Information Collection
Fairfield County Online is the sole owner of the information
collected on fairfieldcountyonline.com. Fairfield County Online collects
information from our users at several different points on our
Web site.
Order
We request information from the user on our order form. A user
must provide contact information (such as name, email, and
shipping address) and financial information (such as credit
card number, expiration date). This information is used for
billing purposes and to fill customer’s orders. If we
have trouble processing an order, the information is used to
contact the user.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s
computer tied to information about the user. Usage of a cookie
is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information
while on our site. We use both session ID cookies and
persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close
the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie
is a small text file stored on the user’s hard drive for
an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed
by following Internet browser help file directions. To learn
more about cookies, follow this link: http://www.pcwebopaedia.com/TERM/c/cookie.html
Some of our business partners use cookies on our
site (for example, advertisers). However, we have no
access to or control over these cookies, once we have
given permission for them to set cookies for
advertising.
Third Party Advertising
The ads appearing on this Web site are delivered to users by
several third party vendors. Information about users’
visit to this site, such as number of times they have viewed an
ad (but not user name, address, or other personal information),
is used to serve ads to users on this site. For more
information about third party servers please let us know which
add you have a question about and we will send you the server
information.
This privacy statement covers the use of cookies
by Fairfield County Online only and does not cover the
use of cookies by any advertisers.
Log Files
Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This
includes Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type,
Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform
type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends,
administer the site, track user’s movement in the
aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for
aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally
identifiable information. We also use Web Trends Live as a
tracking tool, there policy statement can be found here:
http://www.sitemeter.com/default.asp?action=privacy
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
We employ or our third party advertising company employs a
software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web
Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by
informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny
graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to
cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web
users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs
are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size
of the period at the end of this sentence. Clear gifs are not
tied to users’ personally identifiable
information.
In addition, we use clear gifs in our HTML-based
emails to let us know which emails have been opened by
the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness
of certain communications and the effectiveness of our
marketing campaigns. If users would like to opt-out of
these emails, please see the Opt-out section.
Communications from the Site
Special Offers and Updates
We send all new members a welcoming email to verify password
and username. Established members will occasionally receive
information on products, services, special deals, and a
newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we
present the option to not receive these types of
communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out
sections.
Newsletter
If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter, we ask for
contact information such as name and email address. Out of
respect for our users privacy we provide a way to opt-out of
these communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out
sections.
Service Announcements
On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly
service related announcement. For instance, if our service is
temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an
email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these
communications, though they can deactivate their account.
However, these communications are not promotional in nature.
Users may opt-out of these communications. Please see our
Choice and Opt-out section.
Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide
requested services and in regards to issues relating to their
account we reply via email or phone, in accordance with the
users wishes.
Sharing
Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may
need to disclose personal information when required by law
wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is
necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court
order or legal process served on our Web site.
Third Party Intermediaries
We use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a
credit card processing company to bill users for goods and
services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use
personally identifiable information for any secondary
purposes.
Service Providers
We partner with other third parties to provide
specific services. When the user signs up for these particular
services, we share names, or other contact information that is
necessary for the third party to provide these services. These
third parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable
information except for the purpose of providing these
services.
Business Transitions
In the event Fairfield County Online goes through a business
transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another
company, or selling a portion of its assets, users’
personal information will, in most instances, be part of the
assets transferred.
Choice/Opt-out
Our users are given the opportunity to ‘opt-out’ of having their
information used for purposes not directly related to our site at the point
where we ask for information. For example, our order form has an ‘opt-out’
mechanism so users who buy a product from us, but don’t want any marketing
material, can keep their email address off of our lists.
Users who no longer wish to receive our
newsletter and promotional communications may opt-out of
receiving these communications by clicking here:
http://www.fairfieldcountyonline.com/newsletter/
Links
This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware
that we, Fairfield County Online, are 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 Web site that collects personally
identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely
to information collected by this Web site.
Surveys & Contests
From time to time our site requests information from users via
surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests
is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice
whether or not to disclose this information. The requested
information typically includes contact information (such as
name and shipping address), and demographic information (such
as zip code). Contact information will be used shared with the
contest sponsors to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey
information will be used for purposes of monitoring or
improving the use and satisfaction of this site. Users’
personally identifiable information is not shared with third
parties unless we give prior notice and choice. Though we may
use an intermediary to conduct these surveys or contests, they
may not use users’ personally identifiable information
for any secondary purposes.
Tell-A-Friend
If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a
friend about our site, we ask them for the friend’s name
and email address. Fairfield County Online will automatically
send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the
site. Fairfield County Online stores this information for the
sole purpose of sending this one-time email. The friend may
contact Fairfield County Online at info@fairfieldcountyonline.com to
request the removal of this information from our
database.
Chat Rooms, Message Boards, and Public Forums
Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose
personal information online - for example on message boards,
through e-mail, or in chat areas - that information can be
collected and used by others. In short, by posting personal
information online that is publicly accessible, you may receive
unsolicited messages from other parties in return.
Security
This Web site takes every precaution to protect our
users’ information. When users submit sensitive
information via the Web site, their information is protected
both online and off-line.
When our registration/order form asks users to
enter sensitive information (such as credit card number
and/or social security number), that information is
encrypted and is protected with the best encryption
software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page,
such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of
Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft
Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to
un-locked, or open, when users are just
‘surfing’. To learn more about SSL, follow
this link: http://www.pcwebopaedia.com/TERM/S/SSL.html
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive
information online, we also do everything in our power to
protect user-information off-line. All of our
users’ information, not just the sensitive
information mentioned above, is restricted in our
offices. Only employees who need the information to
perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or
a customer service representative) are granted access to
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 users’ information
is protected.
If users have any questions about the security
at our Web site, users can send an email to info@fairfieldcountyonline.com
Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user’s personally identifiable information changes
(such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a
user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to
correct, update or delete/deactivate users’ personally
identifiable information. This can usually be done by emailing:
info@fairfieldcountyonline.com
Or, contact us by telephone or postal mail at the contact
information listed below.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those
changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other
places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of
what information we collect, how we use it, and under what
circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our
privacy policy, please contact us at:
Email: info@fairfieldcountyonline.com
Web site URL: http://www.fairfieldcountyonline.com/
