Bukharian Community Privacy Policy
This privacy statement covers BuckharianCommunity.com web site (www.BuckharianCommunity.com). Because this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to our users’ privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices.
1. What personally identifiable information BuckharianCommunity.com collects.
2. What personally identifiable information third parties collect through the Web site.
3. What organization collects the information.
4. How BuckharianCommunity.com uses the information.
5. With whom BuckharianCommunity.com may share user information.
6. What choices are available to users regarding collection, use and distribution of the information.
7. What types of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under BuckharianCommunity.com’s control.
8. How users can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should first contact us.
Information Collection and Use
Information Collection
BuckharianCommunity.com is the sole owner of the information collected on www.BuckharianCommunity.com and its other registered domain names. BuckharianCommunity.com collects information from our users at several different points on our Web site.
Registration
In order to use this web site, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration a user is required to give contact information (such as name and email address). We use this information to contact the user about services on our site for which he has expressed interest.
Order
We request information from the user on our order form. A user must provide contact information (such as name, email, and address) and financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customer’s orders. If we have trouble processing an order, the information is used to contact the user.
Information Use
Profile
We store information that we collect through cookies, log files, clear gifs, and/or third parties to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users that details their viewing preferences. Consequently, collected information is tied to the users personally identifiable information to provide offers and improve the content of the site for the user. This profile is used to tailor a user’s visit to our Web site, and to direct pertinent marketing promotions to them. Your profile is shared in aggregate form only together with your personally identifiable information.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user’s hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions.
By setting a cookie on our site, users would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site. See the “Profile” section.
Some of our business partners use cookies on our site (for example, advertisers). However, we have no access to or control over these cookies, once we have given permission for them to set cookies for advertising.
Log Files
Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
We employ (or our third party advertising company employs) a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
Clear Gifs can “work with” existing cookies on a computer if they are both from the same Web site or advertising company. That means, for example, that if a person visited “www.companyX.com”, which uses an advertising company’s clear gif, the Web site (or advertising company) would match the clear gif’s identifier and the advertising company’s cookie ID number, to show the past online behavior for that computer. This collected information would then be given to the advertising company (or Web site).
In addition, we use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If users would like to opt-out of these emails, please see the Opt-out section.
Communications from the Site
Special Offers and Updates
We may send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.
Newsletter
If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter, we ask for contact information such as name and email address. Out of respect for our users privacy we provide a way to opt-out of these communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.
Service Announcements
On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.
Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.
Sharing
Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.
Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)
We share aggregated demographic information with our partners and advertisers. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.
Third Party Advertisers
BuckharianCommunity.com may share Web site usage information about users with a reputable third party for the purpose of targeting our Internet banner advertisements on this site and other sites. For example, BuckharianCommunity.com uses cookies and clear GIFs on this site, which allow them to recognize a user’s cookie when a user visits this site. The information they collect and share through this technology is not personally identifiable.
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads and collect information when users visit our site. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements on our site, other websites and other forms of media about goods and services 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, check out http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
Employees
BuckharianCommunity.com employees access nonpublic information in relation to their job functions and the services they provide to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with the federal standards to guard your nonpublic information.
These are the instances in which we will share users’ personal information:
Third Party Intermediaries
We use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.
Service Providers
We may partner with other third parties to provide specific services. When the user signs up for these particular services, we share names, or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. These third parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.
Business Transitions
In the event BuckharianCommunity.com goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users’ personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred.
Links
This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, BuckharianCommunity.com, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and 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 this Web site.
Surveys [& Contests]
From time-to-time our site may request information from users via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code). Survey information generally will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.
Tell-A-Friend
If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend’s name and email address. BuckharianCommunity.com will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. BuckharianCommunity.com may store this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program.
Chat Rooms, Message Boards, and Public Forums
Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online – for example on message boards, through e-mail, or in chat areas – that information can be collected and used by others. In short, by posting personal information online that is publicly accessible, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return.
Security
This Web site takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, their information is protected both online and off-line, When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry – SSL.
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a member service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
