This
site is owned and operated
by Influence Internet.
Your privacy on the Internet
is of the utmost importance
to us. At Influence Internet,
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 Influence
Internet gathers and
keeps track of.
Influence Internet 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
Influence Internet
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
Influence Internet
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
Influence Internet
divulge any information
about an individual
user to a third party.
Influence
Internet Gathers User Information
In The Following
Processes:
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. Influence Internet 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. Influence Internet 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
Influence Internet 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.
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.
Influence Internet tracks user traffic patterns
throughout all of our sites. However, we do not
correlate this information with data about individual
users. Influence Internet 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).
Influence Internet 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.
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. Influence
Internet 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.
Influence Internet 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. Influence Internet 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.
Influence Internet 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.
Influence Internet 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.
Influence Internet 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.
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
By using this site, you consent to the collection
and use of this information by Influence Internet.
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.
return
to top of page
