Overall privacy statement
We take your privacy seriously. Because we gather certain types of information
about our users, we want to help you understand the terms and conditions
surrounding the collection and use of that information. This privacy
statement discloses the types of information we gather, how we use it,
and how to correct or change it. These privacy practices apply to the
Web site that you were viewing when you clicked through to this policy,
which is operated directly by us, by our partner, or by our affiliate.
1. What information does sfsurvey collect?
Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with
the best and most useful content and services. Several of the services
and features that we offer on our sites require you to provide us with
information as a condition of usage. These include access to subscription-only
areas, the ability to post opinions or other content, participation in
sweepstakes or contests, subscriptions to print magazines and email newsletters
and participation in message boards.
We collect personally identifiable information, such as your name, email
address, postal address, phone number, mobile number and credit card information
when you provide it to us. From time to time, we may also collect other
sensitive information such as your job title, gender, username and password.
We may also receive information about you from other sources and add it
to the information you provided to us.
Once you register with sfsurvey you're no longer anonymous to us.
2. What is sfsurvey' practice regarding cookies?
Your Internet browser has a feature called cookies, which stores small
amounts of data on your computer about your visit to any of our sites.
You do not need to have cookies turned on to visit most of our sites,
although active participation in certain areas of our sites may require
cookies. Cookies alone tell us nothing about who you are unless you specifically
give us personally identifiable information, in which case we use the
information to enhance your services in the ways described below. By
adjusting your settings on your browser, you may elect not to allow cookies
to be collected.
We also use technologies, including electronic images known as Web
bugs—sometimes called transparent GIFs, clear GIFs,
or beacons—that allow us to track general user-traffic
patterns. We also automatically receive and record information from our
servers and from your browser, including your IP address, the time of
your visit to pages on our site, and information about pages you visited.
Unless you have registered for one of our products or services, the information
we gather through the use of tracking technologies cannot be matched
with any personally identifiable information about you.
We use cookies and tracking technologies in a variety of ways, including:
- Keeping count of return visits to our site or our advertisers' or partners'
sites;
- Accumulating and reporting anonymous, aggregate (data collected in
mass), statistical information on Web-site and advertisement usage;
- Determining which features our overall user population likes best;
- Saving your password so you don't have to re-enter it each time you
visit our sites;
- Displaying the most appropriate advertising or content based on your
interests.
We allow other companies that are presenting advertisements on our sites
and, sometimes, in our newsletters to use tracking technology on your computer.
We do not give any personally identifiable information to them as part
of this relationship. Unless you visit the Web site of these companies
and provide them with personally identifiable information about yourself,
these tracking technologies tell those advertisers nothing about who you
are. Our advertisers' use of tracking technology is subject to their own
privacy policies.
3. How does sfsurvey use the information?
We use the information we gather for four general purposes:
- To customize the advertising and the content you see;
- To enhance the user experience in our sites. We use tracking information
to determine how well each page performs overall based on aggregate user
demographics and traffic patterns to those pages. This helps us continue
to build a better service for you;
- To fulfill your requests for certain products and services, such as
sending out electronic newsletters and enabling you to participate in
paid services, polls, contests, and message boards;
- To send you information you agreed to receive about topics we think
will be of interest to you.
4. How does sfsurvey share the information?
Personally identifiable information
We will make your personally identifiable information available to other
companies or people when:
- You have elected to allow us to share that information at the time
that you registered with us or provided us the information, or through
a subsequent affirmative election through our website.
- You volunteer information or create a public profile in the course
of your participation in our community features such as forums, user
opinions and reviews, chat rooms, photo sharing or other forms of public
communication and interaction.
- You use cobranded services (i.e., sites or services that we offer to
you in connection with a partner, who is identified on the site). When
you use a cobranded service within our network of sites, you grant us
permission to pass your registration information back to that service
partner. Their use of your information is subject to their applicable
privacy policies.
- We hire third-party vendors to provide specialized services such as
customer support; email message deployment; suppression, merge and de-duplication
services; data processing; and special products or services that you
have requested. These companies are only allowed to use the information
in order to help us fulfill our services to you. We do not provide your
information to these companies for their own, permanent use.
- You unsubscribe for a mailing that we send to you on behalf of a third
party. We may share your removal instruction with the third party so
that it may be added to that person’s list of people to whom they
may not send emails.
- You are the winner of a contest or a sweepstakes that is co-sponsored
with a third party and that third party needs your information in order
to manage the prize fulfillment process.
- When required by law, such as when we respond to subpoenas, court orders,
or legal process.
- We believe that your actions violate applicable laws, sfsurvey' Terms
of Use, or any usage guidelines for specific products or services,
or threaten the rights, property, or safety of our company, our users,
or others.
Aggregate information
We aggregate personally identifiable information and disclose such information
in a non-personally identifiable manner to advertisers and other third
parties for marketing, promotional, and other purposes. We do not disclose
to these entities any information that could be used to identify you
personally.
Business transfers
We are always seeking to improve our Web sites and our busines. In accomplishing
these objectives, we may buy or sell a company, or we may be acquired
by another company. If we sell a business, we may transfer some or all
of your information as a part of the sale in order that the service being
provided to you may continue or for other business purposes.
5. What are my options?
Users who would rather not provide any of the user data requested by our
registration process do not need to register with us. You can still view
much of the content and use many of the services offered by our sites
without registering.
We also give users the following options:
- Opting not to receive our electronic newsletters or those of third
parties when registering. Users who opt in may remove themselves from
mailing lists at any time through the subscription-management pages or
by following the instructions at the end of the e-mail they received
from us;
- Opting not to provide certain personal information when registering
for a site, provided, however, that you may not be able to use some of
our products or services without providing us with certain information.
6. How can I review and update my personally identifiable information?
You can review, correct, or change the information collected during registration
for any of our sites. The instructions for doing this can be found in
our member-services areas. Users may change information at any time and
as often as necessary. Users who are experiencing problems with our services
or who have questions about how our services work can contact us using
e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.
Free services registration
http://sfsurvey.com/join.asp
7. How will I know if the privacy policy is changed?
Any modifications to our privacy practices will be reflected first within
this area of our network of Web sites. If there is a material change
in our privacy practices, we will indicate on our sites that our privacy
practices have changed and provide a link to the new privacy statement.
If we are going to be using the information collected from users in a
manner materially different from that stated at the time of collection,
we will send affected users written notice of the change by e-mail.
8. Privacy of children
None of the sites within our network is directed to children under the
age of 13. We operate our network of sites in compliance with the Children's
Online Privacy Protection Act and do not permit registration by, and
will not knowingly collect or use personally identifiable information
from, anyone under 18 years of age. This requirement is clearly posted
during the registration process.
Questions, Comments
Questions regarding this privacy statement or any other aspects of our
network of Web sites should be sent to our corporate offices at 235 Second
Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, Attention: Legal Department. We read
every message submitted and try to reply promptly to every one. We may
also file your comments to improve the site, or review and discard the
information.
Effective date: Feburey 1, 2007
