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This site is owned and operated by Joel Firestone. Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us.
At The Guitarists Network, 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 The Guitarists Network GATHERS AND TRACKS
The Guitarists Network 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 The Guitarists Network 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 The Guitarists Network
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 The Guitarists Network divulge any information
about an individual user to a third party.
The Guitarists Network 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 (Dispatches)
We will offer a free electronic newsletter to users. The Guitarists Network 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. The Guitarists Network 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
The Guitarists Network 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
The Guitarists Network tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not correlate
this information with data about individual users. The Guitarists Network 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).
The Guitarists Network 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 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.
The Guitarists Network 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
The Guitarists Network 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. The Guitarists Network
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.
The Guitarists Network 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
The Guitarists Network 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
The Guitarists Network 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 The Guitarists Network. 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.
Third Party Advertising
We use MaxWorldwide and other third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site.
These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number)
about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements on this site and other
sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you. If you would like more information about
this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please
click here.
Third Party Cookies
In the course of serving advertisements to this site, our third-party advertiser may place or recognize a
unique "cookie" on your browser.
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