Policies

Content Inventory and Posting Schedule

The National Institute on Aging, following the guidance of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), developed this inventory of content as required by Section 207(f)(2) of the E-Government Act of 2002. For a comprehensive inventory of HHS content and background on this requirement, go to www.hhs.gov/webinventory.
 
Categories of Information Disseminated by NIA
  • Column 1 lists the categories of information NIA disseminates.
  • Column 2 indicates the priority NIA assigns to publication of each category.
    •    Priority 1: Urgent public health emergency and safety information.
    •    Priority 2: Time-sensitive information.
    •    Priority 3: Information of interest to a broad spectrum of audiences.
    •    Priority 4: Other information.
  • Column 3 indicates the publication schedule for the category.
Category
Priority
Publication Target
  • Press information, including press releases, fact sheets, speeches, events, and testimony.
2
As available, unless otherwise required by law
  • Authoritative health, scientific, and consumer information intended for consumers, the professional community, students, researchers, and the media.
3
As available, unless otherwise required by law
  • General agency information, such as mission and function statements, leadership biographies, visitor information, employment opportunities, staff directories, etc.
4
As available, unless otherwise required by law
  • Programmatic and administrative information, including descriptive narratives, statistical information, technical assistance materials, best practices, and reports.
4
As available, unless otherwise required by law
  • Grant and contract policy and funding information related to all programmatic activities.
2
As available, unless otherwise required by law
  • Research resources such as data banks, gene collections, model organisms, cell registries, and reagent repositories.
4
As available, unless otherwise required by law
  • Reports to Congress as required by statute.
4
As required by law

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Copyright and Trademark Information

The public may reproduce without permission information from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Go4Life website, except for documents that state another copyright policy applies to them. Restrictions on the reproduction of a document may arise if a private party has sponsored it. Information presented on NIA’s Go4Life website is authored and owned by the Federal Government, which is in the public domain.
 
However, using NIA websites, you may encounter documents, illustrations, photographs, or other information resources contributed or licensed by private individuals, companies, or organizations that may be protected by U.S. and foreign copyright laws. Transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use as defined in the copyright laws requires the written permission of the copyright owners.  See Copyrighted Materials section below for further details.
 
Specific NIA websites containing protected information provide additional notification of conditions associated with its use.
 
Any information that is reproduced from this site should contain proper acknowledgement of NIA as the originator and NIA’s Go4Life website (www.nia.nih.gov/Go4Life) as the source.
 
Copyrighted Material
 
Some information on NIA’s Go4Life website may be subject to copyright restrictions. This information includes documents, images, or multimedia to which another copyright policy applies. This information may include but is not limited to:
  • Rights managed images, documents, or multimedia
  • Royalty free images, documents, or multimedia
  • Privately sponsored images, documents, or multimedia
  • Documents, images, or files marked with a copyright symbol
  • Documents, images, or files displaying the phrase, “All Rights Reserved”
Note: United States law does not require a copyright notice, and therefore, not all copyrighted material available on NIA’s Go4Life website will be necessarily marked in these ways. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the person/agency using or copying the information to research whether the information is copyrighted and under what laws the material falls, as well as what restrictions for use may be applicable. 
 
If a page is copyrighted, transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use as defined in Federal copyright laws may require written permission of the copyright owners.

Use of the Go4Life Registered Trademarks

The Go4Life trademarks are owned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You must adhere to the trademark usage guidelines listed below when using the Go4Life word mark and logo mark.

  • Show Registration Status
    Use the symbol “®” each and every time the trademark appears. This applies to all collateral materials, from printed brochures and packaging to tradeshow displays and web/electronic formats.
Incorrect
Correct
Go4Life
Go4Life®
Go 4 Life.
Go4Life®
Go4Life campaign   
The Go4Life® campaign
  • Notice and Non-Endorsement Statement
    Unless you have an agreement with the NIA that says something else, attribute our trademarks at least one time per page, using the following notice:  “Go4Life is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.” In addition, the following statement of non-endorsement shall appear together with the licensing notice: “Participation by [PARTNER] does not imply endorsement by HHS/NIH/NIA.”
  • Be Distinctive
    Use only the distinctive forms of usage for the trademark that are provided by the NIA.
  • Use the Proper Generic Term
    Use the proper generic term (also known as a noun) at least once per page. Acceptable generics include the words “campaign,” or “brand,” where appropriate. For example, use “The Go4Life campaign” instead of using “Go4Life” on its own.
  • DO NOT include The NIA’s Marks in the name of any third party product, program or service. 
    This includes free and educational materials and the titles of informational websites.
  • DO NOT adopt trademarks that are similar in appearance, sound, or meaning to the Go4Life Marks.
  • DO NOT include the Go4Life Marks in the name of your product, service, or web site.

