Policies and Governance : Website Integrity Policy

WEBSITE INTEGRITY POLICY

The following Website Integrity Policy is designed to assure those who use the NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture website that we adhere to criteria appropriate to our non-profit purpose, rather than conforming to minimal prevailing commercial standards.

1. No advertisements. The NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture website does not accept advertisements, nor do we endorse products or services.

2. Search functions and links to other sites are not biased by any form of payment or favoritism. The practice of steering the users of a website to particular content based on fees received by that website, rather than based only on objective criteria, is called “pay for placement” and is common among commercial portals and search engines. The NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture website does not bias the way its search functions operate, nor does it accept payments to place links to other sites.

3. No cookies are used. The NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture website does not use cookies to track the use of our website back to specific computers. A cookie can be electronically embedded on the drive of the computer accessing a website to collect personally identifiable information, which can be used to create user profiles, such as for the purpose of building up consumer databases for direct marketing or to sell or charge for use of the database by others.

4. Neither spyware nor adware are used. Some websites install programs on a user's computer when files are downloaded or the website is visited, so that subsequent Internet usage is recorded and reported (which is spyware). That tracking data is then provided to advertisers for a fee so that ads appear as the user browses the web (which is adware).

5. Contact information is not given to others. When individuals provide their contact information to the NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture program, such as when ordering publications or when an individual asks to be put on a NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture newsletter distribution list, that information is not made available to others.

6. The NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture program places a priority on the accuracy of information we provide. While the NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture is supportive of earthquake loss reduction efforts and seeks to include such activities in its programs, a priority is placed on the accuracy of the information we provide rather than its motivational value in lobbying for or boosting a particular earthquake-related cause. Please contact us if you feel that any information on our website is inaccurate or lacks objectivity.