Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Web Site Privacy Policy

This is the Privacy Policy for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Web Site. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy provides information about the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's collection and use of Personally Identifiable Information about its users obtained by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago via this Web site only. "Personally Identifiable Information" is specific information about users that enables us to identify you, such as your name, e-mail address and/or home address.

Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information by Users

In general, you may visit this Web site without providing any Personally Identifiable Information about yourself, except as otherwise stated, unless you choose to provide such Information. For example, you are not required, but you may choose to provide us with Personally Identifiable Information if you send us questions through e-mail, answer our user surveys, register for an event or participate in our on-line activities. Personally Identifiable Information provided voluntarily through this Web site may be used to help us tailor our Web site, publications and services to our users' needs.

This Web site uses "cookies" for limited purposes. "Cookies" are a common technique used to track a specific identifiable user's activity on-line. For example, Cookies are currently used on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's survey login page to track a user's login information for security purposes. In addition, sometimes third-party contractors will use cookies on sites they manage and operate for us. For example, the "Search for Job Opportunities" web site, linkted to on our Career Opportunities page, is operated by a third-party contractor who uses cookies. Since that web site is not operated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, this Privacy Policy does not apply to the collection of Personally Identifiable Information or any other information from that site.

This Web site collects statistical information about users in aggregate by performing analyses on the Web server's log. We use this statistical information to determine, among other things:

Our site's most popular pages;
The browsers and operating systems most often used by our visitors;
The sites and search engines that have referred visitors to our site; and
The domains from which our users visit us.

This analysis does not involve Personally Identifiable Information. It is used only for the purpose of helping us understand and better meet our audience's needs.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago monitors this Web site for unauthorized attempts to upload or change information to defeat or circumvent security measures or utilize this site for other than its intended purposes. By using this Web site, you expressly consent to such monitoring.

Limitation on Use of Personally Identifiable Information

Generally, Personally Identifiable Information collected via this Web site is for use by Federal Reserve Banks only. No Personally Identifiable Information about visitors to this Web site is sold to third parties. However, Personally Identifiable Information about you or your company may be released to third parties, shared and/or utilized to protect against or investigate fraud, if required by law and/or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against claims.

Additionally, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago may provide Personally Identifiable Information about you to other Federal Reserve Banks, outside agents or third parties under contract with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. This Personally Identifiable Information is only being provided to and is only used by those parties in conjunction with the services those parties provide to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

How We Maintain Personally Identifiable Information

The safeguarding of Personally Identifiable Information is important to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. While we do endeavor to maintain the security of Personally Identifiable Information while it is in our possession, we cannot guarantee such security. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is in no way responsible for the security of Personally Identifiable Information or any other information provided by you while it is being communicated to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago via this Web site, through e-mail or otherwise. Nor is the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago responsible for what a third party does with any information provided by you.

Children's On-Line Privacy Information

This Web site is not direct to children under the age of 13, nor does the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago knowingly collect, maintain or use Personally Identifiable Information obtained via this Web site about children under the age of 13. If a child whom we know to be under the age of 13 sends Personally Identifiable Information to us on-line, we will only use that Personally Identifiable Information to respond directly to the child, notify parents or seek parental consent. Minor children should always obtain parental consent before releasing information to this or any Web site.

We reserve the right to change this policy at any time without notice. Questions or comments about the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Privacy Policy may be directed to our Web site administrators at information.chi@chi.frb.org.