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.

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