Information Automatically Collected and Stored

For site management and statistical purposes, we collect information through standard Web logs. These Web logs contain the domain name or IP address from which you connect to our site, the date and time you access the site, search terms, and the pages visited.  We make periodic checks of the types of browsers/operating systems used and of the pages from which you direct-link to our site. We regularly delete raw data logs from the system.  We create summary statistics  from the Web logs in order to measure the number of visitors to the various sections of our site and to help make the site more useful.

Cookie Disclaimer -  A "cookie" is information stored on your computer by a Web server and used to customize your web service in some way.  PubMed, and the other Entrez databases at NCBI, use cookies to store information about your interactions that may be needed later to perform a function. Cookies allow the Entrez search and retrieval system to provide more interactive features such as Preview, Clipboard, and History. Cookies placed by Entrez will be deleted from your computer after one hour of inactivity on the Entrez system.

You can choose not to accept cookies and still use the Entrez databases.  However, you will be unable to use the cookie-dependent features.  Refer to the help information in your browser software for instructions on how to disable cookies.

Personally Provided Information

You do not have to give us personal information to visit our web sites.

If you choose to provide us with additional information about yourself through an e-mail message, form, survey, etc., we will only maintain the information as long as needed to respond to your question or to fulfill the stated purpose of the communication.

Disclosure

Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempt is made to identify individual users or usage patterns. We do not give, share, sell or transfer any personal information to a third party.

Intrusion Detection

This site is maintained by the U.S. Government. It is protected by various provisions of Title 18, U.S. Code. Violations of Title 18 are subject to criminal prosecution in federal court.

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, we employ software programs to monitor traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. In the event of authorized law enforcement investigations, and pursuant to any required legal process, information from these sources may be used to help identify an individual.