Privacy Policy

 

We do not sell or share personal user information with anyone.  Period.

COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY

Your privacy is of the utmost importance to us.  We want to make your online experience is both satisfying and safe.  Above all, we believe that your information belongs to you, and you should have knowledge of, and control over, how and when it is used.

In order to provide optimum services, we gather minimum information about our users.  We want you to understand the conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.  It is easy to understand, and is a useful reference document with which to compare other complex "privacy statements" which are often just a smoke screen to make you think your information is private.

INFORMATION WE GATHER AND TRACK

Our sites gather two types of minimal but standard user information:

    1.) Information that you provide through optional, voluntary submissions in order to receive our electronic newsletter, become a Charter Member or paid subscriber, or make a credit card purchase.

    2.) Information gathered through automated, aggregated tracking of page views.  This allows us to better tailor content to readers' needs.  It allows us to help sponsors understand the needs and demographics of our audience.  Under no circumstances do we divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.

We gather Voluntary User Information to facilitate the following free services and Processes:

1.  HEADlines, a free or paid Insider subscription newsletter to Users who subscribe and provide their email addresses. Users may use the UNsubscribe link provided in every newsletter.

2.  CenCom, free Bulletin Boards or Forums for which Users must register and maintain current contact information in order to protect other users from abuse.

3.  Dog-e-Book, a free phone book / yellow pages service.  Obviously we don't sell or share your information but we go a step further.  You decide whether your phone number is visible but we automatically hide your email address so companies that harvest such information are blocked.  Most sites don't bother.  One major dog-related site even made your non-listed phone number and other very private information visible - until we notified their webmaster. 

4. ThePollingPlace - interactive polls or surveys designed to allow users to share their opinions on important issues and/or participate in various Awards systems initiated on this site.  Example: Judging Legends. Responses are aggregated, no voter is individually identifiable . ThePollingPlace software "tags" users after they have voted so that they can vote only once on a particular question. 

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 - User traffic patterns are automatically tracked in all of our sites through overall usage statistics according to the user's domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user's browser).  This information is not correlated with any individual user. 

We sometimes track and catalog the search terms that users enter in our Search function, but it is never associated with individual users. We use such 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 individuals read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us build a better service for you.

Cookies - Like all sites, we may place a text file called a "cookie" in your browser files. The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information but will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. A cookie can not read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. We only use cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above) and to keep your login open in CenCom or Dog-e-Store.

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 actively participate in CenCom, forums, polling and surveys.

USE OF INFORMATION

As stated above, we utilize voluntarily provided information in order to send electronic newsletters to subscribers and to enable users to shop or advertise on our sites, participate in polls and forums.  We use secure (SSL) credit card processing and we do NOT share mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers or affiliates.

We willingly forego marketing income to protect our users' privacy.  We will not disclose any information about any individual except to comply with applicable law or legal process.

SECURITY

We operate secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary.

OPT-OUT POLICY

We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:

    * Opting not to register to receive electronic newsletters or notices.
     
    * 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 TheDogPlace and/or TheDogPress. 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.

Thank you for your interest in our sites. We work hard to provide a safe place for your use and enjoyment. If you ever have any questions regarding this policy, email
contact@thedogplace.org or contact@thedogpress.com