Overall Privacy Statement

Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. Because we gather certain types of information about the users of PlayGuitarNow.com, 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, how we use it, and how to correct or change it.

PlayGuitarNow.com respects your privacy

We here at PlayGuitarNow.com intend to give you as much control as possible over your personal information. In general, you can visit PlayGuitarNow.com without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself. There are times, however, when we may need information from you, such as your name and address.

If you choose to give us personal information via the Internet that we or our business partners may need -- to correspond with you, process an order or provide you with a subscription, for example -- it is our intent to let you know how we will use such information. If you tell us that you do not wish to have this information used as a basis for further contact with you, we will respect your wishes.

Business Relationships

PlayGuitarNow.com contains links to other Web sites. PlayGuitarNow.com is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites.

The Information PlayGuitarNow.com Gathers and Tracks

PlayGuitarNow.com gathers two types of information about users: data that users provide through optional, voluntary registration on several of our interactive features and through optional, voluntary participation in certain contests and surveys; and aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. Such information enables us to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to help our advertisers better understand the demographics of our audience. Because PlayGuitarNow.com derives its revenue mainly from advertising, providing such aggregated demographic data is essential to keeping our service free to users. The only situation in which PlayGuitarNow.com divulges information about an individual user to a third party is with certain contests and surveys--and then, only with the user's express consent.

PlayGuitarNow.com gathers user information in the following processes:

The use of IP addresses on PlayGuitarNow.com

PlayGuitarNow.com logs IP addresses for systems administration purposes. IP addresses are logged to track a user's session. This gives PlayGuitarNow.com an idea of which parts of our site users are visiting. IP addresses are also used to prevent multiple postings on the Interactive Snow Reports. We do not link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable. This means that a users session will be tracked, but the user will be anonymous. We do keep track of the domains from which people visit us. We analyze this data for trends and statistics, and then we discard it.

Discussion Forums, Classifieds and other User Features

PlayGuitarNow.com offers free voluntary registration to users of the Discussion Forums, Free Classifieds, and the other User Features. By registering, users can enter these facilities without having to log on each time and they can take advantage of personalisation (the ability to select or edit content according to a user-supplied profile). During registration the user is required to supply a username, password, and email address. During registration the user has the option of supplying a first name, last name, and other personal details.

Polling

PlayGuitarNow.com offers from time to time interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other users and see what the PlayGuitarNow.com audience thinks about various issues. PlayGuitarNow.com will use a Cookie to "tag" users after they have voted, so they vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with any information about individual users.

Electronic newsletters and Guitar Tips & Tricks

PlayGuitarNow.com offers free electronic newsletters and/or Guitar Tips & Tricks to users. PlayGuitarNow.com gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from these mailing lists by following the link provided in every newsletter or snow report that points users to the subscription management page. PlayGuitarNow.com requires that our business customers who offer similar electronic subscription services abide by the same code of practice.

PlayGuitarNow.com's "Tell a friend" service

A reader can choose to electronically forward a PlayGuitarNow.com page URL to someone else by clicking the button link at the bottom right of that page. 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 PlayGuitarNow.com page link. The information is not used for any other purpose.

Surveys

Occasionally PlayGuitarNow.com conducts user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.

Contests

PlayGuitarNow.com offers contests in which we request certain personal information. At a minimum, the required information includes name and email address; in some cases, the user must answer mandatory survey questions about a range of other personal data. The information gathered in the entry form is used to verify the entrant's identity, to send the entrant an email notification that their entry has been received, and to contact winners and/or prize recipients. There are two situations in which PlayGuitarNow.com will divulge this information to a third party--provided the user gives express consent:

(1) A user may expressly choose to receive additional information from the contest sponsor, in which case the user's personally identifiable information is divulged to the advertiser.

(2) Some of the contests may be hosted on the PlayGuitarNow.com site but administered by the sponsor; in such cases, the information a user provides is passed on to the third party as long as that user gives express consent. Because the rules and terms of each contest can vary, all information about each contest is clearly posted during the event. All contests and sweepstakes are conducted in full accordance with United States federal and state laws.

Usage tracking

PlayGuitarNow.com tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our site. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. PlayGuitarNow.com 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).

Cookies

A cookie is a small data file that certain Web sites write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you've visited. 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. PlayGuitarNow.com uses cookies when you register as a PlayGuitarNow.com member for our Discussion Board and Free Classifieds. PlayGuitarNow.com's banner advertising administration software also uses cookies to manage the action and frequency of display of banner advertisements delivered by PlayGuitarNow.com.

Turning cookies off

If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use the PlayGuitarNow.com site, however the Discussion Forums and Classifieds may not function correctly if you do turn cookies off.

Use of the Information

PlayGuitarNow.com 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, PlayGuitarNow.com uses information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls and message boards. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (daily or weekly, depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. PlayGuitarNow.com never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers or partners. When we use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. PlayGuitarNow.com does 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 do not track search terms entered in our PlayGuitarNow.com search facility. PlayGuitarNow.com creates aggregrate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their needs. Because PlayGuitarNow.com doesn't track the usage patterns of individual users, an advertiser will never know that a specific user clicked their ad.

Sharing of the information

PlayGuitarNow.com 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 do not share information about individual users with any third party, except in the case of some contests--and then, only with a user's express consent. PlayGuitarNow.com does not control the practices of our advertisers. If you have questions about how one of our advertisers uses information about you when you click their ad and go to their content, please contact them directly.

Opt-out Policy

PlayGuitarNow.com gives users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include: Opting not to provide certain personal information when registering for the Discussion Board and Free Classifieds or when participating in some contests (see above). Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need for any information from our users

Correct/update policy

PlayGuitarNow.com offers users the ability to correct or change the information collected during registration for any interactive area (see above). The instructions for doing this can be found in our Discussion Forums. Users may change this information at any time and as often as necessary. Users who are experiencing problems or who have any questions about how our services work can contact us.

Delete/deactivate policy

Users may unsubscribe to any of our electronic newsletters at any time by following the instructions contained at the end of every newsletter. Currently, PlayGuitarNow.com does not offer users an automated means by which to completely delete personal information established at the time of registration for any of our interactive areas. Users wishing to be completely deleted form our Interactive areas my contact us directly. Contact details can be found below

Contact PlayGuitarNow.com