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| The Internet, Privacy and Confidentiality |
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The Internet contains a wealth of information; unfortunately, it may also contain personal details
about you that you don't want everyone to know. For example, your real name (lots of people on
the Internet use aliases, alter egos, or nicknames), street address, phone number, or E-mail
address. When you go online, sites you visit may be gathering information about you without your
knowledge. At Fat City Network Services, we strive to help our customers protect their privacy
while using our services, and fully disclose our privacy policies and techniques.
FAT CITY NETWORK SERVICES PRIVACY POLICY
Our policy is to respect and protect the privacy of our users. This policy statement tells you
how we collect information from you and how we use it.
The information you provide for your personal Fat City Network account is shared among
all Fat City Network sites, as it is our goal to make your visits to our sites easy and enjoyable.
However, be assured that we will not disclose your personal
information to third parties without your consent. We may disclose user information in special
cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to
identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or
interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) our rights or property, other
Fat City Network users, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. We may
disclose user information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it.
We collect and share aggregate information about our users with business partners, sponsors,
and other third parties. For example, we will say our user base is x percent female and y percent male.
This data is used to customize our content and advertising to deliver a better experience for
our users.
There are cases where we may ask you for personal information such as your name, e-mail address,
and birth date. For example, we request personal information when you register for a Fat City
Network account, for online shopping or transactions, or for services that require registration
or subscription. We need to collect this information for tracking/verifying
compliance with our policies as well as federal, state, and local laws, and/or for
editorial and feedback solicitation purposes.
In case you change your mind or some personal information changes (such as your ZIP code), we
will endeavor to provide a way to correct, update, or remove the personal data you give us.
You can do this at the user information page or by contacting us at
support@fatcity.com.
OPTING IN AND OUT
You are NEVER automatically added to promotional or advertising lists at our site without explictly
giving us your permission. This is called "opting in". If you chose to provide us with your personal information at the time of sign up, you will always
be given a method of removing yourself from further participation. This is called "opting out" and you
may remove yourself at any time. We are staunch anti-spam supporters and proud to be a member of
CAUCE. Please review our anti-spam policy for more information. Our opt-in technique will ensure that you
should never be surprised by your inclusion in such activities, and that you can remove yourself
at any time in the future.
USE OF IP ADDRESSES
An IP address is a number that's automatically assigned to your computer whenever you're surfing
the Web. Web servers automatically identify your computer by its IP address.
Fat City Network collects IP addresses for the purposes of system administration, to report
aggregate information to our advertisers, and to audit the use of our site. When Guests request
pages from our sites, our servers log the remote IP addresses. We do not normally link IP
addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a user's session will be logged,
but the user remains anonymous to us. We can and will use IP addresses to identify a user when
we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with our house rules or terms of service or to
protect our service, site, customers, or others.
Some services within our network, such as certain message boards, may display IP addresses along
with the message poster's name and message. Please review each service prior to use and only use
those that disclose information you are comfortable with sharing.
USE OF COOKIES
What are cookies? Cookies are pieces of information that a Web site transfers to an individual's
hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Cookies make Web-surfing easier for you by saving your
preferences while you're at our site. We never save passwords or credit card information in
cookies. The use of cookies is an industry standard -- you'll find them at most major Web sites.
By showing how and when Guests use a site, cookies help us see which areas are popular and
which are not. Many improvements and updates to the site are based on such data as total
number of visitors and pages viewed. This information is most easily tracked with cookies. We
use the information from cookies to provide services better tailored to our users needs.
We have two primary uses for cookies. First, we use them to specify unique preferences. For
example, with mailing lists, users can specify settings for the delivery of content. This way you
don't have to tell us over and over again about the kinds information you want to see.
Secondly, we use cookies to track user trends and patterns. This helps us better understand and
improve areas of our service that our users find valuable. While both of these activities depend
on the use of a cookie, visitors always have the option of disabling cookies via their browser
preferences. Information from cookies is sometimes attached to messages sent to our
Customer Service department.
Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all
cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, note that some parts of our
service will not function properly or may be considerably slower if you refuse cookies.
You may occasionally get cookies from our partners. We do not control these cookies. The use of
advertising cookies sent by third-party servers is standard in the Internet industry. At this
time, Fat City Network Services does NOT use advertising services. If we change this policy,
you will be notified and will have an opportunity to review your participation in our services.
LINKS TO OTHER SITES
Users should be aware that when they are visiting our site, they could be directed to other sites
that are beyond our control. There are links to other sites from our pages that take you outside
our service. This may include links from advertisers, partners and other sites that may use
our logo as part of a co-branding agreement. These other sites may send their own cookies to
users, collect data, or solicit personal information. Please check their privacy statement.
Please keep in mind that whenever you give out personal information online --- for example,
via message boards or chat --- that information can be collected and used by people you don't
know. While we strive to protect our users' personal information and privacy, we cannot
guarantee the security of any information you disclose online and you do so at your own risk.
Fat City Network's policy does not extend to anything that is inherent in the operation of the
Internet, and therefore beyond our control, and is not to be applied in any manner contrary to
applicable law or governmental regulation.
SECURITY
The importance of security for all personally identifiable information associated with our
users is of utmost concern to us. We exercise great care in providing secure transmission of
your information from your PC to our servers. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the
Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your
personal information, we can't ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit
to us or from our online products or services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive
your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. When credit
card information is transmitted we use industry standard, SSL (secure socket layer) encryption.
Your Fat City Network account is password-protected so that only you can access it and view the
member information relevant to the account. We recommend that you do not divulge your password
to anyone. We will never ask you for your password in an unsolicited phone call or e-mail.
Ultimately, you are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and any account
information.
Remember to sign out of your account and close your browser window when you have finished your
work. This is to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and correspondence
if your computer is accessible to others or if you share a computer with someone else or are
using a computer in a public place like a library or Internet café.
YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS
By using this site, you signify your assent to the Fat City Network Services Privacy Policy. If
you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our sites. Your continued use of the
Fat City Network sites following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept
those changes. Changes in this Privacy Policy will always be announced to all users.
You should also review our Terms of Use Agreement which applies to use of our website.
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