December 1, 2004

WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT

There are many places at our sites where you can share your personal information with us, and where you can communicate with others.


Communications with Us. We have features where you can submit information to us (such as when contacting us with a question or feedback). We may retain your emails and other information you submit to us for our internal purposes, and to help us to serve you better.

Interactive and Community Features. Our sites may offer interactive and community features, such as message boards, chat, email accounts, short message service (SMS), instant messaging, profiles, personal homepages, etc. All information posted or sent through these features may be publicly available, and you should be aware that when you voluntarily disclose personal information (e.g., user name, email address, phone number) through these features, that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited communications from other people. By accessing these features and disclosing personal information, you affirmatively consent to the distribution of your personal information as described above. Users' posts may be publicly and/or internally associated with their profiles/screen-names. Users are solely responsible for the content of messages they post or send on public forums.

Contests, Sweepstakes and Surveys. We may also have contests, sweepstakes and surveys at our sites. When you enter or participate in them, we request contact information from you (such as your full name, email address, mailing address, and telephone number) and may also request demographic or profile information. We will use the information you provide for the purpose of conducting the promotion (for example, to contact you if you have won). We may also use the information to send you newsletters and other information we think may be of interest. Recipients of our mailings can unsubscribe by following instructions that may appear at the end of the email communication. Any personal information we collect may be associated with registration information. We may share aggregate information with others. We may sometimes partner with sponsors in offering contests, sweepstakes or surveys, and may share (provide and receive) information with them. By entering or participating in such contests, sweepstakes, and surveys, you affirmatively consent to our collection and use of your data.

AUTOMATIC DATA COLLECTION

Our web sites have features that automatically collect information from users to assist us in creating sites that honor our users' preferences and serve their interests and needs.

WITH WHOM YOUR INFORMATION IS SHARED

Information provided at sites that we host or manage may be shared with appropriate parties. As with other third parties, we are not responsible for how the users handle the data once they receive it. When we have co-branded or sponsored services, when we host a site, or when we join with other parties to provide specific services, we may share (provide and receive) your personal information with them. By visiting these sites, you affirmatively consent to our collection, use and distribution of your data.
We may share your information with other third parties with whom we have business relationships and, in some cases, we cannot control or know their privacy practices. By visiting our sites, you affirmatively consent to our collection, use, and distribution of your data.

Other than as set forth in this policy, we do not share your personally identifiable information with other companies, apart from those acting as our agents in providing our service to you, and which agree to use it only for that purpose and to keep the information secure and confidential. We will also disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena or other legal obligation, in response to a law enforcement agency's request, or 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) our rights or property. You should also be aware that courts of equity, such as U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, may have the authority under certain circumstances to permit your information to be shared or transferred to third parties without your permission.

We may share (provide and receive) aggregate information, which is not personally identifiable, with others. This information may include demographic data such as the gender and/or geographic location of groups of users, but it will not include personal information (such as your name or email address). We use aggregate demographic information about our audience in order to improve our service, for research purposes, marketing/promotional purposes and/or for industry reporting purposes, among others.

CHOICE

By accepting this privacy policy, you expressly choose to receive certain communications from us and third parties, and you expressly agree to the privacy practices described herein. Our sites may also provide you with additional specific opportunities to select communications you wish to receive. You may change your privacy preferences, e.g. choose to cease receiving certain communications, by informing us of your new preferences. We will be able to honor your new preferences most quickly if you inform us of them by following the appropriate instructions in any communication you receive from us. Please be aware that messages you receive from us through SMS and instant messaging systems (and other systems apart from email) may not include an option to cease receiving communications; to change your privacy preferences with respect to those communications, please go to the profile page at the site where you provided your personal information or direct your instructions to the Contact identified at the end of this policy.

ACCESS

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code), we endeavor to provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding making changes to your data.

DATA COLLECTION FROM CHILDREN

We strive to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We do not knowingly collect personal information from U.S. children under 13 without appropriate parental notice and consent. Sites that are directed to children where personal information is collected should have a Children's Privacy Policy setting forth our COPPA-compliant practices. At many sites, we actively screen-out children from data collection and/or use of interactive or community features. We are committed to protecting children's privacy.

NOTICE: Visit www.ftc.gov/privacy for information from the Federal Trade Commission about protecting privacy online.

SECURITY

Security for all personally identifiable information is extremely important to us. We store your personal information securely, and use special procedures designed to protect the information we collect from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration or destruction.

PRIVACY POLICY CHANGES

We reserve the right to modify, alter or otherwise update this Privacy Policy at any time, so we encourage you to review this policy from time to time. Changes to this privacy policy are effective at the time they are posted and your continued use of our sites after posting will constitute acceptance of, and agreement to be bound by, those changes.