Home

Privacy Policy

Writercon cares about your privacy and is strongly committed to protecting the privacy of its online guests, customers, donors, and friends. We do not collect personally identifiable information about individuals—such as their names and postal and/or email addresses—except when it is knowingly provided by such individuals. We believe that maintaining privacy on the Web is very important and we hope you will read this privacy policy carefully so that you will clearly understand both our commitment to you and your privacy and our method of collecting and using information. This privacy policy outlines the type of personal information that is collected by Writercon from consumers and how we use and protect it. This policy also tells you what to do if you do not want your personal information used for any purposes besides those intended and how you can change information you have already provided to us. This privacy policy only applies to transactions made and data gathered on the writercon.com website as well as to Writercon’s collection of data through printed materials for such items as fundraising, auctions, raffles, registration materials, other mail-in correspondence and telephone calls, and does not apply to any other website. The terms of this privacy policy shall govern all interactions with Writercon through either the Writercon website or email. A link to the privacy policy can be found on the Writercon home page and on every page on the Writercon website.

Contents:

Acceptance of Terms by Use
By using the Writercon website, providing Writercon with Personal Information, or communicating with Writercon by email, you agree to the terms of this privacy policy as posted here. If you do not agree with any term in this policy, please do not provide any Personal Information. If you choose not to provide Personal Information, you may not be able to do certain things, like access particular areas of our website, participate in fundraisers, auctions, register for events or send us email.

As used in this privacy policy, “Personal Information” means personally identifiable information such as your name, street or mailing address, telephone number, screen name or email address.

Information Provided by Visitors
When You Register at Writercon
You may use the Writercon website without registering or submitting any personally identifiable information. However, in order to have access to certain features such as online registration, email newsletters, forums or other types of notifications, you must register at Writercon so we can personalize the site to better meet your needs.

If you decide to register with us online, you will be asked to provide personally identifiable information that may include a user name and password, your name, email address, postal address, and telephone number. We store this information, along with your other preferences, on our server so that you won't need to reenter it when you return to the site. If you elect to log into the store at a later date, the site will display your information order online, purchase merchandise or tickets to a benefit event, or make a donation.

Updating Your Writercon Information
You may review, correct, update, or change your Writercon profile information, including any personally identifiable information contained in your profile, at any time. Simply log on to your online profile, review your information, and/or edit it with the options provided.

If you opted to receive newsletters, other emails, or communications from Writercon at the time you registered at the Writercon site, but have subsequently changed your mind, you may opt out by editing your profile or by clicking on the appropriate notification/newsletter link. If you previously opted not to receive such communications, you may later opt in by returning to your Writercon profile and making the appropriate change.

When You Shop Online in the Writercon Store
Writercon will ask you to provide personally identifiable information necessary to fulfill your order or catalogue request that can include your name, billing and shipping postal addresses, telephone number, and email address. This is the same information requested when you place an order by telephone or through the mail. When you make a purchase online, we will retain the personally identifiable information you provided with your order for our records, to facilitate customer service, and to inform you of our products and promotional offers. Writercon may combine the information you provide with other personally identifiable information to which Writercon has access, such as purchase history and demographic information (see How Writercon Uses Information Provided by Visitors).

For online orders or when you request information online, we also require your email address so you can receive order and shipping confirmation emails as well as receive communication in the event we have difficulty processing your order (see Emails and Newsletters).

We ship any merchandise purchased from this website from our primary physical location. We use Paypal to process these merchandise orders and donations, so your credit card number is not entered anywhere on our site. Neither Paypal nor Writercon share or personally use identifiable information for secondary purposes.

As part of our commitment to your privacy, the Writercon Store supports and adheres to the guidelines and practices adopted by the Direct Marketing Association's Privacy Promise to American Consumers.

BACK TO TOP

When You Make a Donation Online
Writercon will ask you to provide personally identifiable information necessary to process and service your donation that may include your name, billing and shipping postal addresses, telephone number, and email address. When you make a donation online, we will retain the personally identifiable information you provided for our records and to facilitate customer service information (see How Writercon Uses Information Provided by Visitors).

When You Complete an Electronic Survey
Writercon occasionally posts surveys on its website or through email. Your participation in these surveys is on a completely voluntary and on an anonymous basis unless we inform you otherwise. We use the information in the responses to the survey to understand our visitors better and to determine how best to serve them. Personally identifiable information collected in our surveys is never sold, rented, or shared with third parties for their marketing purposes (see Third-Party Service Providers).

How Writercon Uses Information Provided by Visitors

Writercon uses the information you provide to personalize the site so that we can better meet your needs (see When You Register at Writercon), to fulfill your online order, or facilitate customer service in the Writercon Store as well as inform you of our products and promotional offers (see When You Shop Online in the Writercon Store and When You Make a Donation Online). Writercon never shares with third parties any personally identifiable information you provide when purchasing products or making a donation online, except as required by law, or search warrant, subpoena or court order. Writercon does not sell or rent e-mail addresses.

