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COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
This site is owned and operated by BrightShine, LLC. Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost
importance to us. At BrightShine, we want to make your on-line experience safe and satisfying.
Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand
the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement
discloses what information we gather and how we use it.
BrightShine gathers two types of information about users:
» Information users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions to receive our electronic newsletters, to participate in our message boards or forums, to email a friend, and from participation in polls and surveys.
» Information BrightShine gathers through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our site. This information allows us to better tailor our content to our viewer's needs and to help our advertisers and sponsors better understand the demographics of our audience. Under no circumstances does BrightShine divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.
BrightShine Gathers User Information In The Following Processes:
Optional Voluntary Information
We offer the following free services, which require some type of voluntary submission of personal
information by users:
Electronic Newsletters (Dispatches)
We may offer a free electronic newsletter to users. BrightShine gathers the email addresses of users
who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link
provided in every newsletter that points users to the subscription management page. Users can also
subscribe to the newsletters at the time of registration.
"E-mail this to a friend" Service
Our site users can choose to electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else by
clicking "e-mail this to a friend". The user must provide their email address, as well as
that of the recipient. This information is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course,
to let the recipient know who sent the email. The information is not used for any other purpose.
Polling
We may offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other users and
see what our audience thinks about important issues. Opinions or other responses to polls are
aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. BrightShine may use a system to
"tag" users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This
tag is not correlated with information about individual users.
Surveys
BrightShine may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We
sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our sponsors, advertisers
and partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.
Children
Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never
knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting
parental consent.
Usage Tracking
BrightShine tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not correlate this
information with data about individual users. BrightShine does break down overall usage statistics
according to a user's domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the
browser string (information contained in every user's browser).
BrightShine sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms users enter in our Search function, but this
tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas
of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual
users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better
service for you.
Cookies
We may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of your computer. The cookie
itself does not contain Personal Information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site
to information you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie
can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read
cookie files created by other sites. BrightShine uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as
described above). Our advertising system delivers a one-time cookie to better track ad impressions and
click rates.
You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to warn you
before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have
cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in polling and
surveys.
Use of Information
BrightShine uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in our
network of sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to better
prepare future content based on the interests of our users.
As stated above, we use information users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters
and to enable users to participate in polls and surveys. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a
regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think
subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. BrightShine never shares
newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.
We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on
traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page
performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you. We track terms entered in the
Search function as one of many measures to learn what interests our users. But we don't track which terms
a particular user enters.
BrightShine creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers, sponsors
and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and our users to receive
advertisements pertinent to their needs. Because we don't track the usage patterns of individual users,
an advertiser or sponsor will never know that a specific user clicked their ad. We will not disclose
information about any individual user except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to
protect the personal safety of our users or the public.
Sharing of the Information
BrightShine uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and help our
advertisers better understand our audience's demographics. This is essential to keeping our service free.
We will not share information about individual users with any third party, except to comply with
applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.
Security
BrightShine operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection
systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only
authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our customers.
Opt-out Policy
We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:
» Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters.
» Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely
alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users
Your Consent
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by BrightShine. If we
decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always
aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.
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