Privacy Policy
Thank you for visiting gemstonepub.com. Your privacy is very important to us. To better protect you, we are providing this Policy explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used at this site.
This Policy applies to all websites operated by Gemstone Publishing, Inc. and affiliated companies, currently.
References in this Policy to “Gemstone Publishing” shall refer to Gemstone Publishing, Inc. and each Gemstone Publishing affiliated company which utilizes this Policy on its website and references in this Policy to the “site” shall refer to any site on which this Policy appears.
By submitting information through or using a site subject to this Policy, you agree to the terms of this Policy. If you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this Policy, you should not use the site.
Information We Collect
At some Geppi’s Family Enterprises sites, you can order products, enter contests, vote in polls or otherwise express an opinion, or subscribe to one of our services such as our online newsletters. The types of personally identifiable information that may be collected include: name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, fax number, credit card information, and information about your interests in and use of various products, programs, and services.
You may be required to provide us with the requested personally identifiable information to order products, programs, and services or otherwise participate in the site’s activities and offerings.
How We Use Personally Identifiable Information
We may use the information you provide about yourself to fulfill your requests for our products, programs, and services, to respond to your inquiries about our offerings, and to offer you other products, programs or services that we believe may be of interest to you. We may share your information with our affiliated companies.
We sometimes use this information to communicate with you, such as to notify you when you have won one of our contests, to fulfill a request by you for an online newsletter, or to contact you about your account with us.
The information we may collect in connection with online forums and communities is used to provide an interactive experience. We use this information to facilitate participation in these online forums and communities and, from time to time, to offer you products, programs, or services.
Mailing Lists
We may launch a mailing list for some or all of the Gemstone Publishing sites, in order to provide subscribers with relevant information – breaking news, or weekly or daily round-ups, for example. In order to sign up to receive regular e-mails from a site’s mailing list, users must submit information including a valid e-mail address and demographic information such as location and interests. Demographic information will be used in aggregate form only in order to assess general user interest in various internal and third party products and services.
Users who choose to sign up for a mailing list will receive regular e-mails from the site. Most of the time, these will be content from the site in question, but we may periodically send out an e-mail from a third party sponsor. Such e-mails do not represent an endorsement by Gemstone Publishing of any products, services or information advertised therein. Such e-mails will clearly be marked as advertising: please check it out, as we hope you will feel that it is relevant to you. If you do not wish to receive e-mails from third party advertisers, please do not sign up for the mailing list.
Cookies
Some services Gemstone Publishing offers may use cookies. A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. We may 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.
By setting a cookie on a Gemstone Publishing site, users will not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on the site(s) discussion board. We store a cookie on each user’s machine that contains a username and encrypted password. You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. If you reject all cookies, you will not be able to use Gemstone Publishing products or services that require you to “sign in” and you may not be able to take full advantage of all offerings. However, not all Gemstone Publishing services require that you accept cookies.
Third Party Cookies
Some of our business partners may use cookies on our site (for example, advertisers). However, Gemstone Publishing has no access to or control over these cookies, once we have given permission for them to set cookies for advertising. This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by Gemstone Publishing only and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.
Google Advertising
Some ads appearing on this Web site may be delivered to users by Google, among other services. Information about users’ visits to this site, such as number of times they have viewed an ad (but not username, date of birth, or any other personal information), is used to serve Google ads to users on this site. For more information about Google and cookies, please click here.
Our Collection and Use of Non-Personally Identifiable Information
Like most websites, we also may collect certain non-personally identifiable information when you visit many of our web pages such as your IP address (a unique number that identifies your access account on the Internet) the type of browser you are using, the type of operating system you are using, and the domain name of your Internet service provider. We may track the page you visited before coming to our Site, the page you link to when you leave, which of our pages you access, and how long you spend on each page.
We sometimes use the non-personally identifiable information that we collect to improve the design and content of our site and to enable us to personalize your Internet experience. We also may use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage, as well as to offer you products, programs, or services.
Third Party Use of Information
From time to time, we may provide your name, address, telephone number, and your e-mail address to reputable companies, not affiliated with us, whose products or services you may find of interest. If you do not want us to disclose this information to these companies, please write to us at: Gemstone Publishing, Inc., ATTN: Heather Winter- Privacy Policy, P.O. Box 12001, York, PA 17402. You can also call (001) 410-783-2468 and ask for Heather Winter or e-mail us at wheather@gemstonepub.com with your full name in the subject line. Please be sure to include your first name, last name, address, city, state, zip code, and phone number to ensure we can process your request. We will process your request promptly. Please be aware that you may receive another contact before your name removal takes effect. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.
