Thank you for visiting the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG) website and for reviewing our Privacy Policy. We are committed to protecting your privacy and securing the personal information made available to us when you access our public-facing website. This Privacy Policy describes what information is made available to FHFA-OIG, what information we collect, how that information is used and shared, and how information is stored when you visit our website.
Our policy is clear:
- We collect no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about you unless you choose to provide that information to us.
- Any PII you provide will be maintained in accordance with federal privacy requirements.
- Non-PII information related to your visit to our websites may be automatically collected and temporarily stored.
Personally Identifiable Information
PII is information that is personal in nature and which can be used to identify you, either alone or with other personal information which is linked or linkable to you. For example, PII may include: your name, email, mailing and/or home address, phone numbers, or other information that identifies you personally. You are not required to provide any personal information to us to access information on our websites. However, you may voluntarily provide PII to us when you send us an e-mail message or a request for information, or when you complete a form.
To make your visit to our website seamless, we collect some technical, non-personal information when you visit. The section below explains how we handle and collect information when you visit www.fhfaoig.gov.
FHFA-OIG does not require you to register to visit our website. Submitting PII through our website is voluntary. By doing so, you are giving FHFA-OIG permission to share or disclose your PII pursuant to one or more applicable routine uses as established in FHFA-OIG’s System of Records Notice (SORN) under the Privacy Act. For example, information you voluntarily provide may be shared with contractors acting on FHFA-OIG’s behalf, with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency, with other agencies for a law enforcement purpose, to protect FHFA-OIG’s website from security threats, or when otherwise required by law.
We never create individual profiles or give or sell your PII to private organizations. FHFA-OIG also never collects information for commercial marketing purposes.
We employ physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to maintain the security, confidentiality, and integrity of PII. We handle all PII provided to us in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (5 U.S.C. § 552a), and FHFA-OIG’s implementing regulations at 12 CFR Part 1204. We may store PII in a records system designed to retrieve information about persons by a personal identifier (name, personal email address, home mailing address, personal or mobile phone number, etc.), so that we may contact you.
Email Communications
Our website allows you to make inquiries by sending us email messages. We will use the information you provide to respond to your inquiry. We will only send you general information by email. Please remember that email may not necessarily be secure against interception. Therefore, we suggest that you do not send sensitive PII (such as your Social Security number, bank account number, or charge card numbers) by email.
Electronic mail messages that meet the definition of records in the Federal Records Act (44 U.S.C. § 3101) are covered under the same disposition schedule as all other federal records. This means that emails you send us will be preserved and maintained for varying periods of time if those emails meet the definition of federal records. Electronic messages that are not records are deleted when no longer needed.
Information Collected and Stored Automatically
When you browse or search any website, certain information about your visit can be collected. Federal government agency websites are required to use the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Digital Analytics Program (DAP), which uses Google Analytics to collect some non-personal information from visitors to government websites. Neither FHFA-OIG nor the DAP or Google Analytics has access to the specifics of your particular site visits. The only information available to FHFA-OIG, DAP, and Google Analytics is data from all users collected anonymously and aggregated.
While FHFA-OIG collects no personal information about you unless you voluntarily choose to provide it to us, the following non-personal information is automatically collected and stored when you visit our website:
- The domain from which you access the Internet (for example, “xcompany.com” if you use a private Internet access account, or “yourschool.edu” if you connect from an education institutional);
- The internet protocol address, a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when using the Internet, collected solely for aggregate data analysis, not to identify you personally;
- The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
- The country and city from which you view our site;
- The date and time you access our site;
- The Universal Resource Locators, or addresses, of the pages you visit on our website;
- The content you download;
- The number of bytes, if any, sent by our server;
- The type of actions you perform, such as information requests, and the searches you run on our website; and
- The website (such as google.com or bing.com) or referral source (email notice or social media site) that connected you to our website.
We use the information collected by our website to help make the site more useful to visitors. For example, we may create summary statistics to assess what information is of most or least interest to the public. We also may use the aggregated data to share with our partners and contractors to help improve visitor experiences.
For more information about the Google Analytics used by the DAP, please review the following policies on Google’s website:
- Google’s main privacy policy
- Cookies & Google Analytics on Websites
- Opt out of Google Analytics Cookies
How FHFA-OIG Uses Cookies
When you visit any website, its server may generate a piece of text known as a “cookie” to place on your computer. Placing cookie text allows websites to “remember” visitors’ preferences, surfing patterns, and behavior while they are connected. Federal agencies are required to use GSA’s DAP, which uses “persistent” cookies to provide website usage statistics which are anonymous and aggregated. Data is automatically sent from a persistent cookie placed on the visitor’s computer to DAP, which uses Google Analytics to aggregate it.
A persistent cookie is a small text file that this website places on a visitor’s computer so that it can gather anonymous summary demographic information, and remember that visitor’s computer if the individual visits our site at a later time. We use persistent cookies for the sole purpose of improving visitor experience on our website. Neither FHFA-OIG nor GSA receives PII through these persistent cookies and we do not combine, match, or cross-reference the information collected by persistent cookies with any other information.
Most computers automatically accept persistent cookies, but instructions for how to disable cookies from being retained on computers can be found at: http://www.usa.gov/optout_instructions.shtml. Should you disable persistent cookies, you will continue to be able to access all information and resources on our website.
Visiting Other Websites
Our website contains links to other federal agencies and, from time to time, may contain links to international agencies, private organizations, and some commercial entities. These websites are not within our control and may not follow the same privacy, security, or accessibility policies. Once you link to another site, you are subject to the policies of that site. All federal websites, however, are subject to the same federal policy, security, and accessibility mandates.
Site Security
FHFA-OIG takes the security of PII very seriously. We take precautions to maintain the security, confidentiality, and integrity of the information we collect on this site. Such measures include controls that limit access to the information to the extent necessary to accomplish our mission. We also employ various security technologies to protect the information stored on our systems. We routinely test our security measures to ensure that they remain operational and effective.
Electronic communications with FHFA-OIG may be scanned by government-owned or contractor equipment to look for network traffic indicating known or suspected malicious cyber activity, including malicious content or communications. Unauthorized attempts to upload information, change information, or otherwise cause damage are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. § 1030).
Privacy Policy Contact Information
We welcome feedback. Should you have any questions regarding our Privacy Policy or the use of your PII, please contact us at privacy@fhfaoig.gov, or mail us at:
FHFA-OIG Privacy Office
Senior Privacy Official
400 7th Street, SW
3rd floor
Washington, D.C. 20219
FHFA-OIG’s privacy compliance materials are available for your review. Privacy Impact Assessments and SORNs are available here.
Last Updated 02/28/24