Thank you for visiting NASA's Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) website and reviewing our privacy policy.  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 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; and
4. The pages you visit.

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 use.  We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits.

If You Send Us Personal Information

If you choose to provide us with personal information -- as in registering a data set or URL, sending the GCMD staff an E-mail, or filling out and submitting a form on the GCMD web site with your personal information -- we use that information to either respond to your message or associate your name with a data set description.  In the case of E-mail or questions/comments directed toward the GCMD staff, your personal information will be used only to respond to your message and to track how the GCMD handled the response.  In the case of providing your personal information with respect to a data set description (as author, investigator, provider, etc...), your personal information will only be used to identify you as a person associated with that data set description and serve no other purpose.

Moreover, we do not create individual profiles with the information you provide nor do we give it to any private organizations. The GCMD does not collect information for commercial marketing.

Links to Other Sites

Thank you for visiting this NASA website. NASA may provide links to web pages that are not part of the NASA web family, or nasa.gov domain. These sites are managed by organizations, companies, or individuals not under NASA control, and NASA is not responsible for the information or links you may find there. NASA provides these links merely as a convenience and the presence of these links is not NASA endorsement of the site. Our website has Web links to the sites of many other organizations and federal agencies.  Once you link to another site outside the GCMD, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site. 

Young Visitors

We at the GCMD are especially concerned about protecting children's privacy. While we develop and encourage interactivity in learning, we strive to ensure the online safety and privacy of our users. GCMD is committed to complying fully with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). Notice of our information practices are explained throughout this section as required by the Federal Trade Commission's Children's Online Privacy Protection Regulations, located at 16 CFR 312.
Information Collected (16 CFR 312.4)

We hope parents and teachers are involved in children's Internet explorations. It is particularly important for parents to guide their children when children are asked to provide personal information on line. The GCMD Learning Center encourages children to E-mail their questions to scientists and the GCMD staff. We do not ask children for any personal information in their E-mail, though we recommend they at least type their name and E-mail address as part of their message so that we can respond personally to them. Providing this information is entirely optional. We specifically ask children to get their parents' permission before providing any information on line -- at our site or any other site-- and hope parents will always be involved in those decisions. GCMD will make a child's information available for review by the child's parent or guardian. Any parent or guardian wishing to review or have deleted personally identifiable information about their child should contact GCMD.

Most importantly, when children do provide information through the GCMD website, it is only used to enable us to respond to the writer, and not to create profiles of children. GCMD does not prohibit participation in any activity based on requiring more personal information than is necessary. GCMD does not disclose collected infromation to third parties except as specifically requested by the data owner or as required by federal law for purpose of legal investigation.


If you still have questions about your privacy on the GCMD web site:

Please E-mail your concerns to the GCMD User Services Office at gcmduso@gcmd.nasa.gov, or you may call (301) 867-2085.