Privacy Policy

Your privacy is critically important to us. At Yellowstone Gate we have a few fundamental principles:

  • We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it. (We can’t stand services that ask you for things like your gender or income level for no apparent reason.)
  • We don’t share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law or protect our rights.
  • We don’t store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of one of our services.
  • You have the right to opt out of any newsletter, mailing, discussion group, social network or other program we have, and you should contact us directly if you have difficulties removing yourself from any list.

If you have questions about how your personal information is used, please contact ruffin@yellowstonegate.com.

It is Yellowstone Gate’s policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect while operating our website. Below is our privacy policy which incorporates these goals:

Website Visitors

Like most website operators, Yellowstone Gate collects non-personally identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Yellowstone Gate’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how our visitors use the site.

Yellowstone Gate also collects potentially personally identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for logged in users and for users leaving comments on our site. This is a function of the WordPress software we use to publish the site. Yellowstone Gate only discloses logged in user and commenter IP addresses under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally identifying information as described below, except that blog commenter IP addresses are visible and disclosed to the administrators of the blog where the comment was left.

Gathering of personally identifying Information

Certain visitors to Yellowstone Gate’s website may choose to interact with Yellowstone Gate in ways that require us to gather personally identifying information. The amount and type of information that Yellowstone Gate gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we may ask visitors who sign up for our newsletter to provide a name, zip code and email address. Those who engage in other social media interactions, web site postings or other activities on Yellowstone Gate may be asked to provide additional information. In each case, Yellowstone Gate collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with Yellowstone Gate. Yellowstone Gate does not disclose personally identifying information other than as described below. And visitors may always decline to supply personally identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.

Aggregated Statistics

Yellowstone Gate may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. For instance, Yellowstone Gate may monitor the most popular pages or message board discussions on the site or use third-party software like MailChimp.com to determine how many subscribers read a particular newsletter. Yellowstone Gate may display this aggregate information publicly or provide it to others. However, Yellowstone Gate does not disclose personally identifying information other than as described below.

Protection of Certain personally identifying Information

Yellowstone Gate discloses potentially personally identifying and personally identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on Yellowstone Gate’s behalf or to provide services available at Yellowstone Gate’s websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. (As of November 2011, Yellowstone Gate does not use any outside contractor to process information on its behalf.) Yellowstone Gate will not rent or sell potentially personally identifying and personally identifying information to anyone under any circumstances for any reason. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations, as described above, Yellowstone Gate discloses potentially personally identifying and personally identifying information only in response to a subpoena, court order or other governmental request, or when Yellowstone Gate believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Yellowstone Gate, its employees and agents or the public at large. If you are a registered user of Yellowstone Gate and have supplied your email address, Yellowstone Gate may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with Yellowstone Gate. We primarily use our weekly newsletter to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep any additional emails to a minimum. Yellowstone Gate takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally identifying and personally identifying information.

Cookies

A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Yellowstone Gate uses cookies to help Yellowstone Gate identify and track visitors, their usage of the Yellowstone Gate website, and their website access preferences. The Yellowstone Gate poll software, for instance, also uses cookies to help prevent visitors from voting multiple times in the same poll. Yellowstone Gate visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using Yellowstone Gate’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of Yellowstone Gate’s websites (such as the poll) may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Business Transfers

If Yellowstone Gate, or substantially all of its assets were acquired, or in the unlikely event that Yellowstone Gate goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that may be transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of Yellowstone Gate may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this policy.

Ads

Ads appearing on our website may be delivered to users by advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by Yellowstone Gate and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Comments

Comments and other content submitted by users via comment or feedback forms, including letters to the editor, may be published by Yellowstone Gate. Your submission of comments, letters to the editor or other similar commentary are made with the implicit understanding that they may be published for review (and potential response) by all readers.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Yellowstone Gate may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and at Yellowstone Gate’s sole discretion. Yellowstone Gate encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.

This privacy policy was adapted under a Creative Commons sharealike license from Automattic, the company that makes our WordPress publishing software. You are free to adopt, alter and re-use it under a parallel license.