly as possible.

While technological advances, especially the Internet, are increasing access to information and facilitating increased communication between businesses, government, and individuals, many Americans have expressed reasonable concerns about the privacy of online information.

Protecting personal privacy has always been a top priority for me. Early in my first term in the U.S. Senate, I wrote the law that protects personal data stored at state Departments of Motor Vehicles. Last year, I helped create the Senate Democratic Task Force on Privacy.

I believe that all web sites should post a clear and thorough privacy policy explaining exactly how that personal information will be tracked and used. My privacy policy is explained in detail in the following pages.

In summary, my web site only collects the personal information you authorize and uses it only for purposes you have approved. I promise you that any information you provide will never be sold, rented, or otherwise distributed for commercial or political purposes.

If you need more specific information, please click on any of the questions listed below.

What information is gathered and how is it used?
With whom is the information shared?
What safeguards are in place to protect your information?
What are your online guidelines for children?
Links to other sites.
How can you update or correct personal information?
If you want to contact us

What information is gathered and how is it used?

Personal Information

The only personal information gathered on Senator Boxer's web site is the visitor's name, address, email address and any other identifying information you choose to provide. This information is gathered in three ways:

Email Senator Boxer

• Your address is used to confirm that you are a constituent of Senator Boxer and to send a reply via email or U.S. Post mail.
• Senator Boxer's office tabulates comments received through this web site concerning legislation and government policy issues so the Senator will be fully informed about the views of her constituents.
• From time to time, constituents of Senator Boxer will make a comment (by email or another method of communication) of such general interest that Senator Boxer may refer to it in a speech or other communication with her colleagues. However, names will never be released without the consent of the contributor.
• Senator Boxer may also release general information about the number of responses she has received on a particular topic. However, she will not disclose individual information without express approval.
• If you are requesting help with a federal agency, Senator Boxer requests that you fill out Case Information and Privacy Release form, sign it, and send it by mail to her San Francisco office. The Privacy Act may limit a federal agency's ability to respond to my request for assistance on your behalf, unless you have signed this form authorizing the agency to release to me information about you.

Join Our E-Mail List

Senator Boxer collects two kinds of information for her email lists:

1. Your address, so she can target announcements of events and news in your area.
2. The subjects you are interested in, so she can send you information on those topics.

Technical Data

Senate rules require that Senator Boxer's web site be housed on the official Senate server. The U.S. Senate collects aggregate data about visits to Senate web sites. Each time you visit the boxer.senate.gov web site, the Senate server (like most on the web) collects some basic technical information, including your IP address, your domain name, the date and time you accessed the site, referral data (for example, the address of the last URL you visited before clicking through to our web site) and browser and platform type. The Technical Information collected by the Senate server is not linked to any personal data.

Senator Boxer also collects information about the pages visited on her website. This information is gathered for information only to learn more about her web visitors' interests and improve the online service provided. This web site does not use "cookies" to track your visits. Cookies are small files stored on your computer that assign a numerical user ID and store certain information about your online visit.

Senator Boxer's site is stored on the Senate Server. Please be aware that the privacy policy of the United States Senate Web site (http://www.senate.gov/security.html) which hosts this page, also applies to Senator Boxer's site.

With Whom is the Information Shared?

Personal Data:

Senator Boxer will not share information collected from your visit with any third party for any reason other than the following:

• A user attempts to damage the Senate Server, upload information, or change information on this service. These acts are unauthorized and may be federal crimes, punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.
• For properly authorized and official government use.

What safeguards are in place to protect your information?

The U.S. Senate Server uses all reasonable security safeguards to protect the information obtained against such risks as loss, unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification or disclosure by storing it on secure servers, which cannot be accessed over the Internet.

The U.S. Senate does not encrypt data sent in on forms on Senator Boxer's site and cannot guarantee the security of the information you submit while it travels over the Internet. This is another reason why Senator Boxer will never ask you to transmit extremely sensitive information, such as your social security number or credit card numbers on her web site. If you prefer not to send any information to Senator Boxer over the Internet, you may contact her offices directly.

For site security purposes, and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, the United States Senate computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic and identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.

The U.S. Senate Web site also collects aggregate data, such as total visitors per page. However, no individual user's visit to any Senate site can be tracked by this information. The Senate does not store any personal, confidential, or sensitive information in any form.

For more information about United States Senate Web site security, click here.

Online guidelines for children

The 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires web sites to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or disseminating information about children under 13. COPPA also allows parents to "opt out" of dissemination of information already collected about that child.

Protecting children's on-line privacy and giving parents the ability to control access to their children's personal information is important to Senator Boxer. This site fully complies with COPPA.

To ensure children's privacy, Senator Boxer has established the following procedures on her web site.

Kids Corner

Senator Boxer's Kids Corner does not require registration or ask visitors for personal contact information of any kind.

Email List

Senator Boxer's Email List sign up page asks children 13 or under to fill out a separate form that includes their parent's email address. When a child under 13 asks to be added to a Boxer email list, that request will be relayed to the parent's email address. If the parent does not consent, the child will not be put on the email mailing list. Senator Boxer strongly encourages all parents to visit www.getnetwise.org to learn more about Internet safety for children.

Survey

Personal information collected through Senator Boxer's survey is not used for any purpose other than to verify that she is receiving views on various subjects from her California constituents.

Links to Other Sites

Senator Boxer's web site has links to other useful sites on the Internet, including sites of other government agencies and sites relating to California. If you follow any link that takes you to a location that does not include `senate.gov' in the address, you will have left the Senate web server and will no longer be covered by this privacy policy. For more information, visitors should refer to the linked site's privacy policy.

Correction of Information

To unsubscribe

To unsubscribe from Senator Boxer's Email List, please follow the instructions on the Email List page or at the bottom of the email you receive as a member.

To correct or update personal information

To correct or update any personal information that you provided to us, please respond to webmaster@boxer.senate.gov.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your experiences on this web site, please contact:

webmaster@boxer.senate.gov

or send mail to

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
312 North Spring Street, Suite 1748
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Attn: Webmaster

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