manifold.net Privacy Statement

manifold.net is committed to genuine privacy on the Internet.

Regrettably, much of the economic engine driving Internet is based on the sophisticated hijacking of your personal information by commercial web sites and subsequent sale or trading of that information for advertising purposes.  We don't do that at manifold.net.  We won't ever release customer information to anyone, period. 

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, please email our Webmaster directly at webmaster@manifold.net 

Privacy Principles

Because your privacy is important to us, manifold.net sites displaying this privacy statement will operate by the following six principles. Users should additionally consult the Frequently Asked Questions section accompanying this statement for more information regarding the principles.

Principle 1.
manifold.net sites will explicitly ask when they need information that personally identifies you or allows them to contact you ("Personal Information"). Generally this information is requested when registering for a site that requires registration for access, when requesting a particular service, when placing an order or when entering a sweepstakes or contest. When possible, manifold.net sites will provide you with the means to make sure that your Personal Information is correct and current.

Principle 2.
manifold.net sites and their necessary service partners use your Personal Information to operate the sites and services and to inform you of service updates to existing products, new features, services, and products from Manifold and its affiliates.  "Service partners" are organizations such as banks and credit card processing clearing facilities who are necessarily involved in activities such as processing payment for orders. We never release any Personal Information to unnecessary third parties, nor do we ever sell or lease any information lists.  

Principle 3.
From time to time we will email registered customers informational notices as well as the occasional customer newsletter.  Although new products are announced in these newsletters, they are in general an equal balance of service notices, notices of free upgrades or enhancements, beta announcements and other non-spam information.  You may stop the delivery of informational or promotional mail from manifold.net sites by following the instructions in the email.

Principle 4.
manifold.net sites are not primarily directed at children.  We make no effort to collect Personal Information from children nor will we knowingly retain such information from children. 

Principle 5.
manifold.net sites may disclose Personal Information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Manifold or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Manifold, the site or the users of manifold.net, and (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Manifold, manifold.net, the site or the public. 

Principle 6.
If at any time you believe that a manifold.net site has not adhered to these principles, please notify manifold.net by e-mail at webmaster@manifold.net and we will use all commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and correct the problem.

For more information about our privacy statement, see the following Frequently Asked Questions or the FAQs accompanying the manifold.net sites.  Please note that this Privacy Statement does not apply to unauthorized accesses or to utilization of manifold.net sites outside their terms of use.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do all sites on manifold.net follow these privacy principles?

How will users know which privacy statement applies to their personal information?

Does Manifold belong to any privacy organizations?

Do all sites on manifold.net need Personal Information?

How do manifold.net sites collect the Personal Information?

What about Cookies?

How do manifold.net sites use Personal Information?

Do manifold.net sites ever sell my Personal Information to other companies?

What about companies that partner with manifold.net sites to provide the products or services on a site?

What about the privacy of children?

Do manifold.net sites collect other forms of information about its users?

How do I correct or change Personal Information that I have given to a manifold.net site?

Is my Personal Information secure from others using the manifold.net site?

How else might someone learn of my Personal Information while visiting a manifold.net site?

Do all sites on manifold.net follow these privacy principles?

manifold.net is made up of many sites, and new ones are added all the time.  Given the nature of Internet technology (in particular, the use of links or pages with many links to other sites) some of these sites may incorporate elements that are not under our direct control.  At this time, the manifold.net privacy statement applies to those sites which display this statement in conjunction with the privacy notice on the site's Web pages. While manifold.net encourages other site operators involved in any way with manifold.net to comply with these principles, users should carefully examine the privacy statements of sites appearing on or linking to or from manifold.net which do not display this statement. Personal Information that you choose to provide to other sites will be subject to the privacy policies of that other web site.  Although we rarely display banners or any advertising, there may appear some banners or other foreign content elements in manifold.net sites.  Clicking on such elements will teleport you into someone else's hands: don't assume they follow the same privacy principles we do.

How will users know which privacy statement applies to their Personal Information?

Pages throughout manifold.net display a "Privacy Statement" link which identifies the statement applying to the site. Users may click on the link at any time to read the applicable statement (usually this statement).

Does Manifold belong to any privacy organizations?

No.  There are some fine and sincere organizations and people involved in privacy on the web, but for the most part we think the so-called "privacy" organizations are just an elaborate way for people to lower their standards on privacy and to provide some legitimization for ripping off your email and preferences and selling them or trading them for advertising use.  Note how many "privacy" statements say the personal information you collect can be shared with "carefully selected" third parties that want to sell you something.   The other problem is that privacy organizations rapidly become a target for their local governments: before you know it, the privacy consortium is negotiating with the local government on what is a fair and reasonable way for that government to listen in on email, prevent citizens from using encryption to assure their own privacy and the like.  There's only one real statement of privacy: don't say a word about your customers or visitors to any third party, period.  If the government wants to eavesdrop, don't encourage them by collaborating. 

Do all sites on manifold.net need Personal Information?

