The Gourmet Girl Privacy Policy

This privacy policy will advise you about our guidelines concerning the use of your personal information, including, without limitation, the reasonable efforts we make to protect your personal information in accord with these guidelines, and about what choices you have concerning our use of such information. Please read this policy carefully. We may need to change this policy from time to time in order to address new issues and reflect changes on our sites. We will post those changes here so that you will always know our policies regarding what information we gather, how we might use that information, and whether we will disclose that information to anyone. Please refer back to this policy regularly.

If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, please send an e-mail to

swflgourmetgirl@yahoo.com
Attn: Privacy Policy Dept.
or
Contact us at:

Legal Department,
The Gourmet Girl, Inc.,
19750 Osprey Cove Rd. Unit # 242
South Ft. Myers, FL 33967 * 239-689-4112

Scope of Privacy Policy
This policy applies to your use of all the sites and services owned or operated by The Gourmet Girl, Inc. and affiliated companies, including TheGourmetGirl.webs.com, GourmetGirlMagazine.com and any other site that we may own or operate currently or in the future (collectively, the "Sites"). Unless we say otherwise, all references to the Sites in this policy include all such sites. This policy does not apply to your use of unaffiliated sites to which any of the Sites only link. This policy covers only information collected on the Sites and does not cover any information collected offline by us.

Personal Identification Information
We may request personal identification information from you (such as your name, street address, telephone number, credit card number, e-mail address, and/or any other identifier that permits the physical or online contacting of you) in connection with your use of, or participation in, membership registration for TheGourmetGirl.webs.com, our contests, sweepstakes, promotions, games, surveys, forums, subscription registrations, content submissions, chats, bulletin boards, discussion groups, requests for suggestions, visitors' requests for free products or services, or additional information (including via e-mail to us), and in connection with other activities, services or resources we make available on any of our Sites. In all of these cases, we will collect personal identification information from you only if you voluntarily submit such information to us. Except as otherwise provided in this policy, we reasonably endeavor to ensure that we never intentionally disclose any personal identification information about you as an individual user to any third party without having received your permission (through opt-in or similar procedures) except as provided for herein or otherwise as permitted or required under law. Further, The Gourmet Girl, Inc. may contact you based on the information you provide online whether in connection with your registration or in such places as the above described forums.

If you do provide us with personal information for any of these activities, we may use it to conduct the activity. We may also use cookie technology and Web beacons (discussed in detail below) to improve your experience of these activities, including to remember your preferences, customize the content and advertisements that you see or authenticate your access to your personal information. In addition, in the event that your personally identifiable information is requested as part of our surveys, polls or promotions, such personally identifiable information may be added to your registration information.

We may also contact you to confirm your registration and about your account status (for example, when a child enters a new age group to which different policies apply), and regarding changes to the Sites' Terms and Conditions and this Privacy Policy.

If you give us your permission, we may also use personal identification information for internal or external marketing and promotional purposes. On occasion, for example, we may send you e-mails to introduce a product or a service that we think might be of interest to the users of our Sites. For us to obtain your permission to send you this information, we will give you an opportunity to "opt-in" at the time our request for your personal information is made. If you do "opt-in," you may choose to "opt-out" at any time, even after you have provided personal information, by following the procedures set forth below at the end of this Privacy Policy. Please note, however, that under certain circumstances, if you initially do not choose to "opt-in," or if you later "opt-out," you may not be eligible for certain benefits for which a name, e-mail address, telephone number or other personal identification information is needed.

We have the following exceptions to these policies: We will release specific information about you or your account to comply with any valid legal inquiry or process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute or court order. We will also release specific information in special cases, such as if there is an attempted breach of the security of the Sites, or a physical or property threat to you or others. We may also transfer user information, including personally identifiable information, in connection with a corporate merger, consolidation, the sale of related assets or corporate division, or other fundamental corporate change. We may provide access to your personally identifiable information to our contractors who are performing services for us in connection with our Sites or the services that you have requested.

In addition, on occasion, we may collect personal identification information from you in connection with optional contests, special offers or promotions. We will share such information with necessary third parties for the purpose of carrying out the contest, special offer or promotion. Your participation in the contest, special offer or promotion constitutes your consent to such disclosure and use of such information.

Further, the information you enter when making a purchase or an online donation will be shared with payment processors, financial gateways, and your credit card company to authorize credit card payments. Such information may also be shared with necessary third parties solely for the purpose or carrying out the transactions.

