Our Privacy
Policy
This
site is owned and operated by
KAMIND Associates, Inc. Your privacy on the Internet is of the
utmost importance to us. At
KAMIND Associates,
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.
INFORMATION KAMIND
Associates, Inc GATHERS AND TRACKS
KAMIND
Associates gathers two types of information
about users:
-
Information
that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary
submissions to receive our electronic Subsletters, to participate in our
message boards or forums, to email a friend, and from participation in polls
and surveys:
-
Information KAMIND
Associates 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 KAMIND Associates, Inc. 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 KAMIND Associates, Inc. divulge any information about an individual
user to a third party.
KAMIND
Associates 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 Subsletters (Dispatches)
We
will offer a free electronic Subsletter to users. KAMIND Associates, Inc.
gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may
remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in
every Subsletter that points users to the subscription management page. Users
can also subscribe to the Subsletters at the time of registration.
2.
Message boards/forums/Help Desk
Users
of the site's Message Boards, Forums and help Desk 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 and
agree to site terms and conditions of operation.
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. KAMIND Associates, Inc. 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
KAMIND
Associates 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
KAMIND Associates tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our
sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual
users. KAM 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).
KAMIND
Associates 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. KAMIND Associates, Inc. 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
KAMIND Associates, Inc. uses any information voluntarily given by our
users to enhance their experience in our network of sites, and software
products, 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 Subsletters and to enable users to participate in polls,
surveys, message boards, and forums. We send out Subsletters to subscribers on
a regular schedule (depending on the Subsletter), and occasionally send out
special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in
something we are doing. KAMIND Associates, Inc. never shares Subsletter 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.
KAMIND
Associates 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
KAMIND
Associates 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
KAMIND
Associates 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 Subsletters.
-
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 KAMIND Associates, Inc. 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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