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PRIVACY
POLICY
This site is
owned and operated by DasTek Systems. Your
privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to
us. At DasTek Systems, 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.
Definition of the Information DasTek Systems
gathers and keeps track of.
DasTek Systems 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 DasTek Systems 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 DasTek Systems 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 DasTek Systems divulge
any information about an individual user to a third
party.
DasTek Systems 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.
DasTek Systems 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 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.
3. "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.
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.
DasTek Systems 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
DasTek Systems 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
DasTek Systems tracks user traffic patterns
throughout all of our sites. However, we do not
correlate this information with data about individual
users. DasTek Systems 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).
DasTek Systems 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. DasTek Systems
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
DasTek Systems 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.
DasTek Systems 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.
DasTek Systems 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
DasTek Systems 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
DasTek Systems 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 DasTek Systems. 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.
Copyright © 1998-2008
DasTek Systems. All rights reserved.
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