Thank you for visiting the Federal Audit Clearinghouse website, a service of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The purpose of this policy is to explain how we handle information we collect from you during your visit to our web site. It is important to keep in mind that we do not collect personally-identifiable information (name, address, e-mail address, social security number, or other unique identifiers) on our web site unless we specifically advise you that we are doing so.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically:

When you visit our website to read pages or download information, we automatically collect and store the following information only:

1. The Internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect to our website from a university's domain);
2. The IP Address that your computer uses to access our website;
3. The date and time you access our website;
4. The pages you visit at our website;
5. If you linked to the FAC website from another website, the address of that website; and
6. The type of browser and operating system used to access our website

We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors - to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use. We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits.

If you send us an E-mail:

When you send us personally-identifying information in an e-mail, we use the information you provide only to help us gather the information you request and to respond to your message. In an effort to respond to your request, any information you submit may be viewed by various people in a wide variety of government agencies depending on the nature of your request. In other limited circumstances, including requests from Congress or private individuals, we may be required by law to disclose information you submit.

Public notices issued by the Federal Audit Clearinghouse in which persons are invited to comment by e-mail will contain a notice of what we intend to do with the data gathered. Once received, the information in your e-mail is protected in accordance with law (e.g., the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act).

The FAC website enables cookies on the Internet Data Entry System (IDES) for the on-line submission of the Data Collection Form SF-SAC. These cookies contain session identifications that are necessary to allow the proper transfer of data between the user's computer and the IDES server. These cookies do not contain personal information about the user and, furthermore, the FAC does not collect or store personal information about its website's users.

The Federal Audit Clearinghouse website has security and backup provisions in place to protect against unauthorized access to your data during and after submission. In the Internet Data Entry System (IDES) for the online submission of data collection forms (SF-SAC), the Federal Audit Clearinghouse uses industry standard SSL-encryption to protect data transmissions. Each IDES account is password protected and users can gain access to their own records and make corrections.

An email is not necessarily secure against interception. Whether or not an e-mail is encrypted in transmission depends on your software.

The Federal Audit Clearinghouse offers an online data entry option for entities required to submit a Form SF-SAC as part of a Single Audit package. Personally-identifiable information contained on the Form SF-SAC is limited to entity and auditor contact names.

By Federal law (Title 31 U.S.C. Chapter 75), non-Federal entities that expend $300,000 ($500,000 for fiscal periods ending after December 31, 2003) or more in Federal awards annually are required to have audits conducted in accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-133 (Revised June 27, 2003). The Circular, which applies to audits of states, local governments, and non-profit organizations, provides detailed definitions and audit requirements, and requires "completed audit packages" to be submitted to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse (Clearinghouse).

The purposes of the Clearinghouse are administrative. It acts as an agent for OMB and its primary purposes are to: (1) establish and maintain a governmentwide database of single audit results and related Federal award information; (2) serve as the Federal repository of single audit reports; and (3) distribute single audit reports to Federal agencies.

The Database consists of information about audits of Federal awards which is required by the Circular. Such information is available to the public. However, persons who seek to use the Database are strongly urged to (1) understand the selective content of the Database and (2) clarify questions about Database information with (as appropriate) the Federal agency or Clearinghouse.

Federal Audit Clearinghouse maintains a governmentwide database consisting of information contained on the data collection form (SF-SAC) about audits of Federal awards required by the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-133 (Revised June 27, 2003). The submitted Forms SF-SAC are considered public records after they are processed to completion by the Federal Audit Clearinghouse. No personal records on individuals are collected by the Federal Audit Clearinghouse.

The Federal Audit Clearinghouse maintains a Data Dissemination System for the public viewing of The Federal Audit Clearinghouse database of Forms SF-SAC. Please click the following link to view the Federal Audit Clearinghouse Data Dissemination System Disclaimer: http://harvester.census.gov/sac/dissem/disclaim.html.

The Federal Audit Clearinghouse is committed to making every document on its internet server accessible to all. Currently, the Census Bureau is reviewing all pages on its site and making modifications to those pages which are not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Acts. Please see the Census Bureau Document Accessibility Policy at this link: http://www.census.gov/main/www/policies.html.

Our Website contains links to various other federal agencies and private organizations. Once you link to another site, you are subject to the policies of the new site.

The Federal Audit Clearinghouse may edit this policy from time to time. Specific changes will contain a notice of what the agency intends to do with data gathered and the public will be invited to comment.

Questions and suggestions are welcomed by sending an e-mail to govs.fac@census.gov.