FishUSA.com Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy of FishUSA.com
and the FishUSA.com Member Sites

Our goal at FishUSA.com is to provide you with the fishing information, services and products that are most relevant to you. To achieve this goal, we collect information to understand what differentiates you from the millions of other internet users. We collect this information in two ways.

Registration
First, you may provide us with certain information such as your name, e-mail address and postal addresses when registering for certain services such as posting fishing reports, posting to our discussion boards and participating in online chat. This information is used for purposes such as personalization and verification. On other occasions such as when we provide items for purchase online, we may request your credit card number to conclude the transaction, or your mailing address to ensure proper delivery.

In our effort to provide personalization and opportunities for prizes and services, we may at times ask you to submit information such as your name or email address, or to share your interests and hobbies with us. You never have to answer these questions, and you can decline this exchange of information on any site on the Internet - not just ours - at any time. However, if you should choose to withhold requested information, we may not be able to provide you with some of the services that depend on the collection of this information.

Cookies
Second, we may track your visit to our sites by giving you a "cookie" when you enter. Cookies are pieces of information that web sites transfer to your computer's hard drive for record-keeping purposes. We uses cookies to make visiting our store and our member sites easier. Cookies allow us to save passwords and preferences for you so that you will not have to re-enter this information the next time you visit. For example, when you register to post on the discussion board of any of our member sites, you will be automatically registered with all our member sites and our store, and you will retain the same user name and password for all these sites. Cookies also help us track user trends and patterns. Cookies also help us collect anonymous click stream data for tracking user trends and patterns. We collect this data to help us provide the best possible service to our customers.

In addition, third party advertising networks that we use may issue cookies when serving advertisements. We will update these policies to identify any new third party advertising networks promptly after we begin using their services.

The use of cookies is now an industry standard, and you will find them used on most major web sites. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. If you prefer, you can reset your browser either to notify you when you have received a cookie, or to refuse to accept cookies. You should understand that portions of our sites will not function properly if you set your browser to not accept cookies. You can find out more about this topic on the web at www.cookiecentral.com.

Use of Information
Any personal information you provide to us when registering for any of our services or when ordering any products from our online store is maintained and accessible only by FishUSA.com unless specifically stated otherwise. Our primary goals in requesting registration information when you make a purchase in our store is to assure that we deliver the product to you, so that we can reach you if there is a question about your order, and to maintain a record of the transaction for customer service and tax reporting purposes. Our primary goal in requesting registration information when using our online services is to provide our registered users with customized experiences across our member sites. We also use this information to allow our advertising partners to reach specific segments of our users. By doing so, we are able to generate greater advertising revenue and ultimately provide the wealth of free information available on our regional sites. As explained below, information provided to our advertising partners is only "aggregate" information and is not specific information about any particular person.

FishUSA.com may use the personally identifiable information it collects in accordance with the following descriptions:

We pay attention to what our customers do and do not use on our sites and we modify our content appropriately.
We use the aggregate data collected to inform our advertising partners of the number of people who have certain demographic characteristics and the number of those people who have seen and "clicked" on their advertisement(s). We will also disclose to those third-party partners the overall demographics available regarding who saw and "clicked" on their advertisement. No personally identifiable information will be disclosed to these advertisers as part of this process; only information in an aggregate form. In general, advertisers do not want to know about you specifically. What advertisers want is the chance to appeal to large groups of users who share certain demographic characteristics, such as gender and age. FishUSA.com gives advertisers this opportunity. If we did not collect this data, we would not be able to provide an effective forum for our advertising partners, nor would we be able to measure which promotions work. Without providing this information to our advertisers, we would be unable to keep the FishUSA.com members sites free for all to use.
We also use the aggregate data to perform statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behavior of our registered users and visitors, to measure user demographics and interests regarding specific areas of the FishUSA.com sites and to analyze how and where best to use our resources. Without such data, we would not know what the most popular areas of the FishUSA.com sites are, and we would not be able to change and update our content and services appropriately.
We may, from time to time, use your information to contact you about changes or enhancements to the content and services we provide. In addition, if you told us that you were interested in receiving offers or information from selected FishUSA.com sponsors and partners, we may send you direct mail about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. For those who elect to receive such materials from us or our selected sponsors or partners, and who indicate that they do in their profile, we do release personally identifiable information. Information released includes: real name, street address, e-mail address, interests, and the broader personal information (e.g., level of education, occupation and marital status) supplied in registrations on the FishUSA.com sites.
FishUSA.com limits the sending of third-party or purely promotional/advertising e-mail solicitations to users who have elected to receive this type of information or communication as described above. Such solicitations are limited in that they, among other things, must clearly indicate who the originator of the e-mail is, and provide the recipient with a method of opting out from receiving future communications. Only FishUSA.com will send you these direct mailings. It is our policy not to send messages to users who have told us they are not interested in receiving such messages, either when they registered or subsequently when they edited their user profile.
If you enter a sweepstakes or a contest on the FishUSA.com sites, we will use the information you provided to contact you in the event you win.
We respond to subpoenas, warrants, or other court orders regarding information that is contained within our access logs concerning any member or visitor. We also reserve the right to release that information concerning a user who we believe is in violation of the our Terms and Conditions or other published guidelines even without a subpoena, warrant or other court order. We cooperate with law enforcement agencies in identifying those who use our servers for illegal activities. We also reserve the right to report to law enforcement for prosecution any activity which we believe is or may be illegal.

Children's Privacy
We are concerned about the safety of children when they use the Internet. We want you and your family to be safe while visiting our sites. Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request Personally Identifiable Information from anyone under the age of 18 without requesting verifiable parental consent.

Availability of Information on Interactive Features
Information that you provide while using interactive features on our sites such as posting reports and recipes and using our discussion boards and chat rooms is available for all to see. You should exercise discretion when deciding whether to enter Personally Identifiable Information within such forums.

Security
FishUSA.com operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary, and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our visitors and customers. Any particularly sensitive information, such as a customer's credit card number collected for a commerce transaction, is encrypted prior to transmission. You are ultimately responsible for the security of your FishUSA.com member name and password. Please take care to store this information carefully.

Opt-Out
We offer you the ability to opt-out of receiving information on FishUSA.com updates and new services at the point of collection.

Correct/Update
To edit or change your personal information on our online tackle shop, FishUSA.com, please go to: https://www.fishusa.com/tackleshop/account_login.asp, log in with your user name and password, and edit your personal information there.

To edit or change your personal information on any of our regional fishing sites, please go to: http://forums.fishusa.com/login.aspx, log in with your user name and password, and edit your personal information there.

You may also send us email at webmaster@fishusa.com and tell us what changes you want made to your personal information and we will edit that information for you.

Inclusion on Email List
If you initiate contact with us by email (including but not limited to contacting us by email requesting information from us, requesting listing on one of our regional sites or soliciting us), we may include your email address on our email newsletter list. By making unsolicited contact with us by email, you consent to the inclusion of your email address on our email newsletter list.

Delete/Delist
It is not currently possible for a FishUSA.com member or customer to delete his or her information from our database. However, at any time you may request to be removed from our database and we will honor such request. You may send email to webmaster@fishusa.com for this request.

Modifications to this Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.

For further information about us, please see our Terms and Conditions, or contact us by us email at sales@fishusa.com.