MarketingZone.com Privacy Policy

Updated November 1, 2010

MarketingZone is an online service that provides how-to marketing information, a resource for finding marketing experts with specific skills and expertise, and an online community for small businesses and marketing experts to "converse" about all things related to marketing. More details about MarketingZone.com can be found below under “How you can contact us.”

We understand that providing information online involves a great deal of trust on your part. We take this trust very seriously, and make it a high priority to ensure the security and confidentiality of the personal information you provide to us. Before submitting your personal information to our website, please read this Policy carefully to learn about our privacy practices. By visiting MarketingZone's website, www.marketingzone.com, you are accepting the practices described herein.

What information we collect from you

In General

We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way. This includes information that can identify you ("personal information"), including your first and last name, telephone number, postal and e-mail addresses, user name and password. We may also request information about your small business, marketing experience, demographic data, etc. You can choose not to provide information to us, but in general some information about you is required in order for you to enjoy the benefits of being a registered member. For example, only registered members are able to give advice and comment on our How-To articles, e-mail MarketingZone content to themselves and others, access member-only newsletters, and enter surveys, contests, or sweepstakes. In addition, some information is also required in order for you to initiate other transactions on our site.

Automatic Information

We automatically collect some information about your computer when you visit MarketingZone. For example, we will collect session data, including your IP address, web browser software, and referring website. We also may collect information about your online activity, such as content viewed and pages visited. One of our goals in collecting this automatic information is to help us understand the interests of our users and customize your user experience.

Cookies and Other Web Technologies

Cookies are small data text files and can be stored on your computer’s hard drive (if your web browser permits). MarketingZone.com and its affiliated websites use cookies for the following general purposes:

• To help us recognize your browser as a previous visitor and save and remember any preferences that may have been set while your browser was visiting our site. For example, if you register on our site, we may use cookies to remember your registration information, so you do not need to log into our site each time you visit. We also may record your password in a cookie, if you checked the box entitled "Save this password for automatic sign-in." Please note that member IDs, passwords, and any other account-related data included in such cookies are encrypted for security purposes.
• To help measure and research the effectiveness of website features and offerings, advertisements, and e-mail communications (by determining which e-mails you open and act upon).

The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers should tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable most types of cookies. Please note that if you refuse to accept cookies, you may not be able to access many of the tools offered on our site.

Our site also may use Web beacons (also known as clear gifs, pixel tags or Web bugs), which are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, that are placed in the code of a Web page. We use Web beacons to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our sites to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have come to our site from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, and to improve site performance. We also may allow our service providers to use Web beacons to help us understand which emails have been opened by recipients and to track the visitor traffic and actions on our site. This helps us measure the effectiveness of our content and other offerings.

Display of Advertising/Your Choices

Data collected to serve you with relevant advertising

MarketingZone is committed to providing you with relevant content and information across our sites. To do this, we may collect information about your marketing-related searches, such as whether you are looking for How To information or Finding an Expert, and use this information to serve you with ads on our sites or elsewhere online that match your apparent interests.

We do not share your personal information (such as email addresses) with unaffiliated third parties so they can serve you with advertisements.

How we use your information

MarketingZone uses the information we collect about you for the following general purposes: for registration and to manage your account, including to facilitate your access to and use of our site; to communicate with you in general, including to provide information about MarketingZone and invitations from the MarketingZone community; to enable us to publish your reviews, advice, comments, and other content to the MarketingZone community; to measure interest in and improve our products, services, and website; to notify you about special offers and products or services available from us that may be of interest to you; to otherwise customize your experience with MarketingZone; to solicit information from you, including through surveys; to resolve disputes or troubleshoot problems; to prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities; to enforce our Terms of Use and Submission Guidelines; and as otherwise described to you at the point of collection.

