Privacy Policy
- 30 Jan 2006 -
We make every effort to preserve user privacy, however 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 an appropriate law enforcement investigation, current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.
Information Collection & Use
scratchProjects.com is operated from Dallas, TX. We can be reached by e-mail at .
We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. scratchProjects.com collects information from our users at several different points on our web site. We recognize the importance of protecting the privacy of Personal Identifying Information about you as a user of our web site.
We consider the following to be Personal Identifying Information: your e-mail address, name, password, mailing address, and credit card information. This web site does not collect Personal Identifying Information about a user other than information that is voluntarily provided to our Company; in this way, we can serve the user's needs as well as our own legitimate business purposes. (For example, we retain the Personal Identifying Information that a user provides when he or she chooses to register with scratchProjects.com)
Our company uses a user's Personal Identifying Information in order to help us improve our web site, or for our company's marketing and promotional purposes if you have opted to receive these kinds of communications. This information will be treated confidentially within our company.
Discussion Boards
We would like to remind our users that any Personally Identifiable Information that is voluntarily posted to a public area of this web site (for example, that which is posted to our discussion board) might be collected and used by others, and that there is nothing our Company can do in order to prevent this.
Registration
In order to use certain areas of this site, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration, a user is required to give his or her e-mail address, which can be used to contact the user about the services on our site for which they have expressed interest. The user may also be required to provide demographic information, such as your job, technical interests, etc.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's hard drive tied to aggregate information about the user. Once the user closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates. For instance, by setting a cookie on our site, the user would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If a user rejects 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. Cookies can also 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.
Advertising
We use Google AdSense, Amazon.com, and other third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use session data (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements on this site and other sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you.
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. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information, except to prevent fraud or abuse of the system.
Sharing
We will share aggregated demographic information with our partners and advertisers. This is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person. We use an outside credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. This company does not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes
From time to time we partner with outside service providers. When the user signs up for these services, we will share names, or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. These parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.
Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we (scratchProjects.com) are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.
Newsletters
If you have elected to receive e-mail newsletters but want to unsubscribe, simply send a blank email to with the words "Unsubscribe" in the subject.
Service Announcements
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 e-mail. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.
Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via e-mail or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Feedback and Comments form.
Surveys & Contests
From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level). Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.
E-mail 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 e-mail address. scratchProjects.com will automatically send the friend a one-time e-mail inviting them to visit the site. scratchProjects.com stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time e-mail. The friend may contact scratchProjects.com at to request the removal of this information from their database.
Security
We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Correcting/Updating Personal Information
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your e-mail address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or remove that user's personal data provided to us. This can usually be done by e-mailing us at .
Choice/Opt-out
Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. When products or services are jointly offered or co-branded we will indicate who is collecting the information and it will be clear which privacy statement applies when information is being collected under a co-branded situation. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with services that require an outside party, or not.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our Homepage so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner materially different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an e-mail. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if you have removed your personal information you will not be contacted, nor will your information be used in this new manner.