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About the Information MIS Gathers
MIS gathers information about visitor data that visitors provide through optional voluntary registrations (Opt-In), in certain contests and surveys, and data MIS gathers through aggregating tracking information derived from tallying page views throughout our sites and click through on our newsletters. Such information enables us to better tailor our content to our readers' needs and to help our advertisers better understand the demographics of our audience. Because MIS derives its revenue mainly from advertising, providing such aggregated demographic data is essential to keeping our service free to visitors. The only situation in which MIS divulges information about an individual visitor to a third party is with certain contests, giveaways, and surveys--and then, only with the visitors express consent.
MIS gathers visitor information in the following processes:
Optional Registration
None of MIS network sites require registration for viewing. During registration for optional site features the visitor is required to supply a user name, password, and e-mail address.
Message Boards/Forums (Opt-In)
Users of the MIS Message Boards (http://www.mis-forums.com/vbbs/) must register for full use of this service (free of charge) in order to post messages, although they needn't register to view the site. During registration the visitor is required to supply a user name, password, and valid e-mail address.
By registering at MIS-Forums.com, users gain full access to our discussion forums where they can take advantage of profile personalization, e-mail notification of new messages and more.
Send to a Friend Service
A visitor can choose to electronically forward a forum thread or news story to someone else by clicking the appropriate link of that page. The user must provide their valid e-mail 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 story. The information is not used for any other purpose.
Please remember that any information that is disclosed in our message board and chat areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.
Considering the real-time nature of the message boards, it is impossible for us to review messages or confirm the validity of information posted. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the contents of posted messages and are not responsible for any messages posted.
We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of MIS or any entity associated with MIS.
Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by e-mail. We have the ability to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if *we* determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, so please realize that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately.
You agree, through your use of our message board service, that you will not use it to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violate any laws. You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by MIS.
Although MIS does not and cannot review the messages posted, and is not responsible for the content of any of these messages, we reserve the right to delete *any* message for *any* or *no* reason whatsoever. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless MIS, MIS staff, and their agents with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s). We at MIS also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.
Privacy for Children Aged 13 and Under
MIS websites are targeted at a general adult audience. We discourage participation of younger users without their parents’ consent. We strongly recommend that users 13 and under refrain from offering any personal information on any areas of the sites or in the message boards themselves, and we encourage parents to stay involved in the online life of their children.
MIS is prohibited from conditioning a child’s participation in an activity on the child’s disclosing more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in such activity.
Parents can review and request deletion of their child’s personal information if any exists, and can refuse to permit further collection or use of their child’s information, if any exists. In order to request such a review, to revoke previously offered parental consent, or to express any concerns regarding a child’s privacy on our website, please send a signed written request to: Privacy@makeitsimple.com
Contests and Giveaways (Opt-In)
MIS network sites offers contests and giveaways in which we request certain personal information. At a minimum, the required information includes name and valid e-mail address; in some cases, the entrant must answer mandatory survey questions about a range of other personal data. The information gathered in the entry form is used to verify the entrant's identity, to send the entrant an e-mail notification that their entry has been received, and to contact winners and/or prize recipients. There are two situations in which MIS will divulge this information to a third party--provided the user gives express consent:
- An entrant may expressly choose to receive additional information from the contest sponsor, in which case the entrant's personally identifiable information is divulged to the advertiser.
- Some of the contests may be hosted on the MIS site but administered by the sponsor; in such cases, the information an entrant provides is passed on to the third party as long as that entrant gives express consent.
Because the rules and terms of each contest or giveaway can vary, all information about each contest is clearly posted during the event. All contests and giveaways are conducted in full accordance with United States federal and state laws.
Polling (Opt-In)
MIS network sites from time to time offer interactive polls to visitors so they can easily share their opinions with other visitors and see what the MIS audience thinks about important issues. MIS uses a system to "tag" visitors after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with information about the individual visitor.
Electronic Newsletters (Opt-In)
MIS network sites occasionally offer a free electronic newsletter to our readers. MIS gathers the e-mail addresses of readers who voluntarily subscribe. Newsletter recipients may remove themselves from this mailing list using the instructions included at the bottom of each newsletter.
