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Privacy
Policy - RAK Associates
This
site is owned and operated by RAK Associates. Your
privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance
to us. At RAK Associates, 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.
INFORMATION RAK Associates GATHERS AND TRACKS
RAK
Associates gathers two types of information about
users:
o
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:
o
Information RAK Associates 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 RAK Associates 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 RAK Associates divulge any
information about an individual user to a third
party.
RAK
Associates Gathers User Information In The Following
Processes:
Optional Voluntary Information
We
offer the following free services, which require
some type of voluntary submission of personal
information by users:
ELECTRONIC
NEWSLETTERS
We will
offer a free electronic newsletter to users. RAK
Associates 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.
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.
"E-MAIL
THIS TO A FRIEND" SERVICE
Our
site users can choose to electronically forward a
link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking
"e-mail 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.
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. RAK
Associates 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.
SURVEYS
RAK
Associates 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.
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
RAK
Associates tracks user traffic patterns throughout
all of our sites. However, we do not correlate this
information with data about individual users. RAK
Associates 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).
RAK
Associates 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.
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. RAK Associates 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
RAK
Associates uses any information voluntarily given by
our users to enhance their experience in our network
of sites, and software products, 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. RAK Associates 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.
RAK
Associates 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
RAK
Associates 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
RAK
Associates 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:
o
Opting not to register to receive our electronic
newsletters.
o
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 RAK Associates. 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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