Privacy Policy
PetConnection.com takes your privacy concerns seriously and wants to make every effort to address them as we strive to offer our site visitors a high quality, interactive and personalized experience. That is why we have adopted the following policy, which explains our position on information gathering and how we intend to use and share any information we collect. It is important to note that this policy applies only to information collected by PetConnection.com and does not apply to information obtained or used by the Pet Connection or its affiliates through other means.
PetConnection.com collects and stores Personally Identifiable Information such as your name, address, e-mail address, etc. What information we collect and store depends on the page you are visiting and the services you elect to participate in. We use this information to operate our services, provide you with the highest quality services, offer you opportunities we think will be of interest, and better tailor the advertising you see from us to suit you. This information is not shared with anyone outside of PetConnection.com except as provided for in this Privacy Policy. More specifics on the information we collect are outlined within this policy.
This privacy policy is subject to change from time to time. If the policy is revised, a dated notice will be placed at the top of this page. If feasible, the changes will be posted on this page 30 days in advance of their effective date.
What information we collect and how it is used
Access to most PetConnection.com content does not require providing personal information. Some features and services, however, may require additional Personally Identifiable Information or other demographic information. We may collect other personal information when you provide feedback, comments, engage in chat, message boards, interactive forums or participate in surveys or contests, or if you contact us offline. For example, when you enter contests you will be asked to also provide your address, phone number and e-mail information so that we can reach you in the event you've won a prize. All users may decline to share such information with us, by choosing not to register on the Web site or use our services. Only registered members, however, may access certain content, services and features.
Passive data collection and use
Like most Web sites, PetConnection.com also collects and logs information automatically and through the use of electronic tools that may be transparent to you, such as your IP address, the name and location of your Internet Service Provider, the type and version of your browser, the length of time that you stay on PetConnection.com, search queries, your click-stream data, the location that referred you to PetConnection.com and the average number of pages viewed. If you visit another Web site prior to browsing PetConnection.com, that website might place personally identifiable information within a URL, which may be logged by us. Your IP address is the identifier assigned to your particular computer when you access the Internet. Depending on how you connect to the Internet, your IP address may always be the same, or it may change each time you access the Internet. Note that logging your IP address does not in and of itself provide us with your name, e-mail address or home or work address. We use this log information for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes and may also use it to gather general demographic information about you such as your general location and your Internet Service Provider. In order to better provide our services to you and to develop member profiles that enable us to focus our site, services and advertisements on your interests, we may correlate this log information with other information about you, such as your registration information or newspaper subscription records.
Use of cookies
Most standard Web browsers contain a feature called "cookies," which allow a Web site to place information about a user's visit to that Web site in a small data text file that is stored on the user's computer. Our use of cookie technology will likely be transparent to you and is used to recognize you and hold information from one visit to the next in an effort to increase your ease of use of PetConnection.com and to allow us to better understand how people use our site through click-stream analysis. You can turn the cookies feature off by using your browser preference options, but doing so may limit your access to PetConnection.com.
It's possible some of PetConnection.com's third party content providers also may place a cookie on the user's computer. If a user chooses to monitor or restrict cookies that are placed on his computer, the user can determine the Web site that is attempting to place a cookie. Those cookies are controlled by the content provider, and users should refer to that provider's privacy policy for further information regarding its use of cookies.
Use of personally identifiable information
Personally Identifiable Information may be accessed by PetConnection.com personnel, and by certain third parties, such as those who provide technical support or content services to PetConnection.com. We ask these third parties to keep any personal information supplied by us confidential. We also endeavor to keep your Personally Identifiable Information inaccessible to other users or advertisers of PetConnection.com.
We also reserve the right to disclose Personally Identifiable Information when deemed necessary or appropriate to comply with the law, respond to claims, protect our computer systems and customers, ensure the integrity and operation of our business and systems, or protect the rights, property or safety of PetConnection.com, its affiliates, or others.
We will not disclose your Personally Identifiable Information without your advance permission except as explained in this privacy policy or as explained at the time the information was collected.
Use of aggregated information
In order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and others, we may use your Personally Identifiable Information to create a compiled, aggregate view of the PetConnection.com audience and their usage patterns. We use Aggregated Information to operate our services and to better understand our audience as we develop new content and services. Aggregated Information may also be shared with third parties we contract with to provide content and services on PetConnection.com as well as advertisers so that they can better understand our audience. For example, we might disclose that a certain percentage of our users are female or within a certain age range or live within a cluster of ZIP codes.
Children's privacy
PetConnection.com is particularly concerned with providing a safe online environment for children. Children under the age 13 will not be allowed to register in order to access PetConnection.com contests or other features. We limit our contests to people who are at least 18 years of age, making children ineligible to enter.
PetConnection.com strongly recommends parental supervision when a child uses the Internet, particularly when a child enters a forum or uses e-mail. We also encourage parents to instruct their children not to give out personal information in these areas.
Member mail and e-mail offers
PetConnection.com does not rent, sell, barter or give away its user or member lists or its users' or members' names, e-mail addresses or mailing addresses for use by advertisers and other third parties for the purpose of solicitations, unless the user has previously given his or her consent at the time of general registration or registration for a specific contest or service. If a user granted permission but subsequently wishes to opt out from receiving such solicitations, the user must contact PetConnection.com.
PetConnection.com may send you information via e-mail about various products or services that we believe may be of interest to you, including e-mails that may contain content provided by third party advertisers. If you don't want to receive this information, you can opt out by contacting us.
Our HTML-encoded e-mail messages may include graphic files, which we use to gather information about e-mails sent our members. When such a message is opened in an HTML-capable e-mail program, the recipient's computer accesses our server to retrieve the graphic file, and allows us to record and store the date and time, the recipient's e-mail address, and other standard logging information. These HTML-encoded e-mail messages may also read cookies.
Affiliated sites, linked sites and advertisements
PetConnection.com expects its partners, providers of content and services and advertisers to respect the privacy of our users. Be aware, however, that third parties, including our partners, providers of content and services, advertisers and others accessible through our site may have their own privacy and data collection policies and practices. For example, during your visit to PetConnection.com you may link to, or view as part of a frame on a PetConnection.com page, certain content that is actually created or hosted by a third party. Also through PetConnection.com you may be introduced to, or be able to access information, services, Web sites, features, contest or sweepstakes offered by other parties. PetConnection.com is not responsible for the actions or policies of such third parties. You should check the applicable privacy policies of those third parties when providing information on a feature or page operated by a third party.
Remember the risks when you use the Internet
You should know that when you voluntarily disclose personal information on the PetConnection.com Web site, that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other people. While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot be responsible for information that you choose to publicly disclose. Further, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. Although we make good faith efforts to store the information we collect in a secure operating environment that is not available to the public and to work with responsible third parties, we cannot guarantee complete security for your information.
In addition, our advertisers, content providers, partners and other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through PetConnection.com have separate data and privacy practices that are independent of us, and we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those sites directly if you have questions about their privacy policies.
International users
If you are an international user, by using PetConnection.com or by registering for any of its services, you agree that PetConnection.com may collect, use and transfer your personal information as described in this privacy policy, including transfers outside the country where you live. If you reside in a country in the European Union or other jurisdiction that provides access rights under law, you may access your personal information or have it corrected or updated by going to your account information page and personally updating the information, in accordance with applicable law by contacting us. In some jurisdictions, you may be charged a reasonable fee for access to information.
Effective Date: Sept. 1, 2006