 If you have questions about these guidelines or wish to use the Go4Life Mark, please contact Go4Life@nia.nih.gov or call 301-496-1752.

 
 

FOIA - Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552 provides individuals with a right to access information in the possession of the U.S. Federal Government. The Government, however, may withhold information covered by 9 exemptions and 3 exclusions contained in the Act.
 
Before submitting a request under FOIA, individuals should try to determine whether the information sought is already in the public domain and whether it is or may be held by the National Institute on Aging.  NIA has information available in both published and electronic formats.  A search of NIA's website, www.nia.nih.gov, can be helpful in locating information and lists of available publications.
 
If data produced under an NIA grant are sought, the data will be released under FOIA only if specific requirements are met.
 
It is important to note that FOIA allows agencies to recover part of the costs associated with responding to requests. Department of Health and Human Services regulations describe specific rules for fees, requesting a fee waiver, and reducing fees.
 
Questions about FOIA and requests for information held by NIA can be directed either to the NIA FOIA Office or to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) FOIA Office.
 
To request a funded grant or other information, send a signed letter with as much detailed information as you have.  Please include your telephone number and address.
 
Send to the NIA FOIA Office located at:
6705 Rockledge Drive
Suite 6070
Bethesda, MD 20892-7957
Telephone: 301-496-9737
Fax number: 301-402-3604
 
 
 

Information Quality

The NIA adheres to National Institutes of Health standards for information quality, found at http://aspe.hhs.gov/infoquality/Guidelines/NIHinfo2.shtml.
 
 

No FEAR Act - Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act

On May 15, 2002, President Bush signed into law the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation (No FEAR) Act (Public Law No. 107-174) to increase Federal agency accountability for acts of discrimination or reprisal against employees. The No FEAR Act became effective on October 1, 2003.
 
This act requires that Federal agencies post on their public websites certain summary statistical data relating to equal employment opportunity complaints filed against the respective agencies.
 
Statistical information in accordance with the No FEAR Act relating to the National Institutes of Health equal employment opportunity complaints is available on the NIH/OEODM website.
 
 

Privacy Policy

Of the information we learn about you from your visit to the National Institute on Aging Web site, we store only the following: the domain name from which you access the Internet, the date and time you access our site, and the Internet address of the Web site from which you direct-linked to our site. This information is used to measure the number of visitors to the various sections of our site and to help us make our site more useful to visitors. Unless it is specifically stated otherwise, no additional information will be collected about you.

When inquiries are e-mailed to us, we store the question and the e-mail address information so that we can respond electronically. Unless otherwise required by statute, we do not identify publicly who sends questions or comments to our Web site. We will not obtain information that will allow us to personally identify you when you visit our site, unless you chose to provide such information to us.

To protect your privacy, be sure to close your browser completely after you have finished conducting business with the NIA Web site.  If you are concerned about the potential use of information gathered from your computer by cookies, you can set your browser to prompt you before it accepts a cookie. Most Internet browsers have settings that let you identify and/or reject cookies.

How NIA uses Third-Party Web sites and Applications

As part of the OMB Memo M-10-06, Open Government Directive , the NIA uses a variety of new technologies and social media options to communicate and interact with citizens. These sites and applications include popular social networking and media sites, open source software communities and more. Third Party Web sites and Applications (TPWAs) are Web-based technologies that are not exclusively operated or controlled by NIA, such as applications not hosted on a .gov domain or those that are embedded on NIA Web pages. Users of TPWAs often share information with the general public, user community, and/or the third-party operating the Web site. These actors may use this information in a variety of ways. TPWAs could cause personally identifiable information (PII) to become available or accessible to NIA and the public, regardless of whether the information is explicitly solicited or collected by NIA.

