PII includes personal details that we may use to identify you. If you enter PII on our site, we only use it for the purpose you enter it for and protect it under the Privacy Act of 1974, the E-Government Act of 2002 and the Federal Records Act.

You don’t have to provide PII to visit our site or answer the questionnaire. If you complete an online application, we use the PII you share to find out if you qualify under a presidentially declared disaster and to administrate assistance funds.

You may give us PII when you ask for information or send an email, but we never ask for PII through email and never collect information to use for marketing.

FEMA may review data internally for quality control purposes. We may also share your PII with other authorized organizations. This would only be to enable you to get other disaster assistance; prevent duplication of benefits; or as needed or authorized by routine uses. (See link for "DHS/FEMA-008" below.). Then only upon written request, by agreement, or as required by law.

To learn more, see the privacy documents below:

• Disaster Recovery Assistance Files System of Records DHS/FEMA-008 78 FR 25282 (April 30, 2013)
• Disaster Assistance Improvement Plan (DAIP) (PDF, 383 KB) DHS/FEMA/PIA-012(a) (November 16, 2012)
• Quality Assurance Recording System (QARS) (PDF, 371 KB) DHS/FEMA/PIA-015 (August 15, 2014)
• Quality Assurance Recording System DHS/FEMA-002 79 FR 35366 (June 20, 2014)

The public reporting burden for data collection on our site is estimated at about 18 minutes for the application and  2.5 minutes for the questionnaire. The estimate includes time to read instructions; search for, gather, and maintain the data needed; and complete and submit the application form.

The data is required for you to get or keep benefits. You are not required to respond to this unless there is a valid OMB control number on the form.

You may send comments about the accuracy of the estimates or suggestions for reducing the burden to one of the addresses below. Please do not send any completed forms.

• For the application:

  Information Collections Management
  Department of Homeland Security
  Federal Emergency Management Agency
  1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA 20598-3005
  Paperwork Reduction Project (1660-0002)

• For the questionnaire:

  Disaster Assistance Improvement Program
  Federal Emergency Management Agency
  P.O. Box 2297
  Winchester, VA 22604

  You may also email: DAIP@fema.dhs.gov.

Google Analytics is a tool the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has set up on DisasterAssistance.gov. This tool helps us gather data about actions and traffic on our site.

To get the data, Google puts a 3-month persistent cookie on your device. Our site sends the cookie automatically, but you can choose not to accept it through your browser settings. That won’t change what you can see on the site. You can also delete cookies at any time through the settings in your browser.

If you choose not to accept cookies and you answer the questionnaire, just be aware that the system won't save your answers when you leave the page. You’ll need to answer the questions again.

Visit USA.gov for opt-out instructions for common browsers.

If you allow the cookie, it records non-identifiable data like the items below:

• Your Internet provider including location data.
• Session connection speed.
• Address of any website used to link to our site.
• Pages you visit and content you download.
• Count of unique visits to a page and the site.
• Time spent on a page and the site.

The cookie sends data to Google’s system which immediately compiles it. It does not monitor or record your actions after you leave our site. We only see data for specific time periods and keep it only as long as our records schedule requires. We use this data internally and may also share it with our partners and contractors to help us improve the site.

Google Analytics doesn’t tell us who you are or allow us to get your identity. Google never has access to the details of your session, including PII entered on your application, and we don’t share our compiled data with them.

To learn more about DHS’s use of Google Analytics, see Google Analytics (PDF, 222 KB) DHS/ALL/PIA-033 (June 9, 2011).

We use SurveyMonkey online surveys to get feedback from a random sample of visitors. You can also give us feedback anytime by taking the feedback survey. We read and compile the survey data to learn what our users need, and use it internally to help make improvements to the site.

The survey does not collect PII and you don’t have to take it. If you decline, it does not change what you can do on the site.

Some content on our site requires you to have plug-ins to view it. Plug-ins are software that work with your browser to give it abilities it may not have. Most software vendors offer plug-ins for computer platforms types like Windows, Apple, and Linux. We’re offering these links from our Download Plug-ins page to make it easier for you to view content on our site.

You may also need plug-ins to view content on linked external websites. These sites are not within our control and may not follow the same privacy or accessibility policies required for our site. When you go to other websites, you are subject to the policies of that site.

DisasterAssistance.gov does not endorse any non-government websites, companies, or applications.