Home › Privacy Policy
Last Updated March, 11 2010Overview of Our Services:
GeoString is marketing company whos primary mission is to procure informational lists and demographics information. To avoid any confusion, you should understand that while we own and operate Our Website, we do not own or operate any Sponsor or advertiser site.
GeoString seeks to optimize the delivery of Sponsor Ads to Sponsor designated lists through our Affiliate Stats emails, other marketing emails, and on-site advertising zones as deemed useful by GeoString. This privacy policy is intended to inform you about our collection, use, storage and disclosure of information that we collect or record in the course of providing these services.
Are you agreeing to anything by providing us information?
BY NAVIGATING TO OUR WEBSITE ON OR AFTER THE DATE THAT THIS POLICY WAS LAST UPDATED, YOU CONSENT TO THE COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR SESSION DATA AS DESCRIBED IN THIS POLICY. BY REGISTERING AS A MEMBER, SIGNING A WRITTEN AGREEMENT WITH US AS A MANAGED ADVERTISER OR SUBMITTING TO US EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS ON OR AFTER THE DATE OF THIS POLICY, YOU CONSENT TO THE COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION, SESSION DATA AND ACCOUNT DATA AS DESCRIBED IN THIS POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT CONSENT TO HAVE YOUR INFORMATION USED AS DESCRIBED IN THIS POLICY, YOU MUST DISCONTINUE USE OF OUR WEBSITE AND OUR SERVICES IMMEDIATELY.
What types of Information do we collect from you and why?
GeoString may retain and use, subject to the terms of the GeoString Privacy Policy (all information you provide, including but not limited to site demographics and contact and billing information. You agree that GeoString may transfer and disclose to third parties personally identifiable information about you for the purpose of marketing or statistics gathering, including to third parties that reside in jurisdictions with less restrictive data laws than your own. GeoString may also provide information in response to valid legal process, such as subpoenas, search warrants and court orders, or to establish or exercise its legal rights or defend against legal claims. GeoString disclaims all responsibility, and will not be liable to you, however, for any disclosure of that information by any such third party. GeoString may share non-personally-identifiable information about you, including contact information, site-specific statistics, and similar information collected by GeoString, with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties. In addition, you grant GeoString the right to access, index and cache the site(s), or any portion thereof, including by automated means.
Personal Information is information that can be associated with a particular person or entity. Personal Information does not include IP addresses or information that has been anonymized so that it cannot identify a particular user using reasonable efforts. Examples of Personal Information are:
- Name
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Mailing Address
- Copyright infringement notifications under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) or other applicable law ("Take-Down Notices")
- Notices of violations of our Subscriber Agreement or our acceptable use policies("Violation Notices")
- Requests for assistance from our support department
Non-Personal Information is any information other than Personal Information. We collect three types of Non-Personal Information from users:
- Session Data is information we collect from Surfers and Members to assist them with navigation on Our Website and to allow us to make improvements to Our Website.
- Account Data is information we collect from Members that is not Personal Information or Session Data. This information is necessary for us to transact business with Members, as well as to prevent and detect fraud. While Account Data is not Personal Information, it is associated with a particular Member account and may therefore be merged with the Personal Information or Session Data of that Member. Examples of Account Data that we collect from Members are:
- Bid, budget, reserve price and targeting information we receive from Advertisers through the Interface
- Ad Zone and Ad approval information we receive from Sponsors through the Interface
- The date, time and IP address of a Member’s initial registration and any subsequent login to the Interface
- Certain activities of a Member using the Interface, such as the creation or deletion of a sponsors advertisement or the adjustment to an advertiserss budget or bid.
- Viewer Data is information we collect about Viewers. We use Viewer Data to optimize the delivery of Ads to Ad Zones so that, for example, we are less likely to deliver an Ad targeted toward men to a Viewer we believe is a woman, and we are less likely to deliver the same Ad repeatedly to the same Viewer. We also use some Viewer Data for fraud prevention and detection and to document transactions for invoicing and commission purposes. Examples of Viewer Data that we collect from Viewers are:
- The type and version of browser and operating system used by the Viewer ("System Info")
- The approximate geographic location of the Viewer based on their IP address ("Geographic Info")
- The most recent Sponsor Sites to which the Member has navigated
- Any past Ads that the Viewer has viewed or on which the Viewer has clicked
- Any past conversions from Ads by the Viewer of which we are aware
- Any other inferences we make regarding a Viewer (e.g., is likely to be a man) or their preferences (e.g., appears to like gardening)
We do not intentionally collect Personal information or Non-Personal Information from children under 13 years of age. However, if a child under 13 years of age navigates to Our Website or to one of our Ad Zones or Pixels on a Publisher Site, we may store Session Data and/or Viewer Data on their browser as we would with any other Surfer or Viewer. If you have reason to believe that a child under 13 years of age has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us by clicking the "Contact Us" link found at the bottom of any GeoString webpage.
How do we collect information from you?
Personal Information. We collect Personal Information from Members through the online registration process, though sometimes this information is given to us offline and entered by us online on the Member’s behalf. We require Members to keep this information updated as they continue to use our services. We also collect Personal Information from Members and Surfers from Email Communications that they send to us.
Session Data. We collect Session Data from Surfers when they navigate to GeoString by setting Cookies on their browser. We collect Session Data from Members when they log into our Interface by setting Cookies on their browser and by recording Session Data in our action logs.
