Privacy Notice & Policy

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis respects your privacy. For the Bank's overall privacy policy, visit this page.

The privacy policy below includes supplemental information related to the websites and services of the Bank's Research Division.

Personal Information

You may access and browse our site without disclosing your personal data. The personal information you choose to provide us is voluntary. We do not require you to provide any information about yourself that you do not wish to share.

The FRED Add-In for Microsoft Excel is a Microsoft Office add-in that allows users to import data directly into Excel from the FRED website. No personally identifiable information is collected.

You may choose to provide us with personal information if, for example, you subscribe to our publications or mail lists, send us questions through e-mail, answer our user surveys, register for an event or user account, apply for a job or participate in our online activities.

If you participate in a user survey, your answers and personal information will only be analyzed in aggregate. The information will be used to help us tailor our web site, publications, and services to our users' needs and to help us understand our audience.

If you provide us with your postal or e-mail address or telephone number, this information will only be used for the purpose for which you provided it, such as to:

Provide you with the publications or information requested;

• Clarify your order or request;
• Register you for a user account, conference or other event;
• Respond to you regarding your job application;
• Provide you with related information; or
• Send you a token of appreciation through postal mail if you participate in selected online activities.

We may also file your comments to improve the site, or review and discard the information.

When you fill out our online forms, they are returned to us via electronic mail. Your responses are not encrypted. We cannot guarantee the security of information sent via electronic mail.

Cookies

A cookie is a text file that a web site can send to your browser and which may then be placed on your computer. We may use cookies on this site in the following ways:

1. To collect statistical information about our users in aggregate. We perform analyses on our web server's log files to identify, among other things:
   
   • Our site's most popular pages;
   • The browsers and operating systems most often used by our visitors;
   • The sites and search engines that have referred visitors to our site; and
   • The domains from which our users visit us.
   • This analysis does not involve personally identifiable information. It is used only for the purpose of helping us understand and better meet our audience's needs.
     
2. A transient, memory-resident "cookie" may be invoked in certain cases. For example, on the FRED site a cookie is required to remember your selections as you move from page to page and enable FRED's functionality. If you register for a Research user account, a cookie will be invoked when you login to your user account. These cookies will disappear when your browser is closed. If you check the 'Stay logged in' option, the cookie will persist for a maximum of 2 weeks before another login is required. You are not required to register for a user account to use this site.
   
   
3. Sometimes a third-party contractor will use cookies on one of the sites they create and manage for us—for example, our Job Opportunities site.


4. Some aggregate web site analysis is performed for us by Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/), and may involve the use of cookies set by Google. We also use Google Tag Manager (http://www.google.com/tagmanager/), but have not implemented and do not use DoubleClick tracking cookies as part of that service. For Google's Privacy policy, see http://www.google.com/privacy.html.


5. Our RSS feeds are routed via FeedBurner, which is owned by Google. For Google's Privacy policy, see http://www.google.com/privacy.html.

You can set your browser to notify you before you receive a cookie, giving you the opportunity to decide whether to accept it or not. You can also set your browser to not accept cookies at all. If you do so, however, some areas of some sites (including ours) may not operate properly.

Disclosure of Information

Any information collected on this web site, whether individual or aggregate, is for Federal Reserve use only. We do not rent, sell or share personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies except under any of the following circumstances:

• When we have your permission;
  
  
• The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis monitors this site for unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, to defeat or circumvent security measures, or to utilize this site for other than its intended purposes. By using this site you expressly consent to such monitoring and you are advised that if such monitoring reveals possible evidence of criminal activity, we will provide the evidence of such monitoring to law enforcement officials;
  
  
• We retain the services of outside contractors to provide services, including mailing list administration and our Job Opportunities pages. We require that these contractors keep information obtained through our web site secure and confidential. We also require that these contractors use personal information obtained through our web site only on behalf of the Federal Reserve.
  
  
• We may be required to disclose your personal information to government officials or otherwise as required by subpoenas, court orders, legal process or other legal obligations and to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims. We will share information in order to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud or as otherwise required by law.
• If you are a member of the FRED Network and select the option to allow your profile to be viewable by the public. By default this option is not selected, and your profile is not viewable by the public.

Submitting Content

"Content" is any material, including but not limited to writings, artwork, photographs, designs, plans, information, suggestions, ideas, data, questions or comments, submitted by you to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis through this site.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is under no obligation to use any Content submitted.

You may not submit Content that violates or infringes the rights of others including, without limitation, patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, publicity or other proprietary rights.

You may not submit Content that is:

• pornographic, obscene, X-rated or sexually explicit,


• defamatory


• racist, sexist or otherwise discriminatory or derogatory to any individual or groups


• harassing or threatening


• fraudulent, or


• in violation of U.S. or state laws or regulations or Bank or System policy.

Any Content you submit will be considered to be non-proprietary and non-confidential.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will have no obligations of any kind with respect to any Content you submit and users of the site will be free to edit, reproduce, use, disclose, publish and/or distribute any Content for any purpose whatsoever, without limitation.

You also agree that The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will be free to use any ideas, concepts, artwork, inventions, developments, suggestions or techniques embodied in the Content for any purpose whatsoever, with or without attribution, and without compensation to you.

Children

Our site is not directed toward children under 13. Nonetheless, we are committed to comply with applicable laws and requirements, such as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. Minor children should always obtain parental consent before releasing personal information to any web site.

Information Security and Quality

We have implemented security measures consistent with our internal information security practices to help us keep your information secure. These measures include technical and procedural steps to protect your data from misuse, access or disclosure, loss, alteration or destruction.

If you have voluntarily submitted personal information to us and wish to review, update, correct or delete it, please email your request to research@stlouisfed.org

Contact Information

Questions or comments about the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's privacy policy may be directed here.