Bridging the West recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy
of all information provided by our members, customers of our web
site and services, subscribers to magazines, registrants for our
events, recipients of our e-mail newsletters and all of our customers
(collectively, "customers"). We created this policy with
a fundamental respect for our customers' right to privacy and to
guide our relationships with our customers. This privacy statement
discloses the privacy practices for all products and services owned
and/or provided by Bridging the West.
INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE
Bridging the West collects information from our customers. In
this section of our privacy policy, we will describe the type
of information we collect and how we use it to provide better
services to our customers.
Registration and Ordering
When attending our on-line or off-line events or trade shows,
participating in our webcasts, using our website and signing up
for certain selected services, customers must first register.
During registration, customers are required to give their contact
information (such as name, e-mail address, mailing address and
phone number). We also may collect demographic information (such
as job title and purchasing responsibilities, company information
and professional certification). For internal purposes, we use
this information to communicate with customers and provide requested
services, and, for our website visitors, to provide a more personalized
experience on our sites. We use aggregate demographic information
about our audience to improve our service, for marketing purposes
and/or industry reporting purposes.
Many of our products and services are free to subscribers who
meet certain demographic criteria. Independent auditors may need
to certify the eligibility of these subscribers. In order to do
that, we may collect unique identifiers (such as mother's maiden
name) that we disclose to the auditors strictly for industry reporting
and audit verification purposes.
For our services that require payment (such as certain events,
products and subscriptions), we also collect credit card or similar
information (such as account name, number and expiration date),
which is used for billing purposes only, and is not otherwise
shared.
E-mail Newsletters
If customers wish to subscribe to our e-mail newsletters, we
ask for contact information (such as name, e-mail address and,
occasionally, demographic information). We use this information
in the same manner as we use contact information in the registration
and ordering process described above. Recipients of our newsletters
can unsubscribe using the instructions listed at the end of the
e-mail newsletter.
Surveys and Contests
From time to time we invite customers to provide information
via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests
is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether
to disclose requested contact information (such as name and mailing
address) and demographic information (such as zip code or job
title). In addition to other uses set forth in this policy, contact
information collected in connection with surveys and contests
is used to notify the winners and award prizes, to monitor or
improve the usefulness of/satisfaction provided by the site, and
may be shared with sponsors of such surveys or contests.
Interactive Features
We may offer interactive and community features such as discussion
boards, webcasts and user profiles. Note that all personal information
sent or posted via such features becomes public information for
which we are not responsible.
Customer Referrals
If customers elect to use our referral service for informing
a friend about Bridging the West and our services, we may ask
them for the friend's name, job title and e-mail address. Bridging
the West will store and use this information to send the friend
an invitation. This information may also be used to provide information
about our company and related products and services. The friend
may contact us as specified in the customer referral message to
request that no further communications be sent.
Communications with Us
Information submitted to us in feedback forms, letters to the
editor, or similar submissions may be made public. Requests for
service, support or information may be forwarded as needed to
best respond to a specific request. We may retain e-mails and
other information sent to us for our internal administrative purposes,
and to help us to improve the service we provide to our customers.
Communications from Us: Service Updates, Special Offers
In order to best serve our customers, we may send updates that
contain important information about our sites and services. For
example, we send new members a welcoming message, and verify passwords
and usernames for our password-protected sites. We may also communicate
with users to provide requested services and for account-related
issues via e-mail, phone or regular mail.
We offer our customers the option to receive information about
Bridging the West, related products, services and special deals.
Customers can choose not to receive these communications, as set
forth in our Permission section below.
Automatic Data Collection
Our websites have features that automatically collect information
from customers, to deliver content specific to customers' interests
and to honor their preferences. This information assists us in
creating services that will serve the needs of our customers.
We use "cookies," pieces of data stored on the user's
hard drive containing information about the user. Cookies benefit
the user by requiring login only once, thereby saving time while
on our site. If customers reject the cookies, they may be limited
in the use of some areas of our site. For example, the user may
not be able to participate in sweepstakes, contests or drawings.
Additionally, we may note some of the pages the user visits on
our site through the use of pixel tags (also called clear gifs).
The use of cookies and pixels enable us to track and target the
interests of our customers to enhance the user experience on our
sites.
