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Privacy
Policy
There are a number
of places on our Web sites where we ask for your e-mail address.
This is for our own internal use. We promise not to sell your
e-mail address to any outside party or to drive you crazy
with spam.
Forester Communications
is committed to safeguarding your privacy online. Please read
the following policy to understand how your personal information
will be treated as you make full use of our many offerings.
This policy may change from time to time so please check back
periodically.
This policy will
let you know:
- What
personally identifiable information of yours is collected
- What
cookies are and how they are used
- How
your information is used
- Who
is collecting your information
- With
whom your information may be shared
- What
choices are available to you regarding collection, use,
and distribution of your information
- How
you can access or update your information
- How
Forester Communications treats your personal financial
information
- The
kind of security precautions that are in place to protect
the loss, misuse, or alteration of your information
- How
Forester Communications protects children's privacy
What
personally identifiable information does Forester Communications
collect from me?
Forester Communications
collects information in several ways from different parts
of our network of Web sites.
Some personal
information is gathered when you register. During registration,
Forester Communications asks for your name, email address,
and other personal information. The more information you
volunteer (and the more accurate it is), the better we are
able to customize your experience. Once you register you
are no longer anonymous to Forester Communications and are
able to take full advantage of Forester Communications'
many offerings.
In addition to
registration we may ask you for personal information at
other times, including (but not limited to) when you enter
a contest or promotion sponsored by Forester Communications
and/or our many partners; when you make a purchase at Forester
Communications' store and when you report a problem with
one of our sites or services. Forester Communications also
occasionally asks users to complete surveys that we use
for internal research. Wherever Forester Communications
collects personal information we make an effort to include
a link to this Privacy Policy on that page.
What
are cookies and how does Forester Communications use them?
As part of offering
and providing customizable and personalized services, Forester
Communications may use cookies to store and sometimes track
your information. A cookie is a small amount of data that
is sent to your browser from a Web server and may be stored
on your computer's hard drive. If you choose to have Forester
Communications remember your user name and password we will
require that you accept cookies. (See "What are my choices
regarding collection, use, and distribution of my information?"
for more information on cookies.)
Generally, we
use cookies to:
Remind us of
who you are and to access your account information (stored
on our computers) in order to deliver to you a better and
more personalized service. Estimate our audience size. Each
browser accessing Forester Communications may be given a
cookie which is then used to determine the extent of repeat
usage, usage by a registered user versus by an unregistered
user, and to help target ads based on user interests and
behavior. Assist us to track visits to and business at the
Forester Communications store, and to process the items
in your shopping basket. Track your progress and number
of entries in some of our promotions and contests.
When a Forester
Communications-hosted promotion uses cookies, the information
written to the cookie may be used to track entries, submissions,
and status in award drawings; measure certain traffic patterns;
track the areas of Forester Communications' network of Web
sites you have visited; track the Web site through which
you came to Forester Communications and your visiting patterns
in the aggregate.
We use this research
to understand how our users' habits are similar or different
from one another so that we can make each new experience
on Forester Communications a better one. We may use this
information to better personalize the content, banners,
and promotions that you and other users will see on our
sites.
Advertising networks
that serve ads onto Forester Communications sites may also
use their own cookies.
Forester Communications
also collects IP addresses for system administration and
to report aggregate information to our advertisers.
How
does Forester Communications use my information?
Forester Communications'
primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide
you, the user, with a customized experience on our network
of sites. This includes personalization services, interactive
communications, online shopping and many other types of
services, most of which are completely free to you. In order
to provide services free of charge, we display advertisements.
By knowing a little about you, Forester Communications is
able to deliver more relevant advertisements and content,
and hence better service, to you.
In our role of
delivering targeted advertisements, Forester Communications
plays the middleman. Advertisers give us an advertisement
and tell us the type of audience they want to reach (for
example, males over 35 years old). Forester Communications
takes the advertisement and displays it to users meeting
that criteria. In this process, the advertiser never has
access to individual account information. Only Forester
Communications has access to individuals' accounts. This
kind of advertisement targeting is done with banner ads
as well as promotional email. You will only receive special
offers via email from Forester Communications if you have
indicated during registration that you would like to receive
them. You can change your preferences at any time.
Forester Communications
does internal research on our users' demographics, interests,
and behavior based on the information provided to us upon
registration, during a promotion, or from our server log
files. We do this to better understand and serve our users.
This research is compiled and analyzed on an aggregated
basis.
Who
is collecting information?
When you are
on a Forester Communications site and are asked for personal
information, you are sharing that information for use by
Forester Communications alone, unless it is specifically
stated otherwise. Some Forester Communications services
may be offered in conjunction with a partner company. In
order to provide this service to you, it may be necessary
for us to share your personal information with our partner
company. In such cases you will be notified prior to the
time of the data collection or transfer. If you do not want
your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the
transfer by not using that particular service.
Promotions that
run on Forester Communications may be sponsored by companies
other than Forester Communications or may be cosponsored
by Forester Communications and another company. Some or
all data collected during a promotion may be shared with
the sponsor. If data will be shared, you will be notified
prior to the time of data collection or transfer. You can
decide not to participate in the promotion if you don't
want your data to be shared. Currently, most Forester Communications
promotions are limited to US or North American residents.
Please be aware
that Forester Communications advertisers or Web sites that
have links on our site may collect personally identifiable
information about you. The information practices of those
Web sites linked to Forester Communications are not covered
by this privacy statement.
