Privacy Statement

Your privacy on the Internet is important to us. As part of our operations, we gather certain types of information about our users. This Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy") explains the types of information we gather, what we do with it and how you may correct or change information that we may collect.

Information Collected

We collect two types of information about users: personal information (such as name and e-mail address) and aggregate information (such as information about how many users log on to our sites on a daily basis).

Personal Information

Personal information is collected when users voluntarily register for membership services or sign up as authors. These services include receiving electronic newsletters, creating personal stock portfolios, using community and communication services, answering surveys, purchasing items, and entering contests and other promotional opportunities provided on our sites. We may collect personal information from you in other areas of our sites, but we will provide on-screen notification that we are doing so. We may receive personal usage and demographic information from our third-party partners, and we also collect e-mail addresses from users who send us support mail or request technical or other help. This information enables us to improve our sites to make your online visits more productive and enjoyable.

Aggregate Information

One method of collecting aggregate information about your activities online (such as the pages you access most frequently or the search terms you enter), and information volunteered by you (such as survey or registration information), is by tracking Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you surf the Web. The computers that deliver the Web pages to you automatically identify your computer by its IP address. When you request a page from one of our sites, our servers log your IP address.
Our sites record IP addresses for the purposes of system administration and to provide aggregate data to advertisers about the volume of use on our sites. We also create aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers and partners. This allows these parties to advertise more effectively, and allows you to receive advertisements that are most relevant to your personal interests. An advertiser will not know that you clicked its advertisement unless you voluntarily and explicitly permit us to provide such information.

Search Terms

As a measure of user interest, we track search terms that are entered into our sites' search features. Search data and user-provided information help to improve the relevancy of search results by learning user preferences and prioritizing search results accordingly. The intended result is a more efficient search feature for visitors to our sites.

Use of Cookies

Our sites use 'cookies' to record information. A cookie is a small data file that Web sites store on your hard drive when you visit them. Cookies allow us to measure activity on our sites and to improve your user experience by remembering your passwords and viewing preferences, and allowing you to visit various members-only parts of our sites without re-registering. Cookies allow us to determine which areas and features of our sites are most popular by measuring user activity. Our sites do not use cookies to retrieve any information from your computer.

Most browsers are set to accept cookies. If you prefer, you may set your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. However, some parts of our sites, such as the members-only areas (i.e. shopping, contest and game areas) will not function properly if you choose not to accept cookies.
You may occasionally get cookies from our advertisers. We do not control these cookies, and they are not subject to our Privacy Policy.

Use of Information Collected

We use the personal information we collect to improve the content of our sites; to customize the content and/or layout of our sites for each individual user; to notify users about updates to our sites or promotional offers or opportunities that we believe will be of interest to users; and to investigate violations of our terms and conditions of use.