Thank you for visiting the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) website (pnnl.gov) and reviewing our security and privacy policies.  The following policies apply to all pages and sites in the pnnl.gov domain, unless otherwise noted.

Security Notice

This website is part of a Federal computer system used to accomplish Federal functions. The Department of Energy monitors this website for security purposes to ensure it remains available to all users and to protect information in the system. By accessing this website, you are expressly consenting to these monitoring activities.

Unauthorized attempts to defeat or circumvent security features, to use the system for other than intended purposes, to deny service to authorized users, to access, obtain, alter, damage, or destroy information, or otherwise to interfere with the system or its operation are prohibited. Evidence of such acts may be disclosed to law enforcement authorities and result in criminal prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (Pub. L. 99-474) and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-294), (18 U.S.C. 1030), or other applicable criminal laws.

Privacy Notice

We collect no personal information about you without your knowledge when you visit this site, although you may choose to provide this information to us in specific instances. However, we do collect and store certain information automatically.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

When you browse, read pages, or download information in the pnnl.gov domain, we automatically gather and store certain technical information about your visit. This information never identifies who you are. The information we collect and store about your visit includes

• the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the domain from which you access the Internet (e.g., 123.456.789.012), whether yours individually or provided as a proxy by your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• the type of browser (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer) and operating system (Windows, Unix) used to access our site
• the date and time you access our site
• the pages you visit (recorded by the text and graphics files that compose that page)
• the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site.

We use the summary statistics to help us make our site more useful to visitors, such as assessing what information is of most and least interest to visitors, and for other purposes such as determining the site's technical design specifications and identifying system performance or problem areas.

This information is NOT shared with anyone beyond the support staff for this website and other appropriate PNNL staff, except when required by computer security, law enforcement investigation or other authorized legal purpose, and is customarily used only as a source of anonymous statistical information.

Cookies

Websites in the pnnl.gov domain use only non-persistent (per-session) cookies to aid users in setting browsing or navigation preferences. These cookies do not collect personal information on users and are erased as soon as you leave our website.

Per-session cookies serve technical purposes such as providing seamless navigation through PNNL websites. These cookies do not permanently record data and they are not stored on your computer's hard drive. PNNL cookies are stored in memory and are only available during an active browser session.

If You Send Us Personal Information

If you choose to provide us with personal information—such as filling out a Contact Us or registration form and submitting it to us through the website—that information will be used only to complete the activity for which it was provided, whether it is a one-time event (e.g., returning the results from a web search, forwarding an email message, or registering for a conference), or a recurring event, such as providing a subscription service. This information may be used for the technical support of the website and its computer system, or to enhance, evaluate, or otherwise review the website or service.  The information may also be used to contact an individual in response to a request for information.

You may choose to provide us with personal information, as in an e-mail message containing your comments or questions. We use this information to improve our service to you or to respond to your request. There are times when your message is forwarded, as e-mail, to other employees who may be better able to help you.

Personal information, collected as noted herein, is retained to meet the needs of the stated purpose (e.g., two weeks for the PNNL postcard) and is then discarded at the earliest time possible.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory does NOT collect information for commercial marketing. Personal information is shared only with employees of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory involved in processing data for the completion of the stated purpose, entities for which PNNL is acting as an agent, and/or entities acting as PNNL's agent (an agent in this instance is defined as a third party that processes data only for the completion of the stated purpose), except for authorized law enforcement investigations, or as otherwise required by law.

Questions, Comments, and Disputes

Questions and comments, including disputes and/or complaints, about PNNL's security and privacy policies should be addressed to p3p@pnnl.gov.

Your Rights under the Privacy Act and Other Privacy Laws

Additional information regarding your rights is available via the Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act Reference Materials posted by the Federal Consumer Information Center at http://www.FirstGov.gov/.

Other Policies

For further information about our website policies, including Website Accessibility (Section 508) and Linking Policies, please see our Important Notices.