Privacy Policy of www.imf.org

Last Updated: October 30, 2007

This privacy policy statement applies to www.imf.org only. It does not apply to information collected and stored by a means other than this website. You can find the International Financial Statistics Online privacy policy statement here.

Privacy of Personal Information

Out of respect for the privacy of its users, the IMF website (http://www.imf.org) refrains from obtaining personal information from users without their explicit consent, other than as described below.

The IMF website, either directly or through a third-party vendor, Omniture, stores the Internet protocol (IP) address of your computer, the browser software and operating system used, and the date and time of your visit.

This information is used by the IMF to understand which countries the users of the website visit from, when they visit, and other information about how users access the website. The intention is to inform analysis about how to improve and develop www.imf.org. The IMF also monitors network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or to otherwise cause damage to the site.

The IMF does not distribute, sell or rent any personal information collected via its website. This is also true for personal information (for example, email and postal addresses) sent to the website’s email addresses. The IMF does not send unsolicited emails to users of its site. The transmission of personal information entered via the site’s registration forms (e.g. IMF Online Employment Application form, Annual and Spring Meetings registration form) is protected by security features.

Policy on Cookies

The IMF website uses both persistent cookies (text cookies) and session cookies. A persistent cookie is a file that might contain user personal information. It is stored on a user's computer. The IMF website uses persistent cookies to understand which pages on the website are popular, and to recognize repeat visitors. Session cookies allow the website to validate access to any secure areas after you have logged in - these are not stored on a user’s computer.

Your browser software should permit you to disable the use of cookies, if you do not want the IMF website to collect this information. More about cookies