CELLARTRACKER PRIVACY POLICY

Last Changes to Privacy Policy: October 25, 2012

We are strongly committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information.  The policies below are applicable to the cellartracker.com website (“Website”) produced and maintained by CellarTracker! LLC (collectively “CellarTracker” or “we”, “us”, or “our”). We have established this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to let you know the kinds of personal information we may gather during your visit to the Website, why we gather your information, what we use your personal information for, when we might disclose your personal information, and how you can manage your personal information.

Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy apply only to information gathered online at our Website. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information that you may submit to us offline, or to websites maintained by other companies or organizations to which we may link.

By visiting our Website, you are accepting the practices described in our Privacy Policy.  If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Website.  We reserve the right to modify or amend the terms of our Privacy Policy from time to time without notice. Your continued use of our Website and our affiliate sites following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes.  If we intend to apply the modifications or amendments to this Privacy Policy retroactively, we will provide you with notice of the modifications or amendments.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or don’t see your concerns addressed here, you should contact us by email at editors@cellartracker.com.

What Information About Me Is Collected and Stored?

CellarTracker adheres to the highest standards of ethical practices in all of our operations and is dedicated to protecting the privacy of all visitors to our Website.  Our privacy policy is simple: Except as disclosed below, we don't sell, barter, give away, or rent your personal information to any company outside of CellarTracker.

Personal Information

We collect personally identifiable information from you when you register to use the Website, when you submit contributions or tasting notes, when you participate in any forums, when you make voluntary payment to CellarTracker, or when you request customer support or send us e-mail (“Submissions”).  If you submit Submissions or information, we collect identifiable information about you and your authorized users such as your name, user ID, and email address and may collect telephone numbers, billing information, and demographic information such as age, gender and zip code (“Personal Information”). We also collect and store information that you enter into this Website or that you provide to any of our representatives, or in conjunction with requests for more information. Registration may also be required and Personal Information may also be collected if there are certain portions of the Website in which you specifically and knowingly provide such information, e.g. community postings (i.e., chat or bulletin boards, blog comments, if any).  We also may collect and store information about you that we receive from other sources such as 3rd party wine reviewers that you subscribe to, to enable us to update and correct the information contained in our database. Generally speaking, your personal information is never exposed on the website, but if you register on the Forum or on the website, you have control over your profile and what information is shown. Likewise, tasting notes are shown publicly in association with the handle specified in your profile. You can see more information about your settings at www.cellartracker.com/privacy.asp.

Anonymous Information

In addition, when you interact with the Website, our servers may keep an activity log that does not identify you individually (“Anonymous Information”). Generally, this information is collected through “traffic data”. We collect and store certain administrative and traffic information with each use of the service or Website including: source IP address, time of access, date of access, web page(s), software crash reports, type of browser used, session identification number, search terms, search results, access times and referring websites addresses.

Use of Cookies and Spyware

We never use or install spyware on your computer, nor do we use spyware to retrieve information from your computer.  Like many Websites, we use “cookies”, which are small text files that are stored on your computer or equipment when you visit certain online pages that record your preferences. We use cookies to track use of our Website and online services. We may also use cookies to monitor traffic, improve the Website and make it easier and/or relevant for your use.  We may also use Flash cookies, Javascript and other techniques to fingerprint you and prevent automated scraping of information from the Website. You may occasionally get cookies from companies advertising on our behalf (Google) or from companies (Quantcast) we use to monitor site traffic. We do not control these cookies, and these cookies are not subject to this cookie policy. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies, but cookies are required in order to log into the Website or forum. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but, if you prefer, you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. For more information on cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information provided by the Interactive Advertising Bureau at www.allaboutcookies.org.

Is Information Collected From Children?

This is not a Website directed to children under the age of 13, and CellarTracker does not knowingly collect personal identifiable information from children under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age you should not use this Website, and under no circumstance should you provide personally identifiable information to CellarTracker. If CellarTracker discovers that a child under the age of 13 has provided CellarTracker with personally identifiable information, CellarTracker will immediately delete that child’s information from the Website.

How We Use Your Information?

We use the information we learn from you to help us personalize and continually improve your experience on the Website.  We use the information to communicate with you about products, services, promotional offers, update our records and generally maintain your relationship with us.  We also use this information to enable third parties to carry out technical, logistical or other functions on our behalf. Except as disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we do not use or disclose information about your individual visits to our Website or your Personal Information collected online to any companies not affiliated with us.

