Privacy Policy

Our Commitment to Privacy
Our Privacy Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use and safeguard the personal information you provide to us and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our site. This statement will be continuously assessed against new technologies, business practices and our user needs.

What Organization Is Collecting the Information?
GameCritics.com is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. Our mailing address is 599 Passaic Avenue, Nutley, NJ 07110, our telephone number is 917-554-7127, and we can be emailed here.

What Information Do We Collect?
When you visit our Web site you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose when you register for a forum account and Web site use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our Web site.

1. Personal Information You Choose to Provide

Forum Registration
Our forums provides a registration form for you to provide information to us. You are required to register to post content on the Forums. You must agree to the terms of our Terms of Use Agreement.

Email Information
If you choose to correspond with us through email or use the 'Email This Page' feature in forums, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and any other corresponding email addresses. We store this information for the sole purpose of communicating through e-mail and will not be used for any other purpose without your consent.

How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us?
We will not share, sell or rent the information collected to others in any way other than as disclosed in this policy or stated at the point where the information is collected. We use collected personal information on an aggregate basis for internal reference and for purposes of attracting advertisers who might be interested in our audience and purchasing advertising inventory on our Web site. “Aggregate” means that information from all users is collected and gathered into a whole unit so that information as a whole can be used and no single individual is identifiable. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our Web site, new services and features.

2. Web Site Use Information

Cookies and Web Server Logs
Similar to other commercial Web sites, our Web site utilizes a standard technology called “cookies” (see explanation below, “What Are Cookies?”) and Web Server Logs (see explanation below, “What Are Web Server Logs?”) to collect information about how our Web site is used. Information gathered through cookies and Web server logs may include sign-on information, the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our Web site, and the Web sites visited just before and just after our Web site.

What Are Cookies? Cookies are a feature of Web browser software that allows Web servers to recognize the computer used to access a Web site. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user’s Web browser on the user’s hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one Web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that Web site by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user’s transactions on related Web pages. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.

What Are Web Server Logs?
All user activity on our Web site is stored onto log files residing on our servers. We register Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to accumlate Web traffic reports, analyze trends, administer the site, track a user’s movement and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

How Do We Use Information We Collect from Cookies and Web Server Logs?
The information in cookies allows for registered users to automatically sign-on, lets us trace the paths followed by users as they move from one page to another and makes restricted access for non-registered users to particular areas of our Web site possible. Visitors who do not accept cookies cannot access most areas of GameCritics.com. Web server logs allow us to count how many people visit our Web site and evaluate our Web site’s visitor capacity. Information that is collected from cookies and Web server logs is on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual with the exception of cookies that help to automate a user's sign-on process. We do not use these technologies to capture personal information about you although they do permit us to send focused online banner advertisements or other such responses to you and when necessary. Registering IP addresses also allows us to provide more security in our forums areas by making users who violate our Terms of Use agreement more traceable and accountable.

Information for Children Under 13 Years of Age
GameCritics.com does not gear its content or business practices toward children under 13 years of age and this privacy policy pertains to all users of our site. However, if any child under the age of 13 wishes to use our forums, we have special privacy policies that are compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) regarding information we collect from them.

Children under 13 years of age should not provide information to us without the consent of their parent or guardian.

Unless otherwise indicated during collection of information, we do not provide any personally identifying information to any third party for any purpose whatsoever from children under 13 years of age. When a child under 13 registers on our site, he or she must provide the e-mail address of his or her parent or guardian. We will send an e-mail to that parent or guardian alerting them to the registration. The parent or guardian must give consent through the procedures as described during the registration process and in the e-mail, to the child’s use of the site before any child under 13 years of age may participate in our online activities. A child's pending account remains inactive until we receive acceptable verification from the parent.

Children under 13 years of age may be allowed to participate in some contests and promotions on our site. We will not require any such child to provide more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in the contest. If such a child wins, we notify and send prizes to the parent or guardian identified in the initial registration process. Publication of names, ages or images for contest winners under 13 require parental or guardian consent.

No information that we collect from children under 13 years of age is used for any marketing or promotional purposes whatsoever except as explicitly stated during registration for contests or promotions (the information collected is used only for the specific contest or promotion). If we share such information with any third parties, we will indicate the names of the companies, the kinds of businesses run by these companies, how they might use the information, and whether or not they have agreed to maintain the confidentiality and security of the information. The parent or guardian may consent to collecting and using the information without consenting to disclosure of the information to such companies. We do not send, and we do not allow third parties to send, direct marketing communication to children under 13 years of age.

If you, as a parent or legal guardian of a child under 13 years of age, have any question or comment about our privacy policy or our information collection practices, please contact us by clicking here. You may review your child’s personal information, correct the information, ask to have it deleted or refuse to allow any further collection or use of your child’s information by following the instructions regarding “How Can You Access and Correct Your Information?” in the section below.

Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties?
We may provide aggregate information about our registered users, sales, Web site traffic patterns and related Web site information to our affiliates, advertisers or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy.

What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information?
We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.

How Do We Protect Your Information?

Information Security. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, we established and maintain reasonable security procedures to protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of the information we collect online. "Perfect security," however, does not exist on the Internet.

E-mail that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.

Third-party Advertising
We use Burst Media and other third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements on this site and other sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please click here.

Third Party Cookies
In the course of serving advertisements to this site, our third-party advertiser may place or recognize a unique “cookie” on your browser. We are not responsible and we do not have access to these cookies or any information that they may contain.

What About Other Web Sites Linked to Our Web Site?
Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Web site to another Web site, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. We are not responsible for the practices employed by Web sites linked to or from our Web site nor the information or content contained therein. Often links to other Web sites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of our Web site. Your browsing and interaction on any other Web site, including Web sites which have a link on our Web site, is subject to that Web site’s own rules and policies. Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding.

Surveys and Contests
From time to time our site requests information from you to conduct surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary. Therefore, you have a choice whether or not to disclose the information. This information may include contact information (such as name and address) and demographic information (such as age or zip code). Unless otherwise stated near the information form, we use survey information to monitor or improve our site and contest information to notify the winners and award prizes.

Forums
GameCritics.com offers Forums, or message boards. Any information you disclose when posting a message in these Forums becomes public. Moreover, Members who post a message in our Forums make their e-mail address available to others through a feature of our Forums software, which Use of these forums, and the entire site, is governed by our Terms of Use agreement. Please remember that any information that is posted in the forums becomes public information could result in unsolicited e-mail from other subscribers or parties. Please exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.

How Can You Access and Correct Your Information?
If any of your personally identifiable information changes or if you no longer wish to use our service, you can correct, update or remove your personal data that you have provided to us. This can be done on the 'Edit Profile' page or by e-mailing us by clicking here.

Email Notices and Newsletter
Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you through email about important changes to our Web site, new content and announcements we think you will find useful. As our user, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these notices and "opt-out" by clicking on a "No" check box in the 'Edit Options' page.

Your Consent
By using our Web site you consent to our collection and use of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on our Web site to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it.