Internet Engineering Task Force Privacy Statement


The Internet Engineering Task Force's Commitment to Privacy

In keeping with the goals and objectives of the organization, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal information of our participants and of visitors to our site.


What Information do we collect?

As is standard practice for most web sites, some information is automatically collected as you use the site. Certain visitor characteristics are reflected in our web server logs (such as, operating system, browser version, and Internet Protocol (IP) address). We do not take affirmative steps to link them with the individual visitors to the site, except as may be required to diagnose performance issues or to investigate misuse of the site or other unlawful or inappropriate activities.


When visiting the site, you may be given the opportunity to provide certain personally identifiable information for purposes such as participating in discussion groups, submitting inquiries and comments, or registering for meetings. This information may include name, postal address, email address, and other pertinent data.


By providing us with your personal data, you are consenting to our use of it in accordance with this Privacy Statement and for the purposes for which it was submitted. You also consent to our using the information to communicate with you further about your interaction with the site, programs, and services, hat IETF may offer to you, and your relationship with IETF.


Due to the nature of the, your communications are likely to result in the transfer of information across international boundaries. By visiting this web site you consent to these transfers and to the use of your information as described in this Statement. If you provide personal data through this site, you acknowledge and agree that such personal data may be transferred from your current location to the offices and servers of the IETF and its affiliates, agents, and service providers located in the United States and in other countries.


What we do with the Information

We periodically analyze our web site logs to assess aggregate usage trends in order to better serve the needs of visitors to the site. Under some circumstances this information may be used for purposes of systems administration or server troubleshooting and security. Some logs may never be deleted.


We do not sell, rent, or share any personally identifiable information supplied by visitors to the web site or subscribers to our community mailing list(s) with unaffiliated third parties. Other email addresses, phone numbers, and contact information submitted by visitors in the course of inquiries and comments are used for purposes of taking action in

relation to the nature of the inquiry or comment and will not be disclosed unless disclosure is required by law.


Credit card information is not collected or stored on the IETF's servers. When you conduct transactions through the site, payment and payment card information for IETF meetings and other transactions is entered directly into a third party processor’s systems and is not transmitted through or stored by the IETF site. The card processor returns to the IETF an authorization code, transaction identifier, and last four digits of the credit card number, which are securely stored with the payment record on the IETF servers.


Certain information will be accessible to the public

Certain submissions to the IETF, including, but not limited to, Internet Drafts, Mailing List postings, Intellectual Property Rights disclosures, and Liaison statements, will be available to the public via various IETF websites. These submissions may include personally identifiable information. All IETF Contributions are subject to the rules of BCP 78 and BCP 79, which are available at rfc-editor.org and incorporated into this policy by reference.


Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

When you interact with the site, we strive to make your experience easy and meaningful. We may use cookies and other means to track user activity and collect site data. We may combine these data with the personal information we have collected.


Cookies. When you come to the site, our web server sends a cookie to your computer. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser for record-keeping purposes. There are two types of cookies: session-based and persistent-based cookies. In addition, we may permit certain third party cookies to be placed on our Site.

collected about you. However, we do not have access to or control over these third party cookies nor does this Policy cover such third parties’ use of data.

Disabling Cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer you can edit your browser options to block them in the future and you may be able to use other “Do Not Track” browser settings. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, how to disable cookies altogether, or how to alter the browser’s setting to disable user tracking. Site visitors who disable their web browser’s ability to accept cookies or alter user tracking will be able to browse the site; however, some site features, may not function if you disable cookies.


Currently, various browsers – including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari – offer a “do not track” or “DNT” option that relies on a technology known as a DNT header, which sends a signal to websites visited by the user about the user’s browser DNT preference setting. IETF does not currently commit to responding to browsers’ DNT signals with respect to the site, in part, because no common industry standard for DNT has been adopted by industry groups, technology companies or regulators, including no consistent standard of interpreting user intent.


Participant Database

IETF participants may receive periodic email from us with information about the IETF, upcoming events, or issues related to the Internet. We offer specific opt-in and opt-out options so if you do not wish to receive such mailings, please inform the IETF by email, phone, or postal mail directed to the contact information provided at: http://www.ietf.org/secretariat.html


Security

We want the information that you submit to us to be secure. We have implemented commercially reasonable precautions to protect this site and the information you provide through it from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Our databases, including the participant database, and system administration logs, are restricted to authorized users only. Our site supports use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption technology to encrypt your personally identifiable information prior to transmission over the Internet.

Please be aware that despite our best efforts, no data security measures can guarantee security all of the time. It is possible that the security of your information may be compromised for reasons beyond our control to prevent or foresee, and you should consider the fact that no electronic communication can be guaranteed to be secure in communicating with us.


Links

This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that the IETF cannot be responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of those sites that collect personally identifiable information. This privacy statement pertains only to this Web site.

Discussion Groups

Any posting by you in any of the IETF discussion groups, discussion threads, chat areas, or similar interactive areas of this Web site may be attributed to you and displayed, republished, and otherwise disseminated by the IETF.


Children

This site is not intended for use by children under 13 years old. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from, or target our site to, children under the age of 13. In accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, if we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personally identifiable information, we will remove it from our systems immediately.


Compliance

If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy or feel that IETF is not following this policy, please contact the IETF at: http://www.ietf.org/secretariat.html. You may also contact us if you have any concerns about the accuracy of, or wish to correct, personally identifiable information we have collected from you. We reserve the right to decline any request to remove accurate information from the IETF web site and public records except to the extent that we are legally required to remove such information.


Consent and Changes to this Policy

Subject to the above provisions, by using our site, you consent to the collection and use of information by us in accordance with this policy. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page. Any changes to this privacy statement will also be announced on the IETF home page.