Privacy Policy
OKBlitz.com (the "Web site") provides a variety of online interactive entertainment services, including high school and college sports news and videos, community forums, social networking, contests, sweepstakes and promotions. Because the success of OKBlitz.com is dependent on building and maintaining goodwill with our customers, this Web site and Griffin Communications (hereinafter collectively referred to as "we" or “us” or "our") are committed to implementing measures designed to protect the privacy of those using our services. Moreover, we see it as our responsibility to set examples and help establish the standards for privacy on the Internet.
Although we respect the privacy of all those who visit OKBlitz.com and use our online services, we do collect information from our OKBlitz.com members and visitors. This Privacy Policy governs your interaction with OKBlitz.com, and your registration for and use of its online services. Except as set forth within this Privacy Policy and the OKBlitz.com Terms of Service and/or other published guidelines, we do not release personally identifiable information about this Web site's members and visitors without their permission.
Please note that we review these privacy practices from time to time, and that these practices are therefore subject to change. We ask that you periodically review this page to ensure continuing familiarity with the most current version of this Web site's Privacy Policy. To contact us about privacy issues, to report a violation of the OKBlitz.com Privacy Policy, or to raise any other issue regarding the Web site, please e-mail us at [email protected].
THE INFORMATION WE GATHER
We gather two types of information about OKBlitz.com users:
(1) Non-personally identifiable information: When visitors come to OKBlitz.com we collect and aggregate information indicating, among other things, which pages were visited, the order in which they were visited, and which hyperlinks were "clicked." Collecting such information involves the logging of IP addresses, operating system and browser software used by each visitor to OKBlitz.com. Although such information is not personally identifiable, we can determine from the IP address a visitor's Internet Service Provider and the geographic location of his or her point of connectivity.
The non-personally identifiable information we collect helps us diagnose problems with our server, administer the Web site, identify the most popular areas of the Web site and determine the effectiveness of our promotional activities. In addition, we may disclose some of this information to advertisers to inform them of the number of people who have seen and/or clicked through their advertisements.
For the same purposes, we use "cookies" (small text files placed on your computer's hard drive) to help us determine the type of content and sites to which you link, the length of time you spend at any particular area of the Web site, and your usage of our services offered via the Web site. Cookies also tell us which advertising you have seen on the Web site. At certain times, we may use outside advertising companies to display advertisements on the Web site that may contain cookies ("banner ads"). These banner ads collect information stored by the advertising company and we do not have access to this information.
Essentially, cookies are your identification cards for our computers, or servers that placed them there. Cookies are only read by the server that placed them, and are unable to execute any code or virus. Cookies allow us to serve you better and more efficiently, and to personalize your experience at the Web site. Nevertheless, you are able to control how and whether cookies will be accepted by your web browser. For more information on how to do so, please refer to the documentation accompanying your browser.
(2) Personally identifiable information: In certain areas of the Web site, such as the community section, online surveys and contests, OKBlitz.com may require that you provide personally identifiable information (including, but not limited to, first and last name, hone phone number, address, zip code, age, income, and e-mail address). Griffin Communications, as host of OKBlitz.com, has access to this information. In addition, when registering to set up an account to use certain services of OKBlitz.com, such as e-mail, chat rooms and forums, or to receive certain newsletters or specifically targeted information ("Services"), we do require that you provide a valid e-mail address.
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children (defined herein as minors younger than 13 years of age) without obtaining parental consent. Before registering for an account to use the services of OKBlitz.com, we ask that all minors have their parents read our Privacy Policy. Before and during the registration process, we encourage all minors to include a parent or guardian in the process.
We do not control the acts of OKBlitz.com members or visitors. All members and visitors should be aware that, when they disclose personally identifiable information in a bulletin board, chat room, member page, guestbook, or other forum, the information may be collected and used by others to send that person unsolicited e-mail from other parties outside of OKBlitz.com or Griffin Communications. In the event that you encounter any user on OKBlitz.com who is improperly collecting or using information about you or other users, please contact [email protected].
HOW WE USE (AND DO NOT USE) THE INFORMATION WE GATHER
Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the different ways we use the information that we gather. Keep in mind that while we encourage all third parties involved (including affiliates and advertisers) to adhere to our policies regarding the privacy of OKBlitz.com visitors and members and to otherwise handle personal information in a responsible manner, we cannot and do not assume any responsibility for any actions or omissions of third parties, including the manner in which they use information received either from us or independently. Nevertheless, in the event you encounter any third party associated with, or who claims association with us who you feel is improperly collecting or using information about you, please contact [email protected]; we will be happy to forward your message to the third party.
