Thank you for visiting the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission’s (“the Commission”) website and reviewing our privacy policy. Your privacy is of the utmost importance to the Commission. We will collect no personally identifiable information, (PII) about you, unless you choose to provide that information to us.
Here is How We Handle Your Information
When You Visit Our Website
Limited Information is Automatically Collected and Stored:
If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the website or our Electronic Case Management System (“eCMS”), read pages, or download information, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you personally. A goal of gathering such information is to gauge your browsing habits or web surfing history to improve the information presented to you. For example, if you search for how to request records in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) during a website visit, on a subsequent visit, you may automatically be provided with more information about FOIA procedures. We automatically collect and store only the following information about your visit:
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The Internet domain and IP address from which you access our website (for example, “PretendMining.com” if connecting from a private account or “yourschool.edu,” if you connect from a university’s domain).
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The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
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The date and time you accessed our site;
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The pages you visited; and
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If you linked to the Commission website from another website, the address of that website.
We use this information to help us make our site more useful, to learn about the number of visitors to our site, the types of technology our visitors are using to visit our website, and to present relevant information to the public based on website browsing requests.
We do not track your web activities beyond your browsing the Commission’s website or our eCMS case site. We do not cross reference your browsing habits with other entities, and we do not sell or give away your information to other entities.
Information You Provide Through Electronic Mail and Commission Web Forms:
If you do choose to provide personal information to any Commission office, staff, or official by use of or through email or by filling out a form posted to or embedded on our website, we use that information to respond to your message. We treat e-mails the same way that we handle paper-based correspondence sent to the Commission.
For example, if you submit a Privacy Act request in accordance with the instructions posted on the Commission’s website and submit it through email, or if you complete the FOIA request form on the Commission’s website, we will only use the information to process your request. We are required to maintain many documents under the Federal Records Act for historical purposes, but we do not collect personal information for any purpose other than to respond to you.
We only share the information you give us with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency or is otherwise required by law. Moreover, we do not create individual profiles with the information you provide, nor will the information you provide be shared with any private organizations. The Commission does not collect information for commercial marketing and will not sell your information to anyone.
Information collected through eCMS is gathered only in relation to specific cases that you may be a party to. The information is used to build an electronic case profile and to determine access credentials to certain cases currently maintained in eCMS. Generally, only parties to a case may gain access to an electronic case file. Non-parties must go through the FOIA or the Privacy Act to obtain information from an eCMS case file. Any information in a case file protected by a statutory exemption under FOIA or the Privacy Act, that could lead to a foreseeable harm if released, will not be disclosed.
For your own protection, we strongly recommend that you exercise extreme caution with the type of personal or sensitive information you provide and only provide what is necessary to enable the Commission staff to adequately address your inquiry or needs.
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA):
COPPA applies to the online collection of personal information from children under age 13. The Commission complies with COPPA and does not knowingly collect personal information from children or about children.
Use of Cookies:
When you visit some websites, their web servers generate pieces of information known as “cookies.” Cookies are small files that web servers place on a user's hard drive that helps a website or service. Some cookies collect personal information to recognize your computer in the future. There are two types of cookies:
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“Session cookies” (also known as transient or per session cookies) serve technical purposes, like providing seamless navigation through the Commission’s website. They are stored in temporary memory and are only available during an active browser session. Once you close your browser, the cookie disappears.
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“Persistent cookies” (also known as permanent or stored cookies) are used to collect identifying information about the user, such as username, web surfing behavior or user preference for a specific website. These cookies operate until they expire or until a user deletes them.
The Commission may use both types of cookies to improve our on-line services. You can disable “cookies” by adjusting the settings on your web browser.
Visits to Third-Party Websites from our Website:
Our website has links to several other federal agencies and some organizations. Please read the Privacy Statement of each website you visit. Once you access another site through a link that we provide, you are subject to the Privacy Statement of the other agency’s or organization’s site.
Website Security:
For site security purposes and to ensure that this website service remains available to all users, ,the Commission employs monitoring technology to identify unauthorized attempts to upload, change, or otherwise cause damage to Commission information or systems.
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Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this website are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.
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Raw data logs are scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) General Schedule 20 (PDF, 142KB).
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The Commission) Information systems may be protected by EINSTEIN cybersecurity capabilities, under the operational control of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). Electronic communications with the Commission may be scanned by government-owned or contractor equipment to look for network traffic indicating known or suspected malicious cyber activity, including malicious content or communications. Electronic communications within the Commission will be collected or retained by US-CERT only if they are associated with known or suspected cyber threats. US-CERT will use the information collected through EINSTEIN to analyze the known or suspected cyber threat and help OSHRC and other agencies respond and better protect their computers and networks.
For additional information about EINSTEIN capabilities, please see the EINSTEIN program-related Privacy Impact Assessments available on the DHS cybersecurity privacy website http://www.dhs.gov/files/publications/editorial_0514.shtm#4 along with other information about the federal government's cybersecurity activities.
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Information presented on or posted to the Commission website is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Any distribution should include the reference “Document produced from records of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.”
Privacy Impact Assessments:
A privacy impact assessment (PIA) is an analysis of how information is handled: (i) to ensure handling conforms to applicable legal, regulatory, and policy requirements regarding privacy, (ii) to determine the risks and effects of collecting, maintaining and disseminating information in identifiable form in an electronic information system, and (iii) to examine and evaluate protections and alternative processes for handling information to mitigate potential privacy risks.
The E-Government Act requires federal agencies to conduct PIAs for electronic information systems and collections and, in general, make the assessment results publicly available.
Click here to view Commission Privacy Impact Assessments
System of Records Notices:
A System of Records is a group of any records under the control of an agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifying number, symbol or other identifying particular assigned to the individual.
Click here to view FMSHRC System of Record Notices
Machine-Readable Privacy Policies, Platform Privacy Preferences (“P3P”):
The Commission complies with the privacy provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002, which requires agencies to have both a "human-readable" privacy policy and machine-readable technology that automatically alerts users about whether site privacy practices match their personal privacy preferences. P3P is the standard for machine-readable Privacy Policies.
Use of Social Media:
The Commission currently does not utilize the services of third-party social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, YouTube, or similar platforms, to communicate and interact with the public.
Privacy Act Requests
The Privacy Act permits an individual to gain access to records or any information pertaining to that individual which is contained in a system of records, subject to certain limitations and exemptions. Procedures for requesting access to Commission records under the Privacy Act can be found at 29 C.F.R. Part 2705.
Public Comments
If you have any comments or questions about the information presented here, please forward your concerns to the Commission’s Privacy Office at PrivacyAct@FMSHRC.gov.
Updates to This Privacy Policy
On occasion, the Commission will revise or update this policy. If we make significant changes to how we handle personal information, we will post changes to the policy on our site and change the date at the bottom of the page, e.g. “Updated: January 1, 2027.”