Updated 4/11/2009
The short version:
The W™ Message Board does not currently sell your personal
information. Our advertisers and affiliate programs may be tracking
you if you access their sites - please check the privacy
policies of individual sites if you have any questions about their
policies.
We currently use Google's Adsense
for text links on pages that are accessed by unregistered users.
Google's privacy policy can be accessed at http://www.google.com/privacy.html
Linkshare provides our affiliate
programs for the following merchants: Apple iTunes; Columbia
House.com; Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation; Hickory Farms;
ICE.com Inc.; Linkshare Referral Prg; PETCO.com; Sierra Club;
SonyMusicStore.com; Wal-Mart.com USA, LLC; WildGames by WildTangent,
Inc. You can access Linkshare's privacy policy at http://www.linkshare.com/home/privacy.shtml.
The W™ Message Board is also using Google Analytics to create reports based on browser type, usage, loyalty, etc. To find out more about Google Analytics please click over to http://google.com/analytics. In order to block Google Analytics from collecting information during your visits, please block their cookies on your browser.
This site allows demographic information collection by Quantcast. To see their privacy policy, please visit http://www.quantcast.com/docs/display/legal/Privacy+Policy. To block this collection, add "quantserve.com" to your blocked domains.
The Long version
(with thanks to PerfectlyPrivate.com's privacy policy template
located at http://www.perfectlyprivate.com/easy_template.shtml)
Introduction The W™
Message Board respects each individual's right to personal
privacy. We will collect and use information through our Web
site only in the ways disclosed in this statement. This
statement applies solely to information collected at The W™
Message Board's Web site.
Part I. Information
Collection The W™ Message Board collects information
through our Web site at several points. We collect the
following information about primary visitors: IP address, time
visited and referring hyperlink.
We may also collect birthdates,
location, AOL Instant Messenger screen name, ICQ account number, and
a short biography if the user decides to put these in their user
profile.
The W™ Message Board does
not actively market to children, and we never knowingly ask a child
under 13 to divulge personal information.
We collect this information
through registration forms and automatic logging files, and so on.
To access our message board, an acknowledgement that the user is
over 16 years old is mandatory because we do not want to market to
children. Other information we request is optional.
We employ cookies. A cookie is
a small text file that our Web server places on a user's
computer hard drive to be a unique identifier. Cookies enable The W™
Message Board to track usage patterns and deliver customized content
to users. We don't use them for this purpose, however. Our
cookies contain your log-in information. Our cookies do not collect
personally identifiable information.
Banner advertising appearing on
our Web site may collect information. Please refer to Google's
privacy policy for information regarding what is collected via their
Adsense banner advertisements. You can access Google's privacy policy
at http://www.google.com/privacy.html
Part
II. Information Usage. The information collected
by The W™ Message Board will not be used, except when administrators
reset passwords for users in which case the email account (if provided)
would be used to communicate these changes.
Registered users will not receive
additional announcements from us about products, services, special
deals, or a newsletter via email.
The information we collect will
not be used to create customer profiles based on browsing or
purchasing history. We will not supplement information
collected at our Web site with data from other sources.
We will not share data with third
parties, except where demanded by law. The exception to this is that
when we apply to an affiliate program, we may speak in general terms
about the overall make-up of the site. Information such as “In
general, we have male users between 18-35” may be provided, for
example.
We also share general information about referring links through our "Most
Recent Referrals" page as well as statistics about page accesses through
referring links from search engines and other websites.
We offer links to other Web
sites. Please note: When you click on links to other Web sites,
we encourage you to read their privacy policies. Their
standards may differ from ours. Be prepared to be bored - they
are generally not at all interesting.
We are not responsible for the content of sites mentioned in outbound links, nor are we responsible for the content of any site which links to us.
Our Web site offers message
boards. Please be advised that information posted in these
venues becomes public knowledge.
If our policy on information
collection or uses changes, will advise you by posting an
announcement to the message board. You will need to acknowledge that
you have read it before continuing to use the message board.
Part
III. Access to Information Users may access
their own personal information and contact us about inaccuracies they
may find. Please use the private message feature to contact an
Administrator for more details. Users may delete their account
information from our database by contacting an Administrator. Please
note that posts to the message board may or may not be removed at the
administrators' discretion.
Part
IV. Problem Resolution If problems arise, users may
contact The W™ Message Board via e-mail at
boardissues@the-w.com. We make a best effort to resolve
disputes within 60 days. This is a hobby site currently - the
Administrators have full-time employment and families. The private
message feature on the board will generally receive a response within
48 hours unless the admin contacted is not able to reach the site.
This occasionally happens during vacations. If you have not received
any word back from an admnistrator within 48 hours, please post to
the "the-w.com Site Feedback" forum and ask to be
referred to a moderator who can address your issue.
Part V. Data Storage and
Security The W™ Message Board passes your requests in
plain text over the internet. Please note that no security is used to
pass your password from your client machine to the server. It is
recommended that you do not use a password that you also use on
secured sites in case someone is able to capture the password that
you are using for this site.
The web logs are not publically
available. The logs are only available on the web server, and at this
time the server is not included on a backup schedule. In the event of
a disk failure, all logs would be lost. Only the MySQL database that
contains user information, posts, threads, referrals, and other
message board related data are included on a nightly backup. These
backups are located on three different machines with Geographic
seperation, but there is no guarantee of physical security to one of
the machines. No one should place confidential information on The W™ Message Board at any time.
Part VI. Final Thoughts
If you have specific questions or
concerns about the privacy policy, please contact one of the
administrators and we will grudgingly talk to you about it.
To contact us by snail mail: send c/o C.R. Zimmerman, PO Box 14911, Minneapolis, MN, 55414-0911
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