Please review our Privacy Policy Carefully

AmesComputer.Com Privacy Policy Overview AmesComputer.Com makes its upmost efforts to keep your information, safe and secure. AmesComputer.Com created this Privacy Policy in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to protecting the privacy of subscribers to the Services and of visitors and users of the network. The following discloses how we gather and use information on the Site and while you use the Service. We use the information we collect about you to create a more personalized online experience. By using AmesComputer.Com's Web site (the "Site") or Sites in its network (the "Services"), you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your information, as described below. Please read on for more details about our Privacy Policy. This policy may change from time to time so please check back periodically. The following policy goes over: What information this site gathers/tracks about you. What this site does with the information it gathers/tracks. With whom this site shares the information it gathers/tracks. Questions regarding this Statement should be directed to privacy@AmesComputer.Com. AmesComputer.Com may also be contacted directly at the following address: Attn: Privacy Person Ames Computer Group PO Box 2876 Irmo, SC 29063 This Privacy Policy will explain the following regarding our Site and Service: 1. What personal identifying information (and other information) does AmesComputer.Com collect from you? 2. Where do we collect information from you? 3. How is your information used? 4. Who is collecting your information? 5. With whom do we share your information? 6. How may you access or update your information? 7. How does AmesComputer.Com protect your personal information? 8. A special note about children's privacy. 9. Use of "Cookies". 10. Other information about your privacy while visiting and using the Site or using the AmesComputer.Com Service. What personal identifying information (and other information) does AmesComputer.Com collect from you? In order to provide its services, AmesComputer.Com collects two types of information from its subscribers and visitors: personally identifiable information and aggregated information. Our primary goal in collecting information from you is to provide you with a smooth, efficient and customized experience while using our services. Personal Information. We collect personal identifying information (including, but not limited to, name, address, phone number and e-mail address), demographic information (including, but not limited to, age, household size, income level, education level and gender) and psychographic information (including, but not limited to, reason for Internet use, reason for use of AmesComputer.Com and topics of interest to you) when you register for and use the AmesComputer.Com Service. Aggregated Information. This refers to information that cannot be traced back to a specific individual. We automatically gather certain information about you based upon your activity on the Site or the way you use the Service. This information may include the web site's Uniform Resource Locator ("URL") that you just came from, which URL you next go to, what browser you are using, and your Internet Protocol ("IP") address. This information is compiled and analyzed on an aggregated basis. For instance, we may know that ten thousand people visit this Privacy Policy today, but we do not know their names or addresses so they are anonymous to us. AmesComputer.Com also uses this information to do internal research on our visitors' demographics, interests and behavior to better understand and serve our visitors. Where do we collect information from you?: AmesComputer.Com Site. We collect personal identifying information on the AmesComputer.Com Site. At the time of registration and through various online polls, surveys and other Q/A type functionalities, we build a profile on each registrant. This information may be viewed and updated through our contact page, which is available through the Virtual Web Server. We also collect information from visitors to our Site regarding the referring Uniform Resource Locator ("URL"), your Internet Protocol ("IP") address, which browser you used to come to the Site and the pages of our Site that you viewed during your visit. An URL is the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. An IP address is an identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. TCP/IP stands for "Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol," and is the suite of communications protocols used to connect hosts on the Internet. Networks using the TCP/IP protocol route messages based on the IP address of the destination. AmesComputer.Com Service. During the AmesComputer.Com Service registration process we ask subscribers to provide personal identifying, demographic and psychographic information including, but not limited to, name, address, phone number, e-mail address zip code, age, income level, hobbies and areas of interest. The information you provide during registration is placed in your AmesComputer.Com personal profile. You may access or change your AmesComputer.Com personal profile information at any time. See the section below entitled: "How may you access or update your information?" While you are using the AmesComputer.Com Service we collect information regarding the Web sites you visit, your interactions with those sites and the telephone number used to log in to the Service. Our Service implements our own unique technology which builds a database of the types of sites you visit while you are online. This information is ultimately stored in the form of categories and, in some cases, specific URLs. We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our Service, servers and software, and to administer our Site. Online Surveys, Contests and Sweepstakes. When you participate in an online survey or interactive poll, we will ask you for your demographic information (like your zip code, age or income level) and your hobbies and interests in order to track voting. When you enter a contest or other promotional feature, we will ask you for contact information (like your e-mail address) and demographic information (like your zip code, age, or income level) in order to administer the contest and notify winners. Contact Information and Third Party Data. If you contact AmesComputer.Com by e-mail or letter, we may keep a record of your personal correspondence. Thus, if you report a problem with our Site, we may collect such information in a file specific to you. Moreover, if you contact us through our feedback area, we require your name and e-mail address in order to send you a reply. Additionally, if other users or third parties send us correspondence about your activities or postings on our Site, we may keep the information in a file specific to you. How is your information used? AmesComputer.Com uses the information it collects to provide you with more relevant services, online shopping, third party offers and advertising. To accomplish this we perform research on the demographic, psychographic and other information we collect. This research is compiled, analyzed and used to better serve you, our advertisers and business partners. We also use the information to display and deliver advertisements and content that may be of interest to subscribers. AmesComputer.Com may provide this information in aggregate form to advertisers and partners. In particular, we use the information you provide as described below. AmesComputer.Com Service. AmesComputer.Com uses personal identifying information to confirm or clarify submitted information and to provide our subscribers with updated information about our company and services. Demographic and psychographic information is used to tailor a subscribers experience of our service, such as by displaying advertisements and content that might be of interest to the subscriber. AmesComputer.Com will not disclose any personal identifying information about any subscriber to a third party unless the subscriber consents to the disclosure, or except as may be required by law, governmental authority or to cooperate with law enforcement authorities. AmesComputer.Com will, on occasion, share such information in aggregate form with advertisers so that they can target advertisements to groups of subscribers. Our Service implements our own unique technology which builds a database of the types of sites you visit while you are online. This information is ultimately stored in the form of categories, and, in some cases, specific URLs. We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our Service, servers, software, and to administer our Site. Online Surveys, Contests and Sweepstakes. Occasionally, AmesComputer.Com conducts surveys in order to target advertisements and content and to better understand subscribers' needs relating to the AmesComputer.Com Service. AmesComputer.Com will not share survey information containing personal identifying information about individuals with any third party without your prior consent. AmesComputer.Com may share, in aggregate form, information it collects from these surveys with its advertisers, partners and the general public. AmesComputer.Com may run contests, sweepstakes and other promotions on its Site or through its Service, in which we may request entrants to provide personal or contact information. In some cases, entrants may be required to answer survey questions about a range of topics. AmesComputer.Com uses the information collected in the entry form to verify the entrant's identity, age and to communicate with entrants. AmesComputer.Com will not share any of the entrant's personal or contact information with any third party, unless disclosed at the time of entry, if you are a contest winner or as may be required by law. AmesComputer.Com may make information about entrants available in aggregated form to advertisers, partners and the general public. Contact Information and Third Party Data. AmesComputer.Com uses this information to respond to your inquiry, and to enable third-party partners to let us know that you have contacted them. Who is collecting your information? While you are on the AmesComputer.Com Site or utilizing the AmesComputer.Com Service we will be collecting information, unless it is specifically stated otherwise. Some of our services are offered in conjunction with our business partners in a co-branded manner. When we offer you co-branded services or products we may share your personal information with our third party partner if you have elected to receive information about these services or products in your AmesComputer.Com Personal Profile or during the registration process for the AmesComputer.Com Service. If any company other than AmesComputer.Com is collecting personal information, you will be notified prior to the time of collection or prior to the transfer of information to a third party by AmesComputer.Com. AmesComputer.Com may reference, recommend or provide links to third party Web sites. We are not responsible for the third party Web sites, recommended or not, and you should review the privacy policies posted on these sites. Please be aware that AmesComputer.Com does not control, nor are we responsible for, the privacy policies or information practices of third parties or their Web sites. If you do not want to have your personal identifying information shared with a co-branded partner you can choose not to use the services offered by the co-branded partner. You may also change your AmesComputer.Com preferences in your AmesComputer.Com Personal Profile at any time. See the section below entitled: "How may you access or update your information?" With whom do we share your information? Generally, AmesComputer.Com will not disclose any of your personal identifying information with any third party except when we have your consent or when we are required to disclose it pursuant to a court order or if requested by a law enforcement agency or other legal requirement or as described below. Subscribers may elect to receive direct marketing materials from advertisers corresponding to special interest topics selected by the subscriber during the AmesComputer.Com registration process. If a subscriber selects a special interest topic AmesComputer.Com may share contact or other personal identifying information with the direct marketers and advertisers who may send the requested materials