Integrated Taxonomic Information System - Privacy and Legal

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ITIS Copyright and Privacy Statement

Contents:

• Copyright
• Privacy
• Information Collected and Stored Automatically
• If You Send Us Personal Information
• Website Security
• Links to Other Sites
• Non-Endorsement of Commercial and Other ITIS Products and Services
• ITIS Public-Domain Software
• Content Accuracy, Completeness, and Usability of ITIS and ITIS Partner Data and Information
• Disclaimer
• Comments or Questions

Copyright

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This work (Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), by www.itis.gov), is free of known copyright restrictions. Information presented on the ITIS website is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of the appropriate citation is requested.

While ITIS produced data and information are in the public domain, some ITIS pages contain material that is copyrighted by others and used by ITIS with permission. You may need to obtain permission from the copyright owner for other uses. Furthermore, some ITIS data, products, and information linked, or referred to, from this site may be protected under U.S. and foreign copyright laws. You may need to obtain permission from the copyright owner to acquire, use, reproduce, or distribute these materials. It is the sole responsibility of you, the user of this site, to carefully examine the content of ITIS and all linked pages for copyright restrictions and to secure all necessary permissions.

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Privacy

Thank you for visiting the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) website and reviewing our privacy statement. Our privacy policy is clear: We will 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 our website:

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the website, read pages, or download information, we will gather and store in log files certain information about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you personally. We automatically collect and store only the following information about your visit:

1. The Internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect from a university's domain) and IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our website;
2. The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
   
3. The date and time you access our site;
4. The pages you visit and the number of characters sent to your computer;
5. If you linked to the ITIS website from another website, the address of that website; and
6. If you access certain portions of the ITIS website that require a password, that activity will also be recorded.

The logs are periodically summarized and analyzed in order to study site usage over time and to perform other studies to help us improve the site's organization, performance, and usefulness. We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors - to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors are using. We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits.

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If You Send Us Personal Information

If you choose to provide us with personal information, as in an e-mail to the ITIS Webmaster, ITIS Gatekeeper or someone else or by filling out a form with your personal information and submitting it to us through our website, we use that information to respond to your message and to help us locate for you the information you have requested. We do not collect personal information for any purpose other than to respond to you. We only share the information you give us with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency, or as otherwise required by law. Moreover, we do not create individual profiles with the information you provide or to give it to any private organizations. ITIS does not collect information for commercial marketing.

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Website Security

1. For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.
2. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations (for example, to investigate an attack by hackers), no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes.
3. Monthly extracts of the log files are archived and stored off-line at our discretion for an indefinite period of time. Some statistical summaries derived from these data may be retained online or off-line at our discretion for an indefinite period of time.
4. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.

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Links to Other Sites

Our website has links to many other governmental and private groups. Once you access another site through a link that we provide you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.

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Non-Endorsement of Commercial and Other ITIS Products and Services

Hypertext links and other references to non-ITIS products and services are provided for information only and do not constitute endorsement or warranty, express or implied, by ITIS or its partner groups, as to their suitability, content, usefulness, functioning, completeness, or accuracy.

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ITIS Public-Domain Software

Links are provided to public-domain software developed by or for ITIS. Although these programs have been used by the ITIS, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by ITIS as to the accuracy and functioning of the programs and related program material, nor shall the fact of distribution constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by ITIS or its partner groups in connection therewith.

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Content Accuracy, Completeness, and Usability of ITIS and ITIS Partner Data and Information

We make every effort to provide and maintain accurate, complete, usable, and timely information on our database and web pages compiled by ITIS and its partner groups. However, some ITIS data and information accessed through these pages may, of necessity, be preliminary in nature and subject to additional review. These data and information are provided with the understanding that they are not guaranteed to be correct or complete. Users are cautioned to consider carefully the provisional nature of these data and information before using them for decisions that concern personal or public safety or the conduct of business that involves substantial monetary or operational consequences. Conclusions drawn from, or actions undertaken on the basis of, such data and information are the sole responsibility of the user.

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Disclaimer

ITIS taxonomy is based on the latest scientific consensus available, and is provided as a general reference source for interested parties. However, it is not a legal authority for statutory or regulatory purposes. While every effort has been made to provide the most reliable and up-to-date information available, ultimate legal requirements with respect to species are contained in provisions of treaties to which the United States is a party, wildlife statutes, regulations, and any applicable notices that have been published in the Federal Register. For further information on U.S. legal requirements with respect to protected taxa, please contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Comments or Questions

If you have any comments or questions about the information presented here please forward them to:

itiswebmaster@itis.gov

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