Some of our business affiliates use cookies on our sites in ads
or promotions. However, we have no access to or control over these
business affiliates' cookies; we urge customers to read their
privacy policies for information.
For our internal purposes, we may gather date, time, browser
type, navigation history and IP address of all visitors to our
site. This information does not contain anything that can identify
Customers personally. We use this information for our internal
security audit log, trend analysis and system administration,
and to gather broad demographic information about our user base
for aggregate use.
We may combine demographic information supplied by a subscriber
at registration with site usage data to provide general profiles,
in aggregate form, about our customers and their preferences in
the content of the site and advertising. We may share this composite
information with our advertisers and business affiliates to help
them better understand our services.
WITH WHOM YOUR INFORMATION IS SHARED
We may share (provide and receive) customers personal information
with Bridging the West's members for promotional and marketing
purposes. Personal information from our members (name, business
address, company affiliation, telephone, telefax, email address)
may be published in a Bridging the West member directory, which
may by publicly available online and in print. We do not share
credit card information with such third parties.
In particular, please note that information collected in connection
with events or services sponsored by third parties, will be shared
with the sponsor of the particular event or service. These sponsors
will use the information according to their own privacy policies,
and we urge participants to read those policies and be aware of
their privacy practices before registering.
At Bridging the West's website, emails, and on-line newsletters,
information may be shared with selected advertisers if a user
affirmatively clicks through on a link/ad to such advertiser at
those sites or in e-mails.
On occasion, we may provide targeted lists of names and offline
and online contact information for marketing purposes to third
parties, subject to our Permission policies. We give Customers
the option of not having their name or contact information disclosed
to third parties, as set forth in the Permission section.
Other than as set forth above, we do not share personally identifiable
information with other companies, apart from those acting as our
agents in providing our product(s)/service(s), and which agree
to use it only for that purpose and to keep the information secure
and confidential. We will also disclose information we maintain
when required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court
order or a subpoena or other legal obligation, in response to
a law enforcement agency's request, or 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. Customers should also
be aware that courts of equity, such as U.S. Bankruptcy Courts,
might have the authority under certain circumstances to permit
personal information to be shared or transferred to third parties
without permission.
We may share aggregate information, which is not personally identifiable,
with others. This information may include usage and demographic
data, but it will not include personal information.
CORRECTION/UPDATING PERSONAL INFORMATION
If a customer's personally identifiable information changes (such
as zip code), or if a customer no longer desires our product(s)/service(s),
we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data.
The customer should contact customer support for the applicable
product or service.
PERMISSION
Our Customers are given the opportunity to choose whether to
receive information from our affiliates and us not directly related
to the registered services. Customers also have the opportunity
to choose whether to have personal information shared with third
parties for marketing purposes. Instructions for how to exercise
this choice are contained in e-mails sent by us, on our product
websites and in each of our publications. In addition, customers
can visit our Feedback page at http://www.bridgingthewest.org/feedback.html
to change their personal preferences. Please note that we will
endeavor to implement requests within a reasonable time, although
for a time customers may continue to receive mailings, etc., transmitted
based on information released prior to the implementation of the
request. Customers will continue to receive information directly
related to their registered services, so they are always kept
informed.
SECURITY
We use commercially reasonable precautions to protect our customers'
personal information and to store it securely. Sensitive information
that is transmitted to us online (such as credit card number)
is encrypted and is transmitted to us securely. In addition, access
to all of our customers' information, not just the sensitive information
mentioned above, is restricted. Only employees who need the information
to perform a specific task (for example, a billing clerk or a
customer service representative) are granted access to personally
identifiable information. Finally, the servers on which we store
personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.
LINKS
Our web sites contain links to other sites. Bridging the West
is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of other
sites. We encourage our customers to be aware when they leave
our site and to read the privacy statements of each web-site to
which we may link that may collect personally identifiable information.
NOTIFICATION AND CHANGES
If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on
this page so our customers are aware of what information we collect,
how we use it and under which circumstances, if any, we disclose
it. Customers should check this policy frequently to keep abreast
of any changes.
For questions about this privacy statement, contact us at:
Bridging the West
16400 Ventura Blvd., Suite 306
Los Angeles (Encino), CA 91436
info@bridgingthewest.org
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