Web Site Privacy Agreement

• What personally identifiable information we collect about you.


• What personally identifiable information third parties collect through this Web site.


• What organization collects the information.


• How we use the information.


• With whom we may share user information.


• What choices are available to you regarding the collection, use and distribution of the information.


• What types of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under our control.


• How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.


If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, please contact us. We want to know about your concerns.



Information Collection


The company that owns this site is the sole owner of the information collected on this site.  We collect information from our users at several different points on our Web site.



Registration


In order to make the best use of this Web site, you must first complete the registration form.  During registration, you will be required to provide contact information such as your name and e-mail address. We use this information to contact you about services, content, information, or products on our site in which you have expressed an interest.  We do not ask about or collect information about your gender, race, marital status, income or other demographic information. We do collect unique identifiers such as a username (consisting of your e-mail address) and a password. These are used to protect your information from unauthorized access by others and to allow us to offer you a more personalized experience of this site. You may update your information at any time.



Contact Information


To allow us to follow up requests for information, orders, complaints, praise, suggestions and other requests, we require information about how to contact you. If you are a member, this information will be taken from your member registration information. If you are not a member of this site, you will be required to provide this information before you can submit a contact form. If you do not wish to provide this information, please use the phone number or address at the bottom of the page to contact us.



Order Information


We request contact information from the user on our order form. If you are a member, this information will be taken from your member information. Otherwise, you will be required to register in order to use any online order forms available on this site. If you do not wish to register, please use the phone number or contact information at the bottom of this page.

To process your order, we will also require financial information (such as a credit card number, expiration date, etc.).  This information is used for billing purposes and to fill your order.  If we have trouble processing an order, the information is used to contact you.



Information Use


In several places on this Web site, we provide you with the ability to add articles, listings, and other content to this site. This information will be available for public display, together with your display name which consists of the first letter of your first name and your last name, city, and state. If you are not comfortable having this information displayed, please do not post it here. By adding information, you are agreeing to have it published on this site and are providing us with unrestricted use and access to this information. If you are adding information that you have already published elsewhere, please include the copyright information in the space provided and be certain that you are legally free to give us unrestricted use and access to this information. By adding this information, you are warranting that you have the right to grant us unrestricted use and that you are not infringing any copyrights or other protections by doing so. You further agree to indemify and hold this site harmless from any claims of copyright infringement or other claims resulting from the display or use of this information.

To allow you and other visitors to enjoy this site and to give you a more personalized site experience, we store information that we collect through cookies, log files, clear gifs,
and/or third parties to create a profile of our users.  A profile is stored information that details the pages that you visit on this site and the information that you like to see. This information may be linked to your contact information, but most commonly we use this only as part of an aggregate view of all site visitors. Where we link this information to your membership information, it is used to provide offers and improve the content of the site for you by tailoring our Web site to your needs and preferences.  We do not share your profile with other third parties except as part of our site development effort. Our site developers and/or advertising and promotion contractors are permitted access to all information collected on this site, but use it only to assist us in building, maintaining, and promoting this site and the software that powers it. Except in this context and in order processing, your profile is shared in aggregate form only, without personally identifiable information.



Cookies


A cookie is a piece of data stored on your computer tied to information about you. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site.  We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies.  For the session ID cookie, once you close the browser, the cookie simply terminates.  A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on your hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions. By setting a cookie on our site, we can recognize whether you are already a member and simply need to log in to access information or site services, or whether you need to register before using this site. We also pass information from one form to another, or from one page to another to save you time and effort.  If you reject the cookies that we try to place on your computer, you will experience unexpected errors in using this site. You may still use some areas of the site, but will be unable to add informaton to this site or use any extended or restricted services. Some of our business partners use cookies on our site (for example, advertisers).  However, we have no access to or control over these cookies, once we have given permission for them to set cookies for advertising.  



Third Party Advertising


We reserve the right to include advertising on this Web site. Any ads appearing on this Web site are delivered to users by a third party ad company, our Web advertising partner, or by our site developer. Information about your visit to this site, such as the number of times you have viewed an ad (but not your user name, address, or other personal information), is used to determine which ads will be displayed.

This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by this site only and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.  



Log Files


Like most standard Web site servers we use log files.  This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.  IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.  We use a tracking utility called WebTrends that uses log files to analyze how you and other visitors use the site.



Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)


Although we do not currnetly do so, we may in the future use a third party advertising company that employs a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), to help them better manage advertising on our site by informing us what content is effective.  Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Clear gifs are not tied to your personally identifiable information. Clear Gifs can "work with" existing cookies on a computer if they are both from the same Web site or advertising company.  That means, for example, that if a person visited “www.companyX.com”, which uses an advertising company's clear gif, the Web site [or advertising company] could match the clear gif's identifier and the advertising company's cookie ID number, to show the past online behavior for that computer. This collected information would then be given to the advertising company [or Web site].  Should we use an advertising company that employs this practice in the future, we will do our best to find out and let you know.

We currently do use clear gifs in our Web pages, but only to serve as placeholders for Web graphics like the thin colored lines that you may see on our pages.



Communications from the Site





Special Offers and Updates


We send all new members a welcoming e-mail to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter.



Service Announcements


On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement.  For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an e-mail.  



Customer Service


We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via e-mail or phone, in accordance with your wishes.



Sharing of Information





Legal Disclaimer


Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.  



Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)


We share aggregated demographic information with our partners and advertisers.  This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.



Third Party Developer and Service Providers


We shares Web site usage information about users with The Write Edge, Ltd and Infoquest Technologies, Inc. -- our Web site developer and Web presence provider where such information is incidental to or necessary for the maintenance or developement of this Web site. We partner with other third parties to provide specific services.  When you sign up for these particular services, we share names, or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these services.  These third parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.



Third Party Intermediaries


We use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.



Business Transitions


In the event that this company goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users’ personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred.  You would be notified either by e-mail or via a prominent notice on our Web site for 30 days prior to a change of ownership or control of your personal information. If as a result of the business transition, your personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection, you will be given the option of removing your information.



Links


This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites.  We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information.  This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.



Surveys and/or Contests


Our site may request information from users via surveys or contests.  Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you have a choice whether or not to disclose this information.  The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code).  Contact information will be used by us and or the contest or survey sponsor(s) to notify the winners and award prizes.  Anonymous survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.  Your personally identifiable information is not shared with third parties unless we give prior notice and choice. Though we may use an intermediary to conduct these surveys or contests, they may not use your personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.



Security


This Web site takes every precaution to protect our users’ information, but we do not currently employ software encryption services unless otherwise notified. For this reason, you should refrain from entering sensitive information such as credit card information, social security numbers, etc. unless you see the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer when they become locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open.

If users have any questions about the security at our Web site, please contact us by using our contact form or by using the phone number or address at the bottom of this page.



Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information


If your personally identifiable or contact information changes (such as zip code, phone, e-mail or postal address), or if you no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users’ personally identifiable information. This can usually be done by accessing your member page or by contacting the phone number or address at the bottom of this page.



Notification of Changes


If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.  We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.