FRED respects the privacy of all of our users and we take seriously our responsibility to protect all personal information that we collect. To that end, we collect only what we need to ensure good customer service, to support systems operation, and to facilitate summary reporting of data downloads and general user characteristics and data usage. Ultimately, we want satisfied users, because today’s users are tomorrow’s data contributors to FRED.
When you request to download data from FRED, you are asked to:
- Confirm that you have read and agree to the Data Use Guidelines;
- Provide your Name and a valid Email Address;
- Provide basic location information – your Institution or Affiliation, City, and Country; and
- Describe in your Data Usage Plan and a Primary Data Use.
The information you provide will be retained for the duration of the project and possibly longer within mandated archives of our research activities.
Your Email Address will be stored in our database, and:
- Your email address will only be used to notify you of important updates or problems (if any) with the data products you have downloaded.
- The domain name of your email address will be used in aggregate to summarize the number of data products downloaded, what types of users are downloading data, and their general locations. These summary statistics will not identify individual users;
- Individual email addresses will be identified in summary reports about FRED data downloads. These reports are only available to data system personnel and will not be made public.
Your Name and Location will be stored in our database, and:
- Your Name will only be available to data system personnel and will not be made public.
- Your Institution or Affiliation, City, Country and IP address will be used in aggregate to track the number of data products downloaded, what types of users are downloading data, and their general locations. These summary statistics will not identify individual users.
Your proposed Data Usage Plan and Primary Data Use information will be stored in our database, and:
- Your specific Data Usage Plan information will be used to assess the utility of FRED for multiple different types of projects, and to help steer future data collation. The details of your plan are only available to data system personnel and are not made public.
- Primary Data Use information will be used in aggregate to follow how users generally plan to use these data. These summary statistics will not identify individual users.
Questions or Comments
If you have any questions or comments about this policy, please don't hesitate to contact the FRED team.
ORNL’s Security & Privacy Notice
Additional information is available within ORNL’s Security & Privacy Notice.
Last Revised: November 9, 2020