Customer Service and Feedback

We may use your Personal Information to provide customer service, track your compliance with the Website’s rules and regulations, or for editorial and feedback purposes (to the extent that is explained when you provide the information).  In the event we plan to publicly post any of your Personal Information on a Website (as, for instance, a letter), we will request your permission to provide such posting.

Use of Anonymous Information

We use Anonymous Information to help us determine how people use parts of the Website and who our users are so we can improve our Website and ensure that it is as appealing as we can make it for as many people as possible.  We also use Anonymous Information to provide statistical "ratings" information in aggregated form to our partners and other third parties about how our users collectively use the Website. We may also use or share Anonymous Information (or other information, other than Personal Information) in any other manner that we deem appropriate or necessary.

Third-Party Agents

We occasionally have third party agents, affiliates and partners that perform functions on our behalf, such as analytics or anti-scraping prevention, etc.  These entities have access to the subset of Personal Information needed to perform their functions and are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of that Personal Information. They are restricted from using, selling, distributing or altering this data in any way other than to provide the requested services to the Website.

Transactional Partners

We may share non-personal information with our partners and others from time to time. Examples of such non-personal information include the number of users who visited this Website during a specific time period. This information generally is shared in an aggregated form.

Emergency Situations

We may also use or disclose Personal Information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on us or the Website; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, the Website or our users, and (c) act under emergency circumstances to protect the our personal safety or the personal safety of our affiliates, agents, the users of the Website, or the public.

What Steps Are Taken To Keep Personal Information Secure?

The importance of security for all Personal Information associated with you is of utmost concern to us. We exercise great care in providing secure transmission of your information from your PC to our servers.  Personal Information collected by our Website is stored in secure operating environments that are not available to the public.  To the extent that you make a voluntary payment, this is typically either done using Payflow Link or PayPal, and we do not have direct access to your cardholder data. Our security procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we disclose personal information to you. While we try our best to safeguard your Personal Information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

What Happens When I Link To or From Another Web Site?

The Website may contain links to other websites operated by affiliates of CellarTracker or third parties. Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy for CellarTracker do not apply to information gathered through these other web sites. These other sites may also send their own cookies to you, collect your data or solicit your Personal Information.  Always be aware of where you end up. We are not responsible for the actions and privacy policies of third parties and other websites.  We encourage you to be aware of when you leave this Website and read the privacy policies of each and every website that you visit.

Governing Law/Assignment

The Website is published in the United States of America. We make every effort to protect the Personal Information of all users of the Website. We attempt to comply with local data protection and consumer rights laws to the extent they may apply to the CellarTracker services.  If you are uncertain whether this privacy policy conflicts with the applicable local privacy laws where you are located, you should not submit your Personal Information to CellarTracker.

We may change its ownership or corporate organization while providing the Website and services. As a result, please be aware that we may transfer your information to another CellarTracker that is affiliated with us or with which we have merged. Under such circumstances CellarTracker would to the extent possible require the acquiring party to follow the practices described in this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time.

Notice to European Users

If you are located within the European Union, you should be aware that your Personal Information will be transferred to the United States of America, the laws of which may be deemed by the European Union to have inadequate data protection. If you are located in a country outside the United States of America and voluntarily submit Personal Information to us, you thereby consent to the general use of such information as provided in this Privacy Policy and to the transfer of that information to, and/or storage of that information in, the United States of America.

Changes to This Policy

We are committed to maintaining our position as a premier Website on the Internet. As our Website continues to develop, we may add new services and features to our Website. In the event that these additions affect our Privacy Policy, this document will be updated appropriately.  We will post those changes prominently so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information and whether we will disclose it to anyone.  We do, however, recommend that you read this Privacy Policy each time you use our website in case you missed our notice of changes to the Privacy Policy.  We will never, however, materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of customer information we have previously collected without your express consent.

How Do I Opt-Out or Correct Information About Me

You may always opt-out of receiving future e-mail messages and newsletters from CellarTracker.  We provide you with the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us www.cellartracker.com/privacy.asp.  We also give you access to a broad range of information about your account to permit you to correct or update Personal Information that you have previously provided to us at www.cellartracker.com/editprofile.asp. Or you can send us a message at editors@cellartracker.com.

Your California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits customers of CellarTracker who are California residents to request certain information regarding its disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an e-mail to editors@cellartracker.com.