This site is owned and operated by ScienceBlog.com. Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At ScienceBlog.com, we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.
Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand our policy and 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.
INFORMATION SCIENCEBLOG.COM GATHERS AND TRACKS
ScienceBlog.com gathers multiple types of information about users:
* Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions to receive our electronic newsletters, to participate in our message boards, forums or blogs, to email a friend, and from participation in polls and surveys:
* Information ScienceBlog.com gathers through tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows us to better tailor our content to readers’ needs and to help our advertisers and sponsors better understand the demographics of our audience. Because ScienceBlog.com derives its revenue mainly from sponsorships and advertising, providing such demographic data is essential to keeping our service free to users.
ScienceBlog.com 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:
1. Electronic newsletters policy (Dispatches)
We will offer a free electronic newsletter to users. ScienceBlog.com 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.
2. Message boards/forums/blog policy
Users of the site’s Message Boards and Forums must register separately for these services (both are free of charge) in order to post messages, although they needn’t register to visit the site. During registration the user is required to supply a username, password, and email address.
3. “E-mail this to a friend” policy
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.
4. 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. ScienceBlog.com may use a system to “tag” users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question.
5. Surveys
ScienceBlog.com 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.
Usage tracking
ScienceBlog.com tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. ScienceBlog.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).
ScienceBlog.com sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that users enter in our Search function. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don’t like based on traffic to those areas. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.
In addition, we use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
In addition, please note:
* Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our sites.
* Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet.
* Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
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 that 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. ScienceBlog.com 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 message boards, forums, polling and surveys.
Privacy Policy Use
How the information you gather is used if relevent.
USE OF INFORMATION
ScienceBlog.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, we use information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. 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. ScienceBlog.com may share newsletter mailing lists with third parties, including advertisers, sponsors 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. We may track what individual users read, and how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you. We track search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what interests our users.
ScienceBlog.com creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers, sponsors and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their needs.
SHARING OF THE INFORMATION
ScienceBlog.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 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
ScienceBlog.com operates on 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 ScienceBlog.com. 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.
SITE DISCLAIMER
The opinions expressed by ScienceBlog.com bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of ScienceBlog.com or any employee thereof. ScienceBlog.com is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by site bloggers, commenters, or of the third-party press releases posted on this site. In other words EVERYTHING ON THIS SITE IS LIABLE TO BE INACCURATE EITHER NOW OR AT SOME POINT IN THE FUTURE. As you read the content on this site, keep in mind that science and medicine are moving targets. Advice you get here may cause blindness and stigmata, halitosis and loneliness. Generally, it should be ignored. If you’re sick, talk to your doctor. Don’t rely on what you find here for much of anything beyond entertainment.