Privacy Policy for www.zirkys.com.au

For purposes of this page, www.zirkys.com.au shall be referred to as "we", "our" and "this website".

Overall privacy statement
Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. Because we gather certain types of information about our users we feel you should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather, how we use it, and how to correct or change it.

We respect your privacy
We intend to give you as much control as possible over your personal information. In general, you can visit this website without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself. There are times, however, when we may need information from you, such as your name and address.

If you choose to give us personal information via the Internet that we or our business partners may need, (to correspond with you, process an order or provide you with a subscription, for example), it is our intent to let you know how we will use such information. If you tell us that you do not wish to have this information used as a basis for further contact with you, we will respect your wishes.

Business relationships
We contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

The information we gather and track
We gather two types of information about users: data that users provide through optional, voluntary registration on several of our interactive features and through optional, voluntary participation in certain contests and surveys; and aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our site. Such information enables us to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to help our advertisers better understand the demographics of our audience. The only situation in which we divulge information about an individual user to a third party is with certain contests and surveys - and then, only with the user's express consent.

We gather user information in the following processes:

The use of IP addresses on our site
We log IP addresses for systems administration purposes. IP addresses are logged to track a user's session. This gives us an idea of which parts of our site users are visiting. We do not link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable. This means that a users session will be tracked, but the user will be anonymous. We do keep track of the domains from which people visit us. We analyze this data for trends and statistics, and then we discard it.

Electronic newsletters and snow reports (Dispatches)
We offer free electronic newsletters and/or snow reports to users. We gather the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from these mailing lists by following the link provided in every newsletter or snow report that points users to the subscription management page. We require that our business customers who offer similar electronic subscription services abide by the same code of practice.

Contests
We offer contests in which we request certain personal information. At a minimum, the required information includes name and email address; in some cases, the user must answer mandatory survey questions about a range of other personal data. The information gathered in the entry form is used to verify the entrant's identity, to send the entrant an email notification that their entry has been received, and to contact winners and/or prize recipients. There are two situations in which we will divulge this information to a third party, provided the user gives express consent:

(1) A user may expressly choose to receive additional information from the contest sponsor, in which case the user's personally identifiable information is divulged to the advertiser.

(2) Some of the contests may be hosted on our site but administered by the sponsor; in such cases, the information a user provides is passed on to the third party as long as that user gives express consent. Because the rules and terms of each contest can vary, all information about each contest is clearly posted during the event. All contests and sweepstakes are conducted in full accordance with Australian federal and state laws.

Usage tracking
We track user traffic patterns throughout all of our site. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. We do 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).

Cookies
A cookie is a small data file that certain websites write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you've visited. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites.

Turning cookies off
If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use our site.

To learn how to manage cookies in your browser visit Netscape's Security & Privacy Guide
To learn more about cookies in general visit Cookie Central

Use of the information
We use any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience, 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 use information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in interactive areas of the site. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (daily or weekly, depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. We never share newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers 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 and 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 do not track search terms entered in our search facility. We create aggregrate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their needs. Because we don't track the usage patterns of individual users, an advertiser will never know that a specific user clicked their ad.

Sharing of the information
We use the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and help our advertisers better understand our audience's demographics. We do not share information about individual users with any third party, except in the case of some contests, and then, only with a user's express consent. We do not control the practices of our advertisers. If you have questions about how one of our advertisers uses information about you when you click their ad and go to their content, please contact them directly.

Opt-out policy
We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include: Opting not to provide certain personal information when registering for the certain areas of the site or when participating in some contests (see above). Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need for any information from our users

Correct/update policy
We offer users the ability to correct or change the information collected during registration for any interactive area (see above). Users may change this information at any time and as often as necessary. Users who are experiencing problems or who have any questions about how our services work can contact us directly.

Delete/deactivate policy
Users may unsubscribe to any of our electronic newsletters at any time by following the instructions contained at the end of every newsletter. Currently, we do not offer users an automated means by which to completely delete personal information established at the time of registration for any of our interactive areas. Users wishing to be completely deleted form our Interactive areas my contact us directly.