Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us.  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 our policy and 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.  Our privacy policy is periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our users.

1. Your Consent.

By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of information gathered by us. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post the revised policy 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.

2. Information We Gather and Track.

We gather two types of information about users:

  • Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions, for example - to receive our electronic newsletters, to submit content, etc.
  • Information we gather through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our site. This information allows us to better tailor our content to readers' needs.

3. We Gather Optional Voluntary User

We offer the following services,  which require some type of voluntary submission of personal information by users:

  • Electronic Newsletter - We offer optional electronic newsletters to users. We gather the email address and other information of users who voluntarily subscribe. Such information is used to send our customized electronic newsletter to the subscribers and to send subscribers other communications. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every communication from us that points users to the subscription management page.
  • Special Publications - We offer optional special publications to users. We gather the email address and other information of users who voluntarily subscribe to receive these. Such information is used to send our special publications and other communications to the subscribers.  Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every communication from us that points users to the subscription management page.
  • Polling - We may offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with us and see what our audience thinks about important issues. We may use a system so that users can vote only once on a particular question. Opinions or any other information to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every communication from us that points users to the subscription management page.
  • Surveys - We may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience and to improve our products and services. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every communication from us that points users to the subscription management page.
  • Preferences - Users may voluntarily provide personal preferences like time zone, etc. Any information such gathered is used to customize user experience.

4. Children.

We never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.

5. Usage Tracking.

We track user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. We do break down overall usage statistics according to a user's domain name, browser type, referring page, MIME type, etc., by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user's browser).  We sometimes 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 site 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.

6. 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.  A cookie can't read data off your storage disk or read cookie files created by other sites.  We use cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above).

7. Use and Sharing of Information.

We use any information 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 various communications and to enable users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums.  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.  We create aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns.  This allows our users to receive communications pertinent to their needs.  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.  We may share limited aggregate reports with our site users so that they can know how their content is performing.  We use technology, such as cookies and web beacons, when we advertise our site, which will send us information via sources (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) including your IP address, your ISP, the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed.  This is generally used for geo-targeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites). You can view Google’s privacy policy by clicking here.

  • Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to our website.
  • Google's use of the DART cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to our site and/or other sites on the Internet.
  • Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page and/or Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.

We will comply with legal process served on us requiring the disclosure of user information and we may, at our discretion, disclose any user information requested by third parties as part of an investigation into the breach of our terms of service.  We don't share any voluntary or non-voluntary information gathered by us by means other than explained above.

8. 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.
  • Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every communication from us that points users to the subscription management page.