CounterCat Privacy Statement
(last updated: October 2003)

CounterCat is committed to protecting your privacy. This CounterCat Privacy Statement applies to CounterCat's CounterCat family of Web sites and governs data collection and usage at all CounterCat sites and services; it does not apply to other online or offline CounterCat sites, products or services. Please read the CounterCat Privacy Statement below and also any supplementary information at the end of this statement for additional details about particular CounterCat sites and services that you may use.

CounterCat is a general audience web site, intended for users of all ages. Personal information of all users is collected, used and disclosed as described in this Privacy Statement. This Statement contains a section with specific details regarding personal information collected from children. 

Collection of your Personal Information

At some sites, CounterCat collects personal information, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number. CounterCat may also collect demographic information, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites. Information collected by CounterCat may be combined with information obtained from other CounterCat services and other companies.

You can choose to create an optional public profile, containing information about yourself - such as your hobbies and interests. Any information you choose to enter in your public profile will be visible to other users of CounterCat sites and services; and when you interact with other users (for example, sending an CounterCat Hotmail message to another CounterCat email account or interacting in an CounterCat Chat room), a link to your public profile may be displayed. CounterCat urges you to be careful only to enter information on your public profile that you are comfortable sharing with the public at large. You may change, edit or delete information about yourself from your public profile at any time while online by going to People & Chat, Public Profiles, Edit Your Public Profile.

CounterCat also collects certain information about your computer hardware and software. This information may include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring Web site addresses. This information is used by CounterCat for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of CounterCat.

CounterCat keeps track of the pages our customers visit within CounterCat, in order to determine what CounterCat sites and services are the most popular. This data is also used by CounterCat to deliver customized content and advertising to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

Some CounterCat services, such as CounterCat Chat and CounterCat Groups, request that you create a social nickname, which is the name you will be known by to others in those public places. You may select a different social nickname at any time. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information through CounterCat Chats, CounterCat Groups, or other public online forums, this information may be collected and used by others. CounterCat cautions you against giving out personal information to strangers online, which they may use for illegal or harmful purposes.

CounterCat encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from CounterCat so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. CounterCat is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the CounterCat and CounterCat family of Web sites.

Use of your Personal Information

CounterCat and its operational service partners collect and use your personal information to operate CounterCat and deliver the services you have requested. CounterCat does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

CounterCat also uses your personal information to inform you of other products or services available from CounterCat and its affiliates. CounterCat may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.

CounterCat does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. CounterCat may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your personal information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party.

Certain CounterCat services may be co-branded and offered in conjunction with another company. If you register for or use such services, both CounterCat and the other company may receive information collected in conjunction with the co-branded services. In such cases, either a joint privacy statement or a link to the other company's privacy statement will be provided, which will provide you with information about how the other company will use the information and how you can contact the other company with requests to access the information or other inquiries.

We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as handling the processing and delivery of mailings, providing customer support, processing transactions, or performing statistical analysis of our services. We will only provide those companies the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information and are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

CounterCat may access and/or disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on CounterCat or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of CounterCat, including its CounterCat family of Web sites; or (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of CounterCat services or members of the public.

Personal information collected on this site may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which CounterCat or its affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using this site, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. CounterCat abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union.

Security of your Personal Information

CounterCat is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the personal information you provide on computer systems with limited access, that are located in controlled facilities. When we transmit highly confidential information (such as a credit card number) over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Use of Cookies

CounterCat uses "cookies" to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. For example, if you personalize CounterCat's pages, or register with CounterCat sites or services, a cookie helps CounterCat to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to CounterCat, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the CounterCat features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the CounterCat services or Web sites you visit.

Use of Third Party Ad Networks

The majority of the online banner advertisements you see on CounterCat Web pages are displayed by CounterCat.

In addition, CounterCat allows other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to display advertisements on CounterCat Web pages. Some of these ad networks may place a persistent cookie on your computer. Doing this allows the ad network to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement. In this way, ad networks may compile information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw their advertisements and determine which ads are clicked on. This information allows an ad network to deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. CounterCat does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third-party ad servers or ad networks.

Changes to this Statement

CounterCat will occasionally update this Privacy Statement to reflect company and customer feedback. When CounterCat posts changes to this Statement, you will see the word "updated" next to the Privacy Statement link on the front page of CounterCat. If there are material changes to this Statement or in how CounterCat will use your personal information, CounterCat will prominently post such changes prior to implementing the change. CounterCat encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how CounterCat is protecting your information.

Contact Information

CounterCat welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Statement. If you believe that CounterCat has not adhered to this Statement, please contact CounterCat by telephone, e-mail, or postal mail.

CounterCat.com
757 SE 17th Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
888-211-7086