or offers to subscribers. Subscribers may elect to change or remove their selections at any time by going to their AmesComputer.Com Personal Profile. See the section below entitled: "How may you access or update your information?" AmesComputer.Com does not monitor in advance subscriber communication, e-mails or content distributed through the Service. By using the Service our subscribers acknowledge AmesComputer.Com is unlikely to be aware of violations of law or other misconduct by subscribers occurring through its Services. As users of the Service, subscribers bear full responsibility for the material they send via e-mail. As the recipients of e-mail or newsgroup postings, subscribers are responsible for using reasonable efforts to screen unwanted material and reporting any illegal communications to AmesComputer.Com. AmesComputer.Com may be required by law, court order, governmental agency or law enforcement authority to disclose a subscriber's personal information that may include e-mail information temporarily residing on our servers. In addition, AmesComputer.Com may disclose a subscriber's personal information to law enforcement authorities investigating suspected illegal activity or to its legal advisors in connection with a suspected violation of AmesComputer.Com's Acceptable Use Guidelines, Terms and Conditions, Privacy Statement or Software License Agreement. How may you access or update your Information? The information you provide during registration for the AmesComputer.Com Service is placed in your AmesComputer.Com Personal Profile. You may access or update your AmesComputer.Com Personal Profile information at any time by using the AmesComputer.Com Service. By logging into the Virtual Web Server and clicking Contact Info, you can access and update the personal information we currently have on record for your account. How does AmesComputer.Com protect your personal information? AmesComputer.Com employs security systems to protect the information we receive from our subscribers. In addition, the information in your AmesComputer.Com Personal Profile is password-protected so that only the subscriber may access or change the information. You should not share your password with anyone. AmesComputer.Com personnel will never ask you to divulge your password in written or electronic communications. We will only ask you for your password when you contact us and only in cases where you request customer service to correct a service problem which requires your password. Please be aware that Internet data transmission is not always 100% secure and we cannot warrant that information you transmit utilizing the AmesComputer.Com Service is 100% secure. Because security is important to AmesComputer.Com and our subscribers, we will always make reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. A special note about children's privacy. We collect, use, and disclose information about children in the same manner as we do for adults. AmesComputer.Com believes that it's especially important to protect children and minors' privacy online and encourages parents and guardians to spend time online with their children to participate and monitor their Internet activity. No one under the age of 18 should sign-up for the AmesComputer.Com service or our other programs without the consent of their parent or guardian. If you are under 18, be sure to get your parent's permission before disclosing any information about yourself to anyone on the Internet. We do not filter advertisements or other content that children may receive, and they could receive content and materials from the Internet and/or advertising that are inappropriate for children. We will update our children's privacy policy, as well as other aspects of this Privacy Statement to comply with changing laws. Use of "Cookies". Cookies are small data text files that are sent from a server computer to your computer during a browsing session. The cookies are typically stored on your computer's hard drive and are used by web sites to simulate a continuous connection to that site. In order to make our site more responsive to the needs of our visitors, AmesComputer.Com uses cookies to assign your Internet browser a unique random number, a sort of anonymous user ID that is stored in a file on your computer. Our site uses cookies for marketing purposes in order to deliver content specific to your interests. In this way, we can tailor our site to your needs, to deliver a better, more personalized service, and to track the pages on our sites visited by our users. This unique identification number automatically identifies your browser – but not you – to our computers whenever you interact on our Site. We may use an outside advertising company to display banner advertisements on our Service. Banner advertisements you click on may contain cookies, and appear to be coming from our Service, but in reality they are coming from our partners who are serving advertisements on our Service. Other information about your privacy while visiting and using the Site or using the AmesComputer.Com Service. AmesComputer.Com collects information regarding subscribers' interactions with the AmesComputer.Com site and sites hosted/browsed through our network. AmesComputer.Com also collects information regarding subscribers, visitors and users of the AmesComputer.Com Site. This includes information about which advertisements are displayed to a visitor, which advertisements a visitor clicked on, and a subscriber's other interactions with the AmesComputer.Com Service. AmesComputer.Com also tracks subscribers' traffic patterns throughout their online session, including which Web sites a subscriber visits while using the Service and which pages a subscriber views while using the Site. Our Service implements our own unique technology to build a database of the types of sites you visit while you are using the Service or the Site. This information is ultimately stored in the form of categories, and, in some cases, specific URLs. We use your IP address to diagnose problems with our Service, servers, software, and to administer our Site. AmesComputer.Com reserves the right to revise its policies at any time. ©Copyright 2002-2003 Ames Computer Group.