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Privacy Statement and Disclaimers

Privacy

Information we learn about you from your visit to our website is handled as follows.

If you visit our site to read or download information, such as program opportunities or NIC reports and publications, we collect and store only the following information about you:

  • The name of the domain from which you access the Internet (for example, aol.com, if you are connecting from an America Online account).
  • The date and time you access our site.
  • The Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site.

If you send us an email to request other materials or information, you will be providing us with personally identifying information, for example your name, mailing address, agency, etc . Information collected in this manner is used solely for responding to requests for information and is not passed on to other organizations.

Information We Collect and Store Automatically

If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the website, 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:

  • 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 website;
  • The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
  • The date and time you access our site;
  • The pages you visit; and
  • The URL of the referring page.

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 to target one person at a time, only to see the trends among many users. This information is primarily collected for statistical analysis and technical improvements to the site. This system uses software programs such as Google Analytics to create summary statistics, which may be used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas.

Information Automatically Collected by a Third-Party Website or Application

NIC maintains official Agency accounts on third-party websites and applications. These third-party website and application service providers may themselves automatically collect and store additional information about you, in accordance with their terms of service and privacy policies. The Agency does not control what these third-parties service providers do with the information they collect. For information on the Department’s use of third-party websites and applications to engage with the public, please review the section below regarding the Department’s Use of Third-Party Websites and Applications.

Cookies

Website measurement and customization technologies (commonly called "cookies") are small bits of text that are downloaded to your internet browser when you visit a website. The Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-10-22, Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies defines conditions under which Federal agencies may use session and persistent cookies, and categorizes them in "tiers" to identify their characteristics.

Session cookies
Session cookies are not stored on your computer's hard drive, and are removed when you complete your session or exit the site. Some Department websites use these "Tier 1" session cookies to provide streamlined navigation and statistical analysis. No personally identifying information is gathered.

Persistent cookies
"Tier 2" persistent cookies remain on your computer's hard drive after you complete an activity. Google Analytics Premium uses persistent cookies to measure how new and returning visitors use our websites over time. These persistent cookies do not collect any personally identifying information, and the information that is collected is only used to improve our website. To prevent your data from being collected, you can download and install the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on created by Google. (See related: Google’s main privacy policy)

You may control permissions for cookies on this or any other website by adjusting your individual browser settings for customized privacy protection - see https://www.acquisition.gov/cookies-opt-out for helpful guidance. You can still use Department websites if you do not accept the cookies, but you may be unable to use certain cookie-dependent features.

How We Use Your Personal Information

You do not have to provide any personal information to visit this website. If you choose to provide us with personal information, such as by sending a message to an e-mail address on this website or by filling out a form and submitting it through our website, we will use that information to respond to your message or to fulfill the stated purpose of the communication. If you submit your résumé to us electronically, we will use your personal information to consider your application for employment. The National Institute of Corrections does not collect or use information for commercial marketing.

We may share information you give us with contractors acting on our behalf or with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency. In other limited circumstances, such as responses to requests from Congress and private individuals, we may be required by law to disclose information you submit. If you provide comments in response to a request for public comments, we may make those comments, as well as your identity, available to the public in a publication or by posting them on our website. Where possible, we may give you more specific guidance at the point of collection regarding how your personal information may be used or disclosed.

Electronically-submitted information is maintained and destroyed according to the principles of the Federal Records Act and the regulations and records schedules of the National Archives and Records Administration, and in some cases, may be covered by the Privacy Act and subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A discussion of the FOIA can be found at: https://www.justice.gov/oip/doj-guide-freedom-information-act-0 and a discussion about the Privacy Act can be found at https://www.justice.gov/opcl/privacy-act-1974.

Remember that e-mail is not secure against interception. If your communication is sensitive or includes personal information, you may prefer to send it by postal mail instead.

Commercial Marketing

NIC does not collect or use information for commercial marketing.

Use Caution When Voluntarily Providing Sensitive Information

Remember that internet communications are not necessarily secure from interception. If your communication is sensitive or includes personal information, you may prefer to send it to the Agency by postal mail or other commercial carriers instead.

