|
PRIVACY POLICY
Updated November 18, 2000
TheoQuest.com,
hereinafter referred to as "TheoQuest.com," is committed to
protecting your privacy online. You are important to us, so
we take special care to maintain your trust. In order to fully
understand your rights, we encourage you to read this Privacy
Statement and to consult our Terms of Service. The following
Privacy Statement is provided to help you understand how your
personal information will be treated as you visit our Web site
and use our services. This policy may change from time to time
so please check back periodically.
When does TheoQuest.com collect my personally identifiable
information?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TheoQuest.com gathers information from users and visitors
primarily in four ways: 1) voluntary registration, 2)
uploading content, 3) cookie technology, and 4) IP addresses.
Wherever we collect personal information, we make an effort
to include a link to this Privacy Statement on that page.
1) Registration. When you register as a user of TheoQuest.com,
we collect information that helps us to identify you.
The more information you provide, the better we are able
to customize our services and your experience to suit
your needs and preferences. At the initial registration
screen we ask for your name, a user name, password, email
address, and address and other information. Other specific
services available through our site may have additional
registration requirements and may require you to provide
additional information. On occasion, we may also collect
additional personal information if you choose to participate
in our programs, submit your own content, or complete
a survey form.
2) Uploading Content. Users may upload or post content
onto TheoQuest.com's site to share this content with other
users of our service. If any public content uploaded or
posted by you contains any of your personal information,
that information will become public once it is posted
on the TheoQuest.com Web service.
3) Cookies. We use cookies as a fundamental part of the
technology that allows TheoQuest.com to function. We also
use them to store and track your preferences in order
to provide you with a more personalized user experience.
A cookie is a message that is sent to your browser from
a Web server and stored on your computer's hard drive.
Most Internet sites use cookies. You can set your browser
preferences to reject all cookies (see below), but then
you will not be able to use TheoQuest.com to its full
potential. We also use cookies that contain no personal
information at all. These cookies help us estimate our
audience size and determine which areas of the TheoQuest.com
Web site are the most popular. The privacy policy does
not cover the use of cookies by advertisers (if any) on
TheoQuest.com, and some of these advertisements may contain
cookies. While TheoQuest.com has control of cookies on
other parts of the Web site and service, the advertising
company may collect cookies received with advertising,
and TheoQuest.com does not have access to this information.
4. IP Address. An IP address is a number that is assigned
to your computer automatically when you use the Internet.
When you visit a particular Web page in the TheoQuest.com
Web site, our servers log your IP address. We may log
IP addresses for the purposes of systems administration
or to gather and/or report information in aggregate form.
We also use IP addresses to monitor user traffic patterns
and site usage to help us further develop and improve
our Web site and our services. We do not link your IP
address to anything personally identifiable about you.
How is my personal information used?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Customized User Experience. TheoQuest.com gathers user
information to provide you with a personalized user experience.
For instance, your personal information enables us to
provide you with access to your files and other information
uploaded or stored by you on or through our service, as
well as services we think will be of interest to you.
We review our users' preferences, demographics, traffic
patterns, and other information in the aggregate so that
we can better understand who our users are and what features
and services they want.
Advertising. Should TheoQuest.com decide at some time
to include advertising on its site, tracking user preferences
also helps us serve you with targeted advertising. Targeted
advertisements are probably more interesting to you and
are also more productive for our advertisers. For example,
if an advertiser wants to offer users a series of celestial
images, we can target an advertisement or offer to users
on TheoQuest.com who have indicated their interest in
astronomy by accessing or downloading celestial images
from our site. Please note that we do not share your personally
identifiable information with our advertisers. We act
as the middleman between you and the advertisers that
want to reach you.
Communication. TheoQuest.com will also use your email
address, with your permission, to send you various forms
of communication. For example, when someone shares a file
with you, they may elect to have an email automatically
sent to notify you (e.g., Thoughts of the Day). TheoQuest.com
will notify its users of any important information related
to the overall functioning of TheoQuest.com's programs.
TheoQuest.com will also periodically send emails to inform
users of new programs or projects funded by TheoQuest.com.
Users may choose to opt-out of this feature by sending
a request to opt-out to mailings@TheoQuest.com.
Other services. TheoQuest.com collects some information
in specific applications or interactions within TheoQuest.com.
These include:
* Suggestion Box. The information in the suggestion box
is requested to assist us in identifying opportunities
to improve TheoQuest.com programs and services. It also
provides context for any type of feedback you may provide.
In most instances, a TheoQuest.com staff member may contact
you with thanks or answers to any questions you may pose,
which is why the email address is required. This information
is not used in any other manner.
* Survey. This information is gathered to help us improve
our programs. The email address here is not required;
please provide it only if you are interested in being
contacted and in potentially serving as a reference. The
survey information is only analyzed in aggregate and is
not connected to any other individual information.
