In preparing the NeurIPS 2026 handbook, we included a link to a US government sanctions tool that covers a significantly broader set of restrictions than those NeurIPS is actually required to follow. This error was due to miscommunication between the NeurIPS Foundation and our legal team; there was never an intention to restrict participation beyond our mandatory compliance obligations. The responsibility for that error is ours as an organization, and we deeply apologize for the alarm and impact this miscommunication had on our community.