FAQ
PRIVACY
POLICY - COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
This site
is owned and operated by Bootup Computer Services Ltd (BootUp). Your privacy on the Internet is
of the utmost importance to us. At BootUp, 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
BootUp GATHERS AND TRACKS
BootUp
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
BootUp 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 BootUp 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 BootUp divulge any information about an individual user to a third
party.
BootUp
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:
Privacy
Policy Sample
The
following is a list of different policies which can be edited to remove
the parts of the policy that are not needed. You should also add
anything to this policy template that you
may have on your site.
1.
Electronic newsletters policy (Dispatches)
We will
offer a free electronic newsletter to users. BootUp 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. BootUp 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
BootUp
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.
Privacy
Policy Template changes
The
policy clause about children below is becoming more important as it is
nearly impossible to tell the age of any visitor. We recommend adding
this sample line to all your forms that request information.
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
BootUp
tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we
do not correlate this information with data about individual users.
BootUp 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).
BootUp
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. BootUp 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
How
the information you gather is used if relevent.
USE OF
INFORMATION
BootUp
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. BootUp 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.
BootUp
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
BootUp
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
BootUp
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
BootUp. 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.
]
|