Information Collected Automatically Cookies
This website automatically collects some non-personally identifiable information about you when you request pages through your browser. We place cookies on website visitors' computers (cookies are small files that reside in a visitor's browser) to collect aggregate information for site traffic analysis, such as the number of visitors and the number of pages viewed. This information is never used to identify you personally. However, our website has been designed to provide nearly full functionality without the use of cookies. You can set your browser to reject cookies, but you will lose the ability to register in the Writercon Store or place an item in your shopping basket online.

BACK TO TOP

Other Information Collected
Other information that we may collect online via the Writercon website or email promotions and banners, for example, is described in this section.

Site Measurement Statistics
Site measurement statistics may be used to personalize your website experience, as well as to evaluate—anonymously and in the aggregate—statistics about usage of the web site. Information about your computer such as your IP address (a number assigned to your computer whenever you surf the internet), the type of internet browser you are using and the type of computer operating system you are using may also be collected and linked to your Personal Information. This is to ensure that our website presents the best web experience for visitors, and that they are an effective information resource.

Finally, some of the pages you visit may use pixel tags (also called clear gifs) to collect information about your navigation on our website. This information is used to evaluate and enhance how the website functions.

Discussion Boards/Chat Rooms

If you choose to post messages on our Discussion Boards or leave feedback for other members, we may collect such information about you as you choose to disclose. We make discussion boards and other means of online communication and collaboration available to our guests. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information in a public forum such as a message board, or when you invite others to join the Writercon website or mailing list, or vice versa.

Children Under Thirteen Years of Age
Writercon is an adult only event -- you must be 18 or older by the time Writercon occurs in order to attend and participate. By registering with Writercon for its convention or its message boards, you must warrant that you are at or above the age of 18..

BACK TO TOP

Email Communications
Emails and Newsletters
Writercon may, on occasion, send email newsletters to our registered visitors. Registered visitors may subscribe or unsubscribe to an email newsletter at any time by changing their email preferences in the newsletter subscription box on our home page. On occasion, Writercon may send emails to individuals such as registrants and customers who have provided us with their email address, informing them of events or promotions we think might be of interest to them. Email recipients may always opt out of any email at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions included in the email message.

"Email a Friend" Feature
If you use the Writercon "Email a Friend" feature (in the online store), your friend's email address will not be retained on our website or used in any way by Writercon.

Emailing Writercon
Writercon tries to respond to email messages requiring a response within seven business days. We try to respond to customer service inquiries related to a purchase in the Writercon Store within forty-eight hours. If you email Writercon, your message and email address will be forwarded to the appropriate individual. Writercon may choose to save this information and we are pleased to hear from you. However, any message, material, business information, ideas, concepts, or other information sent to Writercon by email will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary.

Data Security
Writercon makes every reasonable effort to ensure that all of the transactions that occur on our website are secure. All credit card numbers submitted to the site are encrypted using "Secure Socket Layer" (SSL) encryption. SSL technology is an industry standard for protecting sensitive information as it is transmitted over the Internet. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and administrative procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Your Writercon account is password-protected so that only you and those you designate can access it and view the member information relevant to your account. Ultimately, you are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and any account information. Remember to log out of your Writercon account and close your browser window when you are finished with writercon.com. This ensures that others cannot access your personal information if your computer is accessible to others.

Third-Party Service Providers
Writercon may engage reputable third-party vendors in order to help us manage our website and allow us to better service our visitors and customers. These may include third-party vendors engaged to analyze, for marketing purposes, the information collected on our website. In addition, if you order a product or service from us, we may provide Personal Information to suppliers and other third parties to enable delivery of such product or service. These third parties, including suppliers, are not authorized by us to use your Personal Information in any other way. Writercon does not sell Personal Information.

We may supplement the information that you provide to us with other information that we receive from third parties. We do this for marketing purposes in order to provide the most appropriate products and services to meet your needs. Writercon requires its vendors by contract to maintain the confidentiality and security of Writercon information to which they are provided access and restricts the vendors from using the information in any way not expressly authorized by Writercon.

The Writercon site may contain links to other websites such as our third-party vendors or other charitable organizations. Once you leave the Writercon website, this privacy policy will not apply.

Changes to Privacy Policy

Writercon may revise its privacy policy at any time at our discretion. We will post any new policy here and we encourage you to visit this area frequently to stay informed. Update effective July 21, 2008.

Contact Information
info@writercon.com
Writercon.

Please contact us if you have any comments or questions about this Privacy Policy or to report any violations of the Privacy Policy. We will respond to you within 24 to 48 hours in most cases. Writercon will take reasonable steps to comply with the foregoing requests.

Again, Writercon is committed to protecting your privacy in connection with our website. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, comments or concerns about this Privacy Policy.

  • Printer-friendly version
  • PDF version