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PRIVACY POLICY: COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
This site is owned and operated by Trace Investigations . Your privacy
on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At Trace Investigations,
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.
INFORMATION Trace Investigations GATHERS AND TRACKS
Trace Investigations 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, to email a friend, and
from participation in polls and surveys:
Information Trace Investigations 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 Trace Investigations 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
doesTrace Investigations divulge any information about an individual
user to a third party.
Trace Investigations 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:
Privacy Policy Sample
1. Electronic newsletters policy (Dispatches)
We will offer a free electronic newsletter to users. Trace Investigations
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.
2. Message boards/forums policy
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.
3. "E-mail this to a friend" policy
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.
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. Trace
Investigations 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.
5. Surveys
Trace Investigations 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
Trace Investigations tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of
our sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about
individual users. Trace Investigations 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).
Trace Investigations 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. Trace Investigations
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.
Privacy Policy Use
USE OF INFORMATION
Trace Investigations 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. Trace Investigations
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.
Trace Investigations 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
Trace Investigations 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
Trace Investigations 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 Trace Investigations. 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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