Account Data. We collect Account Data from Members through the Interface as they register, log in or out, or make decisions on the Interface with respect to their Ads or Ad Zones. Some of this Account Data is collected when a Member enters information into the Interface in response to a query, while other Account Data is recorded by us in our action logs.
Viewer Data. We collect System Info from Viewers using information transmitted by their browser and Geographic Info from Viewers from information associated with the Viewer’s IP address. We collect other Viewer Data from Cookies and Pixels. If you are a Viewer, whenever you view an Ad Zone that is part of the Publisher Network, we will set or update one or more Cookies on your browser. Each time you view an Ad Zone, click on an Ad or take any action with a vendor that resulted from an Ad (such as completing a lead form or purchasing a product or service) we may update those Cookies and we may update a Log File associated with that Ad Zone display to record your interests or preferences. We also contract with third party data providers to purchase Viewer Data from them. This data is referred to below as Third Party Viewer Data. In order to match Third Party Viewer Data with you, we may allow third parties to drop our Pixel on Web pages to which you navigate so that we can update the Cookie we put on your browser.
What are Cookies, Pixels and Log Files? Can you refuse them?
A Cookie is a small packet of data that is stored on your Internet browser. We use Cookies to store Session Data and Viewer Data. We assign a randomly-generated identifier (not your actual identity) to your browser ("Visitor ID") and store it in a Cookie so that a website can recognize your browser the next time you visit the website. Cookies allow us to store Viewer preferences, customize the display of content on a Viewer’s browser and record activities relating to Ad Zones so that Viewers will receive more relevant and less repetitive Ads when they next encounter an Ad Zone. Most browsers are set up initially to accept Cookies. There are two ways you may refuse Cookies:
You may set your browser to disable or delete all third-party Cookies. The mechanics to do this vary by browser and you should check your browser’s help file to learn how to take either action. If you disable or delete Cookies at the browser level, the features and functionality of many websites may be affected and you may see the same content and Ads repeatedly on some websites. For example, if you were a Member and you elected to disable Cookies, you would not be able to use any of the authenticated services we provide on Our Website.
You may set your browser to prompt you each time a website wants to set a Cookie and ask for your permission. By refusing permission to any given Cookie, you will prevent only a single Cookie from being created. Note, however, that because of the number of Cookies set by some websites, choosing to review Cookies on an individual basis may prove to be burdensome and may interfere with the features and functionality of some websites, including Our Website.
A Pixel (also known as a web beacon) is an image on a website page or email communication that may not be visible to the naked eye. We use Pixels to convey Viewer Data to your browser or to our Log Files. Viewing a screen with a Pixel may instruct your browser to update a Cookie associated with that Pixel. For example, if we wanted to record whether a product was purchased using your browser, we would place a Pixel on the Advertiser’s site so that when the purchase was completed, the Cookie on your browser would be updated to reflect the purchase. At the same time, we would record the purchase in a Log File. Most browsers are set up initially to accept Pixels. There are two ways to prevent Pixels from recording information about your web activities:
You may set your browser controls to reject all third party image tags. The mechanics to do this vary by browser and you should check your browser’s help file to learn how to take this action. Please note, however, that rejecting all third party image tags may interfere with the features and functionality of many websites, including Our Website.
Because Pixels are used to update Cookies on your browser, you may also instruct your browser to disable or delete Cookies or to ask permission before a Cookie is accepted, or you may set an Opt-Out Cookie on your browser. These actions would render ineffective Pixels that record Viewer Data in your Cookies and would delete the Visitor ID from your browser, rendering anonymous Log File information recorded from other Pixels.
A Log File is a temporary file we create and store on our system to store everything we know about the display of an Ad Zone. A Viewer’s Visitor ID is noted in the Log File. You cannot elect to disable Log Files, though if you delete Cookies or set an Opt-Out Cookie, you will delete the Visitor ID from your browser and there would be no way to tie a particular Log File back to your browser.
Please note that disabling Cookies or Pixels on your browser does not mean you will no longer receive online Ads from us. It means that we will no longer be able to deliver Ads to you that are tailored to your preferences or to limit the number of times you see the same Ad.
Can you see or change the information we collect?
Personal Information. Members can see the Personal Information we collect from them by logging into the Interface at www.geostring.com/ except for certain credit card information that is not stored or that is masked for security reasons and Personal Information derived from Email Communications. Members can change the Personal Information we collect from them through the Interface (except for Personal information derived from Email Communications), though for auditing and fraud detection purposes, we continue to store Personal Information previously entered by a Member even after it is modified or deleted by the Member. Members and Surfers cannot see or change the Personal information we derive from Email Communications.
Account Data. Members can see and change Account Data that was entered by the Members into the Interface, such as bid and budget information we collect from Advertisers and Ad Zone and Ad approval information we collect from Publishers, by logging into the Interface at www.geostring.com/ . Members cannot see or change Account Data we record in our action logs on behalf of Members, such as the date and time they last logged into the Interface or their most recent activities using the Interface.
Session Data. Surfers can see Session Data we collect from them using the tools available in their browser to view Cookies and can delete this Session Data by deleting the associated Cookies from their browser. Similarly, Members can see Session Data we collect from them that is stored on their browser using the tools available in their browser to view Cookies and can delete this Session Data by deleting the associated Cookies from their browser. Members cannot see, modify or delete Session Data we collect from them that is stored on our system. Surfers cannot see or change the Session Data we send to third parties to assist us in designing and improving Our Website.