SouthernGateway.com.au Privacy Policy

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE INFORMATION WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?
WHAT IS OUR E-MAIL POLICY?
WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE THE INFORMATION THAT WE GATHER?
HOW DO I CHANGE OR UPDATE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?
IS MY INFORMATION PROTECTED?
OTHER INFORMATION: Compliance with Legal Process
OTHER INFORMATION: Changes to This Policy

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?

The information we gather falls into two categories: 1) personal information you voluntarily supply when you register, submit an article, submit an editorial, complete a survey, enter a contest, or business information when you list your business with our sites and 2) tracking information collected as you navigate through our sites.

Personally Identifiable Information

Registration for our Web sites

Anyone can view our sites, but a free registration process is required to be able to submit articles, editorials or to add comments to editorials.

"Southern Gateway" requires that you supply a unique e-mail address and demographic information (town, municipality, age) to register. By using "Southern Gateway", you are agreeing to the terms of our Terms and Conditions.

Contests, and Special Offers

On occasion, "Southern Gateway" may collect personal information from readers in connection with optional contests or special offers. If this information is to be shared with a third party other than "Southern Gateway", we will notify you at the time of collection. If you do not want any personal information shared, you may always decline to participate in the contest or special offer.

Reader Surveys and Market Research

"Southern Gateway" may collect personal information from readers in connection with voluntary surveys. Data may be collected on our Web sites, or through email. The information you provide in answer to optional survey questions may be shared, but only in the aggregate, with advertisers and partners unless we notify you otherwise at the time of collection.

Aggregate Information Collected Through Technology

Cookies and Other Technologies

As is standard practice on many Web sites, "Southern Gateway" uses “cookies” and other technologies to recognize you and provide personalization, as well as to help us understand which parts of our Web sites are the most popular, where our visitors are going and how much time they spend there. Users who do not accept cookies from the domain "southerngateway.com.au" cannot access most areas of our sites.

We reserve the right to place a "Southern Gateway" cookie on your computer with a unique anonymous number to ensure that your browser does not see the same ad over and over again, to sequence ads in a series and to measure the number of unique visitors that have viewed a particular ad or visited a particular Web page.

IP Addresses

"Southern Gateway" logs IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We use the IP address log in an aggregate fashion to track access to our site.

Log Files

Log data is only used in aggregate to analyze usage of our Web.

WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE INFORMATION WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?

Statistical Analysis

"Southern Gateway" may perform statistical, demographic and marketing analyses of subscribers, and their subscribing and purchasing patterns, for product development purposes and to generally inform advertisers about the nature of our subscriber base. We also use such information to allow advertising to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom such advertising is most pertinent.

Banner Advertising

We may use demographic and preference information to allow advertising on our Web sites to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom they are most pertinent. This means users see advertising that is most likely to interest them, improving both the viewer's experience and the effectiveness of the ads. We will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form.

User Generated Content (Community News, Editorials, Editorial comments)

Any information you disclose when submitting Community News, an Editorial, or Editorial comment, along with your user ID, may become public and may be used by "southern Gateway for online and offline uses. For more information, see the Posting Policy and read the user generated content sections of the Member Agreement.

WHAT IS OUR E-MAIL POLICY?

We will not share, sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address without your permission. If you feel you have received an e-mail from us in error, please contact admin@southerngateway.com.au.

Account and Service-Related E-mail: "Southn Gateway" reserves the right to send you e-mail relating to your account status. This includes confirmations and notifications about major changes to our Web sites and/or to our Privacy Policy. You may receive e-mails specific to your participation in the various aspects to the site if we have a query regarding your comment to editorial, or submission of either an Editorial or Community News article.

Promotional E-mail: If you choose to receive them, "Southern Gateway" may periodically e-mail you messages about products and services that we think may be of interest to you. You can choose not to receive messages in the future by either (1) following the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each e-mail, or (2) unticking the "receive promotional material" box in the "Update Registration" section.

Survey E-mail: We may send you an e-mail inviting you to participate in user surveys, asking for feedback on southerngateway.com.au and existing or prospective services, as well as information to better understand our users. User surveys greatly help us to improve our Web site, and any information we obtain in such surveys will not be shared with third parties, except in aggregate form.

HTML E-mail: When you sign up to receive e-mail from us, you can select either plain text or HTML (with images) format. If you select the HTML format, we may place a one-pixel gif to determine whether or not readers viewed the e-mail. This process does not leave any information on your computer, nor does it collect information from your computer. The New York Times may share this data with others in aggregate only.

E-mails From You: If you send us e-mails, you should be aware that information disclosed in e-mails may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personal or confidential information in e-mails. We will use your e-mail address to respond directly to your questions or comments.

WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE THE INFORMATION THAT WE GATHER?

If you have registered with our site, "Southern Gateway" will not sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address or any information that personally identifies you without your permission. We may, however, share information about our audience in aggregate form.

HOW DO I CHANGE OR UPDATE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

You may update and/or edit your southerngateway.com.au account information by clicking on the link labelled "Update Registration". Should you require assistance, please email us at admin@southerngateway.com.au.

Please update the information you provided during the free registration process to ensure your personal information is accurate and up to date. If you need further assistance, please email us at admin@southerngateway.com.au.

IS MY INFORMATION PROTECTED?

Data Security: To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place electronic and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online.

OTHER INFORMATION: Compliance with Legal Process

We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to (1) comply with the law or with legal process; (2) protect and defend our rights and property; (3) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Web sites; or (4) protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions).

OTHER INFORMATION: Changes to This Policy

This Privacy Policy may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page. If we make a significant or material change in the way we use your personal information, the change will be posted on this page thirty (30) days prior to taking effect and posted as a news article.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on March 1st, 2007