To bring us into compliance with some state laws and recommendations, as well as for the benefit of our community, I am pleased to present you with our BetterMost Privacy Policy. This document will soon be presented to every new resident registering for an account, but a copy is also available in the Town Hall for your convenience.
Please note: In order to preserve your rights, BetterMost is creating an opt-in procedure that will make sure you have received a copy of the rules of the community, our Privacy Policy, and that you agree to them. Whenever a significant change is made to either policy, you will be asked to review and agree to both documents before being able to access the website. I anticipate activating this procedure during this week. All current residents will be redirected to a page outlining both agreements. When the screen appears, just check the "agree box" and the bottom and you're set!
BetterMost Privacy Statement
Last Revised: February 1, 2008
Thank you for visiting BetterMost.net, a community-based website. Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we provide this statement explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. You can always find a copy of the latest revision of this Privacy Statement in the BetterMost Town Hall.
The Information We Collect
Members of BetterMost.net, hereafter referred to as residents, begin their interaction with us by registering for an account in the community. BetterMost does not ask for identifiable contact information, such as your real name, mailing address, or other related contact information as part of this process. Instead, we request you select a username, select a password, and provide a verifiable e-mail address to to enable us to contact you, if necessary. Residents may choose to divulge additional information about themselves in their individual profiles, such as age, gender, location, and other similar information. This is strictly optional and can be changed or removed by the resident at their discretion at any time.
Certain ancillary services, such as our e-mail account program, may require us to request additional information, such as a first and last name, for the purpose of configuring your access. We do not verify this information, and we will accept a pseudonym should you not wish to divulge this information to us.
We also may collect certain non-personally identifiable information when you visit many of our web pages, such as the type of browser you are using (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer), the type of operating system you are using, (e.g., Microsoft Windows or Mac OS), the domain name of your Internet service provider (e.g., America Online, Earthlink), and the numeric IP address assigned by that service provider used to access our site.
How We Use the Information
We may use the information you provide about yourself to fulfill your request to join the community, obtain an e-mail account, or obtain access to any of our services.
We sometimes use this information to communicate with you, such as to notify you about the status of your account, provide you with important information about the BetterMost community, or to permit an administrator or moderator to contact you by electronic mail.
We sometimes use the non-personally identifiable information that we collect to improve the design and content of our site and to enable us to personalize your Internet experience. We also may use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage. Certain information is used to provide site security and to limit or prevent unauthorized access.
We may disclose personally identifiable information in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also may disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency's request or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use, to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing our website and applicable laws or as otherwise required or permitted by law or consistent with legal requirements.
Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personally identifiable information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Statement.
BetterMost does not market, disclose, or divulge personally identifiable information to third party companies for any reason.
Cookies & Web Beacons
To enhance your experience with our website, many of our web pages use "cookies." Cookies are text files we place in your computer's browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your e-mail address or other personally identifiable information unless you choose to provide this information to us by, for example, registering at our site. However, once you choose to furnish the site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.
We use cookies to understand site usage and to improve the content and offerings on our site. For example, we may use cookies to personalize your experience at our web pages (e.g., to recognize you by name when you return to our site), save your password in password-protected areas, and help us maintain a secure website and prevent unauthorized activity.
"Web beacons" or clear .gifs are small pieces of code placed on a web page to collect data about the visitors viewing a web page. For example, web beacons can be used to count the users who visit a web page or to deliver a cookie to the browser of a visitor viewing that page. We may use web beacons on this site from time to time for this and other related purposes, but never in a way that violates the terms or spirit of this Privacy Statement.
Collection of Information by Third-Party Sites, Ad Servers, and Sponsors
Some of our messages contain links to other sites whose information practices may be different than ours. Visitors should consult the other sites' privacy notices as we have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third-parties.
Some of the pages on BetterMost covered by this Privacy Statement may use a reputable third-party to present or serve the advertisements that you may see on our web pages. These third-party ad servers may use cookies, web beacons, clear .gifs or similar technologies to help present such advertisements and to help measure and research the advertisements' effectiveness. The use of these technologies by these third-party ad servers is subject to their own privacy policies and is not covered by our Privacy Statement. However, we do not disclose personally identifiable information to these third parties.
Our Commitment to Security
We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect online.
We do not access or share Private Messages (PMs) left on BetterMost.
How You Can Access or Correct Information
Access to personally identifiable information that is collected by BetterMost is available in your Profile, accessible from the forum home page. From there, you can review the information we have collected from you and add, modify, or delete such information.
Please note a valid, working e-mail address must always be provided so that we may contact you if necessary. If you request to delete your account, all personally identifiable private/profile information will be purged from our records after a 14-day waiting/cooling-off period, but certain non-personally identifiable information may be retained for an unlimited period, including logs of activity and public messages you have written on this site. Private messages are permanently deleted upon account termination and cannot be recovered.
Special Note for Parents
BetterMost is a general audience website. No personally identifiable information about minors is collected by BetterMost except a valid, working e-mail address. We do not collect personal contact information beyond an e-mail address, therefore we cannot and do not disclose personal information about our minor users to third parties for any reason, except for law enforcement purposes as noted above.
BetterMost minor residents are strongly advised not to disclose personally identifiable information to third parties, even if requested.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about the online privacy statement for this site or its implementation, you may contact Phillip Dampier in a Private Message (PM) for additional assistance, or you may write to our Privacy Policy Department:
BetterMost Privacy Policy Dept.
3003 Elmwood Avenue
Rochester, NY 14618-2021
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Updates & Effective Date
From time to time, we may update this privacy statement. We will notify you about material changes in the way we treat personally identifiable information by placing a notice on our site. We encourage you to periodically check back and review this policy so that you always will know what information we collect, how we use it, and to whom we disclose it. Any changes to our User Agreement will automatically display the Revised Agreement and a copy of this Privacy Statement to all residents for their review and agreement.
This website is exempt from Wyoming Statute ยง16-4-201 et seq. (Public Records) because it is not operated by a Wyoming state government entity.
This Privacy Policy is in compliance with the New York State directive for the Privacy Protection of Minors on social networks, enabled and agreed to January 1, 2008.