The following list includes some of the TPWAs we use and their purpose. NIA sometimes collects and uses PII made available through third-party Web sites. However, we do not share PII made available through third-party Web sites. Your activity on the third-party Web sites we use is governed by the security and privacy policy of those sites, which we have linked below. You should review the third-party privacy policies before using the sites and ensure that you understand how your information may be used. If you have an account with a third-party Web site, and choose to follow, like, friend, or comment, certain PII associated with your account may be made available to NIA based on the privacy policy of the third-party Web site and your privacy settings within that third-party Web site. Therefore, you should also adjust privacy settings on your account to match your preferences.

For any NIA TPWA that collects PII, the list below also includes details on the information NIA collects and how we will protect your private information.

Third-Party Web Sites and Applications

Twitter: NIA uses Twitter to send short messages or ‘Tweets’ (up to 140 characters) to share information about NIA with you and respond to your comments and inquiries sent via Twitter to NIA. While you may read the NIA Twitter feeds without subscribing to them, if you want to subscribe to (or follow) NIA Twitter feeds, you must create a Twitter account at www.twitter.com. To create an account, you must provide some personal information, such as your name, user name, password and email address. You have the option to provide additional personal information including a short biography, location or a picture. Most information you provide for a Twitter account is available to the public, but you can modify how much of your information is visible by changing your privacy settings at the Twitter.com Web site. NIA staff members monitor the number of subscribers and respond to comments and queries via Twitter, but the staff never takes possession of the personal information belonging to you as a Twitter follower. However, as a practice, comment moderator policy requires the removal from the NIA Twitter pages of any comments that contain spam or are improper, inflammatory, or offensive. The information is then saved on a password-protected shared drive accessible to NIA Managers, System Owners, Communications Staff, Web Teams, and other designated staff who require this information to perform their duties. The Twitter Privacy Policy is available at http://twitter.com/privacy

YouTube: NIA posts videos on YouTube to make them available to the public. You do not need to register with either YouTube or Google (YouTube Owner) to watch NIA YouTube videos. When you watch videos, YouTube may record non-personally identifiable information about their site usage, such as channels used, videos watched, and data transfer details to improve its services. If you log on to the YouTube site before watching NIA videos, YouTube may associate information about your site usage with your YouTube account. If you log onto YouTube and comment on an NIA video, any personal information you included on your YouTube profile page will be visible to visitors who click on the comment field. If you do not log in before watching NIA videos posted on YouTube, you cannot comment on NIA videos and your site usage will not be associated with you or a YouTube account. The YouTube Privacy Policy is available at http://www.youtube.com/t/privacy

NIA conducts and publishes a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for each use of a third-party website as they may have a different functionality or practice. To learn more, visit the published PIAs at http://www.hhs.gov/pia/nih_pia_summaries_fy12_q1.pdf

For more information on the uses of social and new media for which the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has negotiated a federally-friendly Terms of Service Agreement, visit the HHS Center for New Media at http://newmedia.hhs.gov/standards/tos.html

Questions about NIA/NIH privacy policies should be sent to the NIH Privacy Act Officer.

 
 

Security

This website is part of a Federal computer system used to accomplish Federal functions. Computer software programs as well as other methods are used to monitor network traffic on this website for security purposes. By accessing this website, you are expressly consenting to these monitoring activities.
 
Unauthorized attempts to defeat or circumvent security features; to use the system for other than intended purposes; to deny service to authorized users; to access, obtain, alter, damage, or destroy information; or to otherwise interfere with the system or its operation are strictly prohibited.
 
Evidence of such acts may be disclosed to law enforcement authorities and may result in criminal prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996, as codified at Section 1030 of Title 18 of the United States Code, or other applicable criminal laws.
 
 

Website Linking Policy

Links to Non-Federal Government Websites

The NIA Go4Life website links to various other websites, including those that are not owned or sponsored by the U.S. Federal Government. These sites provide information and/or services not available on an official U.S. Federal Government website. NIA provides these links for public service only and does not imply endorsement nor does it guarantee the quality or credibility of any external organizations, services, advice, or products included on these other sites. Furthermore, the U.S. Federal Government neither controls nor guarantees the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of the content contained by these external links.

