Privacy & Security
Merrimade Company, Inc.
is committed to your online security and privacy. We believe that your online
shopping experience should be safe, secure and enjoyable. We take measures to
make that happen. This statement provides details concerning our policies and
procedures to protect your online security and privacy. This privacy statement
does not apply to information we may gather through sources other than our web
sites, including, but not limited to, orders that are transmitted by telephone,
fax or mail.
- Information Collection and Use
- Cookies
- Third Party Advertising
- Log Files
- Communications From Site
- Sharing
- Choice & Opt-in/out
- Links
- Surveys & Contests
- Email To Friend
- Security
- Personal Information
- Billing Information
- SSL Encryption
- Additional Information
- Children's Guidelines
- Notification of Changes
- Contact Information
Information Collection and Use
Information Collection
The Company is the sole owner of the information collected
on our web sites. The Company collects information from our
users at different points on this web site.
Registration
In order to browse this web site, a user need not register.
To use advanced web site features, such as online
personalization, save my work or email to a friend, a user
must complete a short registration form where we will ask
for the user's name and email address. The user's email
address becomes the user's login ID. Account security is
protected by asking for a user defined password. Please do
not share your password with anyone. If lost or forgotten,
we have provided recovery features to help you retrieve your
forgotten password.
Registration enables us to establish a user account
for you, and enables the advanced features. We also use this
information to provide a more personalized experience on our
site.
Once your user account has been inactive for a period of 12
months or more, we will remove it from our online database
and you will need to re-register in order to use those features
again.
Order
When ordering, we request additional information from the
user. This includes contact information (such as phone
number, and address) for billing and shipping, and financial
information (such as credit card number, expiration date or
checking account number and bank routing number). 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.
Referrals
We believe in helping others. We believe that our customers
may wish to share their good experiences on our site with
their friends and relatives who may also be interested in
similar products. To this end, we may ask our customers to
provide us with email addresses of others who may enjoy
visiting our site. We will send a promotional email to those
referred, containing a link to our web site. We will
identify you as the person who has referred them to us.
Referring others to us is always voluntary.
Information Use
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer
tied to information about the user. We use session ID
cookies and persistent cookies. Once users close the
browser, the session ID 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 allowing a cookie from our site, users would not have to
log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while
on our site. If users reject the cookie, they may still use
our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be
limited in some areas of our site. For example, the user
will not be able to participate in some marketing promotions
that may be offered from time to time, to users matching a
specific profile. Persistent cookies enable us to track and
target the interests of our users to enhance the experience
on our site.
Log Files
Like most standard web sites, 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. The information we
gather through log files is never tied to your personally
identifiable information. We reserve the right to share
information we gather in the aggregate, through the use of
log files.
Communications from the Site
Special Offers and Updates
We send new registrants a
welcoming email to verify password and username. Established
members may occasionally receive information on products,
services and special promotions. Out of respect for the
privacy of our users we present the option to not receive
these types of communications. Please see the Opt-in/out &
Update section.
Service Announcements
Service announcements are not promotional in nature. They
are sent to our customers to provide specific services or
information. For instance, when a customer's order is
shipped from our manufacturing facility, we will advise the
customer by email of the shipping specifics, and provide (if
applicable) a tracking number, and method for the customer
to track their order. We may send email notices to our users
advising them of changes to this policy, or to out terms and
conditions. Additionally, from time to time, we may send a
service email to all our users in order to clean our
database. Such messages allow us to purge invalid email
addresses, and also afford all users an opportunity to
review and change, if desired, their opt in/opt out status.
Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide
requested services. In regard to issues relating to their
account we may reply via email or phone, fax, postal mail,
or such other communications as we deem most appropriate.
Sharing
Legal Disclaimer
Although 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 third party credit card processing and check
processing companies to bill users for goods and services.
These companies do not retain, share, store or use
personally identifiable information for any secondary
purposes.
Business Transitions
In the event the Company 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.
