Automatically Collected Information

The Supreme Court is dedicated to protecting the privacy of its website visitors, as well as the security of its information systems. When visiting the Supreme Court website, system tools and resources may automatically collect and store specific technical information about the visit. This information does not recognize the identity of the visitor and is not used to track or record information specific to the individual, except when required by a law enforcement investigation. The information collected is used to provide statistical data for our website management teams who seek to determine: the information of the most/least importance to our visitors, the need for technical design enhancements, system performance issues, and specific problem areas. When accessing this website, the following anonymous technical information may be collected:

• Domain and Internet Protocol (IP) address,
• The type of browser and operating system used to access the site,
• The files visited and the time spent in each file, and,
• The time and date of the visit.

Voluntarily Provided Personal Information

The Supreme Court does not collect personal information about its visitors, unless the information is voluntarily submitted by the visitor (e.g. sending an email or submitting a form through the website). The Supreme Court will only use voluntarily submitted personal information for its intended purpose and in an effort to assist the visitor in providing the information or service requested. In general, the Supreme Court highly discourages visitors from submitting personally identifiable information (i.e. full name, address, social security number, etc.) however, visitors choosing to do so acknowledge that clicking the "submit" button on various forms and emails constitutes consent to use the information for the stated purpose. The Supreme Court does not give, sell, or transmit personal information to third parties.

With the exception of official law enforcement investigations stemming from unauthorized use of Supreme Court information systems, congruent with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996, no further attempts are made to identify individual users or their browsing habits.

Cookies

In an effort to enhance the web browsing experience and make sessions as seamless and efficient as possible, many websites employ "cookies". Cookies are essentially small bits of software placed on a web user's hard drive by the host server. Some cookies, known as "persistent cookies" are capable of storing and maintaining the personal information of visitors so they will be easily recognized by the host site whenever they return. The Supreme Court does not use "persistent cookies". The Supreme Court limits its use to "session cookies" which do not permanently collect any personally-identifying information from users or to track user activities beyond the web site. These cookies are temporarily stored in the visitor's computer memory and are normally deleted when the user leaves the site, exits their browser, or logs off the computer.