Faq

Computer User >> Frequently Asked Questions

ComputerUser will not disclose any of your personal information without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in or opt-out. ComputerUser may release personal information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it, or to protect the rights or property of ComputerUser and to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright Law) or in response to a court order, subpoena, or search warrant.

ComputerUser also reserves the right to disclose personally identifiable information and/or non-personally-identifiable information that ComputerUser believes, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to enforce our Terms of Use, take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend itself against any third-party claims or allegations, to assist government enforcement agencies, to protect the security or integrity of our web site, and to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of ComputerUser, our Users or others.

We do share non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous User usage data, referring / exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.) with interested third-parties to assist them in understanding the usage patterns for certain content, services, advertisements, promotions, and/or functionality on the ComputerUser Sites.

Under confidentiality agreements, ComputerUser may match user information with third party data. Also, ComputerUser does disclose aggregated user statistics (for example, 40% of our users are female) in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes.

Additionally, if you make a purchase through a store affiliated with ComputerUser, be aware that the information that you provide, including but not limited to, your credit card number and contact information, is provided to the owner of that store. These merchants have separate privacy and data collection practices. ComputerUser has no responsibility or liability for these independent policies.

• If you submit personally identifiable information to us through the ComputerUser Sites, then we use your personal information to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the ComputerUser Sites.
• Any personal information or video content that you voluntarily disclose online (on discussion boards, in messages and chat areas, within your public profile page, etc.) becomes publicly available and can be collected and used by others. Your account name (not your email address) is displayed to other Users when you upload videos or send messages through the ComputerUser Sites and other Users can contact you through messages and comments. Any videos that you submit to the ComputerUser Sites may be redistributed through the internet and other media channels, and may be viewed by the general public.
• We do not use your email address or other personally identifiable information to send commercial or marketing messages without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in or opt-out. We may, however, use your email address without further consent for non-marketing or administrative purposes (such as notifying you of major ComputerUser Site changes or for customer service purposes).
• We use both your personally identifiable information and certain non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous User usage data, cookies, IP addresses, browser type, click stream data, etc.) to improve the quality and design of the ComputerUser Sites and to create new features, promotions, functionality, and services by storing, tracking, and analyzing User preferences and trends.
• We use cookies, clear gifs, and log file information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the ComputerUser Sites; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, pages viewed, etc.; and (e) track your entries, submissions, and status in promotions, sweepstakes, and contests.

• User Provided Information: You provide certain personally identifiable information (such as your name and email address) to ComputerUser when choosing to participate in various activities on the ComputerUser Sites such as uploading videos, posting messages in our forums or in the video comments section, entering contests or sweepstakes, taking advantage of promotions, responding to surveys, or subscribing to newsletters or other mailing lists.
• Cookies Information: When you visit the ComputerUser Sites, we may send one or more cookies – a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters – to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. ComputerUser uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser help file directions. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser. You can reset your web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features of the ComputerUser Sites may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled.
• Log File Information: When you use the ComputerUser Sites, our servers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends whenever you visit any website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, browser language, referring / exit pages and URLs, platform type, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages, the date and time of your request, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.
• Clear GIFs Information: When you use the ComputerUser Sites, we may employ “clear GIFs” (a.k.a. Web Beacons) which are used to track the online usage patterns of our Users anonymously (i.e., in a non-personally-identifiable manner). In addition, we may also use clear GIFs in HTML-based emails sent to our users to track which emails are opened by recipients.

Please contact ComputerUser with any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice using this contact form.