Privacy Policy
Internet privacy is an issue that we take very seriously.
Merriamcycle are committed to protecting your privacy. We believe it is important for you to know what information is being collected about you, how that information is being used, with whom it is being shared, and how to contact us if you have additional questions or concerns.
How we secure your Information
Merriamcycle has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control. We have taken measures to protect user information once it is received by the site, including but not limited to the following: limited and controlled access by employees, servers and data stored in a secured location, security software where appropriate and cost effective. Employees are informed of all security protocol on a regular basis, and web security procedures are pursued. You must, however, understand that no system or amount of diligence can fully guarantee protection against every possible security threat. Therefore we cannot, and do not, guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not be able to circumvent the measures we undertake to protect your personal information.
Gathering and Use of Personally Identifiable Information
We collect personally identifiable information that you provide to us when you sign up for a newsletter or other service, when you register as a member of Merriamcycle and/or when you update your member profile. We use the personally identifiable information that you supply to provide you with the specific services you select, to conduct market and advertising research where your personal information may be anonymized and matched with similarly anonymized third-party data to enable aggregate analysis, and to send you emails about web site updates, which may include new features and enhanced functionality.
Personally identifiable information is only shared with third parties bound by strict confidentiality and security requirements and under contract to Merriamcycle , or in anonymized fashion as described above (for research) or when Merriamcycle has your permission to do so.
How We Use Your Information
Information gathered online can generally be categorized as either anonymous or personally identifiable. Anonymous information is information that cannot be traced back to a specific individual. For example, Merriamcycle knows what searches are queried each day at each of its Web sites but does not know the names, e-mail addresses or phone numbers of the people searching.
Personally identifiable information is information which allows us to identify you. This information can include your name, address, phone number, email address, etc. It is our belief that you will find it beneficial at times to provide us with certain personal information so that your experience with Merriamcycle is more personally relevant to you and/or delivered directly to you (e.g., via newsletter).
Who Collects Anonymous Information on Merriamcycle
Currently, Merriamcycle does not permit any other anonymous body from collecting data and information forms its site. And various advertisers and other ad technology companies collect anonymous information on Merriamcycle.
Merriamcycle also counts, tracks, and aggregates visitors’ activity into our analysis of general traffic flows at our sites (e.g. tracking where traffic comes from, how traffic flows within the Merriamcycle properties, etc.). To these ends, we may merge information about you into group data, which may then be shared on an aggregated basis with our potential advertisers; but Merriamcycle will not disclose your individual identity or personal data without your permission. When Merriamcycle does present aggregated information to outside companies, no one will be able to identify or contact you.
The entities collecting this anonymous information use it to improve the overall quality of the online experience, including product monitoring and improvement, and targeted advertising on and off Merriamcycle.
If you wish to opt-out of the use of anonymous data or the ability of third-parties to connect your anonymous data on a Merriamcycle site with your personal identity, you can opt-out in one of two ways:
- You can disable cookies, although this may negatively affect your online experience as most sites require cookies for very basic browsing;
- You can opt-out of data use with each individual partner through the Network Advertising Initiative gateway opt-out site http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp .
At that site you can also review the privacy policies of those Ad Servers. For users wishing to prevent use of their information for targeted advertising, we recommend opting out of Google (which has a potential direct advertising on Merriamcycle sites) and/or “check all” to opt out of targeting from all participating companies. Merriamcycle sites do not respond to web browser ‘do not track’ signals.
California and Canadian users: California and Canadian law requires that we notify you about our practices related to disclosing or sharing information with third parties, which we do in this Privacy Policy. Our practices and opt-out mechanisms are not limited to Californian and Canadian users, but apply to all users. If you would like more information about any rights you may have, you may notify us via email.
Use of ‘Cookies’
Merriamcycle and the partners listed above use browser cookies to anonymously associate collected information with a specific computer browser. If you have provided personally-identifiable information to a third-party, that third-party may be able to associate anonymous information collected on Merriamcycle and stored via the third-party’s cookie with your identity, though utilizing this information to target specific individuals is considered against self-regulatory practices per the Network Advertising Initiative and is rarely if ever done. Cookies are a standard Internet technology that allows a web server to both store and retrieve information on a user’s system.
Merriamcycle and partner web servers automatically ask new users whether their browser will agree to accept a cookie file. If a visitor accepts, the web server will be able to identify the user’s cookie and associate collected information with that cookie either on the user’s computer or on a server.
If a user accepts a Merriamcycle or partner cookie, but would later like to remove it from his or her computer, he or she can just remove it from the browser. Use of cookies allows Merriamcycle and its partners to monitor traffic flow, patterns of travel within and through the sites, and to dynamically personalize content and advertising.
Third-party Media Companies
We use third-party advertising companies and exchanges to serve ads. These third-party ad servers and exchange providers may use web beacons and cookies to help present, better target, and measure the effectiveness of their advertisements, using data (such as sites visited and browser type) gathered over time and across their networks of Web pages to determine or predict the characteristics and preferences of their audience.
If you would like more information about this practice, as well as your choices about not having this information used for online behavioral advertising by these ad networks, click here: http://networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp .
E-mail Choice/Opt-Out
Each e-mail newsletter and special offer sent by
Merriamcycle contains an easy, automated way for you to cease receiving our e-mail newsletters. One click of the mouse is all that is required — the system automatically excludes you from future mailings without needing additional human intervention. To unsubscribe, click the “unsubscribe” link in the footer of any e-mail newsletter from Merriamcycle .
If you do not have Internet access, please reply to your Merriamcycle e-mail and type the word “UNSUBSCRIBE” in the subject line. Merriamcycle will not rent, sell or barter your email address to third parties, nor will we share your name with marketing partners unless you check a special box on our site to request third-party offers sent from Merriamcycle .
Members of Merriamcycle may also elect to receive News Alerts and Blog Alerts via email. To change mailing frequency, or to unsubscribe from New Alerts or Blog Alerts, Merriamcycle Members should log into their account to update their preferences.
User Research
On occasion, Merriamcycle will make available to potential advertisers and research firms aggregated results from research it has conducted on its user base. Once again, Merriamcycle will only provide such demographic information on an aggregated basis and does not disclose individual member profiles without user consent.
Special Policy With Regards to Information from Children under Thirteen
In accordance with the Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA),
Merriamcycle will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without parental consent. When we do receive information (with parental consent) from users under the age of 13, we will never voluntarily share their personally identifiable information with third parties, regardless of their stated preference given at registration.
Your acceptance of these terms
By using this Site, you signify your acceptance of this policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our Site. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to this policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes.
Contacting us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, please contact us.