ecQ-net Web site Privacy Policy
We respect your privacy. We want to assure you that we will take all necessary steps to protect your individual information. The policy statement below describes what information we gather, how it is used, with whom we will share it, and what choices you have in allowing us to collect or use personal information.
What information do we gather?
- We may gather information about you from three sources:
- Information you give us - when you visit our site, you may participate in various surveys, registrations, questionnaires, or other means of communication. In all cases where you are asked to provide information, we will indicate what items we must have in order to complete the activity or transaction, and what items are optional (if information is not specifically marked as required, then it is optional). Choosing not to complete optional items will not exclude you from participating in the activity or transaction. However, if you choose not to provide required information, you will not be able to participate in that activity. At times, we offer information in both print and electronic form. To receive printed materials, we must have a name and address, or a fax number, if you wish to receive printed materials by fax. Electronic materials or informational e-mails can be sent to an email address, so we do not require a name or any other demographic information when you request to these services.
- Information we collect automatically - we may collect information about you automatically when you visit our site. This information may include Internet IP addresses, the type and version number of the browser you use, or information gathered through the use of 'cookies'. In layman's terms, cookies are small files that are saved on your computer with information we send, that allows us to recognize users of our Web site. In technical terms, cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer through the web browser, and that are saved on your computer. They enable our system to recognize you for various reasons. Please see the discussion below to get more details on how we use cookies.
- Information from other sources - we may collect information about you from other sources that we have agreements with to allow us to do so. These may be other organizations that we link to from our site, and we may get information from them about your visits to their sites, especially if you go to their site directly from ours. When these agreements exist, we will direct the other organization to disclose this fact within their privacy policy, and we will maintain a list of these organizations on our site for you to review. At the present time, we do not have any such agreements in force.
How is the information we gather used and with whom do we share it?
- We do not sell, rent, or otherwise transfer any personal information you provide to us to any other party, except as noted below: If you provide a credit card number to purchase any products we offer or to pay for membership fees, we process this information through a third-party associate that validates and completes the transaction by posting it to your credit card company's records. In order to complete these transactions, we must transfer your credit card information to our third-party associate. You give us permission to transfer credit card information when you submit a completed credit card transaction form from our site. We use standard accepted encryption protocols to transmit this information, as do our third-party associates.
- If you give us permission to do so, we may provide other organizations with information about your use of our site, such as services you have used. As described above, we only provide this information to organizations with which we have agreements in force, and we will disclose to you the terms of those agreements. Our goal in doing this is to provide you with a richer, more personal experience when you visit our site and the sites of our partner organizations. We will never provide any personally identifiable information to outside organizations unless you give us permission to do so.
- If you choose to participate in surveys or questionnaires, we may gather that information and aggregate it to analyze and report on trends relating to how our site is used, so that we may continue to improve it. We may also post and collect survey information from outside organizations to help them answer specific questions. When this occurs, you will be told what organization is sponsoring the survey and what they intend to do with the information gathered right on the page with the survey form.
- If you subscribe to a newsletter or mailing list, we use the name, address, email address, or fax number you provide to deliver the newsletter or to send messages posted to the mailing list. We do not provide this information to any outside persons or organizations without your permission.
- We use information gathered automatically to analyze trends, administer the site, track user movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use for reporting and sponsorship purposes. This information is not linked to any personally identifiable information.
- If we gather information about you from other organizations, we use it to improve our site for you. We never receive information from others in order to promote or market products or services.
How do we use cookies?
- We do not currently use cookies. If we begin using cookies on the Web site, usage information will be detailed here. Information on what 'cookies' are is located above, under "Information we collect automatically".
What choices do you have about the gathering and use of your personal information?
- We will always indicate what information we gather through surveys or questionnaires is required. If we sponsor the survey or questionnaire, we will save the information permanently. If we post a survey or questionnaire for an outside organization, we will turn that information over to them and remove it from our system at that time. You may choose not to participate in a survey or questionnaire. If you do participate, you give us your permission to either save the information gathered, or turn it over to the outside organization that sponsored it when you submit the survey or questionnaire form.
