This site is published by The Center for Public Integrity, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization located at 910 17th NW, Washington, DC 20006. Contents of this site, including all site and section names, logos, other graphics, organized listings, presentation strategies, interface design and other design elements, are covered by trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual and trade property rights, held jointly or separately by The Center for Public Integrity. All rights are reserved. Contributing writers also may hold rights to some material.

Material on this site may not be copied, mirrored, cataloged, displayed simultaneously with another site in part or in whole, nor may any of its sub-programs be accessed from any page without the express written consent of the appropriate rights holder. Use of this site contractually obliges each user to these terms. News media may use portions of the content of this site and refer to its contents with appropriate credit given to The Public i, The Center for Public Integrity, The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its constituent rights holders.

Republication rights inquiries may be made to the Managing Editor of the Center for Public Integrity, Bill Allison.

Privacy Policy

The Center for Public Integrity is the sole owner of the information collected on this site.  We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement.  The Center for Public Integrity collects information from our users at several different points on our website.
 
Order
We request information from the user on our order form.  Here a user must provide contact information (like name and shipping address) and financial information (like credit card number, expiration date).  This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customer's orders.  If we have trouble processing an order, this contact information is used to get in touch with the user.

Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's hard drive containing information about the user.  Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site.  Once the user closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates.  For instance, by setting a cookie on our site, the user would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site.  If a user rejects the cookie, they may still use our site.  The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. 

Log Files
We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.  IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Sharing
 We use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, The Center for Public Integrity, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites.  We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information.  This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.

Newsletter
If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter, we ask for contact information such as name and email address.

Tell-A-Friend
If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend's name and email address.  The Center for Public Integrity will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. The Center for Public Integrity stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email.  The friend may contact The Center for Public Integrity at www.publicintegrity.org to request the removal of this information from the database.

Security
The Center for Public Integrity takes every precaution to protect our users' information.  When users submit sensitive information via the website, their information is protected both online and off-line. 

When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL.  While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when just 'surfing�. 

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line.  All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices.  Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information.  

If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an email to webmaster@publicintegrity.org.

 Special Offers
Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see our choice and opt-out below.

Choice/Opt-out
Our users are given the opportunity to �opt-out� of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site at the point where we ask for the information.  For example, our order form has an �opt-out� mechanism so users who buy a product from us, but don�t want any marketing material, can keep their email address off of our lists. 

Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter may opt-out of receiving these communications by sending an e-mail to majordomo@lists.publicintegrity.org, in the body of the message enter �unsubscribe public-i�; without the quotes.  Once the request has been processed an acknowledgment message will be sent.

Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our Homepage so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose it.  When we do, we will also revise the �last updated� date at the bottom of the privacy statement.

This document was last updated August 22, 2002