PRIVACY POLICY
(Upstate Wedding Malls)
Upstate Wedding Malls is strongly committed to your right to privacy and to taking
steps designed to secure your personal information. To earn your trust and confidence
in our commitment, the intent of this policy is to fully disclose our privacy
practices to you. We will only use your personal information in accordance with
this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to read our policy, as well as those of
our partners, including , and others, to understand what types of personal information
we collect and how this information is used.
Your Consent
By using our site, you consent to the collection and use of your
information as described in this Privacy Policy, which was last updated on September
25, 2000. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will be reflected on this page so
that you are always aware of the information we collect and how we use it.
As part of our Privacy Policy, we address the following:
What personal information we collect
Upstate Wedding Malls and its
partners collect personal information necessary to respond to your requests for
our customized products and services and to allow you to use the resources available
on our website, including the creation and maintenance of a Wedding Service, a
Wedding Website, a "Shopper Account" and an online bridal registry. Personal information
includes, but is not limited to, name, physical address, email address, phone
number, age and any other information that itself identifies or, when tied to
the above information, may identify you as a specific individual. Upstate Wedding Malls and its partners also collect information related to your wedding, including
dates and places of the rehearsal, wedding and reception, name, address and phone
number of wedding guests, and information relating to your gift registry and honeymoon.
Upstate Wedding Malls and its partners frequently sponsor contests
to give you the opportunity to win great prizes. Your participation in these contests
is entirely optional. Information we collect for such contests are forwarded to
our Vendors and can include contact information and demographic information. Upstate Wedding Malls also values the opinions and comments from all of our users, so
we frequently conduct surveys online, via e-mail, or by telephone. Your participation
in these surveys is entirely optional. Information we collect in online surveys
will include general information on the use of our site and other demographic
information, such as age and income bracket. Survey participants are anonymous
unless otherwise stated in the survey.
"Cookies" are sMall pieces of
information that are stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive. We
use cookies in several ways (and thousands of other sites are currently using
them too!). Cookie files are used to better understand how you go through our
website so that we may tailor your experience at our website. Cookies are also
used to tell us whether you have visited our website previously, and to help us
determine whether you came to our website from a particular Internet link or banner
advertisement. Cookies can also be used to help you to save and retrieve passwords
and other information and preferences you use on our website, saving you from
having to re-enter this information upon every visit to our website. Cookies cannot
and will not be used by us to retrieve any personal information about you from
your computer that you have not previously and voluntarily provided to us. However,
cookies may also be received when you link to our partners' sites or when you
click on banner advertisements served by our outside advertising company and we
do not have control over how they use this information. Most Web browsers automatically
accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block
them in the future. However, most of our features will not function if you do
not accept cookies.
When you connect to our website, we record your
IP addresses and information on the type of operating system (e.g. Windows98)
and browser software (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape) you are using.
This helps us to diagnose problems with our servers and for system administration.
Your IP address is also used to help gather aggregated demographic information.
We make chat rooms, forums, message boards, and/or news groups available
to you. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas
becomes public information. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose
your personal information.
With whom your information is shared and
how it is used
When you provide information to Upstate Wedding Malls,
the information is stored in our and some of our partners' databases, such information
is used by Upstate Wedding Malls in accordance with this Privacy Policy and by
our partners in accordance with their policies. Information we collect is used
to tailor your experience at our site (including the creation of an online bridal
registry), to show you content that we think you might be interested in, and to
display the content according to your preferences. We also use such personal information
to send you information and promotional materials on us and some of our partners.
Your contact information may also be used if it becomes necessary to contact you.
To allow you to use some of our features (including online bridal registry)
information we collect will be shared with our partners. Information collected
by us and our partners (for example, when you link to their sites or call a phone
number provided by us) will also be shared with third parties, such as product
suppliers, airlines, car rental agencies, and travel agencies to ensure the successful
fulfillment of your product orders or travel arrangements. In addition, when you
use a credit card to purchase goods and services through our website, your encrypted
credit card information will be sent to our retail partners that provide registry
and shopping services or to CyberSource (an online credit card payment processor
used by many restaurants and stores) to authorize your payment. Although this
Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices or policies of any such
other entities, we intend to require that all of our partners agree not to use
your personal information, except as fully disclosed to you or authorized by you.
For more information on the privacy practices of our partners, including Federated
Department Stores, Bride's Magazine and others, we encourage you to read their
privacy policies.
Any information we collect may be shared with advertisers
on an aggregate basis. In addition, we may from time to time hire a third party
to act on our behalf for projects such as market research surveys and contest
entry processing, and we will provide information to these third parties specifically
for use in connection with these projects. Survey and contest participation is
entirely optional. The information we provide to such third parties will be protected
by a confidentiality agreement that will obligate the third party to use such
information solely to complete the specific project.
In addition to
the circumstances described above, we may disclose your information if required
to do so by law, court order, as requested by other government or law enforcement
authorities, or in the good faith belief that disclosure is otherwise necessary
or advisable, including (without limitation) when we have reason to believe that
disclosing the information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action
against someone who may be causing interference with our rights or properties,
whether intentionally or otherwise, or when anyone else could be harmed by such
activities.
What choices you have over the collection and use of
your information
As a user, customer, or contest entrant you will occasionally
receive e-mail updates from us about important functionality changes, special
offers from us and our partners, new Upstate Wedding Malls services and other
noteworthy news items about us and our partners. We hope you will find these updates
interesting and informative. Of course, if you would rather not receive them,
just let us know by replying to one of the e-mails with "Remove" in the body of
the e-mail or let our partners know by following their instructions. Our site
also provides you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving such communications
from us and our partners at the point where we request information from you. In
other words, if you don't want us or our partners to send you e-mails about our
or their business, just let us know. Upstate Wedding Malls reserves the right
to limit registration to those who will accept emails and to those who will provide
the requested information.
Upstate Wedding Malls provides you with
the ability to receive e-mail subscriptions to various services we provide. If
you elect to receive such e-mail subscriptions, you can opt-out of receiving future
e-mails by logging in to your account and following the appropriate links.
Your ability to access, update or correct your information
At
any time, you can view and/or update all of the information contained in your
Wedding Account and Wedding Website by logging in to your account and following
the appropriate links.
In addition, when you register for certain online
bridal registries or other Wedding Website features, you will have the opportunity
(depending on which partner you are registering with) to select whether you wish
to make your online registry available to your guests via a password. If you do
not elect to make your bridal registry or other Wedding Website features available
only via password (or if you create a registry with a partner that does not provide
this option), anyone visiting our website will be able to search for your registry
or other Wedding Website features by using first and/or last names and wedding
dates (and on some pages, city or state).
Additional information
about online privacy and changes to our policy
Please be aware that on
our site we have advertisements and links to other websites that may collect personal
information about you. This Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices
or policies of such websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of
all such sites, as their policies may be materially different from our Privacy
Policy. Any material changes in the way we use personal information will be described
in future versions of this Privacy Policy. Of course, you may always submit concerns
regarding our Privacy Policy or our privacy practices to our General Counsel.
Please reference the Privacy Policy in your subject line. We will attempt to respond
to all reasonable concerns or inquiries within five business days of receipt.