With
whom does Forester Communications share my information?
As a general
rule, Forester Communications will not disclose any of your
personally identifiable information except when we have
your permission or under special circumstances, such as
when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or
under the circumstances described below. The following describes
some of the ways that your information may be disclosed.
Business
Partners & Sponsors: Forester Communications
may disclose your personal information to business partners
or sponsors, but this is specifically described to you prior
to data collection or prior to transferring the data. Some
or all data collected during a Forester Communications promotion
may be shared with a sponsor. If personally identifying
data about you will be shared, we will tell you before we
collect or transfer the data.
Many promotions
offer opportunities to request additional information from
sponsors. By requesting more information, you give Forester
Communications permission to transfer your personal information
to the sponsor so they can fulfill your request. In many
instances, only your email address will be shared.
Forester
Communications Store: If you make a purchase
from a Forester Communications store the information obtained
during your visit to the store, and the information you
give such as your credit card number and contact information,
may be provided to a merchant if necessary to process your
transaction.
Third
Party Data & Data in the Aggregate: Under
confidentiality agreements, Forester Communications may
match user information with third party data. Also, Forester
Communications discloses aggregated user statistics (for
example, 45% of our users are female) in order to describe
our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other
third parties, and for other lawful purposes.
Other:
Forester Communications may also disclose user information
in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing
this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring
legal action against someone who may be causing injury to
or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally)
Forester Communications' rights or property, other Forester
Communications users, or anyone else that could be harmed
by such activities. Forester Communications may disclose
user information when we believe in good faith that the
law requires it.
What
are my choices regarding collection, use, and distribution
of my information?
If you indicated
upon registration that you are interested in receiving offers
or information from Forester Communications and our partners,
we may occasionally send you e-mail or postal mail about
products and services that we feel may be of interest to
you. Only Forester Communications (or agents working on
behalf of Forester Communications and under confidentiality
agreements) will send you these direct mailings and only
if you indicated that you do not object to these offers.
If you do not want to receive such mailings, simply tell
us when you give us your personal information.
Or, at any time
you can easily edit your Forester Communications registration
information to no longer receive such offers and mailings.
You will need your Forester Communications username and
password in order to access your Forester Communications
registration information.
On some types
of Forester Communications promotions, we will ask for your
email address in order to update you on your score, entries,
and status in award drawings. When you participate in these
types of promotions, you may automatically receive promotion-related
email. Occasionally these promotion-related email messages
may include targeted advertisements.
You also have
choices with respect to cookies. By modifying your browser
preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies,
to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies.
If you choose to reject all cookies you will be unable to
use those Forester Communications services that require
the use of cookies in order to participate. These services
may include (but are not limited to): special arrangements
with other sites, discussion groups, and the Forester Communications
store.
Forester Communications
does not sell or rent user information to anyone. We will
notify you at the time of data collection or transfer if
your data will be shared with a third party and you will
always have the option of not permitting the transfer. If
you do not wish to allow your data to be shared, you can
choose not to use a particular service or not to participate
in certain promotions or contests.
What
is Forester Communications' policy on allowing me to correct
and update my personally identifiable information?
You may edit
your Forester Communications registration information at
any time by using your Forester Communications username
and password.
How
does Forester Communications protect my personal financial
information?
Keeping your
personal financial information private is vitally important
to us. As with all personal information, Forester Communications
will never rent or sell your personal financial information.
Knowing that you use certain services or features may help
us to offer you better and more relevant content and advertisements.
But as with all personally identifiable information, we
do not make this available to any third parties without
your permission.
Please note that
there may be places on the Forester Communications network
of Web sites where you can transmit credit card information
in order to complete a purchase transaction or for verification
purposes. Any time we ask for a credit card number we transmit
that credit card number in an encrypted format. We use industry-standard,
SSL (secure socket layer) encryption.
What
security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse,
or alteration of my information?
Your Forester
Communications registration information is password-protected
so that you and only you have access to this personal information.
You may edit your Forester Communications registration information
by using your Forester Communications username and password.
We recommend
that you do not divulge your password to anyone. Forester
Communications will never ask you for your password in an
unsolicited phone call or in an unsolicited email. We recommend
that you should not ask Forester Communications to remember
your username or password on a computer that can be accessed
by others. This is to ensure that others cannot access your
personal information and correspondence if you share a computer
with someone else or are using a computer in a public place
like a library or Internet cafe.
Unfortunately,
no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed
to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect
your personal information, Forester Communications cannot
ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit
to us or from our online products or services, and you do
so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission,
we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.
What
about children's privacy?
Naturally, the
safety of children is very important to us. Children should
always ask a parent for permission before sending personal
information to Forester Communications, or to anyone online
for that matter. Forester Communications does not share
personal information about users under the age of 13 with
third parties and we do not sell or rent personal information
about any of our users, regardless of age. In addition,
Forester Communications will not send any direct email offers
to users who indicate they are under the age of 13 without
first obtaining their parents' permission.
What
else should I know about my privacy?
Please keep in
mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information
online--for example on message boards, through email, or
in chat areas--that information can be collected and used
by others. In short, if you post personal information online
that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited
messages from other parties in return.
Ultimately, you
are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your
passwords and/or any registration information. Please be
careful and responsible whenever you're online.
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