Privacy Policy

Introduction

The NSDL in general subscribes to the ALA Library Bill of Rights.

In a library, the right to privacy is the right to open inquiry without having the subject of one\'s interest examined or scrutinized by others. A library maintains confidentiality when it keeps private personally identifiable information in its possession about users.

NSDL policies cover the NSDL Main Portal and those portals and services directly under the aegis of NSDL Library Services and Operations. Other portals and services may have their own policies, which may differ. Users are urged to be aware of the relevant policies on the portals and services they use.

Registration

When users register with NSDL, generally in order to have access to services using customization or personalization options, they are asked to supply a unique user name (not necessarily their full legal name), a password and an email address. The email address is used only for retrieval of lost passwords and for user account maintenance. Email addresses will not be redistributed to any third party except under court order. They are not available internally except where necessary, nor are they be used to track usage.

De-registration

A method for purging registration information is available to authenticated users. Registration data purged via the de-registration process will not be retained by the NSDL.

Personalization and customization

Personalization services allow users to maintain a persistent, customized view of the NSDL as they login, and to create content with the NSDL, either for their own purposes or to share. Users will be asked to decide how much of their personal information or content can be shared when such information may be relevant or useful to other users. Users should be aware that because search engines cache such information (and the NSDL Preservation Service does as well), any information once public cannot reliably be removed from the public internet.

Access to some information may be shared at user discretion. Internally, it will be available to limited staff for the purposes of quality control.

User created public content is potentially linkable by other users, and therefore will be maintained even if the creator is no longer a registered user. User created customization information will not be maintained if the user is no longer registered.