Commitment To Your Privacy
This site is owned and operated by Webbgates. Your privacy
on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At Webbgates,
we want to make your experience on-line 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 Webbgates Gathers And Tracks
Webbgates gathers two types of information about users:
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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:
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Information Webbgates 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 Webbgates 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 Webbgates divulge
any information about an individual user to a third party.
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| Webbgates Gathers User Information In The Following Processes: |
Optional Voluntary Information
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| We may offer the following free services, which require some
type of voluntary submission of personal information by users: |
1. Electronic newsletters (Dispatches)
We may offer a free electronic newsletter to users. Webbgates
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.
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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.
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3. "Email this to a friend" Service
Our site users can choose to electronically forward a link,
page, or documents to someone else by clicking "email
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.
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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. Webbgates 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.
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5. Surveys
Webbgates 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.
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Children
Consistent with the Federal Children's On-line 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.
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Usage tracking
Webbgates tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our
sites. However, we do not correlate this information with
data about individual users. Webbgates 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).
Webbgates 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.
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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. Webbgates 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.
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USE OF INFORMATION
Webbgates 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. Webbgates 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.
Webbgates 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.
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SHARING OF THE INFORMATION
Webbgates 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.
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SECURITY
Webbgates 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.
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OPT-OUT POLICY
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
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YOUR CONSENT
By using this site, you consent to the collection
and use of this information by Webbgates. 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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