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NCSO
P.O. Box 2335
Hyattsville, MD 20784-2324

Toll Free Hotline, 9-5 ET M-F
1-800-285-NCSO (6276)
For TTY dial 711 for your state’s
Relay Service Provider or dial
extension 3 when connected.

Fax
1-301-576-5187

E-mail

Privacy, Security & Intrusion Detection

 

1.  Privacy Policy Summary

Thank you for visiting the National Center on Service Obligations (NCSO) website ("Website") presented by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and reviewing our privacy policy. Our policy is simple: No personal information is collected about you unless you are the recipient of grants awarded by the Personnel Development Program, an administrator of such a grant, or employ individuals who have received these grants. Other than as further described in this policy below, we will not sell, give, share, or transfer any personally identifying information to a third party.

2. Personal Information Collected From Users

Some of our web pages require users to submit personal information through the Service Obligation Tracking System (SOTS). In those cases, we will provide specific Rules of Behavior before you begin submitting any personal information, explaining how your information will be safeguarded. Regardless, we will collect personal information only as necessary to monitor Personnel Development Program grant recipients, and the information will be used only for that purpose or as required by law. We will allow you to customize your account by submitting your e-mail address, and your password will be chosen by you upon your first login and will remain encrypted and never visible to us.

If you include personally identifiable information (PII) in feedback provided to us through the use of the Website, e-mail or otherwise, we may use that information in responding to your request. In other limited circumstances, including requests from Congress or limited other parties, we may be required by law to disclose information that you submit.

To the greatest extent possible, ED and NCSO will avoid the use of PII and the use of Tier 3 -multi-session technologies with PII. If you want to know more about how we record non-personal information about your visit or how we use information that you voluntarily submit, read the rest of this policy.

3. Links to Other Sites

Our policy discloses the privacy practices for NCSO (http://www.serviceobligations.ed.gov). The NCSO Website provides links to other ED websites. These sites may send their own cookies to users, collect data or solicit personal information. The privacy policies and procedures described here for NCSO (http://www.serviceobligations.ed.gov) do not apply to any external links. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any site you link to from ours, before you share any personal information with them. Please be informed and note that you are the person best qualified to protect your own privacy.

4. Security and Intrusion Detection

For security purposes and to make sure this service remains available to all users, we use special software programs for monitoring network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise to cause damage to this government data system. These programs do not collect information that would directly identify individuals, but they do collect information that could help us identify someone attempting to tamper with this Website.

When using this system, you should understand that all activities may be monitored and recorded. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring. WARNING -- If such monitoring reveals possible evidence of criminal activity, monitoring records may be provided to law enforcement officials.

Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, we make no other attempts to identify individual users or their usage habits. We only use raw monitoring data logs for determining trends in usage patterns and in diagnosing system problems. If you have any questions or comments about the information presented here or want to report a breach of system security, please contact the NCSO Helpdesk. The contact information is provided below.

5.  Acceptance of NCSO Privacy Policy

By using this Website, you agree to the terms and conditions within this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions, please do not use the Website.

Changes to this policy:  The NCSO privacy policy will be revised or updated if our practices change or if we develop better ways to keep you informed. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of this policy at any time.  Your continued use of NCSO (http://www.serviceobligations.ed.gov) following the posting of any changes to these terms indicates your acceptance of those changes.  You should refer to this page often for the latest information and the effective date of any changes.  If changes are made to this policy, a new policy will be posted on our site and the date at the bottom of the page will be updated. Changes to the policy will not apply retroactively.

6. Questions?

If you have questions about this policy, please contact: