Privacy Statement

(Last updated: February 2009)

FTC is committed to protecting your privacy. This FTC Privacy Statement applies to this FTC Networks, LLC Web site and governs data collection and usage at all FTC sites and services; it does not apply to other online or offline FTC Networks, LLC sites, products or services. Please read the FTC Privacy Statement below and also any supplementary information at the end of this statement for additional details about particular FTC sites and services that you may use.

FTC is a general audience web site, intended for users over the age of 13 years of age. Personal information of all users is collected, used and disclosed as described in this Privacy Statement.

Collection of your Personal Information

At some sites, FTC collects personal information, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number. FTC may also collect demographic information, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites. Information collected by FTC may be combined with information obtained from other FTC Networks, LLC services and other companies.

If you choose to sign up for a paid subscription service we will collect additional personal information, including your credit card number and billing address, in order to create a FTC Networks, LLC billing account. You can always add to or update the information in your billing account through the Account Update area located at http://ShopFTC.com.

You can choose to create an optional public profile, containing information about yourself - such as your hobbies and interests. Any information you choose to enter in your public profile will be visible to other users of FTC sites and services; and when you interact with other users (for example, sending a FTC Email message to another FTC email account or interacting in a FTC Chat room), a link to your public profile may be displayed. FTC urges you to be careful only to enter information on your public profile that you are comfortable sharing with the public at large. You may change, edit or delete information about yourself from your public profile at any time while online by going to [fill in profile change info].

FTC also collects certain information about your computer hardware and software. This information may include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring Web site addresses. This information is used by FTC for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of FTC.

FTC keeps track of the pages our customers visit within FTC, in order to determine what FTC sites and services are the most popular. This data is also used by FTC to deliver customized content and advertising to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

Some FTC services, such as FTC Chat Rooms and FTC Groups, request that you create a social nickname, which is the name you will be known by to others in those public places. You may select a different social nickname at any time. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information through FTC Chats, FTC Groups, or other public online forums, this information may be collected and used by others. FTC cautions you against giving out personal information to strangers online, which they may use for illegal or harmful purposes.

FTC encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from FTC so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. FTC Networks, LLC is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the FTC Networks, LLC and FTC family of Web sites.

Use of your Personal Information

FTC and its operational service partners collect and use your personal information to operate FTC and deliver the services you have requested. FTC does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

FTC also uses your personal information to inform you of other products or services available from FTC Networks, LLC and its affiliates. FTC may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.

FTC does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. FTC may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your personal information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party.

Certain FTC services may be co-branded and offered in conjunction with another company. If you register for or use such services, both FTC and the other company may receive information collected in conjunction with the co-branded services. In such cases, either a joint privacy statement or a link to the other company's privacy statement will be provided, which will provide you with information about how the other company will use the information and how you can contact the other company with requests to access the information or other inquiries.

We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as handling the processing and delivery of mailings, providing customer support, processing transactions, or performing statistical analysis of our services. We will only provide those companies the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information and are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

FTC may access and/or disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on FTC Networks, LLC or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of FTC Networks, LLC, including its FTC family of Web sites; or (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of FTC services or members of the public.

Personal information collected on this site may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which FTC Networks, LLC or its affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using this site, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. FTC Networks, LLC abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union.

Control your Personal Information

FTC offers its customers choices for the collection, use and sharing of personal information. You may go to the FTC Log In Preferences page to proactively make choices about the use and sharing of your personal information. You may choose not to receive marketing material from FTC or on behalf of external third party business partners.

You may also stop the delivery of future promotional e-mail from FTC by following the specific instructions in the e-mail you receive. The instructions explain how to stop receiving such e-mails.

There are some FTC services, including FTC Free Email, that send out periodic e-mails informing you of technical service issues, product surveys, new feature announcements and news about FTC products and services. You will not be able to unsubscribe to these mailings, as they are considered a part of the service you have chosen.

Security of your Personal Information

FTC is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the personal information you provide on computer systems with limited access, that are located in controlled facilities. When we transmit highly confidential information (such as a credit card number) over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

When an FTC service knows that a user is a child, it will not condition the child's participation in an activity, such as a game or a prize drawing, on the provision of more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in that activity. Additionally, you have the right, subject to verification that you are the child's parent, to change or revoke the consent choices you have previously made for FTC services and to review or request the deletion of your child's personal information. You may send such requests, or any questions you have about FTC's practices with regard to personal information about your child, by clicking Contact Us to send e-mail or by sending postal mail to the address in the "Contact Information" section of this Statement.

Use of Cookies

FTC may use "cookies" to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. For example, if you personalize FTC's pages, or register with FTC sites or services, a cookie helps FTC to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to FTC, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the FTC features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the FTC services or Web sites you visit.

Use of Web Beacons

FTC Web pages may contain electronic images known as Web beacons - sometimes called single-pixel gifs - that allow FTC to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. FTC may include web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or FTC Newsletters in order to count how many messages have been opened and acted upon. Web beacons are not used to access your personal information on the FTC network of sites and services; they are a technique we use to compile aggregated statistics about FTC Web site usage.

Web beacons collect only a limited set of information including a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the Web beacon resides. FTC Web pages may also contain Web beacons placed there by third parties to help determine the effectiveness of our joint promotional or advertising campaigns.

Use of Third Party Ad Networks

The majority of the online banner advertisements you see on FTC Web pages are displayed by FTC.

In addition, FTC allows other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to display advertisements on FTC Web pages. Some of these ad networks may place a persistent cookie on your computer. Doing this allows the ad network to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement. In this way, ad networks may compile information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw their advertisements and determine which ads are clicked on. This information allows an ad network to deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. FTC Networks, LLC does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third-party ad servers or ad networks.

Changes to this Statement

FTC will occasionally update this Privacy Statement to reflect company and customer feedback. When FTC posts changes to this Statement, you will see the word "updated" next to the Privacy Statement link on the front page of FTC. If there are material changes to this Statement or in how FTC will use your personal information, FTC will prominently post such changes prior to implementing the change. FTC encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how FTC Networks, LLC is protecting your information.

Contact Information

FTC welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Statement. If you believe that FTC has not adhered to this Statement, please contact FTC by telephone, e-mail, or postal mail.

FTC Privacy
FTC Networks, LLC
Contact Us

or by fax at:
(US) 309-439-8852
(UK) 44-870-121-0363
(Asia) 852-301-42039

FTC Customer Survey Program

The FTC Customer Survey Program is an optional service in which you can choose to participate. If you choose to participate, you allow FTC Networks, LLC to collect anonymous information about how you use FTC Networks, LLC software and services, as well as some information about your computer.

For example, this program details how many times you attempt to sign in, how long it takes on average to open the home page, and how much time you spend online during a given session. All of this information is anonymous and does not include any personal information.

FTC performs this service to help improve the technical quality of FTC Networks, LLC products and services. The Customer Experience Improvement Program can be turned on or off at any time in FTC Explorer or FTC Internet Software on the Privacy settings page.

FTC Health

FTC Health is provided by various third party mental health organizations. Such third party mental health organizations may request personal information and demographic data to provide you with the health related services you have requested. FTC does not collect or use any of this information.

FTC Newsletters

When you subscribe to an FTC Newsletter, FTC requests your e-mail address. FTC uses your e-mail address to send you the newsletter(s) you have requested. You may subscribe and unsubscribe to FTC Newsletters by going to http://ftcchat.com/newsletter (coming soon). In addition, each FTC newsletter you receive will have instructions on how to unsubscribe prominently mentioned in it.