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Privacy Act Statement

Authority: The collection of this information is authorized under 5 U.S.C. § 301, Departmental regulations, which authorizes the operations of an executive agency, including the creation, custodianship, maintenance and distribution of records.

Purpose: NOAA collects this information for the purpose of facilitating external coordination with CO-OPS System data providers and to provide responses to customer service related requests from the diverse community of customers.

NOAA Routine Uses: NOAA will use this information to enable communication with data providers and customers of CO-OPS. Disclosure of this information is permitted under the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. Section 552a) to be shared among NOAA staff for work-related purposes. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all of the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notice Commerce/NOAA-11, Contact Information for Members of the Public Requesting or Providing Information Related to NOAA's Mission.

Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary; however, failure to provide accurate information may delay or prevent the individual from submitting and/or receiving information.

Privacy Policy

We are committed to the privacy of our visitors. We collect no personal information about you when you visit our Web site unless you choose to provide that information to us.

Here is how we handle information about your visit to our Web site:

Information Collected and Stored Automatically: 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 information like the following concerning 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);
  • Your 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.
  • 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
  • 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.

Information Protection

For site security purposes and to ensure that 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. 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 under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act or other law.

Information That You Voluntarily Provide

We do not collect personally-identifiable information unless you choose to provide it to us. If you provide us with personally identifiable information, for example by sending an e-mail or by filling out a form and submitting it through our Web site, we use that information only to respond to your message and to help us provide you with the information and services that you request.

Submitting voluntary information constitutes your consent to the use of the information for the stated purpose. When a user clicks the "Submit" button on any of the Web forms found on our site they are indicating voluntary consent to use of the information they submit for the stated purpose. We do not collect or use information for commercial marketing.

How Information is Used

The information we collect is used for a variety of purposes (e.g., comments on proposed rules, license applications, to respond to requests for information about our regulations and policies and to fill orders). We make every effort to disclose clearly how information is used at the point where it is collected so that our users can determine for themselves whether they wish to provide the information.

Sharing of Information

We may share the information you give us 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. Before you submit personally identifiable information, such as on an online form, you will be advised as to the purpose and how the information will be used.

We may also share information collected during your visit with non-federal entities, but only if your inquiry requires accessing data from that external entity. All of our sites that require such external access will be clearly identified to help you make an informed choice.

Specifically, information collected during your visit may be shared with the following specific non-governmental entities:

- Google. We offer several Google Maps on our site that access Google.com. Map displays are typically used for station location information.

Retention of Information

We destroy the information we collect when the purpose for which it was provided has been fulfilled unless we are required to keep it longer by statute or official policy. Electronically submitted information is maintained and destroyed according to the principles of the Federal Records Act and the regulations and records schedules approved by the National Archives and Records Administration, and in some cases information submitted to us may become an agency record and therefore might be subject to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Links to Other Sites

This site may have links to the Web sites of other federal agencies. There may be links to private organizations, with their permission. Once you go to another site, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site. It is always a good idea to read the Privacy Policy of any Web site that you visit.

Cookies

"Cookies" are small bits of text that are either used for the duration of a session ("session cookies"), or saved on a user's hard drive in order to identify that user, or information about that user, the next time the user logs on to a Web site ("persistent cookies"). This site uses cookies in three ways:

To better serve our visitors, we use technology to track new and returning visitors actions while on the website. These small files are commonly referred to as "cookies." Our cookies don't not contain any personally-identifiable information.

  • Favorite Stations: Our "favorite stations" functionality allows visitors to define a list of commonly used stations for quick access to water level, meteorological, and current observations.
  • Google Analytics: See section under "Third-party Social Media Tools" titled "Google Analytics"
  • Session Cookies: One or more of our component applications may use session cookies to provide streamlined navigation. These session cookies are deleted from the component's server after your session ends and information from them is not collected or saved.

Third-party Social Media Tools

The Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services maintains official pages or accounts on one or more third-party websites in order to better engage with the American public and promote awareness of CO-OPS activities, events, news, and information (a list of these tools is highlighted below). Your activity on those third-party sites is governed by the security and privacy policies of the third party sites. Users of third-party sites are often sharing information with the general public, user community, and/or the third-party operating the third-party site. You should review the privacy policies of third-party sites before using them and ensure that you understand how your information may be used. You should also adjust privacy settings on your account on any third-party site to match your preferences.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website where users can connect and interact with other people. The CO-OPS HAB (Harmful Algal Bloom) Facebook page features information about occurrences of harmful algal blooms (red tide). Please note that you are subject to Facebook's privacy policy when visiting our Facebook page. In addition, users may post comments on the CO-OPS HAB Facebook page.

Google Analytics

This site uses Google Analytics, a third-party web measurement and customization technology as defined and organized by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), "Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies" (OMB M-10-22). Google Analytics places a small file on your computer, commonly called a "cookie," so that it can recognize your computer if you visit a CO-OPS website in the future. This cookie does not collect personal identifying information. This is considered a Tier 2 service in the OMB guidance. Google Analytics does not collect personally identifiable information through their cookie and does not combine, match, or cross-reference tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov information with any other information. Please review Google's privacy policy for additional information. Visitors who choose to disable this web measurement will still have full access to CO-OPS' websites. While the details vary from browser to browser, most modern browsers can be set up to accept, reject, or request user intervention when a site asks to set a cookie. Google Analytics uses a cookie that begins with: _utm

Clicky Web Analytics

This site uses Clicky Web Analytics, a third-party web measurement and customization technology as defined and organized by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), "Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies" (OMB M-10-22). Clicky Web Analytics places a small file on your computer, commonly called a "cookie", so that it can recognize your computer if you visit a CO-OPS website in the future. This cookie does not collect personal identifying information. This is considered a Tier 2 service in the OMB guidance. Clicky Web Analytics does not collect personally identifiable information through their cookie and does not combine, match, or cross-reference tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov information with any other information. Visitors who choose to disable this web measurement will still have full access to CO-OPS' websites. While the details vary from browser to browser, most modern browsers can be setup to accept, reject, or request user intervention when a site asks to set a cookie. Clicky Web Analytics uses cookies that begin with: cluid, __cfduid.

Interaction with Children

This Web site may offer educational content to children under 13. No personally identifiable information is collected from them unless voluntarily submitted as a request for information or services. The information collected is used to respond to user inquiries or to provide services requested by our users.