The policies below are applicable to Shop The Tristate. Our Privacy Policy will tell you what information we collect when you visit Shop The Tristate, how we protect it, and what choices you have about how that information is used. We urge you to read our entire Privacy Policy so that you will understand both our commitment to you and your privacy, and how you can participate in that commitment. If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, please contact us.
Privacy@Shop The Tristate
Shop The Tristate has created this statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. We allow our users to control the amount of personal information they provide to us. Shop The Tristate hopes that users will feel comfortable providing this information to us, because this information allows us to tailor our promotional offers to each member's particular interests. However, we recognize that some members will prefer not to provide certain requested information, so we've designed Shop The Tristate with the members' personal preferences in mind.
What Information We Collect/How We Use It
Membership Registration. Our membership registration requires users to provide first name, e-mail address, zip code, gender, date of birth and shopping interests in order to register for the Shop The Tristate service. Users may provide additional demographic information (i.e. income, marital status, and number of children). The additional information is not required to become a member, but many members choose to supply the information so that they receive offers/newsletters that match their interests and demographics. Shop The Tristate uses the information in three ways:
- We send promotions with targeted promotional email offers based on users' interests to members who elect to receive such promotions
- We contact users for feedback and surveys
- We provide members with a personalized home page based on their "home" market.
Profile Data. We use profile data collected through the registration process described above and through voluntary actions of registered users of the Shop The Tristate service, consisting of demographic information and shopping preferences, to provide members with a personalized experience and promotions. This information allows us to provide users with specific content based on indicated interests and preferences. Using Shop The Tristate services does not require membership, and users may provide as much or as little information as they choose. However, the omission of certain information may limit the value of the Shop The Tristate experience for the user.
Additionally, Shop The Tristate tracks specific activity by its members on the Shop The Tristate site and provides promotional and personalized content based on that activity. Such activity may include Shop The Tristate purchases, Prize Closet redemptions and coupon activities, which along with your stated shopping preferences, are used to optimize the Shop The Tristate site and personalize offers and promotions based on your interests.
Shop The Tristate acts as a consolidator of advertiser information and promotional offers. Geographic, demographic, activity-based and shopping preference information across member profiles may be summarized on an aggregate basis for advertisers on Shop The Tristate. This helps prospective sponsors understand the viewership they will reach. Aggregate information includes such things as summarized percent membership by age range, gender, income, marital status, number of children, but does not include personally identifiable information.
Purchase Information. When you make a purchase from Shop The Tristate, we collect information that you volunteer such as your name, postal address, phone number and e-mail address and other information required to process your order. The Shop The Tristate website makes use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt all credit card and billing information. Your computer must be SSL-enabled to ensure secure transfer of your credit card information. We do not store your credit card number after your order has been completed. You will be asked to re-enter your credit card every time you make a purchase. During the purchase process you may be asked if you wish to elect to receive promotional materials from Shop The Tristate. You may remove yourself from the list at any time by utilizing the removal link or by contacting Shop The Tristate as detailed in the Opt-out section below.
Surveys & Contests. Both during the registration process and from time-to-time thereafter our service requests information from users via contests and surveys, including asking new members to complete a survey containing profile information regarding their specific interests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level). Information requested in surveys or polls may be related to shopping behavior and/or other interests of the member. Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of our service. The survey information may also be used to determine which offers will be served to a particular member.
Reports. We provide reports to the companies with which we do business. These reports include aggregate information about our users. The information in these reports will not identify individual members. No information is contained in the reports that would allow companies to contact members directly.
Send-to-a-Friend Program. Participants in the Send to a Friend Program, provide us with contact information (e-mail address) and first name for friends and family to whom they wish to send an exclusive promotional offer. By providing such information, the referring participant certifies that they have received permission from the referred person to disclose such contact information and that the referred person has given their permission to receive e-mail communications from Shop The Tristate. We treat referral information with the same confidentiality as member information. Shop The Tristate sends the referred person an e-mail with the promotional offer. The person referred to us only becomes enrolled if they choose to visit our site and enter their information. The referred person may also use the instructions included in the e-mail to remove their information from our referral systems.
Message Center. The Shop The Tristate Message Center is a site feature used to inform members of internet-based promotions, offers and notices. Members may access the Message Center by logging in to their account at Shop The Tristate. Message content is based on preferences indicated at initial member registration as well as activity-based actions. Members may choose to be notified by email of the posting of new messages in the Message Center or may opt-out of Message Center email notification. Except as otherwise stated, Shop The Tristate will not knowingly share your individual information with third parties without your authorization or consent.
Changes in Privacy Practice
In the event of any fundamental amendment to the privacy statement for Shop The Tristate, both the new and the old privacy statements will be posted for a period of 30 days on this Privacy Policy page as well as a notice on the homepage. Members will be notified by email 30 days in advance of the Privacy statement change. A link to the new statement will also be displayed on the site. After 30 days, only the new privacy statement will appear. During the 30-day period, users may change their status with Shop The Tristate as described in the "Changing Your Status" section of the Privacy Statement or as described in any notice. After 30 days, the new privacy policy will be in effect regarding the usage and treatment of information.