With whom we share your information

MarketingZone may share your information with the following entities:

• Third-party vendors who provide services or functions on our behalf, including business analytics, customer service, marketing, distribution of surveys or sweepstakes programs, and fraud prevention. We may also authorize third-party vendors to collect information on our behalf, including as necessary to operate features of our website or to facilitate the delivery of online advertising tailored to your interests. Third-party vendors have access to and may collect information only as needed to perform their functions and are not permitted to share or use the information for any other purpose.
• Business partners with whom we may offer products or services in conjunction. You can tell when a third party is involved in a product or service you have requested because their name will appear either with ours or separately. If you choose to access these optional services, we may share information about you, including your personal information, with those partners. Please note that we do not control the privacy practices of these third-party business partners.
• Affiliated websites. If you were referred to MarketingZone from another website, we may share your registration information, such as your name, email address, mailing address, telephone number and travel preferences, about you with that referring website. We have not placed limitations on the referring websites’ use of personal information and we encourage you to review the privacy policies of any website that referred you to MarketingZone.

We also may share your information:

• In response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases we reserve the right to raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us.
• When we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities; to protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of MarketingZone, our customers, or others; and in connection with our Terms of Service and other agreements.
• In connection with a corporate transaction, such as a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.

If you choose to create a profile on MarketingZone, certain information in your profile will be publicly viewable and identifiable via your screen name. You have the option to post such information with no name or identifying information attached. You will have the ability to view your profile as members of the public will see it. MarketingZone will not share your email address with any other members nor display it any public manner without your permission. If you are posting an expert listing we will display the email address to those interested in hiring your services.

Other than as set out above, you will be notified when personal information about you will be shared with third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to have us share such information.

We also may share aggregate or anonymous information with third parties, including advertisers and investors. For example, we may tell our advertisers the number of visitors our website receives or the most topics and marketing experts. This information does not contain any personal data and is used to develop content and services we hope you will find of interest.

How you can access your information

We take reasonable steps to ensure that your information is relevant to its intended use, accurate, and complete. You can access, update your contact information, or cancel/close your MarketingZone account by visiting the My Account area on the MarketingZone website any time at your convenience.  We will send you an e-mail to confirm your request. Please note that after you cancel/close an account, you will not be able to sign in or access any of your personal information. However, you can open a new account at any time. Please also note that we may retain certain information associated with your account in our archives, including for analytical purposes as well as for record keeping integrity.

Your choices with respect to the collection and use of your information

• As discussed above, you can choose not to provide us with any information, although it may be needed to take advantage of certain features offered on MarketingZone.
• You also can add or update information and close your account as described above.
• As a registered MarketingZone member, you can modify your e-mail subscription choices at any time in the My Account area. Whether registered as a MarketingZone member or not, you also will be given the opportunity to unsubscribe from promotional messages in any such e-mail we send. Please note that we reserve the right to send you other communications, including service announcements, administrative messages, and surveys relating either to your MarketingZone account, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them.
• Email Communications. MarketingZone.com wants to make it easy for you to take advantage of marketing-related information and opportunities on our website. One way we do this is by sending you e-mail messages that contain information about your apparent marketing-related interests. Please note that you will have the opportunity to choose not to receive these email messages in any such email we send.
• The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Please note that if you refuse to accept cookies from MarketingZone, you will not be able to access portions of our site.

How we protect your information

We want you to feel confident about using MarketingZone.com, and we are committed to protecting the information we collect. While no website can guarantee security, we have implemented appropriate administrative, technical, and physical security procedures to help protect the personal information you provide to us. For example, only authorized employees are permitted to access personal information, and they only may do so for permitted business functions. In addition, we use encryption when transmitting your personal information between your system and ours, and we employ firewalls and intrusion detection systems to help prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to your information.

Children's privacy

MarketingZone.com is a general audience site and does not offer services directed to children. Should an individual whom we know to be a child under age 13 send personal information to us, we will delete or destroy such information as soon as reasonably possible.

External links

If any part of the MarketingZone website links you to other websites, those external websites do not operate under this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you examine the privacy statements posted on those other websites to understand their procedures for collecting, using, and disclosing personal information.

Visiting our websites from outside the United States

If you are visiting our website from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, but please be assured that MarketingZone does take steps pursuant to laws in the United States to ensure that your privacy is protected. By using our services, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Policy.

Your California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please email memberservice@marketingzone.com.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

MarketingZone may update this Privacy Policy in the future. We will notify our members about material changes to this Privacy Policy by either sending a notice to the e-mail address you provided to us or by placing a prominent notice on our website.

How you can contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

MarketingZone, Inc.
333 S. State St., Suite V-334
Lake Oswego, OR  97034
info@marketingzone.com
(800) 287-9433