Privacy Policy

BootsnAll Travel Network (“BTN”) is the owner of the information collected on www.travelgearblog.com. BTN collects information from our users at several different points on our Web sites.

USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

BTN does not require an end-user to provide a name and address or any other personally identifiable information to access most parts of the Web Site.

BTN, its affiliates, partners, third parties, and sponsors offer various activities, products and services in which you are under no obligation to participate but if you do we (BTN) may need to ask for certain personally identifiable or demographic information about you or someone you know.

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online – for example on message boards, through e-mail, or in chat areas – that information can be collected and used by others. In short, by posting personal information online that is publicly accessible, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return.

The types of personally identifiable information that we may collect include but is not limited to: your user profile as a whole, including first name, last name, email address, password. Non personally identifiable information that we collect includes but is not limited to: gender, date of birth, and information about your interests, hobbies, preferences and your opinions, as well as other information that may or may not be application specific.

It will be clearly marked on any form where information is asked for, which fields are mandatory and which are optional in order to access the service or tool.

We store information that we collect through cookies, log files, and/or clear gifs to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users that detail their preferences. Consequently, collected information is tied to the user’s personally identifiable information to improve the content of the site for the user. This profile is used to tailor a user’s visit to our Web site and to direct pertinent marketing promotions to them. In these and in certain other cases described below we collect and use this information in order to provide ongoing service to you or others (for example, you may wish to send a friend a page from the Web Site in which case you will need to provide that person’s name and address, etc); to communicate with you (for example if you subscribe to our newsletters); to create personalized content and advertising (for example, if you subscribe to message board notifications); to facilitate your participation in on-line forums and chat; to understand your needs and to develop and improve the products and services we and our affiliates, partners and sponsors offer on our Web site; and to comply with laws (for example to respond to a court order or subpoena).

Your personally identifiable information will not be used by BTN for purposes unrelated to those described in this Policy, or elsewhere on this Web Site, without receiving notice consistent with this policy and choice as appropriate for a material change.

By collecting any of the above information we may develop profile information which we will use to create personalized content, services and advertising on the Web Site. In addition, BTN may use your profile in the aggregate, on a no name basis, to analyze site usage, generate aggregate reports and market research.

COOKIES

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. We use session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user’s hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions.

We use cookies on some of the BTN pages in order to serve you better when you return to the Web Site (for example to recognize you when you return to the Web Site, or to save your password). You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a “cookie” giving you the opportunity to accept or to refuse it. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.

Some of our business partners use cookies on our site (for example, advertisers). However, we have no access to or control over these cookies, once we have given permission for them to set cookies for advertising.

LOG FILES

Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

We keep track of the domains from which you visit us. We analyze these data for trends and statistics. In return it enables us to provide you with useful information to provide you with ongoing services.

COMMUNICATION

BTN will, from time to time, send email messages to Users containing advertisements, special promotions, and other marketing materials (“Email Marketing Programs”).

Users must “opt-in” during the registration process before they receive any email services, newsletters, special promotions or other marketing materials (“Opt-In Email Programs”).

In our communication with our site users, we may do the following:

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• Send you a welcoming email upon registration to any area of the site in order to verify password and username

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• Send information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications.

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• Send you service announcements notifying you of any new products or updates to the service.

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• On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

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• Send you emails that highlight certain features or information and provide you with information about additional products and services we think might be of interest to you.

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• We will provide you with the opportunity to “opt out” of email communications, beginning with the first one.

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• Make it easy for you to unsubscribe and opt-out by following directions at the bottom of any e-mail that you receive from us, unless it is vital to the operation of your account.

We will not:

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• Send you unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam).

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• Contact you via e-mail or any other method to ask you for your password. Do not share your password with anyone; you should only enter it directly into our Web site.

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• Contact you via e-mail or any other method to ask you for your credit card information. You should only enter this information directly into our Web site.

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• Materially change how we use your personally identifiable information without placing a prominent notice on our Web site first.

SECURITY

BTN has taken reasonable measures (physical, organizational and technological) to safeguard against unauthorized access to your personally identifiable information (for example to ensure that e-mail communications are only accessible by the designated recipients) and to safely store your personally identifiable information.

When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, their information is protected both online and off-line.

Despite the precautions we take, the Internet is not a secure medium and the privacy of your communications and personal information can never be guaranteed. BTN has no control over the practices of third parties (e.g. websites to which the Web Site is linked, third-party sponsors; third parties who misrepresent themselves as you or someone else). The user is entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of User’s password and account, and for any and all activities which occur under User’s account or password. User agrees to immediately notify BTN of any unauthorized use of User’s account, password, or any other breach of security known to User. User may change his/her password or profile by following instructions on the system. If users have any questions about the security at our Web site, users can send us an email.

SHARING INFORMATION

Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

We share aggregated demographic information with our partners and advertisers. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.

We may use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

THIRD PARTY ADVERTISING

BTN may serve advertisements on this site or work with a third party to serve the advertisements. Advertisements placed on the site may include but are not limited to banner ads, paid links, pop-up windows, buttons, and sponsorships. Information about users’ visit to this site, such as number of times they have viewed an ad (but not user name, address, or other personal information), is used to serve ads to users on this site. User agrees that BTN has the right to run such advertisements and promotions. Your correspondence or business dealing with, or participation in promotions of, advertisers found on or through the Services, including payment and delivery of related goods or services, and any other representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such advertiser. You agree that BTN shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such advertisers on the Services.

HYPERLINKS

Although this Web Site may be linked to other sites, BTN is not, directly or indirectly, implying any approval, association, sponsorship, endorsement or affiliation with the linked site, unless specifically stated therein. By entering this Web Site you acknowledge and agree that BTN has not reviewed all sites linked to this Web Site and is not responsible for the content of any off-site pages or any other site linked to this Web Site. Your linking to any other off-site pages or other sites is at your own discretion and risk.

SURVEYS & CONTESTS

Our site requests information from users via surveys or contests from time to time. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and address), and demographic information (such as age and postal code), as well as questions about hobbies, interests and other information. Survey information will typically be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.

TELL-A-FRIEND

If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend’s name and email address. We will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. We store this information only for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email.

BUSINESS TRANSITIONS

In the event BTN goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users’ personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred.

BTN reserves the right to modify or discontinue any services, tools, content, or any portion thereof, at any time, with or without notice to User. Consequently, you may not be able to access your information, or other submitted information after such changes. BTN shall not be liable to User or any third party should BTN exercise its right to modify or discontinue the Services.

REVISION OF POLICY

If we decide to change this policy, and determine that it is appropriate, we will post those changes to this statement so our users will be aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.

INQUIRIES, OPTING OUT, MAINTAINING PERSONAL INFORMATION

Our users are given the opportunity to ‘opt-in’ to having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site at the point where we ask for information. For example, our registration forms have an ‘opt-in/opt-out’ mechanism so users who wish to use our member services, but don’t want marketing material such as newlsetters, can keep their email address off of our opt-in lists.

Users who no longer wish to receive promotional communications may opt-out of receiving these communications by clicking on an ‘unsubscribe’ link in an email we send you.

If a user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users’ personally identifiable information.

If at any time you have any questions or concerns about this policy, you wish to update or correct any personally identifiable information you have provided, or you no longer wish us to collect, use or disclose any personally identifiable information for the purposes described above, please do not hesitate to contact us by clicking on the “Contact Us” link anywhere on the Web Site, or by sending us an email.

If we do not hear otherwise from you, we will assume the information you provide is accurate and up-to-date and that you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of the personally identifiable information you provide us about yourself or others for the purposes described above unless we change this statement consistent with the above notification of changes section.