This site is owned and operated by Collecting
Headquarters, Inc. (CHQ) Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost
importance to us. At CHQ 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 CHQ GATHERS
AND TRACKS
CHQ 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, registration for collection
tracking and from participation in polls
and surveys:
-
Information CHQ 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 CHQ derives its revenue mainly from sponsorships and
advertising, providing such aggregated demographic data is
essential to keeping our service free or low cost to users.
Under no circumstances does CHQ divulge any information about
an individual user to a third party without permission.
CHQ 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:
1. Electronic newsletters (Dispatches)
We offer a free electronic newsletter to users. CHQ 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, or later if they choose.
2. 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.
3.
"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.
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. CHQ
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
CHQ 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 and receiving prior parental consent.
Usage Tracking
CHQ tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites.
However, we do not correlate this information with data about
individual users. CHQ 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).
CHQ 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. CHQ 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
CHQ 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. From time to time, CHQ may sell, barter or trade
parts of or the entire
list of registered users to advertisers, sponsors or partners.
You may elect to not have your registered address used in this manner
on the registration page.
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.
CHQ 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
CHQ 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
CHQ 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 register for free giveaways.
-
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 CHQ. 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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