PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY BEFORE USING OUR WEBSITE OR SERVICES. BY ACCESSING OR USING OUR WEBSITE OR OUR SERVICES (OTHER THAN TO READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY FOR THE FIRST TIME), YOU AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY.
1. INTRODUCTION
Maintaining your privacy is one of our highest priorities. Accordingly, we have created this privacy policy (“Policy”) to explain our practices for the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as it relates to your use of our website and services (the “website”).
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2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We collect two types of information from users through our website: personally identifiable information (“PII”) and non-personally identifiable information (“non-PII”).
PII identifies you individually. We may collect PII such as: (a) your contact information (e.g., your name, email address, physical address, or phone number) that you may provide to us in filling out forms or when you enter into a contest or promotion on our website; or (b) photographs or other information about yourself that you may upload or post to our website through comments or otherwise, including information on your gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religious views, age, occupation, or other similar information.
Non-PII does not identify you as an individual. We may collect non-PII such as: (a) certain non-personal data when you visit our website, such as the type of operating system or browser you are using, the URL of sites from which you arrive or leave our website and how you interact with our website, your internet service provider, your mobile carrier; or (b) user information in a non-personal, aggregate format for statistical and research purposes.
3. YOUR CONSENT
We will collect, use, or disclose your PII only with your knowledge and consent, except where required or permitted by applicable laws, regulations, ordinances, or as compelled by a court of law or other government body of competent authority. When you choose to provide us with your PII you consent to the use of your personal information as identified in this Policy (i.e., in connection with your use of our website and services) and as may be further identified at the time of collection. You may notify us at any time that you wish to withdraw or change your consent to our use and disclosure of your personal information. We will accommodate your request subject to any legal and contractual restrictions.
4. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION
We may use a variety of methods to collect information from you, as described in this section below.
4.1. OUR WEBSITE
When you use our website, it collects the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer, the IP address of your Internet Service Provider, the date and time you access our website, the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our website, the operating system you are using, the internet browser you are using, the sections of the website you visit, the website pages read and images viewed, and the content you download from the website. This information is used for website and system administration purposes and to improve our website.
4.2 COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS
We and the third parties we authorize may receive and store certain types of non-PII whenever you interact with us by using “cookies,” “web beacons” and analogous technology. “Cookies” are small files that are placed on your computer or your internet browser memory to enable the owner of the cookie to recognize your browser and to provide convenience and other features to you. It is important to note that the cookies that we use, or permit others to use, do not contain and are not tied to PII about you.
You may be able to direct your internet browser not to allow cookies and you can typically delete existing cookies from your computer at any time. Please note, however, if you set such browser settings or delete existing cookies then some elements of our website may not function properly or be available to you.
4.3 PREFERENCE BASED ADVERTISING
We also work with and permit certain third parties, including, but not limited to advertising networks and website analysis firms, to place cookies on your computer or browser when you visit our website and/or when you view, click or otherwise interact with advertisements that are featured on our website. These third party cookies and analogous technology are used to gather non-PII about your activities on our website and third party sites you may visit to serve you with advertisements that are relevant to your interests and preferences while you are on third party sites. Some of these third parties participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”), an industry self-regulatory program to give consumers a better understanding of and greater control over ads that are customized based on their online behavior across different web sites. To learn more and make choices about preference-based ads from participating third parties, please visit the DAA website at www.aboutads.info.
4.4 THIRD PARTY SITES AND LINKS
Our website may contain links to other websites or Internet resources which are provided solely for your convenience and information. When you click on one of those links you are contacting another website or Internet resource. We have no responsibility or liability for, or control over, those other websites or Internet resources or their collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of those other websites to learn how they collect and use your personal information.
5. DISCLOSURE OR SHARING OF INFORMATION
We may disclose PII and Non-PII to:
Our third party service providers who perform functions on our behalf in connection with the operation of the website, e.g., providers who host and manage data, process credit card orders, deliver our merchandise, etc.; participating sponsors to a program or promotion you enter through our website; our parent company, subsidiaries or other affiliated companies (“affiliated companies”) for operational, marketing and promotional purposes; promotional partners and others with whom we have marketing or other relationships; and our other users where you choose to publicly post reviews, comments or other information relating to products or services, communicate with other users via public forums (e.g., forums, message boards, bulletin boards, etc.). In addition, we use non-PII to help analyze site traffic, understand customer needs and trends, and carry out targeted promotional activities (see “Preference Based Advertising” above). We may use your non-PII by itself or aggregate it with information we have obtained from others to produce research reports and other information and data about online shopping for participating merchants and other customers, as well as media and other interested parties.
6. SECURING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We maintain appropriate and commercially reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical measures in order to protect your personal information. Unfortunately, however, since the internet is not a 100% secure environment, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. We cannot guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. By accessing the website you acknowledge and accept this risk.
7. ACCESSING AND UPDATING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
If your personal information changes in any way or you realize the information you provided to us contains errors or is incomplete, we invite you to supplement, correct or update your information as soon as possible. You can request changes or access to your information by contacting us.
8. UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We may update or change this Policy from time to time, with or without any advance notice. The date of the last change or update to this Policy shall be noted at the end of this Policy, and any changes made will be effective upon posting of the revised version. If there are material changes in the way we handle your PII, or to the Policy itself, including changes to the Preference Based Advertising practices set forth above, we will notify you using more direct means, at our discretion ? either through displaying a notice on our website or by sending you an email, so that you may review the changed terms prior to continuing to use our website. We encourage you to check this Policy whenever you use our website and services to understand how your personal information is used.
9. ACCEPTANCE
Your use of our website, including any dispute concerning privacy, is subject to this Policy as well as to our Terms of Use and Terms of Service for the website.
BY USING OUR WEBSITE, YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE PRACTICES SET OUT IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY.
Please be aware that as we may update this Policy from time to time, and your continued use of any portion of our website following an updated posting of this Policy will constitute your acceptance of any changes made to it.
10. CONTACT US
If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Who we share your data with
If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where your data is sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.