External Link Policy

Hyperlinks to a website are allowed only if the website is sponsored, supported, or partnered by the U.S. Department of State; is educational in nature; or is another Government website, including those sites sponsored by State or local governments.

The U.S. Department of State will not allow any hyperlinks to any websites that advocate hate, bias, or discrimination, or which contain information or hyperlinks associated with partisan political activity.

Links may be made to our website from personal and organizational web pages. We request that you link to our site rather than downloading portions of it to another web server, so that viewers will see the most up-to-date information.

Information Disclaimer

The www.state.gov website serves as the State Department’s portal of information on U.S. foreign policy and information about the State Department. It is managed by the Bureau of Global Public Affairs.

Every effort has been made to provide accurate and complete information. However, we cannot guarantee that there will be no errors. Neither the U.S. Government nor the State Department assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, product, or process disclosed herein, or represents that use of such information, product, or process would not infringe on privately owned rights..

The current State Department website covers the current presidential Administration. The Department’s archive sites provide content prior to that date. The archive sites are not updated, and external links may no longer function; they provide publications and information from the State Department for archive and research purposes.

Websites of U.S. embassies, consulates, and other posts abroad (listed at http://usembassy.gov) are managed by individual posts working with the Bureau of Global Public Affairs.

Questions and Hardcopy Requests

If you would like verification or a hard copy of information released on State Department websites or if you have any questions or comments about the information presented here, please contact the public information staff in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs.

Public Communication Division
GPA/OPE, Room 2206
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC 20520
Phone: (202) 647-6575
Email: https://register.state.gov/contactus/

Information Quality Guidelines

Please read the State Department’s guidelines pursuant to the Data Quality Information Act before submitting inquiries under this Act.

Intrusion Detection

We collect and temporarily store certain information about your visit for use in site management and security purposes only. We collect and analyze this information because it helps us to better design our website to suit your needs. We may also automatically collect information about the web content you view in the event of a known security or virus threat. This information includes:

  1. The Internet domain from which you access our website (for example, “xcompany.com” if you use a private Internet access account, or “yourschool.edu” if you connect from an educational domain);
  2. The Internet Protocol (IP) address (a unique number for each computer connected to the Internet) from which you access our website;
  3. The type of browser (e.g., Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome) used to access our site;
  4. The operating system (e.g., Windows, Mac OS, Unix) used to access our site;
  5. The date and time you access our site;
  6. The Universal Resource Locators (URLs), or addresses, of the pages you visit; and
  7. If you visited this website from another website, the URL of the forwarding site.

We may share the above information with our employees or representatives with a “need-to-know” in the performance of their official duties, other Federal agencies, or other named representatives as needed to quickly process your request or transaction. This information is only used to help us make our site more useful for you. Raw data logs are retained temporarily as required for security and site management purposes only. More information about how we share information can be found in our Privacy Act Systems of Records Notices. Information about how we protect this information can be found in our Privacy Policy notice.

U.S. Department of State

The Lessons of 1989: Freedom and Our Future