Policies Versus Realities

Let's start by pointing out that you should not trust this privacy policy or that of any other web site based in the United States. The U.S. has few laws to enforce privacy for web site visitors, so companies both large and small can and do routinely violate their privacy pledges to you.

What about those "seals of approval" that you see on some web sites? Don't those guarantee that the web site will do what it says? Hardly. The companies that issue those seals of approval make their profit from precisely those businesses that they are supposed to keep an eye on. So, when one of their big clients is found to have been violating their own privacy policy, the seal of approval invariably seems to still be displayed on the web site.

On With the Policy

But here's our privacy policy anyway, since we think we're trustworthy folk, and maybe you will too. First, like virtually every other web site in the world, our server records the information that your browser transmits every time you view a web page. This information may (or may not) include the "address" of your computer, information about what browser you are using, and the address of the page containing the link you clicked on to initially arrive at this web site.

No Cookies Unlike many web sites in the world, we do not attempt to track your "session" while you are browsing this web site. We do not try to store any "cookies" on your computer, or insert a unique ID into each URL in order to store information about you that persists from one web page request to another.

No Web Bugs A "web bug" is a trick by which web site A hands you a web page that contains a reference to a hidden image that actually resides on web site B. As a result, when you tell your browser to read a page on web site A, your browser also ends up sending some information to web site B, probably without you noticing. While cookies are used to track your movements within a web site, web bugs are typically used to track your movements across multiple web sites. We do not permit any web bugs on this web site.

Given that the information we have about you is just the minimal information that every web browser transmits to every web server every time you view a page, what do we do with it? We use that information internally to try to figure out how to do a better job (e.g., "Hey, five times as many people read about USB disks as read about magneto-optical disks -- maybe we should write more about USB disks."). We do not knowingly share visitor information with anyone else, except in aggregate. For example, we may say to a third-party company "20% of our visitors read this particular web page", revealing statistical information about how groups of visitors behaved, but not detailed information about how any individual behaved.

Regardless of the preceding pledge to not share information, we will obey all applicable laws and court orders to the best of our understanding. If you're on the run from the FBI, don't count on us to not reveal your browsing information to them.

Spam (Unsolicited Commercial Email)

Don't you just hate spam? We do. First off, we don't even want your email address and that's why no page on this web site asks for it. Of course, if you should send us email, then we will have your email address (how else could we reply?) And if you asked a question, we might email you an answer. Other than that, it's extremely unlikely you could get any email from us.

We also do not use unsolicited bulk email to attract visitors or offer any products or services. Nor do we knowingly permit anyone else to do so on our behalf. We hate spam.

Affiliates

You may find links on our web pages that are clearly labelled as third-party companies, or sponsored links. We may receive remuneration from these companies if you click on those links, or buy their products. As mentioned earlier, we do not share any detailed visitor information or personal information about you with these companies.

We try to only do business with companies that are reputable and that offer quality products and services that are relevant to our web site visitors. If you encounter a problem with a product or service linked to from our web site, we would appreciate hearing about it. At our sole discretion, we may elect to cease linking to any product or service that creates unresolved complaints from visitors to our web site.