Personal Names PRIVACY STATEMENT
This privacy statement discloses the
privacy practices for PersonalNames.com ("Personal Names") and
how it treats the information that Personal Names collects and receives,
including information related to your past use of Personal Names products
and services. This policy does not apply to the practices of companies
that Personal Names does not own or control, or to people that Personal Names
does not employ or manage.
1. The information collected by Personal Names.
2. How information collected by Personal Names is used.
3. Communications from Personal Names.
4. Underage customers.
5. Linking to third-party websites.
6. Our internal practices.
7. Changes to our privacy policy.
8. Final Statement
1. The information collected by Personal Names.
Personal Names will not knowingly sell, share, or rent the information
collected on this site to others in ways different from what is
disclosed in this statement. Personal Names collects information from
our users at several different points on our website.
1.1 Information that is automatically collected.
We use IP addresses, with the help of a business
partner, to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's
movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate
use. IP addresses are not linked to Personally Identifiable Information
("PII"). Personally Identifiable Information refers
to information such as an individual's name, mailing address,
phone number or email address.
1.2 Information that is collected by cookies.
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's
hard drive containing information about the user. Usage of a cookie
is not directly linked to any personally identifiable information
while on our site. By setting a cookie on our site, the user would
not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time
while on our site. If a user rejects the cookie, they may still
use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will
be limited in some areas of our site. For example, the user will
not be able to participate in any of our Sweepstakes, Contests
or monthly Drawings that may take place. Cookies can also enable
us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the
experience on our site.
Some of our business partners use cookies on
our site (for example, advertisers). However, we have no access
to or control over these cookies.
1.3 Information that is actively submitted to
Personal Names.
Registration. In order to register a domain
name on this website, a user must complete the registration process.
During registration a user is required to give their contact information
(such as name and email address). This information is used to
contact the user to fulfill requests for site and service updates
and for products and services on our site for which they have
expressed interest. It is optional for the user to provide demographic
information (such as income level and gender), and unique identifiers
(such as social security number), but encouraged so we can provide
a more personalized experience on our site.
Order. We request information from the user
on our order form. Here, a user must provide contact information
(like name and shipping address) and financial information (like
credit card number, expiration date). This information is used
for billing purposes, with the help of our business partner, and
to fill customer's orders. If we have trouble processing an order,
this contact information is used to get in touch with the user.
Newsletter. If a user wishes to subscribe to
our newsletter, we ask for contact information such as his or
her name and email address.
Surveys & Contests. From time-to-time our
site requests information from users via surveys or contests.
Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary
and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose
this information. Information requested may include contact information
(such as name and shipping address), and demographic information
(such as zip code, age level). Contact information will be used
to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will
be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction
of this site.
Tell-A-Friend. If a user elects to use our referral
service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for
the friend's name and email address. Personal Names will automatically
send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site.
Personal Names stores this information for the sole purpose of
sending this one-time email. The friend may contact Personal Names
at csupport@personalnames.com
or go to http://www.personalnames.com/help.php
to request the removal of this information from their database.
1.4 Third party advertisers on Personal Names's site.
We use third-party advertising companies to
serve ads (using methods that include Pixel Tags and Clear Gifs)
when you visit our Web site. Our third-party advertising company
also separately places or recognizes a cookie file on your browser
in the course of delivering advertisements to this Site. These
companies may use information (not including your name, address
email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and
other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods
and services of interest to you.
1.5 Information Personal Names obtains from third parties.
Supplemental information collected. In certain
circumstances, in order for this website to properly fulfill its
obligation to our customers, it is necessary for us to supplement
the information we receive with information from 3rd party sources.
For example, to determine if our customers qualify for a dotPartner
open account, we use their name and business information to request
a credit report. Once we determine a user's credit-worthiness,
this document is destroyed.
Personal Names Accounts created by a Third Party on
your Behalf. If you received your domain name from someone else,
without registering for it yourself, your domain name may belong
to a "managed domain." In a managed domain, the administrator
of a company with whom you have a business relationship (for example,
your ISP) can create your domain name for you. You can then use
the domain name like any other domain name. The administrator,
however, has access to the domain name and can edit your Personal Names
profile, reset your password, and manage the Personal Names account without
your additional consent. In addition to the terms mentioned in
this policy, an account created by a Third party allows any of
your personally identifiable information within that account to
be available to that Third Party as if they were you. We have
no access to or control over the third party to prevent their
disclosure of your information.
2. How information collected by Personal Names is used.
We will share aggregated demographic information
with our partners and advertisers. The aggregated demographic
information is not linked to any personally identifiable information
that can identify any individual person.