Forums

By their very nature, the forums are open to the public after creating an account on the website, any information you provide could be viewable to the general public. We make every effort to keep details such as email addresses private, but if you do select to have your email address shown it will be viewable by the general public.

Children and Privacy on NICIC.gov

We believe in the importance of protecting the privacy of children online and do not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under 13.  Unless otherwise stated, our websites are not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under 13.

Site Security

For site security purposes and to ensure this service remains available to all users, this Government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that, if such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to appropriate law enforcement officials. Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on this server are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.

Connections with Third Party Services

The National Institute of Connections limits the amount of user information that is shared with the Third-Party Services it or its contractors contract with. To that end, NIC provides the LEAST amount of information possible for the service to function. Third party services and the data provided to them are outlined below:

  • Zendesk - Helpdesk Services. The fields in NIC's Helpdesk form are submitted to Zendesk and are managed within its system.
  • Overdrive - eBook Services. Only a user's email is passed to overdrive as the method to uniquely identify one user from another in their system.
  • Learn.nicic.gov - eCourses Services. A User's email, name, username, and agency are passed to NIC's learning management system.
  • Google Analytics - Analytics Services. Google Analytics collects anonymized user data about users who access nicic.gov, but NIC does not give Google Analytics any explicit user data. 

Email Subscriptions and Updates

The Agency maintains several lists of subscribers who have asked to receive periodic email updates. Any recipient of a NIC email may unsubscribe from future messages via a link at the bottom of each email message. We do not sell, rent, exchange, or otherwise disclose our list subscribers to persons or organizations outside the Agency.

Our email analytics provider, GovDelivery, also offers the capability to view some data, such as whether a mass email was opened, at an individual level for 30 days after an email was sent; as a matter of policy and practice this data is only viewed on an aggregate basis.

The Agency’s websites may contain links to websites created and maintained by other public or private organizations. We provide these links as a service to visitors to our site. When you follow a link to an external site, you are leaving the Agency and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the external site.

Links to Other Web Sites

The information posted on the National Institute of Corrections' site includes hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. The National Institute of Corrections provides these links and pointers solely for your information and convenience. When you click on a link to an outside Web site, you are subject to the privacy, copyright, security, and information quality policies of that website. The National Institute of Corrections:

  • DOES NOT control or guarantee the accuracy, legality, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of information contained on a linked website;
  • DOES NOT endorse linked websites, the views they express, or the products/services they offer;
  • CANNOT authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked websites;
  • IS NOT responsible for transmissions users receive from linked websites;
  • DOES NOT guarantee that outside websites comply with the accessibility requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Links to non-federal government sites will either appear on a page notifying you that the sites are not controlled by the National Institute of Corrections, or you will receive an intercepting (redirect) page indicating that you are leaving the NIC's site when you access such a link.

If you find a link that does not work please e-mail the National Institute of Corrections Web Manager through our helpdesk.

Security

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, the Agency’s information systems, and information systems operated by contractors on behalf of the Agency, employ software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.  Anyone using these information systems expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to appropriate law enforcement officials. Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on these information systems are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.

Additionally, NIC information systems, and information systems operated by contractors on behalf of the Agency, may be protected by EINSTEIN cybersecurity capabilities under the operational control of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Electronic communications with NIC may be scanned by government-owned or contractor equipment to look for network traffic indicating known or suspected malicious cyber activity, including malicious content or communications.

Electronic communications within NIC will be collected or retained by CISA only if they are associated with known or suspected cyber threats. CISA will use the information collected through EINSTEIN to analyze the known or suspected cyber threat and help NIC and other agencies respond and better protect their computers and networks.

For additional information about EINSTEIN capabilities, please see the EINSTEIN program-related Privacy Impact Assessments available on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity privacy website along with other information about the federal government’s cybersecurity activities.

Disclaimers

The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Government or NIC's parent agencies.

Reference herein to any specific commercial products, processes, or services by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government.

The information and statements contained on this server shall not be used for the purposes of advertising, nor to imply the endorsement or recommendation of the United States Government.

With respect to documents available from this server, neither the United States Government nor any of its employees make any warranty, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Further, neither the United States Government nor any of its employees assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product or process disclosed; nor do they represent that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.