OUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
This site is owned and operated by The Nautical Research Guild. Your privacy on
the Internet is of the utmost importance to us; at NRG, we want to make your
experience online satisfying and safe.
Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should
fully understand our policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture
and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information
we gather and how we use it.
INFORMATION NRG GATHERS AND TRACKS
NRG gathers two types of information about users:
Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions.
These are voluntary submissions to join the NRG and to purchase products;
and
Information gathered through aggregated tracking information derived
mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows
us to better tailor our content to Members' needs. Because NRG
derives its revenue from Memberships and Product Sales, obtaining such
aggregated demographic data is essential to keeping our web service free to
Members and non-Members alike. Under no circumstances does NRG divulge
any information about an individual user to a third party.
OPTIONAL VOLUNTARY INFORMATION
We offer the following free services, which require some type of voluntary submission
of personal information by users:
1. New Memberships and Subscriptions
NRG gathers the mailing address, e-mail address and other contact information from all
new Membership Applications and Journal Subscriptions submitted, whether on the
internet or by FAX or by mail.
2. Event Registrations
NRG gathers the information needed to process Registrations for the events we plan
throughout the year - information such as mailing address, credit card number, and contact
information. We may require such additional data as food choices and hotel accommodation
requirements. All information requested is needed to plan the events, and is only shared
with third parties to the extent necessary to make reservations and place orders on your
behalf.
3. Use of Credit Cards
We offer our Members and non-Members the convenience of joining the Guild or renewing your
Membership, purchasing products, and registering for NRG events. Payments are accepted in
the form of personal checks and Money Orders (by mail) or credit card charges (online or by
mail or by FAX). All personal and sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, is
collected on pages which are secure - look for the yellow closed padlock at the bottom of
your browser window. Credit card numbers and associated data are available only to those
NRG staff members who process the charges through your bank, or who oversee our internet
security; this data is stored in encrypted form on computers which are protected by industry
standard firewalls and security software.
4. Polling
We may occasionally 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. NRG 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
NRG may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience.
We never share any of this information about specific individuals
with any third party.
6. Member Projects
NRG allows Members to upload photographs and accompanying descriptive text to be displayed
on our web site. All photographs remain the property of the Member, and will be automatically
marked with an appropriate Copyright label when displayed. All Project photos and text are
subject to review by NRG prior to being displayed on our web site; NRG retains full and
complete authority to edit submissions or to refuse to display them.
7. Classified Ads
NRG allows Members to place ads on our web site. All Classified Ads are
subject to review by NRG prior to being displayed on our web site; NRG retains full and
complete authority to edit submissions or to refuse to display them.
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E-MAIL FELLOW MEMBERS
Our Members can choose to receive blind e-mails sent from fellow Members
by updating their Personal Profile and selecting "Yes" to activate this function. The sender
must provide his or her own e-mail address, but does not have access to the e-mail address of the
recipient; the only way the sender can obtain the e-mail address of the recipient is if
the recipient REPLIES with his/her e-mail address in the FROM: field to the sender's e-mail.
CHILDREN
Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will
never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18
without requesting parental consent.
USAGE TRACKING
NRG tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our web sites. However, we do not correlate
this information with data about individual users. NRG does 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).
NRG may track and catalog the search terms that users enter in our Search function,
but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to
determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas.
We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall.
This helps us continue to build a better service for you.
COOKIES
We 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 us to relate your use of
this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. The only
information a cookie from our web site contains is a single encrypted random number we use
to track your movements around our site, and to keep track of items in your shopping cart.
A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites.
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, moving from page to page may be
slightly slower with cookies turned off because of the additional processing necessary.
USE OF INFORMATION
NRG uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in our
web sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to
better prepare future content based on the interests of our users.
As stated above, we may 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.
NRG never shares mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.
We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like
based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well
each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you. We track
search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what interests our users.
SHARING OF THE INFORMATION
NRG uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and to better
understand our audience's demographics. This is essential to keeping our web service
free. We 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 our Members
or the public.
SECURITY
NRG operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection
systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and
only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our customers.
OPT-OUT POLICY
We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:
Opting not to register to receive e-mails from fellow Members; and
Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates
the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users.
YOUR CONSENT
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by NRG. If we
decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are
always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we
disclose it.
FEEDBACK
The NRG welcomes your comments and suggestions about our Privacy Policies, from Members and
non-Members alike. Please send an e-mail to
nrghomeoffice@thenrg.org or call our Main Office at 585-968-8111.
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