1. www.southcom.mil is provided as a public service by the US Southern Command.
2. Information presented on this service, not identified as protected by copyright, is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline, photo, and image credits is requested.
3. For site management, information is collected for statistical purposes. This U.S. Government computer system uses software programs to create summary statistics, which are used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas.
4. For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, software programs are employed to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.
5. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations and national security purposes, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits beyond DoD websites. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes and are scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration approved records schedule.
6. Web measurement and customization technologies (WMCT) may be used on this site to remember your online interactions, to conduct measurement and analysis of usage, or to customize your experience. The Department of Defense does not use the information associated with WMCT to track individual user activity on the Internet outside of Defense Department websites, nor does it share the data obtained through such technologies, without your explicit consent, with other departments or agencies, unless directed to do so in statute, regulation, or Executive order. The Department of Defense does not keep a database of information obtained from the use of WMCT. General instructions for how you may opt out of some of the most commonly used WMCT is available at https://www.usa.gov/optout-instructions.
7. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this site are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1987 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act (Section 1030 of Title 18, United States Code).
8. If you have any questions or comments about the information presented here, please forward them to us using the www.southcom.mil "Contact Us" page.
Specific Technologies/Vendors:
Tier 1 cookies are used for technical purposes to improve a user experience and to allow users to more easily navigate the website.
Akamai speeds the delivery of content and applications for customers through using automatic, intermediate and temporary information storage to make the onward transmission of that information to other recipients more efficient. Temporary storage processes retain information only as long as is reasonably necessary to transmit the data. Intermediate storage processes retain information only so long as is reasonably necessary for continued transmission, to maintain the security of the network and the data, to monitor and improve website performance and for related administrative purposes. Akamai does not collect, use or disclose personally identifiable consumer information.
Foresee Results software measures user satisfaction and assesses website effectiveness through optional surveys presented to website visitors. The information gathered from these surveys is used to identify and prioritize improvements to functional website elements and content for visitors. Survey users provide ratings and feedback related to a series of questions about website performance, aesthetics, usability, user experience, and so forth; however, users are not required to provide any personal information. Tier 2 cookies are used to remember if the user has already been offered the survey and to ensure that users are prompted only once every 60 days.
Urchin software collects aggregate statistics of website visitor characteristics, traffic, and activity. This information is used to assess what content is of most and least interest, determine technical design specifications, and identify system performance or problem areas. The software records a variety of data, including IP addresses (the locations of computers or networks on the internet), unique visits, page views, hits, referring websites and what hyperlinks have been clicked. Tier 2 cookies are used to distinguish between summary statistics for users who have been to the site before and those that are visiting the site the for the first time. The Defense Department does not gather, request, record, require, collect or track any internet users' personally identifiable information through these processes.
Client side opt-out mechanisms allow the user to opt out of web measurement and customization technologies by changing the settings of a specific application or program on the user's local computer. For example, users may be able to disable persistent cookies by changing the settings on commonly used web browsers. For general instructions on how to opt out of some of the most commonly used web measurements and customization technologies, go to https://www.usa.gov/optout-instructions.
Use of Third-Party Websites and Applications:
Third-party websites and applications that are not owned, operated, or controlled by the Defense Department are integral to internet-based operations across DoD and used to augment official communication. These capabilities include, but are not limited to, networking services, media sharing services, wikis and data mashups. A list of DoD's authorized pages and uses of these services is available at https://dod.defense.gov/About/Military-Departments/DoD-Websites/. These sites may collect personally identifiable information and may make it available to the DoD and other users; however, the information is not collected on behalf of, nor is it provided specifically for DoD. DoD does not harvest and additionally collect, maintain, share or otherwise use such personally identifiable information for any purpose other than that for which it is made available to all users.