We use a credit card processing company to bill
users for goods and services. These companies do not use personally
identifiable information for any use other than credit card processing;
however, we will not be responsible or liable for use of the information
required by credit card companies in contravention of their policies,
contractual obligations or general good business procedures.
We submit the name, address, and phone number
associated with the registrant/administrator/technical/billing
contact of a domain name to the appropriate Registry/Central database
for the domain name. This information is included in a publicly
available 'Whois' database, in accordance with ICANN rules.
In certain circumstances, we partner with third
parties to provide specific services. When the user signs up for
a specific service provided by the third party, we will share
names, and other information that is needed for the third party
to provide the selected services. We cannot control the use of
PII by third parties, but do make reasonable attempts to limit
their use of the information to providing a user with the services
requested.
Further, we provide personally identifiable
information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process,
or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against
legal claims. Further, we believe it is necessary to share personally
identifiable information in order to investigate, prevent, or
take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations
involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person,
violations of Personal Names's terms of use, or as otherwise required
by law.
3. Communications from Personal Names.
Welcome Emails. We send a welcoming email to
the email address associated with the account a user has created
to verify the users password and username. This process is designed
to prevent e-mail addresses from being used without permission
in the creation of a Personal Names account. Established members will
occasionally receive information on products, services, special
deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our
users we present the option to not receive some of these types
of communications. Please see our opt-out options below.
Site and Service Updates. We send the user site
and service announcement updates. Members are not able to un-subscribe
from service announcements, which contain important information
about the site and/or service. We communicate with the user to
provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to
their account via email or phone.
Correction/Updating Personal Information. Users
must provide accurate and correct contact information (name, address,
phone number) for their domain names Administrative/Technical/Billing
contacts, which will be listed in a publicly accessible 'Whois'
database, in compliance with ICANN rules. If a user's personally
identifiable information changes (such as a zip code), or if a
user no longer desires Personal Names's services, we will endeavor to
provide a way to correct, update or remove that user's personal
data provided to us. This can usually be done under online account
management (on your own) or by emailing our Customer Support for
assistance.
Opting out. Users are provided an opportunity
to 'opt-out' of having their information used for purposes not
directly related to the services they request for order at the
point where we ask for the information. For example, our order
form has an 'opt-out' mechanism so users who buy a product from
us, but don't want any marketing material, can keep their email
address off of our lists. Users who no longer wish to receive
our newsletter or promotional materials from Personal Names and its partners
may opt-out of receiving these communications by replying to unsubscribe
in the subject line in the email or email us at dotnews@personalnames.com.
4. Underage customers.
The Personal Names site is not intended for use by
anyone under the age of thirteen (13), and any individual under
such age should not provide Personal Names with personally identifiable
information. Personal Names does not knowingly contact, market to, or
solicit, collect or use personally identifiable information from
or about any individual under the age of thirteen (13). It is
possible that by fraud or deception we may receive information
pertaining to children under thirteen (13). If we are notified
of that Personal Names has personal information regarding a person under
the age of thirteen (13), as soon as we reasonably verify the
information, we will either obtain parental consent or otherwise
delete the information from our servers. If you want to notify
Personal Names of our receipt of information by children under 18, please
do so by emailing us at: abuse@personalnames.com.
5. Linking to third-party websites.
This web site contains links to other sites.
Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices
of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they
leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and
every web site that collects personally identifiable information.
This privacy statement applies solely to information collected
by this Web site.
6. Our privacy practices.
When users submit sensitive information via
the website, the information is protected both online and off-line.
When our registration/order form asks users
to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or
social security number), that information is encrypted and is
protected with encryption software. While on a secure page, such
as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers
such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes
locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when you are just 'surfing.'
While we use encryption to protect sensitive
information online, we also take efforts to protect user-information
off-line. Only employees who need the information to perform a
specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service
representative) are granted access to personally identifiable
information. In addition, the servers that we store personally
identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment,
behind a locked cage.
It is your responsibility to ensure the security
of your Personal Names account password and not to share this information
during chats, in postings in newsgroups, or in other public forums.
If you choose to reveal or share your password and Personal Names account
name, Personal Names is unable to guarantee the security of your Personal Names
account.
If you have any questions about the security
at our website, you can send an email to security@personalnames.com.
7. Changes to our privacy policy.
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we
will post a notice on our Home page so our users can review the
changes and be aware of what information we collect, how we use
it, and under certain circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
8. Final Statement
We at Personal Names will use your information in accordance
with the privacy policy that is currently in effect.
(Effective Date - August 11, 2003)
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