Cookies
We use cookies to save your membership ID so you don't have to re-enter it each time you visit our site. Cookies are a standard Internet technology that allow us to store and retrieve the log-in information on your system. Cookies are also used on Shop The Tristate so that the web pages presented to you are consistent. Based on this implementation of session management, you must have cookies enabled to use our site. We also use cookies to capture the zip code of non-members visiting the site. This zip code information is used to identify to our system which local television market is of interest to the user. Shop The Tristate tracks that information in a non-identifiable way. Cookies may also be utilized to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns within the Shop The Tristate site. Identifiable information gathered from these campaigns is utilized for internal purposes and will not be disclosed to third parties except in a summarized non-identifiable form.
Although cookies must be enabled to access Shop The Tristate, they do not have to be present in your 'Cookies' folder to access our site. If you wish to eliminate cookies placed by our server, you must delete them from the 'Cookies' folder in the 'Windows' folder of Microsoft Windows systems. If you are not able to determine which cookies are being sent by our server, you may choose to delete all cookies. However, this action will eliminate any control information that has been set-up by other websites you visit. In the case of Shop The Tristate, the next time you visit Shop The Tristate, a new cookie will be placed to guide your session interaction.
Log Files
Log files are generated on all websites on the Internet, including Shop The Tristate. These files are set according to the standards for HTTPD web server technology as described by the standards organization, W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). These Log files contain 'clickstream information' (i.e. transactions about the web pages viewed during a session, including the originating website/web page, navigation to another website/web page, the type of browser used, date/time, and success status of the server transaction).
Links between pages are described using a URL (Universal Resource Locator) address, http://www.wtvymarketplace.com. Each page viewed has a unique address that is recorded as a transaction in the server log. Transactions about all pages viewed on Shop The Tristate are analyzed to administer the website and to count visits to a page. Our website design uses log transactions to optimize site navigation and to gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We do not link these IP addresses to personally identifiable information. We maintain these log files solely for our own internal purposes and they are not shared with third parties, except to prevent abuse or fraud.
Security
This site has implemented reasonable security measures in an effort to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of the information under our control. Shop The Tristate uses reasonable networking, server, database, and procedural mechanisms in an effort to safeguard the integrity and privacy of data.
The Shop The Tristate website makes use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt all credit card and billing information. Your computer must be SSL-enabled to ensure secure transfer of your credit card information.
Shop The Tristate also protects user information off-line. All of our users' information is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted passwords to access personally identifiable information. Furthermore, all employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our customers' information is protected. Finally, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment.
Shop The Tristate is committed to protecting the privacy of our members. We will continue to review and implement new technologies as necessary to maintain the security of our networks and servers.
Links
This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that Shop The Tristate is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website.
Third Parties
From time to time, Shop The Tristate may co-brand services. At the point of collection, Shop The Tristate will clearly indicate who is collecting information and which privacy statement is applicable. Please be aware that Shop The Tristate is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy policy of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy policy applies solely to information collected by this website. Shop The Tristate does not share any personally identifiable information with third parties, other than for the purposes described herein.
Shop The Tristate contracts with third parties to perform functions on our behalf including but not limited to such things as analyzing data, delivering packages, sending postal mail and e-mail, providing marketing assistance and processing credit card payments. These third parties may be granted access to personal information needed to perform their functions on behalf of Shop The Tristate, but by contract may not use it for other purposes.
Review and Request Changes to Your Information
We want our visitors to feel completely comfortable using Shop The Tristate services. Visitors may change or delete their profile information from Shop The Tristate's records at any time by contacting us or sending a request in writing to Shop The Tristate, Attn: Opt-Out, 100 Summit Ave
Hagerstown, MD. Please include the specifics of your request.
Members. When you join Shop The Tristate, you may answer "no" to the statement "I would like to receive e-mails with exclusive offers available only through Shop The Tristate, " on your personal profile page. You will not receive any email communication by doing so. If you had previously signed up for email communication, when you are logged on to your account, simply click on the "Edit My Info" button, and follow the directions to opt-out. This will automatically change the information contained in our database. If you would like to delete your profile, please submit your request by email to our Customer Support.
Opt-out. Visitors may also opt-out of Shop The Tristate promotional communications by contacting us or sending a request in writing to Shop The Tristate, Attn: Opt-Out, 100 Summit Ave Hagerstown, MD. Every promotional email will also include a direct link to an opt-out.
You have the option of not receiving e-mails as part of our service. You may answer 'no' to the statement, "I would like to receive e-mails with exclusive offers available only through Shop The Tristate," on your personal profile page and you will no longer receive e-mails as part of our service.
Children Under the Age of 18 Years
Children under the age of 18 are not eligible to register as members of Shop The Tristate. Shop The Tristate does not wish to collect and does not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 18 years. By registering with Shop The Tristate, the new member certifies that they are not under the age of 18 years.
Limits of Confidentiality
Notwithstanding the foregoing, Shop The Tristate may disclose member information to third parties when Shop The Tristate determines in its sole discretion that it is reasonably necessary to do so to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, legal process served on our website, or as otherwise required by law.
Sale of Assets, Merger or Acquisition
In the event Shop The Tristate merges, is acquired by or sells its assets to a third party, Shop The Tristate may disclose member information as is reasonably necessary to effect any such merger, acquisition or sale. Members will be given the opportunity to opt-out of the Shop The Tristate service. Members can log-in at any time and modify their profile. A selection allows members to opt-out of any future e-mails from Shop The Tristate. For more information, please refer to "Changes in Privacy Practice."
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this privacy statement or the practices of Shop The Tristate, or your dealings with Shop The Tristate, you should please contact us.
Last Updated: October 20, 2008
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