PRIVACY POLICY - COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
This site is owned and operated by Worldwide Link Inc. Your privacy on
the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At Worldwide Link Inc., 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 WORLDWIDE LINK INC. GATHERS AND TRACKS
Worldwide Link Inc. 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 Worldwide Link Inc. 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. Under no circumstances does Worldwide Link
Inc. divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.
Worldwide Link Inc. 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. Worldwide Link
Inc. 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. Worldwide Link Inc. 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
Worldwide Link Inc. 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
Worldwide Link Inc. tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our
sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual
users. Worldwide Link Inc. 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).
Worldwide Link Inc. 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. Worldwide Link
Inc. 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
USE OF INFORMATION
Worldwide Link Inc. 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. Worldwide Link Inc. 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.
Worldwide Link Inc. 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
Worldwide Link Inc. uses the above-described information to tailor our
content to suit your needs and help our advertisers better understand our
audience's demographics. 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
Worldwide Link Inc. 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 Worldwide Link Inc. 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.
