Privacy Policy
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, and e-mail address.
I use this information to contact you about the matter on which you expressed
your views and to provide casework assistance 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 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,
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 Vermont. 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. These links to non-Senate web sites are
marked with a red tag when you put your mouse cursor over them, for example the
Supreme Court.
Related Links:
