Overview
Tip-Off Shopping Guide is committed to protecting consumer privacy online.
We believe that greater protection of personal privacy on the Web will
not only protect consumers, but also increase consumer confidence and
ultimately their participation in online activities. At tipoffonline.com,
we intend to give you as much control as possible over your personal information.
The purpose of our policy is to inform you about the types of information
we gather about you when you visit our site(s), how we may use that information,
whether we disclose it to anyone, and the choices you have regarding our
use of, and your ability to correct, the information.
Our site(s) may contain links to other Web sites, including Web sites
directed to children. We have no control over the privacy practices or
the content of any of our business partners, advertisers, sponsors or
other sites to which we provide links from our sites. You should check
the applicable privacy policy of the Web site sponsor when linking to
other Web sites.
I. Information Which We Collect
We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information,
including your e-mail address, postal address, home or work telephone
number, credit card number (only if you choose to purchase a product online),
for purposes such as correspondence, making a purchase, or participating
in online contests, surveys or games. If you choose to give us personal
information via the Internet that we or our business partners may need
-- to correspond with you, process an order or provide you with a subscription,
for example -- it is our intent to let you know how we will use such information.
Like many other commercial sites, our site(s) may utilize a standard technology
called a "cookie" to collect information about how our site
is used. Cookies were designed to help a Web site recognize a user's browser
as a previous visitor and thus save and remember any preferences that
may have been set while the user was browsing the site. A cookie cannot
retrieve any other data from your hard drive, pass on a computer virus,
or capture your e-mail address. Our Web site(s) may use cookies to enhance
your visit. Cookies can securely store a user's password, personalize
home pages, identify which parts of a site have been visited or keep track
of selections, such as those selected in a "shopping cart."
Our cookies may collect your domain name and track your selections through
our Web pages. We only use "cookies" to gather the information
indicated in this policy and do not use cookies to gather personal identifying
information about you without your consent.
We also may use cookies in connection with our chat rooms in order to
record your preferences. These cookies store automatically information
pertaining to the last chat room you visited, as well as certain comments
that can be issues in the chat room, in order to facilitate your experience
with the chat rooms. No additional identifying information is stored on
these cookies. You also have the option of choosing to allow us to use
a cookie to store your username, or "handle" and password on
your computer for use in that chat rooms, forums and other sites as indicated
on the particular site.
We may require you to supply us with personal information (demographic
information such as average age, income, education, population data, zip
codes) during a "registration" process online prior to using
certain features of our site. For example, you may be required to register
to use chat rooms, forums, to access archival stories, to subscribe to
our member newspapers, subscribe to an e-mail version of our site, and
to access other features. We use this general information to aggregate
information according to demographics, such as gender, geographic location,
age, income or a combination of these or other demographics.
II. Use of User Information
We may perform statistical analyses of aggregate user behavior. This allows
us to measure relative consumer interest in the various areas of our Web
sites for product development purposes. Any information we collect is
used for its own internal purposes to improve the content of the Web sites,
to enhance users' experiences when visiting our site(s), to customize
the content and/or layout of our pages, and to provide the services required
by an individual user. We do not use personal identifying information
for any reason that is not disclosed either in this Policy or at the time
the information is requested. We never send e-mail to you unless you request
a particular service, or consent to being contacted by e-mail. There are
instances where you will have the opportunity to subscribe to an e-mail
list that will send information about the site or our advertisers to your
e-mail address, but this will be done only with your permission and consent.
III. Disclosure to Third Parties
We do not share personal identifying information with any third party
without your permission. We disclose only in aggregate form our statistical
analyses or demographics of users to third parties, such as advertisers
or other business partners. In some instances, we operate shared Web sites
with businesses affiliated with us. Our privacy policy will apply to these
Web sites, and our affiliates adhere to our privacy policy and will not
share personal information with any third party without your permission.
PLEASE BE AWARE that when you voluntarily disclose personal information
(such as your name, e-mail address) in chat areas or bulletin boards to
third parties, that information may be collected by others outside the
control of us and may result in unsolicited messages from others.
IV. Accuracy of User Information
In order to ensure the accuracy of personal information provided for registration,
you may return to the registration form online in order to change information
you have provided at any time. Questions regarding our privacy policy,
the accuracy of your personal information or the use of the information
collected should be directed via e-mail to tipoffonline.com Webmaster.
These privacy policies are effective as of Jan. 15, 2003. We reserve the
right to change this policy at any time, and will post any changes to
this policy as soon as they go into effect.
V. Security of Information
We use our best efforts to ensure the security of personal information
submitted by users. When collecting credit card information for online
purchases, we offer secured-server transactions that encrypt your information
in transit to thwart someone from intercepting it and misusing it. When
we collect other information from our users, it is stored in an area where
the general public does not have access to it.
VI. Opting-out
At any time while assessing our site(s), any user while online may "opt-out"
of further e-mail contact from us (while still allowing access to our
site(s)). For further information about opting-out, contact us at the
e-mail addresses, postal addresses or telephone numbers stated above.
VII. Use of Materials
The right to download and store or output the materials in our site(s)
is granted for the user's personal use only, and materials may not be
reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance,
display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic
without the express written permission of us is strictly prohibited. Users
wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing
on these sites may contact us
