PRIVACY POLICY
- COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
This site is owned and
operated by SafeTick.com (SafeTick). Your privacy on the Internet
is of the utmost importance to us. At SafeTick, we want to make your
experience online satisfying and safe.
Because we gather certain
types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand
our policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and
use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information
we gather and how we use it.
INFORMATION SAFETICK GATHERS
AND TRACKS
SafeTick gathers two types
of information about users:
* Information that users
provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary
submissions to receive our electronic newsletters, to participate
in our message boards or forums, to email a friend, and from participation
in polls and surveys:
* Information SafeTick
gathers through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by
tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows
us to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to help our
advertisers and sponsors better understand the demographics of our
audience. Because SafeTick derives its revenue mainly from sponsorships
and advertising, providing such aggregated demographic data is essential
to keeping our service free to users. Under no circumstances does
SafeTick divulge any information about an individual user to a third
party.
SafeTick Gathers User Information
In The Following Processes:
Optional Voluntary Information
We offer the following
free services, which require some type of voluntary submission of
personal information by users:
1. Electronic newsletters
policy (Dispatches)
We will offer a free electronic
newsletter to users. SafeTick gathers the email addresses of users
who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing
list by following the link provided in every newsletter that points
users to the subscription management page. Users can also subscribe
to the newsletters at the time of registration.
2. Message boards/forums
policy
Users of the site's Message
Boards and Forums must register separately for these services (both
are free of charge) in order to post messages, although they needn't
register to visit the site. During registration the user is required
to supply a username, password, and email address.
3. "E-mail this to
a friend" policy
Our site users can choose
to electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else
by clicking "e-mail this to a friend". The user must provide
their email address, as well as that of the recipient. This information
is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to
let the recipient know who sent the email. The information is not
used for any other purpose.
4. Polling
We may offer interactive
polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other
users and see what our audience thinks about important issues. Opinions
or other responses to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable
to any particular user. SafeTick may use a system to "tag"
users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular
question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual
users.
5. Surveys
SafeTick may occasionally
conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience.
We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these
surveys with our sponsors, advertisers and partners. We never share
any of this information about specific individuals with any third
party.
Children
Consistent with the Federal
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will
never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone
under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.
Usage tracking
SafeTick tracks user traffic
patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not correlate
this information with data about individual users. SafeTick does break
down overall usage statistics according to a user's domain name, browser
type, and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string
(information contained in every user's browser).
SafeTick sometimes tracks
and catalogs the search terms that users enter in our Search function,
but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use
tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like
and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what
individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall.
This helps us continue to build a better service for you.
Cookies
We may place a text file
called a "cookie" in the browser files of your computer.
The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information although it
will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that
you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal
information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself.
A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created
by other sites. SafeTick uses cookies to track user traffic patterns
(as described above). Our advertising system delivers a one-time cookie
to better track ad impressions and click rates.
You can refuse cookies
by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to
warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message
with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use
this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in
message boards, forums, polling and surveys.
Privacy Policy Use
How the information you
gather is used if relevent.
USE OF INFORMATION
SafeTick uses any information
voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in our
network of sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements
on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests
of our users.
As stated above, we use
information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic
newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls, surveys,
message boards, and forums. We send out newsletters to subscribers
on a regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally
send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly
interested in something we are doing. SafeTick never shares newsletter
mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors
or partners.
When we use tracking information
to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based
on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read,
but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue
to build a better service for you. We track search terms entered in
Search function as one of many measures of what interests our users.
But we don't track which terms a particular user enters.
SafeTick creates aggregate
reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers,
sponsors and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more
effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are
pertinent to their needs. Because we don't track the usage patterns
of individual users, an advertiser or sponsor will never know that
a specific user clicked their ad. We will not disclose any information
about any individual user except to comply with applicable law or
valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users
or the public.
SHARING OF THE INFORMATION
SafeTick uses the above-described
information to tailor our content to suit your needs and help our
advertisers better understand our audience's demographics. This is
essential to keeping our service free. We will not share information
about individual users with any third party, except to comply with
applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety
of our users or the public.
SECURITY
SafeTick operates secure
data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password
protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically
reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals
have access to the information provided by our customers.
OPT-OUT POLICY
We give users options wherever
necessary and practical. Such choices include:
* Opting not to register
to receive our electronic newsletters.
* Opting not to participate
in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need
to gather any personally identifiable information from our users
YOUR CONSENT
By using this site, you
consent to the collection and use of this information by SafeTick.
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes
on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect,
how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.