Website policies
This page explains website policies, procedures, and required links for our websites.
Linking policy
Our site contains links to information created and maintained by other public or private organizations. We provide these links solely for your information and convenience. If you select a link to an outside website, you’re leaving the GSA.gov website and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the external website.
Evaluation criteria
We evaluate all links to external websites using the following criteria:
- Is the website’s content relevant, useful and authoritative?
- Does the website’s information appear to be accurate and current?
- Does the website complement existing information, products and services?
- Is the website accessible and applicable to a complementary audience?
- Is the primary intent of the website to educate and inform, rather than persuade, convert, or sell? The site may include advertising but must be free from heavy marketing or promotion of products.
- Is the website an official government-owned or supported website? If not, does the website provide government information and/or services in a way that is not available on an official government website?
- Does the website provide information free of charge?
- Is the website content consistent with sound public policy? Does it support the mission of GSA and its programs?
Links to other websites
This website links to publicly available websites that are government-owned or government sponsored, including domains ending in .gov, .mil and .us. We may also link to quasi-government agencies and websites created by public/private partnerships; state and local government sites (e.g., maryland.gov for the State of Maryland); and government-sponsored websites that end in .com, .org, or .net (e.g., usps.com for the U.S. Postal Service).
This website may link to non-government websites, if they provide relevant information that’s not available on an official government website. We provide these links as a public service only; the U.S. government, including GSA, neither endorses nor guarantees in any way the external organizations, services, advice, or products included in these website links. Furthermore, the U.S. government neither controls nor guarantees the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of the information contained in non-government website links.
Other government and non-government links with the “external link” icon 
indicate that you are leaving GSA.gov when you click the link.
Disclaimer of endorsement
The GSA.gov website includes hypertext links, or pointers, to information created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. We provide these links and pointers only for your information and convenience. When you select a link to an outside website, you are leaving the GSA.gov site and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the owners/sponsors of the outside website.
- We do not control nor guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of information contained on a linked website.
- We do not endorse the organizations sponsoring linked websites and we do not endorse the views they express or the products/services they offer.
- The content of external, non-Federal websites is not subject to Federal information quality, privacy, security, and related guidelines.
- We cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked websites. Users must request such authorization from the sponsor of the linked website.
- We are not responsible for transmissions users receive from linked websites.
- We do not guarantee that outside websites comply with Section 508 (accessibility requirements) of the Rehabilitation Act.
Prohibitions
We will not link to any website that exhibits hate, bias, or discrimination. Furthermore, we reserve the right to deny or remove any link that contains misleading information or unsubstantiated claims, or is determined to be in conflict with our mission or policies.
Privacy and security
We will collect no personal information about you other than statistical information that can be used to make the site more effective.
Information we gather
We use Google Analytics to collect and store information about your visit to our site. This information includes
- Environmental information such as the location of your IP address, the language you are browsing in, and the technical specifications of the device and browser you are using
- Behavioral information such as the date and time of your visit, the pages you visit, links you clicked on the site, and the name of the domain from which you access the Internet (i.e., DHS.gov if you are connecting from a DHS account, or GMU.edu if you are connecting from George Mason University’s domain)
- Acquisition information such as the Internet address of the website you came from if it linked you directly to GSA.gov and search terms that you enter into the GSA.gov search tool
If your browser accepts cookies, we may use a session cookie to learn how many different visitors come to GSA.gov. We use this information for statistical purposes and to help us make our site more useful. We do not collect personally identifiable information nor do we sell this data to anyone.
Learn more about how Google Analytics safeguards data.
Cookies, beacons and GSA.gov
Use of cookies on GSA.gov: We create a session cookie when you visit GSA.gov and destroys it as soon as you close your browser. Google Analytics as configured on GSA.gov also uses first-party (persistent) cookies to:
- Distinguish unique users (last for up to 2 years if you never clear your cookies)
- Throttle the request rate (last for up to 1 minute)
If you don’t want to accept cookies, you can edit your browser’s options to stop accepting persistent cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. Here’s how you can disable cookies and/or Google Demographic and Interests reports.
Although using persistent cookies allows us to deliver a better experience for you, this site will also work without them.
Use of beacons on GSA.gov: Certain GSA sites, including gsa.gov, also include a beacon, which is a transparent or invisible pixel that helps GSA understand the user experience. The beacon only collects information about your visit to our site as described in the information we gather section.
For more information on privacy and security, see our Privacy and Security Policy.
Information you send us
When you send us personal information (e.g., in an electronic mail message containing a question or comment) or by filling out a form that email us this information, we only use this information to respond to your request. Such application information is carefully protected by the agency and not available in or retained by web tracking software. We may forward your email to the government employee who can best answer your questions. We do not disclose, give, sell, or transfer any personal information about our visitors, unless required for law enforcement or statute.
We want to make it clear that we will not obtain personally identifying information about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide that information to us. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, or as otherwise required by law, we do not share any information we receive with anyone else.
Reuse and copyright
Most material on our site is free of copyright and may be copied and distributed without permission. Works produced by federal government employees in the course of their employment are generally not protected by copyright and are in the public domain in the U.S. Citation of the GSA site and a link back is much appreciated.
We sometimes use photos or graphics that we licensed or that are restricted. Check to see if there is a copyright or photo credit. You should determine for yourself whether or not an item is protected by copyright or in the public domain, and then satisfy any copyright or use restrictions when publishing or distributing materials from our website. You need to request permission from the original source to use those materials. Transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond what is allowed by fair use or other exemptions requires written permission from the copyright holder.
Security
For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, our web servers use industry-standard methods to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on GSA servers are strictly prohibited and may be punishable by law, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act. The Vulnerability Disclosure Policy describes what systems and types of research are covered under this policy, how to send vulnerability reports, and how long we ask security researchers to wait before publicly disclosing vulnerabilities.
Required links
Federal agencies are required to provide the following links/information on our websites.
Social media sites
Where we manage a presence on social media sites to share government information and engage with our audience, we do not collect any personally identifiable information through those sites. We do not use personal information made available by the third-party sites. If you submit a question or comment to us via a social media tool or platform, we may reply directly to you via that platform, but we don’t track or record any information about individuals who use or interact with us via those platforms.
See GSA privacy impact assessments.
U.S. General Services Administration