The Basics:

We are committed to the privacy of our visitors.  We collect no personal information about you when you visit our website unless you choose to provide that information to us.  Here is how we handle information about your visit to MESTA:  If you do nothing but browse through the website, read pages or download information, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically.  This information does not identify you personally.  We automatically collect and store information such as the following concerning you visit:

+ The internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect from a school domain);

+ Your IP (internet protocol) address (a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our website;

+ The type of browser and operating system used to access our website;

+ The date and time you access our website;

+ The pages you visit within our website;

+ If you linked to our website from another website, the address of that website.

We use this information to help us make the MESTA website more useful to visitors, to learn about the number of visitors to our website, and the types of technology our visitors use.

Information Protection:

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this Wild Apricot system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.  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 this server are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act or other law.

Information the you voluntarily provide:

We do not collect personally-identifiable information unless you choose to provide it to us.  If you provide us with personally identifiable information (e.g., by sending an e-mail, filling out a form and submitting it through our website or membership form), we use that information only to respond to your message and to help us provide you with the information and services that you request.  Submitting voluntary information constitutes your consent to the use of the information for the stated purpose.  When users click the "Submit" button on any of the Web forms found on our site, they are indicating voluntary consent to use of the information they submit for the stated purpose.  We do not collect or use information for commercial marketing.

How information is used:

The information we collect is used for a variety of purposes (e.g., comments on proposed rules; license applications; to respond to requests for information about our regulations and policies; and to fill orders). We make every effort to disclose clearly how information is used at the point where it is collected, so that our users can determine for themselves whether they wish to provide the information.

Sharing of your information:

All information you have provided will only be used by MESTA internally and will not be shared with other organizations, unless approved by you.

Retaining Information:

We destroy the information we collect when the purpose for which it was provided has been fulfilled — unless we are required to keep it longer by statute or official policy. Electronically submitted information is maintained and destroyed according to the principles of the Federal Records Act and the regulations and records schedules approved by the National Archives and Records Administration.  In some cases information submitted to us may become an agency record and, therefore, might be subject to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Links to other websites:

This website may have links to the websites of other federal agencies.  There may be links to private organizations provided with their permission.  Once you go to a website other than ours, you are subject to the privacy and security policies of the new website.  It is always a good idea to read the privacy policy of any website that you visit.  MESTA does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of information contained in a linked website.  We also do not endorse the organizations or individuals maintaining websites that we link to, any views they express or any products/services they offer.

Cookies:

"Cookies" are small bits of text that are either used for the duration of a session (session cookies) or saved on a user's hard drive in order to identify that user or information about that user the next time she/he logs onto a website (persistent cookies).  This website does not use persistent cookies or any other persistent tracking technology.  One or more of our component websites may use session cookies to provide streamlined navigation.  These session cookies are deleted from the component's server after your session ends, and information from them is not collected or saved.

Interaction with children:

This website may offer educational content to children under 13 years old. No personally identifiable information is collected from them unless it is voluntarily submitted as a request for information or services. The information collected is used to respond to user inquiries or to provide services requested by our users.

Third party social media tools:

MESTA maintains official pages or accounts on several third-party websites in order to better engage with the American public and promote awareness of our activities, events, news and information.

Your activity on these third-party websites is governed by the security and privacy policies of the third-party websites. Users of third-party websites are often sharing information with the general public, user community and/or the third-party operating the third-party website. You should review the privacy policies of third-party websites before using them to ensure that you understand how your information may be used.  You should also adjust privacy settings on your account on any third-party website to match your preferences.  These websites include, but are not limited to: Facebook and YouTube.