We also provide personally identifiable information to non-affiliated third parties that we use for our own business purposes, such as to process your orders or requests for information, or to provide services for us. Our contracted agents and contractors who have access to personally identifiable information are required to protect this information in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Notice by, for example, not using the information for any purpose other than to carry out the services they are performing for us.
Some of our sites may offer contests, sweepstakes, or promotions that are sponsored by or co-branded with identified, non-affiliated, third parties. By virtue of these relationships, the third parties may obtain personally identifiable information that you voluntarily submit to participate in the activity. We have no control over these third parties’ use of this information. We will notify you at the time of requesting personally identifiable information if these third parties will obtain such information.
Notwithstanding anything else in this policy, we may: (a) disclose personally identifiable and/or aggregated information when required by a valid legal mechanism such as a search warrant, subpoena, or court, governmental or administrative order, or when we deem it necessary to protect the integrity of our site or the safety of site users, our employees or property; and (b) disclose personally identifiable information in the context of the sale of some or all of our assets or other transfer of our business. In such event, we may retain a copy of the transferred information.
Gemstone Publishing’ Commitment to Security
We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect online.
We protect the security of the credit card information you provide online by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information you input into our shopping cart during transmission to our servers and is stored in secure locations. We reveal only the last four digits of your credit card number when confirming an order placed online. Of course, we do transmit the entire credit card number to the appropriate credit card company during order processing.
Please understand that no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guaranty the security of the site or of any information that is transmitted to us over the Internet.
Links
The Gemstone Publishing sites contain links to other sites. Please be aware that Gemstone Publishing 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 Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by Gemstone Publishing.
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 may use a tracking utility that uses log files to analyze user movement.
How You can Access or Correct Information or Opt Out of Receiving Information
For instructions on how you can access the personally identifiable information that we have collected about you online, correct factual errors in such information, or opt out of receiving electronic communications from us.
To protect your privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to help verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.
We will process your request promptly. Please be aware that you may receive another contact before your name removal takes effect. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.
Special Note for Parents
The site you are visiting is one of the Gemstone Publishing general audience sites. All of our current sites fall into this category. As these sites can reasonably be expected to have visitors who are under the age of 13 years old, they are governed by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a series of rules enacted under the enforcement authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Gemstone Publishing and its affiliated companies are also voluntary members of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU).
Your children are protected by the combined governance and suggestions of these entities while visiting Gemstone Publishing sites. For more detailed information on these protections please follow the links above.
We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children and take an active role to protect the privacy of their children. Parents and guardians should instruct their children never to give out real names, telephone numbers, addresses, or any other identifying information over the Internet without first getting their permission.
We will not knowingly contact children under age 13 about promotions or for marketing purposes without a parent’s permission nor will we ask for more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in a given activity. No information should be submitted or posted to our site by visitors under 13 years of age without the consent of their parent or guardian. If you are under 13 and you want to access some of the activities on the site which require registration, then you will need to complete and return a consent form. If we determine that we are in receipt of personal information of a visitor under 13 years of age for whom we do not have a parental consent form on file, we will delete this information from the site.
Notice to California Residents about Your California Privacy Rights
In addition to other rights described in this Privacy Notice, if you are a California resident and a customer of our company, you have the right to request information from us regarding the manner in which we share certain categories of your personal information with third parties, for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. California law provides that you have the right to submit a request to us at our designated address and receive the following information within thirty (30) days of our receipt of the request: (1) the categories of personal information disclosed to third parties during the immediately preceding calendar year, (2) the names and addresses of third parties that received the personal information during the preceding calendar year, and (3) if the nature of a third party’s business cannot be reasonably determined from the third party’s name, examples of their products or services. You are entitled to receive a copy of this information in a standardized format, and the information will not be specific to you individually. All requests for such information must be in writing and sent to our designated address.
Consent to Transfer of Personal Data
IMPORTANT: BY SUBMITTING PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION TO US AND/OR BY USING OUR SITE YOU GIVE YOUR CONSENT THAT ALL PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION THAT YOU SUBMIT MAY BE PROCESSED BY US IN THE MANNER AND FOR THE PURPOSES DESCRIBED IN THIS POLICY.
If you are visiting this site from a country other than the country in which our servers are located (currently in the United States of America) the various communications will necessarily result in the transfer of information across international boundaries.
By visiting this website and communicating electronically with us, you consent to the processing and transfer of your Personally Identifiable Information as set out in this Privacy Notice.
How to Contact Us
All of our contact information is listed on the Contact Us page.
Notification regarding updates
From time to time, we may update this privacy notice. We will notify you about material changes in the way we treat our personally identifiable information by placing a notice on the Gemstone Publishing sites. We encourage you to periodically check back and review this policy so that you always will know what information we collect, how we use it, and to whom we disclose it.