Privacy Statement

Thank you for visiting our web site. We protect your privacy while you visit us online.

Secure Ordering Online

Your online credit card transactions are secure within our ecommerce server solution. We use Secure Socket Layering (SSL), the industry-standard encryption technology (128-bit encryption) that ensures safe Internet transmission of your personal information. Typically, your browser will provide an indication that you are entering a secure area (e.g., an icon on the browser window; a popup message on your monitor or an "https" in the URL indicator on the browser). A credit card purchase on our Web site is as safe as it is by telephone, mail or in person. If you prefer to order by phone, you may purchase all merchandise you see online by calling 616-254-0400.

Personal Information

You do not have to provide any personal information to visit this web site. If you provide us information about yourself via e-mail or a web form, your information will be used only for the purposes described at the point of collection, such as to send information or products to you, to respond to your questions, comments or to maintain your account. If you provide contact information, our staff or its contractors may contact you to clarify your comment or question, or to learn about your level of customer satisfaction with our services.

• We do not sell any personal information to third parties.
• We may transfer personal information to a third party only in the following cases:
  • To a bank or United States Department of the Treasury account, which must receive payment for a transaction that you initiated;
  • To a company that is contracted to assist us with specific services, including electronic commerce or donations, and which agrees not to sell or use personal information for other purposes;
  • To legal authorities if we suspect that you are attempting to change or otherwise damage this web site, or you are using it in violation of Federal or local laws;
  • To the Foundation for the National Archives, a non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization that supports the programs and activities of the National Archives, when you use our online services to purchase a membership or make a donation; or
  • To Congress, a court, or a law enforcement agency in response to a subpoena.

The orders you place on this site are processed by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Store, a division within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The personal information you provide when you place an order with us will be used only to fulfill your order or to facilitate the preparation of internal statistical reports. The National Archives makes every effort to limit the number of people who have access to this personal information. The National Archives employees and authorized NATF contractors who handle credit card information must ensure that it is treated as cash and secured accordingly. Any National Archives official, employee, or contractor who willfully discloses such protected information may be subject to the sanctions included in the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a). They will retain your order information only as long as required by law and National Archives policy. If you have questions about the use of your information by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Store please write to us at, ATT: Musuem Store, 303 Pearl Street NW, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49504

E-mail Information

Please do not send us sensitive information, such as your credit card or social security numbers, via e-mail. It is possible that during transmission of your e-mail this information may be intercepted by a third party. We can not guarantee its safety while in transit.

We use return e-mail addresses to answer the e-mail we receive. We would share your e-mail with another federal government agency only if your inquiry related to that agency or if we were required to do so by law.

If you elect to subscribe to our mailing list in order to receive information regarding the Store and its products, we will only send this information to you using the e-mail address you provided. Your e-mail address will not be shared with others except as stated herein.

Cookies

"Cookies" are small bits of text that are either used for the duration of a session ("session cookies"), or saved on a user's hard drive in order to identify that user, or information about that user, the next time the user logs on to a web site ("persistent cookies").

• The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Store web site and its component sites do not use persistent cookies.
• One or more of the Agency's component sites may use session cookies to provide streamlined navigation throughout their sites and for statistical analysis. These session cookies are deleted from the component's server soon after your session ends and are not collected or saved. You can set up your Web browser to inform you when cookies are set or to prevent cookies from being set. You can still use our web site if you do not accept the cookies, but you may be unable to use certain cookie-dependent features.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

If you visit our site to read or download information, we collect and store the following information about your visit:

• The name of the Internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you are connecting from a university's domain) and the IP address (a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you are using the Internet) from which you access our site;
• The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
• The date and time you access our site;
• The Internet address of the web site from which you linked directly to our site; and
• The pages you visit and the information you request.

This information is primarily collected for statistical analysis and technical improvements to the site. The National Archives uses software programs to create summary statistics, which may be used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas. In certain circumstances, however, we may take additional steps to identify you based on this information and we may share this information, including your identity, with other government agencies if we are required to do so by law.

• Although questions, comments, and other communications that we receive generally are not retained as permanent records, please note that it is possible that any mail – electronic or paper – that we or any other Federal agency receive could become part of the permanent record of the agency, if the mail is part of materials that are scheduled for permanent retention.