Who does TheoQuest.com share information with?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
We may share user information in order to provide you
with a more integrated and customized user experience
within our site. In general, we will not disclose your
personally identifiable information to third parties except
to the extent necessary to provide you with a service
you have explicitly requested (such as the Auto Login
Service), or under circumstances required by law. We will
disclose your personally identifiable information when
we believe in good faith that any applicable law, regulation,
or legal process requires it, or where we believe disclosure
is necessary to protect or enforce our rights or the rights
of another user. We also disclose aggregated user statistics
in order to describe our services and reach to prospective
partners, advertisers, and other third parties. However
aggregate data is not traceable to you specifically.
Specific uses of personal information that vary from this
Privacy Statement (if any) may be found in the privacy
policies applicable to that particular service. To the
extent that you are notified of uses of your personally
identifiable information that are different from those
described in this Privacy Statement during your enrollment
in any particular service or promotion, the uses of which
you are specifically notified will govern that service
or promotion. Please be on the lookout for terms of service
and privacy statements applicable to the services for
which you sign-up or participate in. Please be aware,
however, that we do not control the privacy policies of
our advertisers (if any) and other third party sites to
which we provide links. If you click-through a link and
submit your information to a third party, you will be
subject to their own privacy policies. We assume no responsibility
or liability for these third party policies or the actions
of non-affiliated third parties.
How does TheoQuest.com ensure the security of my personal
information?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your individual account(s) are protected by a user name
and password. We strongly recommend that you memorize
this information and not write it down anywhere. As an
added level of protection for you, we do not have access
to your password at TheoQuest.com. Only a few TheoQuest.com
staff members have access to our servers, which are protected
by passwords that are changed regularly. All employees
are legally bound from sharing any sensitive material
and regularly notified of this primary obligation.
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, TheoQuest.com
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. This includes constant monitoring of our servers
and regular security reviews.
What are my options to control the use of my personal
information?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may cancel your registration with TheoQuest.com and/or
request the removal of your personal information from
our usership records by sending and email to the TheoQuest.com
staff. We will send a return email to confirm your request.
After you respond, we will remove your information from
our database. Residual information may remain in our archives
and records, but this information will not be used for
a commercial or other purposes. We reserve the right to
maintain information on registered users who have violated
our Terms of Service or who have had their access to TheoQuest.com
blocked in order to detect repeat offenders.
What is TheoQuest.com's policy on allowing me to update,
correct, or delete my personally identifiable information?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your TheoQuest.com account can be amended, deleted, or deactivated
but doing so may result in your not being able to access some
portions of the TheoQuest.com service, including information
you may have saved there. Please contact the TheoQuest.com staff
for further instructions about deleting or deactivating your
TheoQuest.com account. Residual information breaches are noted
and analyzed on a case-by-case basis. Write to: members@theoquest.com
to make your wishes known and/or activate this process.
What else should I know about my privacy?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You should be aware that if you voluntarily disclose personal
information online in a public area, that information
might be collected and used by others. We do not control
the actions of our visitors or our users. If you disclose
personal information in any content uploaded or posted
by you, or in a chat session, bulletin board, or any other
publicly accessible place on the TheoQuest.com site, you
do so at your own risk and you understand that your submitted
information may be collected and used by others to send
you unsolicited messages, advertisements, or for other
purposes.
Please note that we do not control the privacy policies
of our merchant partners (if any), advertisers or other
third party sites to which we provide banner ads and links.
We assume no responsibility or liability for these third
party policies or the actions of non-affiliated third
parties.
Please remember that protection of your privacy begins
with you. You are solely responsible for maintaining the
secrecy of any password you use to register, and you should
always exercise caution whenever disclosing information
online. TheoQuest.com will never ask you for your password
in an unsolicited phone call or in an unsolicited email.
Also remember to sign out of your TheoQuest.com account
and close your browser window when you have finished your
work. 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.
Acceptance of Privacy Statement
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By using the TheoQuest.com site and services, you signify
your acceptance of this Privacy Statement. If you do not
agree or are not comfortable with any policy described
in this Privacy Statement, your only remedy is to discontinue
use of the TheoQuest.com site and services. We reserve
the right to modify this Privacy Statement at any time.
If we change our policy, we will post those changes on
our site so that you are always aware of what information
we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances
we disclose it. TheoQuest.com will request your permission
before changing our policy on how we use your personal
information. Your continued use of any portion of the
TheoQuest.com site following notification or posting of
other types of changes to the privacy policy will constitute
your acceptance of those changes. This privacy policy
was last updated on November 17, 2000.
Please direct any questions regarding this policy or our practices
to privacypolicy@TheoQuest.com.
|
|
|
 |
