COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY

This site is owned and operated by Ruben Santiago (AKA: Black Sun Designs). Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to me. At Black Sun Designs, I want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.

Because I gather certain types of information about my users, I feel you should fully understand my policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information I gather and how I use it.

INFORMATION BLACK SUN DESIGNS GATHERS AND TRACKS

I gather two types of information about users:

• Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions to receive my electronic newsletters, to participate in my message boards or forums, to email a friend, and from participation in polls and surveys:
  
• Information I gather through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout my sites. This information allows me to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to help any of my advertisers and sponsors better understand the demographics of my audience. Under no circumstances do I divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.

I Gather User Information In The Following Processes:

Optional Voluntary Information

I offer the following free services, which require some type of voluntary submission of personal information by users:

1. Electronic newsletters policy (Dispatches)

I will offer a free electronic newsletter to users. I gather the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every newsletter that points users to the subscription management page. Users can also subscribe to the newsletters at the time of registration.

2. Message boards/forums policy

Users of the site's Message Boards and Forums must register separately for these services (both are free of charge) in order to post messages, although they needn't register to visit the site. During registration the user is required to supply a username, password, and email address.

3. "E-mail this to a friend" policy

My site users can choose to electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking "e-mail this to a friend" (if available). The user must provide their email address, as well as that of the recipient. This information is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient know who sent the email. The information is not used for any other purpose.

4. Polling

I may offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other users and see what our audience thinks about important issues. Opinions or other responses to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. I may use a system to "tag" users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual users.

5. Surveys

I may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target my content to my audience. I sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with my partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.

Children

Usage tracking

Black Sun Designs tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of my sites. However, I do not correlate this information with data about individual users. I do break down overall usage statistics according to a user's domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user's browser).

Black Sun Designs sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that users enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. I use tracking information to determine which areas of my sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. I do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps me continue to build a better service for you.

Cookies

I may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information although it will enable me to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. I use cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above).

You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in message boards, forums, polling and surveys.

USE OF INFORMATION

Black Sun Designs uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in my sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of my users.

As stated above, I use information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. I send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when I think subscribers might be particularly interested in something I am doing. I will never share newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.

When I use tracking information to determine which areas of my sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. I do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps me continue to build a better service for you. I track search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what interests my users. But I don't track which terms a particular user enters.

Black Sun Designs creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns. I will not disclose any information about any individual user except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.

SHARING OF THE INFORMATION

Black Sun Designs uses the above-described information to tailor my content to better understand my audience's demographics. I will not share information about individual users with any third party, except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of my users or the public.

SECURITY

Black Sun Designs operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. My security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by my clients.

OPT-OUT POLICY

I give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:

• Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters.
  
• Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users

YOUR CONSENT