Opt-in/out & Update
By using our web site, our users agree to the uses of
information described in this statement, and are "opting-in"
to receive communications as herein described. Our users
always have a choice. They are given the opportunity to
'opt-out' of having their information used for purposes not
directly related to our site. Users who no longer wish to
receive our promotional communications may opt-out of
receiving these communications by following the opt-out
instructions contained in the email.
Our users may update their information in "My
Account" at any time.
Links
This web site may contain links to other sites. Please be
aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices
of 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 may request 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 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. Though we may use an intermediary to conduct these
surveys or contests, they may not use users' personally
identifiable information for any secondary purposes.
Email To Friend
If a user elects to use our Email To Friend feature, for
inviting a friend or relative to comment on a particular
project the user is working on, we provide a form for our
user to enter the friend’s email address, their own email
address (to identify who it is from) and to add a note to
the friend. The Company will automatically send the friend
an email containing a link to preview the user's work. The
friend will only be able to view the user's project. The
friend will not have access to the user's account, personal
information or other projects. The friend will not be able
to change, edit, modify, add or delete anything from the
user's account or saved work file. The Company may add text
to your email to a friend, offering the visiting friend the
opportunity to establish their own account. Special
promotional offers may also be inserted in the email
invitations to your friends. The Company NEVER harvests the
email addresses you insert in the email to a friend form,
for any purpose, including follow on promotional emails. We
do not send unsolicited promotional emails.Security
This web
site takes reasonable precautions 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, 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'.
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information
online, we also take steps 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.
Personal Information
We use the information internally, to insure the accurate
and timely fulfillment of the user's order. We may also use
the information internally, for specific marketing or
promotional campaigns, as described within this statement.
We may share some information with our affiliate partners
and/or our third-party affiliate management company, to
ensure proper payment of affiliate commissions.
From time to time, we may sell, license or rent
lists, containing your name and address information, but
never email address, credit card or payment information, to
others, unless you request us not to do so. Our users’
election, to have their information shared, or withheld, may
be changed at time of ordering. We NEVER sell, license or
rent your email address to others.
Billing Information
Billing information, including credit card account numbers,
expiration dates, checking account numbers and bank routing
identifiers are never shared with third parties, except
those companies associated with order and payment
processing.
SSL Encryption
Digital certificates encrypt data using Secure
Sockets Layer
(SSL) technology,
the industry-standard method for protecting web communications developed by
Netscape Communications Corporation. The SSL security protocol provides data
encryption, server authentication, message integrity, and optional client
authentication for a TCP/IP connection. Because SSL is built into all major
browsers and web servers, simply installing a digital certificate turns on their
SSL capabilities.
SSL comes in two strengths, 40-bit and 128-bit, which refer to the length of the
"session key" generated by every encrypted transaction. The longer the key, the
more difficult it is to break the encryption code. Most browsers support 40-bit
SSL sessions, and the latest browsers enable users to encrypt transactions in
128-bit sessions - trillions of times stronger than 40-bit sessions. Our web
site supports 128-bit sessions.
Additional Information
Children's
Guidelines
The Company is committed to protecting the online privacy of children. We will
not knowingly or intentionally collect personal information from or about
children under the age of 16 without prior parental consent. If you are under 16
and would like to purchase items from the Company, or provide personal
information about yourself or your family, please ask a parent or guardian for
assistance.
The Company cannot prevent minors from visiting this site. The Company must rely
on parents, guardians and those responsible for supervising children under the
age of 16 to decide which materials are appropriate for such children to view
and/or purchase.
Each time you purchase a product from this site, or provide information about
yourself or your family, you are representing to the Company that you are 16
years or older.
Notification of Changes
We reserve the right to make changes to this policy at our sole discretion. If
we change our privacy policy, we will post the new, updated privacy statement on
our web site, 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. We may, at our option, send an email notification to our
users, advising them of changes to this policy, or changes in our terms and
conditions.
Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy,
please contact us at:
Customer Service
By Phone: 1-888-720-8302
By Fax: 1-800-883-6515
Postal Address: Merrimade
P.O. Box 207
Peru, Indiana 46970
|
