- Kinds of Information: There are two kinds of information we can obtain about you:
- a) Personal Information: Personal Information is any information that personally identifies you. It can be your first and last name, your home address, your telephone number, age, gender or your e-mail address. Personal information is collected when users voluntarily register for membership services. Sometimes this Personal Information is needed to receive announcements regarding our Web site and projects, enter contests and participate in other promotional opportunities provided on our Web site. Other times, we may collect this information to help target advertising and marketing. We may also collect e-mail addresses from users who send us support mail or request technical or other help. This information enables us to improve our Web site in order to make your On-line visits more productive and enjoyable. The choice is yours – you do not have to register. If we are asking for optional information, we will inform you so you know you can skip it if you want.
- b) Aggregate Information: Aggregate Information is anonymous data that we use to diagnose problems on our Web site’s servers, administer our Web site, and to help improve the quality of our Web pages. It may be your IP address (a number that’s automatically assigned to your computer whenever you’re surfing the Internet), browser type (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer), and domain (e.g., “XYZ.com”). We do this in the background so it does not interrupt your cruising speed. We may share Aggregate Information with third parties. None of this information is connected with Personal Information. So, when you enter our site, you are anonymous and will remain that way unless you choose otherwise.
- Use of Information: We may use the Personal Information we collect to improve the content of our Web site; to customize the content and/or layout of our Web site for each individual user; to notify users about updates to our Web site or promotional offers or opportunities that we believe will be of interest to users; and to investigate violations of our terms and conditions of use. We may also share Personal Information with consultants and related companies for internal business or research purposes.
- Cookies: A cookie is a small data file that Web sites store on your hard drive when you visit them. Cookies allow us to determine which areas and features of our Web site are most popular by measuring user activity, and to improve your user experience by remembering your passwords and viewing preferences, which allows you to visit various parts of our Web site without re-registering. We may also use cookies when we conduct polls, surveys, chat rooms and contests to limit multiple responses and registrations.
- Search Terms: As a measure of user interest, we may track search terms that are entered into our Web site’s search features. Search data and user-provided information help to improve the relevancy of search results by learning user preferences and prioritizing search results accordingly. The intended result is a more efficient search feature for visitors to our Web site.
- Surveys and Registration Forms: Our Web site may post surveys and registration forms in which we ask for Personal Information. We may use this information to send you information about our Web site and programs, and to give to our third parties who may send you information about their products and services and promotional material.
- Sweepstakes and Contests: We may from time to time run sweepstakes and contests in which we ask for Personal Information such as your name, e-mail address or telephone number. That’s so we can let you know if you win. Sometimes we request additional Personal Information such as your age and gender. And once in a while we require this additional information in exchange for allowing you to enter the contest. We may use the contest entry information that we collect to notify you if you are a winner, send you information about our Web site and programs or give to third parties who may send you information about their products and services and promotional material. Your participation in any such sweepstakes or contest will be subject to the official rules and regulations of such sweepstakes or contest.
- Membership Services: When you register to use membership services, we may share your registration information with third parties. For instance, the Personal Information that you provide to bulletin boards may be shared with the companies that provide those services in order to retrieve your password when you want to log on to use such services (see Cookies). You do not have to register your Personal Information with our Web site, but if you choose not to, certain services will not be available to you.
- Electronic Newsletters: We may offer free, electronic announcement(s). We will not divulge your membership in a newsletter mailing list to any third parties, including advertisers or partners. If you subscribe to one of our e-mail newsletters, and then decide you do not want to continue receiving such e-mail newsletter, please send an e-mail to webmaster@waterloomedia.com and tell us that you no longer want to continue receiving such e-mail newsletter.
- Opt Out: If we ask you for Personal Information, we will tell you if we intend to share it with others. We will provide you with a way to tell us that you don’t want us to share the information or if you do not want to receive promotional and/or marketing information about products, services, and offerings from us and/or any third parties. Let us know and we will use your name and address only to tell you if you win a contest or sweepstakes.
- Children And Privacy: We encourage parents and guardians to spend time with their children On-line, and to be familiar with the sites their children visit. At various places on our Web site, we ask you for your age and/or date of birth. We rely on our users to be truthful in responding to these questions.
- a) Individuals Under 13: No information should be submitted to or posted on our Web site by users under the age of 13. Individuals under the age of 13 are not allowed to become registered users of our Web sites or participate in any sweepstakes or contests.
- b) Individuals 13 through 17: If an individual between the ages of 13 and 17 submits or posts information to our Web site, we may collect such information (including personally identifying information). This information may be used for marketing and promotional purposes by us and may, with the user’s permission, be shared with pre-screened third parties. If a user or his/her parent or guardian changes his/her mind with respect to such use, that user, parent or guardian may stop that use either by e-mail request or by modifying his/her registration information On-line.
- Subpoenas and Law Enforcement Agencies: We reserve the right to cooperate with government and law enforcement agencies engaged in investigations of activities that are, or which we believe may be, illegal. Further, we may share your Personal Information with such agencies if we believe that a crime or any act that endangers the health and safety of others may have been or may be committed. We may also share your Personal Information in response to an appropriate subpoena.
- Community Areas: Information posted to bulletin boards is available to the general public. Please use caution when posting any such information and be particularly careful not to provide any personally identifying information while using bulletin or message boards. Users of bulletin and message boards must follow acceptable standards of behavior when posting messages online. We reserve the right to, but are not obligated to, refuse or delete any content that in our sole discretion is considered inappropriate.
- Links To Other Sites: When you visit our site, you may be directed to other sites outside our service. These sites may not follow the same privacy policies that we do. These other sites may send their own cookies to users, collect data, or solicit Personal Information in such a way that may be inconsistent with our privacy policy. These other sites are not subject to our privacy policy and we are not responsible for the privacy policies for these other sites, nor for the use of any information that these sites may collect. We do not control the content that appears on these sites. Such sites may contain information that content providers independent of us have created, maintained, published, posted or otherwise made available. The use of any information or materials that you may access at these external sites is purely voluntary. You should not rely on their content without independent and thorough review of the accuracy, completeness, effectiveness, timeliness and correct sequencing. These external sites may also refer to specific commercial products, processes, or services by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer or otherwise. Unless we have provided explicit authority, such references in no way indicate our endorsement, recommendation or preference. This section should be read in conjunction with the full Terms of Use.
- Deleting or Modifying Your Information: If you’ve given us Personal Information in the past and want to delete or update it, please do so under your information on the web site by logging in or send an e-mail to webmaster@waterloomedia.com and put “Delete Information” in the subject matter line and then tell us in the body of the e-mail that you want your information deleted; or Put “Update information” in the subject matter line and then provide your updated information in the body of the your e-mail.
- Security of Private Information: Any Personal Information you give us is kept in secure files. Access is limited to the few employees who have a need to know. We would like to tell you that your information is as safe with us as it is in your head, but, as crackers/hackers have proved worldwide, no transmission of data over the Internet is guaranteed to be completely secure. It may be possible for third parties who are not under our control to intercept or access transmissions or private communications unlawfully. While we strive to protect your Personal Information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. Any such transmission is done at your own risk. The most any Web site can do is make reasonable efforts, which is what we do, to protect your information from theft, misuse and alteration.
- Feedback and E-mail: Our Web site has a link to a “feedback” e-mail form so you can comment, complain, make suggestions, and ask questions. Your e-mail address is required on this form so we can answer your questions, and we want your name, too, so we can address our answer in a mannerly way. We may also track your browser type and referring URL to better diagnose technical issues you may be having. We do not share this information with third parties and we will use it only to answer your correspondence.