COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY

              This  site is owned and operated by WebConnect. Your privacy on the Internet is of  the utmost importance to us. At WebConnect, 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 WebConnect GATHERS AND TRACKS

WebConnect  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 WebConnect 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 WebConnect 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  WebConnect divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.
 

WebConnect 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 will offer a free electronic newsletter to users.  WebConnect 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.

              2.  Message boards/forums

              Users of the site's Message Boards and Forums will  need to register separately for these services (both are free of charge) in  order to post messages, although they will not need to register to visit the  site. During registration the user will be required to supply a username,  password, and email address.

              3.  "E-mail this to a friend" Service

              Our site users will be able to choose to  electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking  "e-mail this to a friend". The user will need to provide their email  address, as well as that of the recipient. This information will be used only  in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient know  who sent the email. The information will not be 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. WebConnect 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

              WebConnect 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

              WebConnect  tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not  correlate this information with data about individual users. WebConnect 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).

              WebConnect  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. WebConnect 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

              WebConnect  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. WebConnect 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.

              WebConnect  may create 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

              WebConnect  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

              WebConnect  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 WebConnect. 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.