|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Safeguarding Our Members' Privacy Your privacy is very important to us. This Privacy Policy spells out SNET Internet and Prodigy Internet’s ("the Companies’) commitment to respecting the privacy of our members. The Companies reserves the right to change this policy, and we will notify you of any changes.
Personally Identifiable Information
From time to time, we may make our membership list available to carefully selected outside organizations. The Companies may also send approved commercial communications to Members on behalf of outside parties. If you do not want your name, address, e-mail address or other personal information to be provided for such purposes, indicate your intent by logging into the SNET Personal Options section and choosing to opt out. The Companies respect the privacy of personal files in Members’ computers. The Companies do not access, read, upload or store data contained in or derived from private files without the Member’s authorization. Once a Member gives us that authorization, the Companies may from time to time record information about your computer, communications equipment, browser type and version number, mail application, and operating system software (but no other non-Company Internet software). The Companies will use this information on an individually-identifiable basis only to
Your authorization also allows the Companies to provide you with consistently fast and reliable network access by sending diagnostic data about your computer and your connections with the Companies. Such data includes call failure data, communications bit rate, local access number used, version numbers, and modem type. The Companies will use this information to evaluate and improve the quality of your connections. The Companies use strict procedures and safeguards designed to protect the privacy of all personal information. All Company employees with access to personal information are required to follow specific practices concerning its proper handling. Company employees never inspect or disclose to others the contents of these private messages except with the specific consent of the sender or recipient, or as specifically authorized or required by law. The Companies comply in all respects with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, as amended, ("ECPA"). Subject to the subpoena, warrant, consent, and court order provisions of ECPA, the Companies must provide Member information and/or Internet communications to the proper authorities. The Companies may establish time limits and/or other criteria under which private e-mail will be automatically removed from your online mailbox. The Companies have no responsibility to retain or deliver private e-mail that is located in a Member's online mailbox at the time of that Member's suspension or termination, or that is addressed to such Member thereafter. Aggregate Information On a limited basis, we use "cookie" technology. Cookies are pieces of information that an Internet site transfers to your hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Our servers then use these cookies to make your sessions easier by saving your preferences while you are on SNET Internet or Prodigy Internet pages. The use of cookies is an industry standard -- you'll find them almost everywhere on the Internet. SNET Internet and Prodigy Internet cookie usage is single session-only information, and is not stored across multiple sessions. There are two cookies used throughout Prodigy Internet pages. The first Prodigy Internet cookie allows Prodigy Internet to know who the Member is and that he or she properly authenticated into our network. This cookie information can be used to retrieve personal information needed during the Member session, for example, to build your customized pages. Personal user information is stored only temporarily in this cookie. Once this information is retrieved for this purpose, the Member identity is not stored or used for any other purpose. The second cookie is an "advertising" cookie which Prodigy Internet uses to keep track of the ads the Member has seen. Prodigy Internet tracks which ads have been viewed, and we tie it to Members’ demographic data, but not to personally identifiable information. Remember, this describes cookie usage ONLY on Prodigy Internet sites. The Companies have no control over the use of cookies by other Internet sites and their owners or operators. If a Member enters our pages from the site of one of The Companies’ partners, our system will recognize the path the visitor has taken. Such partners are businesses such as computer or modem manufacturers with whom the Companies engage in promotional deals. The benefits of these deals are often passed on to the Service Members. A Special Note Concerning Privacy and Children Online Members of the Service are required to be 18 years of age or older. In fact, you confirmed that you were 18 or older when you enrolled in the Service. However, Members may want to allow their children to use the Service to access the Internet. Although the Internet offers a wealth of information and exciting opportunities to explore, some of its content may not be suitable for children. Understandably, as the popularity of the Internet has grown, so have concerns among parents. The Companies believe that parents should supervise their children's online activities and the Companies suggest that they consider using parental control tools available from software manufacturers that help provide a child-friendly online environment. Please instruct your children not to give us their name, address or e-mail address, or provide any personal information to anyone without your permission. It may also be wise to carefully note all the people with whom your child frequently corresponds over the Internet or on any online service. Chat, Newsgroups, Bulletin Boards and Kids We strongly recommend that you supervise your children's activities on these areas as you would in any public area. You should help your children understand that people they do not know will be reading their notes. They should be careful when choosing what to post (particularly information about themselves), as well as when choosing the people with whom they correspond. Also, only you, as a parent, can establish which topics and individual notes are appropriate for your family, just as you would for television programs or movies. Children and teenagers get a lot of benefit from being online, but they can also be targets of crime and exploitation in this as in any other environment. Trusting, curious, and anxious to explore this new world and the relationships it brings, children and teenagers need parental supervision and common sense advice to ensure that their experiences in "cyberspace" are happy, healthy, and productive. How Parents Can Reduce the Risks The Internet and some private bulletin boards contain areas designed specifically for adults who wish to post, view, or read sexually explicit material. Most private bulletin board operators who post such material limit access only to people who attest that they are adults but, like any other safeguards, be aware that there are always going to be cases where adults fail to enforce them or children find ways around them. The best way to ensure that your children are having positive online experiences is to stay in touch with what they are doing. One way to do this is to spend time with your children while they're online. Have them show you what they do and ask them to teach you how to access the sites. While children and teenagers need a certain amount of privacy, they also need parental involvement and supervision in their daily lives. The same general parenting skills that apply to the "real world" also apply while online. If you have cause for concern about your children's online activities, talk to them. Also seek out the advice and counsel of other computer users in your area and become familiar with literature on filtering devices. Open communication with your children, utilization of such computer resources, and getting online yourself will help you obtain the full benefits of these devices and alert you to any potential problem that may occur with their use. Guidelines for Parents
Recreational Software Advisory Council ratings Parts of this section were adapted from "Child Safety on the Information Highway," which was written by Lawrence J. Magid, a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times who is author of Cruising Online: Larry Magid's Guide to the New Digital Highway (Random House, 1994) and The Little PC Book (Peachpit Press 1993) and was jointly produced by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Interactive Services Association (8403 Colesville Road, Suite 865, Silver Spring, MD 20910). Third-Party Provider Content The search engine technology automatically produces search results that reference sites and information located worldwide throughout the Internet. Because neither the Companies nor the third party service provider has control over such sites and information, there are no guarantees as to such sites and information, including as to:
Because some of the content on the Internet consists of material that is adult-oriented or otherwise objectionable to some people, the results of your search may automatically and unintentionally generate links or references to objectionable material. The Companies have no control over, and can make no claim that such surprises will not occur. Computerized search technology does not give you search results limited to only the hits that you were seeking. There may be extraneous hits as well. The Companies recommend that to avoid any such surprises, you take advantage of available access controls and be diligent in your supervision of any children you allow to use the Service. Contact Information |
 ©1995-2004 SBC Knowledge Ventures. All rights reserved. Legal Privacy |