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COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
This site is owned and operated by MaddAboutCars.org. Your privacy on the Internet
is of the utmost importance to us. At MaddAboutCars.org, 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 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.
Definition of the Information MaddAboutCars.org gathers and keeps track of.
MaddAboutCars.org 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 MaddAboutCars.org 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 MaddAboutCars.org
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 MaddAboutCars.org divulge any information about an individual user to a third
party.
MaddAboutCars.org 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 (Dispatches)
We will offer a free electronic newsletter to users. MaddAboutCars.org 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
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" Service
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. MaddAboutCars.org 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
MaddAboutCars.org 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
MaddAboutCars.org tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However,
we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. MaddAboutCars.org
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).
MaddAboutCars.org 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. MaddAboutCars.org 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.
USE OF INFORMATION
MaddAboutCars.org 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.
MaddAboutCars.org 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.
MaddAboutCars.org 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
MaddAboutCars.org 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
MaddAboutCars.org 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
MaddAboutCars.org. 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.
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