Privacy Notice

Regulations.gov is a web-based application supporting the United States Government in the federal regulatory process. Regulations.gov is a public service that provides access to and participation in the federal regulatory process. On this site you can:

• Search for a regulation such as a proposed rule, final rule, or Federal Register (FR) notice;
• Submit a comment on a regulation;
• Submit an application, petition, or adjudication document;
• View docket contents, including public comments and submissions;
• Subscribe for email notifications about a specific regulation.

Sharing and Disclosure

Comments may be submitted through this website, or by any method identified in the specific Federal Register document, and posted on Regulations.gov. Each department or agency manages its own data within the website, according to the agency-specific comment review and posting policy. The material you submit to a federal department or agency through Regulations.gov may be seen by various people. Any personally identifiable information (e.g., name, address, phone number) included in the comment form or in an attachment will be provided to the department or agency to which your comment is directed and may be publicly disclosed in a docket or on the Internet (via Regulations.gov, a federal agency website, or a third-party, non-government website with access to publicly-disclosed data on Regulations.gov).

Regulations.gov offers its public data in machine-readable format via an Application Programming Interface (“API”), including comment submitter information (e.g., commenter name or address) if it is included in the comment submission posted by the agency on Regulations.gov. Third-party organizations may use an API to build related applications for the web, desktops, and mobile devices.

Retention of Information

Electronically submitted information is maintained and destroyed according to the principles of the Federal Records Act and the agency records schedules approved by the National Archives and Records Administration. In some cases information submitted through Regulations.gov may become an agency record and therefore might be subject to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Please note that API users are required to comply with the Regulations.gov Terms of Service; however, we have no control over data retention by third-party users who have stored the data.

Site Security

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs applications that monitor access 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 laws.

Information Automatically Captured

The Regulations.gov website does not automatically collect personal information about you, unless you choose to provide it (e.g., on the comment submission web form). Regulations.gov may send anonymous statistics to third party sites to help analyze the use patterns of the site. This information is aggregated into reports that allow us to learn how visitors interact with the site so we can work to enhance system features.

Regulations.gov collects the following: domain name and Internet Protocol addresses from which you are visiting; type of browser and operating system used to access the website; and the time and date of each page visit on the website. This website uses this information to create summary statistics, which are then used to assess what information is of least interest, determine technical design specifications, and identify system performance or problem areas.

Like many websites, Regulations.gov uses “persistent cookie” technology to follow site usage activity, but only aggregate information is captured. These cookies uniquely identify a browser on a computer, but never a person. In other words, if the same person uses Chrome and Internet Explorer, two unique browser cookies will be assigned, one for each browser, so that person will be counted as two different visitors because visits are based on browsers, not computers or persons. We use persistent cookies in order to understand how people are using the site and how we can make it better.

If you prefer to opt out of having the cookie installed on your machine or device, adjust your internet browser’s cookie settings. If you use multiple browsers on your machine or device, you will need to complete this process for each browser used. Please visit www.usa.gov/optout_instructions.shtml for instructions for common browsers.

Handling Email

We use email addresses that you provide (e.g., signing up for notifications, filling out the Comment Form, or filling out the “Contact Us” webform) only to respond to your request. Such application information is carefully protected and not available or retained by web tracking software. We may forward your email to a government employee who can best answer your questions. We do not disclose, give, sell, or transfer any personal information about our visitors, unless required by law enforcement or statute.

If you identify yourself as Anonymous on the Comment Form, the Email Address field will not display.

Social Media Sites

While Regulations.gov maintains a presence on social media sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) in order to share government information and engage with the public, we do not collect any Personally Identifiable Information through those sites. We also do not use personal information made available by the user to these third-party sites.