Thank you for
visiting my web site. Protecting the personal privacy
of individuals who use the Internet is a priority of mine,
and I appreciate the opportunity to describe to you the
policies I have put in place to safeguard the privacy
of individuals who visit my Web site. If you have questions
or concerns about my Internet privacy policy, or any other
issues involving the Internet, I want to hear about them
and hope you will contact me, by electronic mail, telephone,
or mail, to let me know your opinions.
My basic Internet privacy policy is simple: my web site
collects no personal information about you when you visit
the site unless you choose to provide that information
to me during your visit so that I can contact you about
an issue you have raised or help you with a problem. Let
me describe more specifically the type of information
that may be gathered when you visit my web site and how
that information is handled.
Information Collected and Stored
Automatically
The U.S. Senate collects aggregate data about visits
to Senate web sites, such as statistics that show which
parts of each web site were visited the most. The following
information is also collected when you visit any U.S.
Senate web site: the domain from which you access the
Senate web site, the date and time of your visit, the
pages you visit, and the address of the web site, if
any, that provided the link from which you reached the
Senate site. This information is gathered only for the
purpose of enabling us to improve the online service
we provide to visitors to Senate web sites.
No individual identifying or personal information (such
as your name) is automatically gathered when you visit
any Senate web site. My web site does not use 'cookies'
or other means to track your visit to my site in any
way. To learn more about the Senate's Internet security
and privacy policy online, please go to this address:
http://www.senate.gov/security.html.
If You Send Us Personal Information
My web site is set up not to collect any personal information
about you when you visit the site unless you choose
to provide that information to us. My web site has an
online web form that you can use to contact me by sending
me an electronic mail message expressing your views
or concerns or asking for assistance with a particular
problem involving a federal agency. To send me e-mail,
the online web form asks you for your name, address,
e-mail address, and, if you wish, your home or work
telephone numbers. I use this information provided by
you to contact you about the matter you expressed your
views about and to provide any casework assistance I
can regarding problems you may be experiencing in dealing
with a government agency. This information will be available
to members of my staff so they can help me in responding
to your message or request. If we have any incorrect
information about you, such as a wrong address or misspelled
name, please contact my office to correct the error.
If you are requesting help with a casework matter, it
also may be necessary for my office to share the information
you provide with the government agency from which you
are requesting assistance, in order to respond to your
request. Other than when needed to perform constituent
casework at your request, or in the course of an authorized
law enforcement investigation or emergency posing an
imminent risk to public safety, my office will share
no personal information communicated through my web
site with any outside organization or individual.
My office tabulates comments received through my web
site concerning legislation and government policy issues
so that I will be fully informed about the views of
constituents. From time to time, I come across a comment
made by a constituent, or a situation described by a
constituent, in an e-mail message (as well as postal
mail, phone calls, and faxes) that I feel makes a point
of such general interest that I would like to refer
to it in a speech, or include it in the Congressional
Record, or make some other use of it, either in connection
with debate in the Senate or by sharing it with the
relevant government agency. My staff makes every effort
in such cases to contact the author first. If you intend
your message to be confidential, and would prefer that
it not be used in such a way, please feel free to advise
me of your preference in the message, so I can be sure
to respect your wishes and see that your views are held
entirely within my office.
Links to Other Sites
My web site has links to other useful sites on the Internet,
including sites of other government agencies and sites
relating to Massachusetts. 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 you will need to refer to that site's own privacy
policy.