COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
This site is owned and operated by Thomson Technology. Your privacy on
the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At Thomson Technology,
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...
Explanation of the information Thomson Technology gathers and keeps track of.
Thomson Technology gathers two types of information about users:
- 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, and from
participation in polls and surveys.
- Information Thomson Technology 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 Thomson Technology derives its
site revenue mainly from sponsorships and advertising, providing such
aggregated demographic data is essential to keeping our service free to
users. Under no circumstances does Thomson Technology divulge any
information about an individual user to a 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
Thomson Technology tracks user traffic patterns throughout all
of our sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data
about individual users. Thomson Technology 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).
Thomson Technology may track and catalog 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. Thomson Technology 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
Thomson Technology uses 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.
This may include enabling 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. Thomson
Technology 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.
Thomson Technology 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
Thomson Technology 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
Thomson Technology 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 newsletters.
- 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 Thomson Technology. 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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