Web Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting NASA and reviewing our policy notices. We have integrated these statements into a single posting for ease of use. The following links will help you navigate to a specific section:

Privacy Policy

This notice provides NASA’s policy regarding the nature, purpose, use and sharing of any information collected via this Web site. The information you provide on a NASA Web site will be used only for its intended purpose. We will protect your information consistent with the principles of the Privacy Act, the e-Government act of 2002, the Federal Records Act, and as applicable, the Freedom of Information Act.

Submitting information is strictly voluntary. By doing so, you are giving NASA your permission to use the information for the intended purpose. If you do not want to give NASA permission to use your information, simply do not provide it. However, not providing certain information may result in NASA’s inability to provide you with the information or services you desire.

There are several types of information we collect. These include:

NASA will only share your information with another government agency if it relates to that agency, or as otherwise required by law. We may share information with private organizations as part of a service that provides NASA.gov users with increased capabilities or functionality on the site. NASA never creates individual profiles.

Automatically Collected Information

We collect and temporarily store certain technical information about your visit for use in site management and security purposes. This information includes:

The Internet domain from which you access our Web site (for example, “xcompany.com” if you use a private Internet access account, or “yourschool.edu” if you connect from an educational domain);
The IP address (a unique number for each computer connected to the Internet) from which you access our Web site;
The type of browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer) used to access our site;
The operating system (Windows, Mac) used to access our site;
The date and time you access our site;
The URLs of the pages you visit;
Your username, if it was used to log in to the Web site; and
If you visited this NASA Web site from another Web site, the URL of the forwarding site.
Anonymous summary demographic information about our visitors such as gender, age range, and areas of interest for adults over the age of 18. We do this by using Google Demographic and Interests reports. When you visit a website that has partnered with the Google Display Network, Google stores a number in your browser using a persistent cookie to remember your visits. This number uniquely identifies a web browser, not a specific person. Browsers may be associated with a demographic category, such as gender or age range, based on the sites that were visited. This demographic information is used to help us better understand our visitors’ interests and needs to more effectively develop content to serve you.

This information is only used to help us make our site more useful for you. With this data we learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use.

Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are retained temporarily as required for security and site management purposes only.

Information Collected for Tracking and Customization (Cookies)

A cookie is a small file that a Web site transfers to your computer to allow it to remember specific information about your session while you are connected. Your computer will only share the information in the cookie with the Web site that provided it, and no other Web site can request it. There are two types of cookies, session and persistent. Session cookies last only as long as your Web browser is open. Once you close your browser, the cookie disappears. Persistent cookies store information on your computer for longer periods of time.

NASA Web sites may use session cookies for technical purposes such as to enable better navigation through the site, or to allow you to customize your preferences for interacting with the site. A few NASA Web sites may also make use of persistent cookies to remember you between visits so, for example, you can save your customized preference settings for future visits. Each NASA site using persistent cookies identifies itself as doing so. If you do not wish to have session or persistent cookies stored on your machine, you can turn them off in your browser. However, this may affect the functioning of some NASA Web sites.

Providing Information to Third Parties

NASA may share information with private organizations as part of a service that provides NASA users with increased capabilities or functionality on the site. On www.nasa.gov, the “Share” function at the top of each page is provided by a third party, AddThis. This firm collects information on visitors who use this feature to share NASA content on their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds or other social media or social networking sites. As noted in their privacy policy AddThis uses this information for its own business purposes, including marketing the information to other parties.

AddThis does not collect information from users who do not use the feature.

Personal Information

If you choose to provide us with personal information, through such methods as completing a form or sending us an email, we will use that information to respond to your message and to help us get you the information or services you have requested.

Remember that email isn’t necessarily secure. You should never send sensitive or personal information like your Social Security number in an email. Use postal mail or secure Web sites instead.

Some of our Web sites ask visitors who request specific information to fill out a registration form. For example, vendors looking for marketing opportunities by visiting our NASA Acquisition Internet Service site may be asked to register to obtain email notices of business opportunities. Other information collected at Web sites through questionnaires, feedback forms, or other means, enables us to determine visitors’ interests, with the goal of providing better service to our customers.

Interaction with Children

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) governs information gathering online from or about children under the age of 13. Verifiable consent from a child’s parent or guardian is required before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from a child under the age of 13.The website your child is accessing seeks to collect information and is therefore subject to the requirements of COPPA. Please note that NASA does not collect more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in this website’s related activity.

We collect no information about you or your child, other than that detailed in the previous section, when you visit our web site unless you choose to provide information to us. When a NASA Web site needs to collect information about a child under 13 years old, COPPA required information and instructions will be provided by the specific Web page that collects information about the child. The Web page will specify exactly what the information will be used for, who will see it, and how long it will be kept.

During the submission of an entry into the competition information about the entry is collected that includes; the students name, school, school location, and grade. Submissions are to only be made by the child’s parents or guardian who must provide consent at the time of submission.

Information maintained within Privacy Act Systems of Records

NASA collects and maintains some records on individuals that are protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 and from which the records are retrieved by individual’s name/personal identifier. Such information is included in NASA Privacy Act Systems of Records which are published through notices in the Federal Register. Individuals may request records held by NASA on them in NASA’s Systems of Records by following the instructions in 14 CFR 1212.201.”

Web Site Security Notice

For site security purposes and to ensure that this Web service remains available to all users, this Government computer system employs software programs that monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information,. 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 NASA servers are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, including under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.

Accessibility Statement

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is committed to making all of our Agency programs and services, including electronic and information technology, accessible to everyone. To ensure that we meet or exceed the requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the 1998 Amendment to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, we continually review our programs and services, including electronic and information technology, in order to remove accessibility problems for people with disabilities.

If you have a problem accessing any NASA program or if you have questions about our accessibility policy, please contact our hotline at 866-654-1440 or by email at AssistedProgramComplaint@nasa.gov.

NASA’s commitment to accessibility includes making its web content accessible. Here’s more on website accessibility.

Linking Policy and Disclaimer of Endorsement

NASA links to many Web sites created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. NASA provides links to these sites as a service to our users. The presence of a link is not a NASA endorsement of the site.

When users follow a link to an outside Web site, they are leaving NASA and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the owners/sponsors of the outside Web site(s). NASA is not responsible for the information collection practices of non-NASA sites.

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