MIS delivers newsletters, marketing and product offerings via e-mail to only opt-in registered recipients. The e-mail tracking system recognizes the URL that was clicked, and records some information about you and your computer, such as the e-mail address that you provided to us, the browser, operating system, and IP address.
MIS also uses the feature of your browser to set a "cookie" on your system. This allows us to measure and report the click through rate on e-mail's delivered and then better determine future content.
While aggregate counts of click through behavior are provided to advertisers, an advertiser will never know that a specific reader clicked their ad. MIS does not target advertising against specific reader information. MIS will not provide without prior consent, newsletter specific reader information to any third party company.
Surveys (Opt-In)
Occasionally MIS conducts reader surveys to better target our content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.
Usage Tracking
MIS tracks visitor traffic patterns throughout all of our network sites. MIS sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that visitors use, but this tracking is never associated with individual visitors.
Log Files
MIS uses IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track visitors movement, and to gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Cookies*
A cookie is a small data file that a Web site writes to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you've visited. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can not read data off your hard drive or read cookie files created by other sites. MIS uses cookies to track visitor traffic patterns (as described above), when you register as a MIS member, and when you click an ad:
Registration: when you register for special site features, MIS may use a cookie to store a unique, random visitor ID. We do not store passwords or any personal information about you. We use this ID to identify you anonymously in our database and to track the pages you visit on our site. Cookies can also enable you to enter MIS sites as a member without having to log on each time, and to visit member-restricted areas of the sites. We encrypt the user ID's for added security.
Ads: MIS's advertisers may deliver a cookies to better track ad impressions, click rates, and to make sure you don't see the same ad repeatedly.
*If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. You do not need to have cookies turned on to view any MIS site. However, you do need cookies enabled to actively participate in MIS Message Boards and to enjoy any other features of our sites that are cookie dependant.
Banner Advertising
MIS network sites display banner advertising from third-party ad networks. These ads may contain cookies. While we use cookies in other parts of our Web site, cookies received with banner ads are collected by our ad companies, and we do not have access to this information.
To find out more about how our advertisers manage the privacy of information in conjunction with serving ads on this site, please visit......
BURSTMedia, ValueClick, and LinkShare.
Links
MIS network sites contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we [MIS] are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by MIS network sites.
Use of the Information
MIS uses any information voluntarily given by our readers 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 readers.
- As stated above, MIS uses information that readers voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable readers to participate in polls, contests, giveaways, and message boards. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (weekly or monthly, depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. MIS never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers or partners.
- When we use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites our readers like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. MIS does not track what individual readers 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 as one of many measures of what interests our readers. But we don't track which terms a particular reader enters.
- MIS creates aggregate reports on reader demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our readers to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their needs.
Sharing Information
MIS 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 do not share information about individual readers with any third party, except in the case of some contests, giveaways, and surveys--and then, only with a reader's express consent. MIS does not control the practices of our advertisers. If you have questions about how one of our advertisers uses information about you when you click their ad and go to their content, please contact them directly. (MIS will divulge information only as necessary to comply with state and federal laws.)
Opt-Out Policy
Our site provides readers the opportunity to opt-out of receiving promotional and marketing information from our partners, and us. Such choices include:
- Opting not to receive our electronic newsletters when registering for a site
- Opting not to provide certain personal information when registering for a site or when participating in some contests (see above)
- Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our readers.
- Send e-mail to Opt-out@makeitsimple.com with a subject line of which site feature you wish to opt-out from.
Corrections and Update Policy
MIS offers users the ability to correct or change the information collected during registration for any opt-in site feature. Participants may change this information at any time and as often as necessary. Readers who are experiencing problems or who have any questions about how our services work can contact us at Support@makeitsimple.com
If at any time you believe that an MIS site has not adhered to proper privacy principles, please notify MIS by e-mail at Privacy@makeitsimple.com and we will use all commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and correct the problem.
Last Update: October, 19 2002
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