Notification

A notification page will alert a website visitor before he or she is redirected to a non Federal Government website. The notice page shall state:
 
"You are now leaving the official NIA Go4Life website. NIA is not responsible for the availability or content of these external sites, nor does NIA endorse, warrant, or guarantee the products, services, or information described or offered at other Internet sites.”

Evaluation Criteria (See Disclaimer of Endorsement for more information on this topic.)

The NIA evaluates all suggested links using the criteria noted below with an approval review process conducted by NIA.

Required:

The linked website must have one or more of the following elements:
  • The linked website provides official Federal Government information or services.
  • The linked website complements existing information, products, and services on the NIA Go4Life website.
  • The linked website's information appears to be accurate and current as indicated by references, and date of creation and/or revisions submitted.
  • The linked website is accessible and applicable to a wide audience.
  • The linked website is maintained by an organization or cosponsor that has a direct relationship with the NIA.
  • The linked website has a direct contractual relationship with the NIA for the provision of goods and/or services.
  • The linked website provides citizens, businesses, and/or government officials with the information they need to interact directly with government organizations (e.g., clearly available telephone numbers, street addresses, e-mail addresses, and instructions).
  • The linked website provides community-level information and services.

Links to U.S. Federal Government Websites

The NIA can link to any U.S. Federal Government website that is publicly available. Acceptable U.S. Federal Government-owned or Government-sponsored website domains include .gov, .mil, and .fed.us. NIA also provides links to: quasi-government agencies and websites created by public sector/private sector partnerships; State and local government sites (e.g., www.maryland.gov); and some websites that end in .com, .org, or .net.

Disclaimer of Endorsement

The information posted on the NIA Go4Life website includes hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. The NIA provides these links and pointers solely for our users' information and convenience. When users select a link to an outside website, they are leaving the NIA site and are subject to the privacy limitations and policies of the owners/sponsors of that website.
  • The NIA does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of information contained on a linked website.
  • The NIA does not endorse the organizations sponsoring linked websites, and does not endorse the views they express or the products/services they offer.
  • The NIA cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked websites. Users must request such authorization from the sponsor of the linked website.
  • The NIA is not responsible for transmissions users receive from linked websites.
  • The NIA does not guarantee that outside websites comply with Section 508 (Accessibility Requirements) of the Rehabilitation Act.
During your visit to our website, your web browser may produce pop-up advertisements. These advertisements were most likely produced by other websites you visited or by third party software installed on your computer. NIA, along with other agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, does not endorse or recommend products or services that may appear as pop-up advertisements on your computer screen while visiting its site.

Scheduled Review Process of Links

The links provided in the NIA website are reviewed on a quarterly basis at a minimum or more frequently as required by NIA management and/or relevant regulation changes, to ensure the links are still operational and still provide value to the mission of the NIA.
 
If there is an oversight to this review process and a user encounters a link that is no longer operational, she/he is encouraged to report this error to the NIA Webmaster as a broken link.

Linking to the NIA Go4Life Website from Your Website

The National Aging Institute encourages links to its public web resources.
 
Individuals or organizations wishing to link to the NIA Go4Life website should direct their link to www.nia.nih.gov/Go4Life. If a description is to be provided with the link, the following wording shall be used:
 
“The National Aging Institute's Go4Life website (www.nia.nih.gov/Go4Life ) is an institute of the NIH, a U.S. Federal Government agency that provides accurate, up-to-date information about aspects of aging research, information about clinical trials, educational materials and resources about aging for the general public, and information for researchers and health professionals.”
 
Links to individual pages within the NIA website (www.nia.nih.gov) are also permissible, using the above paragraph and any descriptive notes that accurately reflect the content of the linked page(s). These pages include www.nia.nih.gov/Espanol, www.niapublications.org, go4life.nia.nih.gov, and www.nia.nih.gov/Go4Life.  
 
The NIA periodically redesigns its website, so content may be located at different web page addresses. Every attempt is made to ensure existing links will continue to forward a user to their requested page(s). However, it is strongly recommended that organizations review their external links frequently to ensure each link referenced is still operational.
 
 

Page last updated March 14, 2013