Accessibility Policy

We are committed to making socialsecurity.gov accessible to people with disabilities. To ensure that we meet or exceed the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, we continually review our site and modify pages to remove accessibility problems for people with disabilities. Social Security's Accessibility Policy provides detailed instructions to assist people with disabilities with accessing socialsecurity.gov.

Linking Policy

Generally, we link to other Government websites (their names usually end in “.gov”). If non-Government websites (names ending in “.edu,” “.com,” etc.) provide information that's pertinent but not available on a Government website, we'll link to them. Examples include:

• Directories of vital records sources in U.S. counties, States, and territories
• The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Guide, for determining SSI countable resources
• Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, for statistics about immigrant populations, used in our information and outreach efforts.

We welcome links to our website. Although we prefer that you link to our homepage, you may create links to specific pages within our website. For your convenience, we have icons and instructions for their use. By using these icons, you agree to the conditions of our Linking Policy.

Browser Policy

The Social Security Administration (SSA) designs, develops, and tests Internet content and applications to work with web browsers that adhere to the most recent World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommended Standards and Draft Recommendations and Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The goal of this policy is for SSA web pages and applications to be compatible with as many web browsers as possible with JavaScript enabled, regardless of the operating system employed.

Security Protocols To Protect Information

Our website uses computer systems, software programs, and other methods to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload, add, modify or otherwise damage its information or systems.

Any unauthorized attempts to upload, add, modify or otherwise damage any information or systems are strictly prohibited and are punishable by Federal laws and regulations. Persons using this website expressly consent to this monitoring. Should this monitoring reveal evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to law enforcement officials for prosecution.

Information Quality Guidelines

In compliance with the Office of Management and Budget's government-wide information quality guidelines under section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001, we have developed procedures to ensure the quality of our information products. 

Schedule For Publishing Information To This Website

We provide publication targets as part of our Web Content Inventory.

Freedom Of Information

The Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) allows members of the public to request records from Federal agencies.  The Federal government established FOIA to promote transparency and prevent agencies from having secret policies.

Our Guide to FOIA Requests  explains how to request information and records from us, describes information we can't disclose, and lists our fees for filing a FOIA request. We also provide FOIA annual reports, privacy impact assessments, and information about frequently requested documents. 

Copyright Policy

We do not post copyrighted material on our website unless we have the express permission of the author. If we post copyrighted material, we will describe the specific permission granted for its use.

As a public agency, we generally do not own rights to material on our website. Most of the material on our website consists of new or republished government documents and as such, it is considered public domain. So, we do not generally grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute it.

You are responsible for determining and satisfying copyright or other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing material found on our website. 

SSA is not responsible for determining whether any material on a website accessible by a link from our website is copyrighted.

Policy For Oral Histories

Several oral history interviews that we conducted are available on our History Page. Copyright law grants copyright of oral histories to the interviewees. Use of the material in an oral history is therefore governed by copyright restrictions. We will only post transcripts of interviews for which we have been given a grant of deed to the interview, or which have been released into the public domain.

The fact that we posted the transcript of an interview on this site does not necessarily mean that it has been released as a public domain document—it depends on the specific wording of the grant of deed. Therefore, you should not use (beyond limited quotation) the transcripts of any oral history interviews without the express permission of our Historian's Office. 

No Fear Act

In compliance with Section 301 of the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (the No Fear Act), we post summary statistical data pertaining to complaints of employment discrimination by employees, former employees and applicants for employment.

Our posting is intended to assist Congress, Federal agencies and the public in assessing whether, and to what extent, we are living up to our equal employment opportunity responsibilities.