(1) How we use (and do not use) non-personally identifiable information: We use non-personally identifiable information in aggregate form to build higher quality, more useful online services by performing statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behavior of OKBlitz.com members and visitors, and by measuring demographics and interests regarding specific areas of OKBlitz.com. We provide statistical information based on this data to advertisers, affiliates and other current and potential business partners. We also use the aggregate data to inform these third parties as to the number of people who have seen and clicked on links to their Web sites.
OKBlitz.com may contain links to other Internet Web sites, including co-branded or other affiliated sites that may or may not be owned or operated by Griffin Communications. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, Griffin Communications is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites, including such sites' use of any information (such as IP number, browser type, or operating system) collected when visitors to the Web site click on links to those sites. Even though such information might not identify you personally, we strongly encourage you to become familiar with the privacy practices of those sites.
(2) How we use (and do not use) personally identifiable information: We provide notice to potential registrants of OKBlitz.com whose personally identifiable information will be collected during the registration process. Such notice is provided simultaneously with your registration with this website; moreover, this Privacy Policy itself serves as notice that such information is collected under those circumstances. You may not "opt in" to the registration process if you wish to have access to services provided on OKBlitz.com, and you may choose to "opt in" to receiving promotional materials from us and/or our affiliates, advertisers or other business partners. If you "opt in" to receiving such promotional materials, we reserve the right to release any personally identifiable registration information regarding you to third parties who provide goods or services that we believe may be of interest to you. If you decide that you would like to discontinue receiving promotional information from such third parties, please contact those third parties directly, or contact us at [email protected].
We limit our own e-mail contact and solicitations to those customers who have "opted in" to receiving such communications. The solicitations are limited in that they, among other things, will clearly indicate the originator of the e-mail and provide the customer with a method of "opting out" of receiving future communications of a similar nature.
In addition, we sometimes use demographic data to decide which advertisements and sponsor messages to show to which members. As an example, if sponsor XYZ wishes to display their advertising only to female members of OKBlitz.com, we use member registration data to ensure that sponsor XYZ's ads are displayed only to female members.
Finally, we may use individual members' data to "pre-populate" forms, which are displayed for the purpose of collecting individual data by us and/or our sponsors. In no case does pre-populating a form transfer any data to any advertiser or third party. Only if the member voluntarily requests that such data be transferred will any transfer take place (for example, if/when a member clicks a "submit form" button or other button).
We reserve the right to release any and all information contained within our access logs concerning any visitor or member when that visitor or member is in violation of our Terms of Service or other published guidelines, or partakes (or is reasonably suspected of partaking) in any illegal activity, even without a subpoena, warrant or other court order, and to release such information in response to discovery requests, or in response to any circumstance which we, in our sole discretion, deem an emergency. We cooperate with law enforcement agencies in identifying those who may be using our servers or services for illegal activities. We also reserve the right to report any suspected illegal activity to law enforcement for investigation or prosecution.
If and when we sponsor contests, promotions or sweepstakes, or third parties sponsor contests, promotions or sweepstakes in conjunction with us, either we or the third party will post relevant privacy information in the official rules and/or registration area for the promotion or sweepstakes. That privacy information, to the extent it conflicts with this Privacy Policy, will govern that particular promotion or sweepstakes.
SECURITY
All information gathered on OKBlitz.com is stored within a Griffin Communications authorized, third party vendor database accessible only to us and our third party vendors to protect the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. However, as effective as any security measure implemented by us may be, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. Questions regarding this Privacy Policy should be directed to us at [email protected].
CHANGING/DELETING PERSONAL INFORMATION
If you would like to have your personally identifiable information changed or removed from our database, please contact us at [email protected], and we will use reasonable efforts to comply with your request. Keep in mind, however, that there will be residual information that will remain within our databases, access logs and other records, which may or may not contain such personally identifiable information. The residual information will not be used for commercial purposes; however we reserve the right, from time to time, to recontact former customers or users of OKBlitz.com.
THIRD-PARTY AD SERVING
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit OKBlitz.com. These companies may use information (not including your name, address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know you choices about not having this information used by these companies, please contact us at [email protected], or click here http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp.
PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO ADVERTISERS ONLY
Any advertiser who wishes to place advertising on OKBlitz.com will be asked to provide certain information such as the advertiser’s business name, phone number, physical address, e-mail address, service area, website URL, description of the advertiser’s business, a contact name, advertising category and/or keyword, and credit card information. Some of this information is personally identifiable. This information will be used by Griffin Communications to create an account for the advertiser, improve the Service, communicate changes to the Service, conduct research, provide anonymous reporting for internal purposes and for reporting to third-parties, and market Griffin Communications products and services to advertisers. Some of the information will also be displayed within the advertiser’s ad copy on the Service. We will not disclose any personally identifiable information to third parties without your prior consent. Advertisers may edit their account information by contacting Griffin Communications’ Client Services Department at [email protected].
Questions?
Questions regarding this Privacy Policy should be directed to: [email protected].
