Commitment to your privacy
This site is owned and operated by ERSco (herein referred to as
“ERSco,” “we” or “us.”). Your privacy on the Internet is of the
utmost importance to us and we want to make your online experience
satisfying and safe. By using or accessing this website, you signify
your acknowledgment and agreement to this Privacy Policy. Do not use
this website if you do not agree to this policy.
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 and how we use it.
INFORMATION ERSCO GATHERS AND TRACKS
ERSco gathers two types of information about users:
1) Information that users provide through optional, voluntary
submissions. These are voluntary submissions to register your
warranty, receive our electronic newsletters and coupons, to
participate in our message boards or forums, to email a friend, and
from participation in polls and surveys. Information requested may
include your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, etc.,
as well as demographic information. This data is aggregated and
analyzed so we can learn more about our customers, their purchasing
behavior and habits, and product needs.
2) Information ERSco gathers through aggregated tracking information
derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This
information allows us to better tailor our content to readers' needs
and to help us better understand the demographics of our audience.
Under no circumstances does ERSco divulge any information about an
individual user to a third party.
Our website also allows you to contact us directly with questions or
comments regarding our products. This process requires you to give
us certain personal information so that you may answer your
questions. All opinions, ideas, suggestions, and other feedback
submitted via email or our website may be used by ERSco without any
restriction and free of charge.
ERSco Gathers User Information in the Following Processes:
Optional Voluntary Information
We offer, or may offer in the future, the following free services,
which require some type of voluntary submission of personal
information by users:
1) Electronic newsletters and coupon dispatches
We may offer our site users a free electronic newsletter to users.
ERSco gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily
subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by
following the link provided in every newsletter that points users to
the subscription management page. Users can also subscribe to the
newsletters at the time of registration.
2) Message boards/forums
We may offer our site users Message Boards and Forums. Users must
register separately for these services (both are free of charge) in
order to post messages, although they needn't register to visit the
site. During registration the user is required to supply a username,
password, and email address.
3)"E-mail this to a friend" Service
We may offer our site users the ability to electronically forward a
link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking "e-mail this to
a friend." The user must provide their email address, as well as
that of the recipient. This information is used only in the case of
transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient know who
sent the email. The information is not used for any other purpose.
4) Polling
We may offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share
their opinions with other users and see what our audience thinks
about important issues. Opinions or other responses to polls are
aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. ERSco
may use a system to "tag" users after they have voted, so they can
vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated
with information about individual users.
5) Surveys
ERSco may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our
content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated
demographic information in these surveys with our sponsors,
advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information
about specific individuals with any third party.
Children
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 13 without
requesting parental consent.
Usage Tracking
ERSco tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites.
However, we do not correlate this information with data about
individual users. ERSco does 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).
ERSco sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that users
enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated
with individual users. We use tracking information to determine
which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic
to those areas. We 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.
Cookies
We may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of
your computer. The cookie itself does not contain Personal
Information although it will enable us to relate your use of this
site to information that you have specifically and knowingly
provided. 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. ERSco uses
cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above).
You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If
you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you
will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need
to have cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need
cookies to participate actively in message boards, forums, polling
and surveys.
USE OF INFORMATION
ERSco uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance
their experience in our network of sites, 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 coupons and to
enable users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and
forums. We may send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular
schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out
special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly
interested in something we are doing. ERSco never shares newsletter
mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers,
sponsors or partners.
When we use tracking information to determine which areas of our
sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We
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 track search terms entered in Search function as
one of many measures of what interests our users. But we don't track
which terms a particular user enters.
ERSco creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic
patterns for advertisers, sponsors 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 or
sponsor will never know that a specific user clicked their ad. We
will not disclose any information about any individual user except
to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect
the personal safety of our users or the public.
SHARING OF THE INFORMATION
ERSco uses the above-described information to tailor our content to
suit your needs and help our advertisers and ourselves better
understand our audience's demographics. This is essential to keeping
our service free. We will not share information about individual
users with any third party, except to comply with applicable law or
valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users
or the public.
SECURITY
ERSco has taken precautions to prevent unauthorized access to the
site and data collected therein but no server is completely secure,
and we cannot be responsible for loss, corruption or unauthorized
acquisition of personal information gained through the site.
Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and
enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to
the information provided by our customers.
LINKS TO AFFILIATE SITES
This site contains links to retailers, business partners and sites
that offer valuable pet information. Because such linked sites are
not under our control, we are not responsible for the accuracy or
reliability of any information or content contained on these sites.
Use of these sites is at your own risk, and if you choose to provide
any personal information directly to any of these sites, the privacy
policy of that site will govern use of your provided information. We
make no guarantees, explicit or implied, regarding any linked sites.
OPT-IN / OPT-OUT POLICY
We give users options wherever necessary and practical.
Such choices include:
*Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters. We ask customers that wish to receive special offers from us such as coupons, pet-related tips, special offers and new product information to “Opt-in” when they register their product warranty or ask to be placed on our email list.
*Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which
completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable
information from our users.
YOUR CONSENT
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this
information by ERSco. 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.