Please note that if you give out personal information online—for example, on one of our public forums such as a message board or chat room, folder, chat IM feature—that information can be collected and used by third parties. Although we strive to protect our users' privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of information you post in these forums and have no control over how such third parties may use your information. You disclose such information at your own risk.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your information and password. You shall be responsible for all uses of your registration, whether or not authorized by you. You agree to immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your registration or password.

Non-Personal Identification Information
We collect non-personal identification information through the use of, without limitation, the following types of methodology:

"Cookie" technology: A "cookie" is an element of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then store it on your system.

"IP address tracking": An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer when you are on the Internet. When you request pages from our Sites, our servers log your IP address.

"Web beacons": A Web beacon, or "clear gif," is a small graphic image on a webpage or web-based document that a website can use to determine information about a user.

Non-personal identification information might include the browser you use, the type of computer, technical information about your means of connection to our Sites—such as the operating systems and the Internet service providers utilized, and other similar information. Our systems may also automatically gather information about the areas you visit and search terms you utilize on our Sites and about the links you may select from within our Sites to other areas of the World Wide Web or elsewhere online.

We use such information for our business purposes, and, in particular, primarily to administer the Sites, better manage advertising on the Sites, and, in the aggregate, to understand how our users as a group use the services and resources provided on our Sites. This way we know which areas of our Sites are favorites of our users, which areas need improvement, and what technologies are being used so that we may continually improve our Sites.

We may share this aggregate statistical information with our partners, suppliers and other third parties, but we will not share any individual names, personal navigational or other personal information. For example, we may use a third-party advertising company to serve ads when you visit our Sites. We may share demographic and preference information with this company to allow them to display appropriate advertisements for you.

Further, we currently contract with a third party web analytics provider to help manage and optimize our Sites. We use this service to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising and how visitors use our Sites. To do this, we use Web beacons and cookie technology on the Sites. The type of information we collect includes the number of hits a webpage receives, type of browser used, and number of times a visitor makes a purchase from a particular promotion. By supplementing our records, this information helps us learn things like what pages are most attractive to our visitors, which of our products and services most interest our users, and what kinds of offers our users like to see. Although this third-party provider logs the information coming from our Sites on our behalf, we control how that data may and may not be used.

Privacy of Children
We understand that young people need special safeguards and privacy protection. We realize that they may not understand all the provisions of our policy or be able to make thoughtful decisions about the choices that are made available to our adult users. We strongly urge all parents to participate in their children's exploration of the Internet and any online services, and to teach their children about protecting their personal information while online.

The Sites are not directed to children under the age of 13. We prohibit registration by children under the age of 13 for all interactive portions of the Sites including chats and message boards. We will not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13.

We may, at our discretion, require users under 18 to obtain the consent of a parent or guardian to view certain content, and we may limit access to certain content to users above a specified age. You agree to abide by any such restrictions, and not to help anyone avoid these restrictions.

Links to Other Sites
Users will find advertising or other content on our Sites that link to the sites and services of our partners, suppliers, advertisers, sponsors, licensors and other third parties. We do not control the content or links that appear on these sites. In addition, these sites or services, including their content and links, may be constantly changing. These sites and services may have their own privacy policies and customer service policies, or no policy (policies) at all. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third party sites or services before providing any of them with your personal information.

Security Policy
Protecting your privacy and your information is a top priority. We have taken reasonable measures to secure both your information and our physical premises. We exercise reasonable care in providing safe transmission of your information from your PC to our servers (unless sent by a means outside of our control, such as e-mail). However, we cannot guaranty that our measures will completely bar unauthorized access to your information, and by using the Sites you assume this risk.

Choice/Opt-Out
If you "opt-in" to receive information from us or others, you can change your mind later. If at any time you would like to stop receiving such information or opt-out of a feature, you may go back to TheGourmetGirl.webs.com and change your options. You should be aware, however, that it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our databases and servers, although we will always make reasonable efforts to do so upon your request, and we are unable to have your information removed from the records of any third party who has been provided with your information in accordance with this policy.

Consent to Transfer
The Sites are operated in the United States. If you are located in the European Union or elsewhere outside of the United States, please be aware that any information you provide to us will be transferred to the United States. By using our Website, participating in any of our services and/or providing us with your information, you consent to this transfer.

Your Acceptance of These Terms
By using any of the Sites, you signify your acceptance of our Privacy Policy, your promise to comply with the representations you make and contained in the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions, and your understanding of the scope and limitations of the protections provided under the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to these policies, please do not use our Sites. Your continued use of the Sites following the posting of changes to these terms will mean that you accept those changes.