No, for many manifold.net sites it is not necessary for you to provide any information in order for them to provide their services. In other instances, the manifold.net site may request minimal information in order to personalize the site or, in the case of bulletin boards and the like, to enable other participants to contact you if you allow. Some sites, such as the Online Store, will require very detailed information in order to assure that any financial transactions are in fact authorized by you.

How do manifold.net sites collect Personal Information?

Personal Information is collected by specifically requesting it from you. Generally this occurs when you register at a site, request a service, or enter an online contest or store.

What about Cookies?

Cookies are pieces of information that a Web site transfers to your computer's hard disk for record-keeping purposes. Cookies can make the Web more useful by storing information about your preferences on a particular site or to avoid "endless loop" navigation in the case of some complex sites. The use of cookies is an industry standard (albeit one that is at times misused), and many major Web sites use them to provide useful features for their customers. Cookies in and of themselves do not personally identify users, although they do identify a user's computer. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you'd prefer, you can set yours to refuse cookies. However, you may not be able to take full advantage of a Web site if you do so.  Frankly, we don't like cookies for philosophical reasons but we have no technical alternative in some cases.  We only use cookies when the semi-automated site design software we use for sites such as the Online Store requires it to achieve functionality.  We don't use cookies in any way to attempt to infer your identity or otherwise "tag" you.

How do manifold.net sites use Personal Information?

Usually, manifold.net sites and their necessary service partners (such as credit card processing institutions) use your Personal Information to operate the site and to deliver their services. For example, if you use the Online Store to purchase a product, your credit card information will be used by a credit card processing institution to clear the transaction with your issuing bank. manifold.net sites also use your Personal Information to inform you of other products or services available from Manifold and its immediate affiliates. We do not sell or rent or trade any Personal Information to any third party.

Does that mean manifold.net sites sell my Personal Information to other companies?

No, manifold.net does not sell, rent or trade customer lists.  We don't release Personal Information at all.  Note that this is a much higher standard of privacy than applied by most banks in the United States.  US banks will frequently sell demographic and personal financial information on the actions and habits of their clients.  In contrast, manifold.net will never release information.

What about companies that partner with manifold.net sites to provide the site's products or services?

A manifold.net site may have several necessary service partners who assist in providing the service or product associated with the site. As part of the operations of the site, these companies may have access to your Personal Information. These companies may provide routine services, such as credit card processing, or may provide essential elements of the site. These uses of Personal Information are primary to the operation of the site and are not considered Secondary Uses.  It may be that from time to time we arrange special discounts for our customers for products or services from other companies; however, if we ever so arrange this will be accomplished in a way that your Personal Information is not disclosed to the other company.  For example, we might provide a special discount code to you and then you could use this code if you decided to contact the other company.

What about the Privacy of children?

We don't operate any sites designed for children. Because we require credit cards or Fortune 500 purchase orders on transactions, it is not likely that a child could place an unauthorized order unless the adult guardian of the credit card has either authorized a purchase or has been negligent in keeping their credit cards secure from their child.  We will not knowingly process an order generated by a child (or any other person) who might not have authorization to use their parent's credit card number.  However, considering the serious technical nature of our products and the importance of assisting.pngted children in mathematics and other uses of Manifold, we will do our best to encourage.pngted children and their parents without collecting Personal Information from the.pngted child.

Do manifold.net sites collect other forms of information about its users?

In addition to the use of Personal Information to operate manifold.net sites, a manifold.net site may also gather anonymous information, which may then be used by Manifold. This is information which does not personally identify you, but which may be helpful for marketing purposes or for improving the services we offer. For example, manifold.net may analyze web access logs to see which parts of our site are more popular than others, or to infer which regions of the world are using our sites at different times of the day. Generally this information is collected through traffic data and statistical analysis of web server logs kept by standard web servers such as Microsoft IIS or Apache.   This restriction does not apply to any accesses outside published sites and their components.  This Privacy Statement does not apply to unauthorized accesses or to utilization of manifold.net sites outside their terms of use.

How do I correct or change Personal Information that I have given to a manifold.net site?

Some manifold.net sites may operate registration pages that allow you to review and update the Personal Information you have submitted. Elsewhere, you may simply be given the option of unsubscribing to the service for which you signed up. In all other cases where you need to correct Personal Information you have submitted to a manifold.net site, please contact the service address published by the particular manifold.net site.  If all else fails, send a flame to webmaster@manifold.net 

Is my Personal Information secure from others using the manifold.net site?

Personal Information collected by manifold.net sites is stored in secure operating environments that are not available to the public. In many instances, such as in the case of credit card numbers, the Personal Information is encrypted before you conduct your transaction.  Information within manifold.net is kept in encrypted systems with both physical and logical access restricted to a limited number of our accounting personnel.  Such systems are kept on physically separate networks that are not connected to development or other internal networks.  Our focus on personal security and privacy may at times prevent us from making it easy to update Personal Information via publicly-accessible web sites.

How else might someone learn of my Personal Information while visiting a manifold.net site?

In addition to directly providing information to a manifold.net site, you might also provide Personal Information through chat sessions, e-mail exchanges or bulletin board use made available to you on manifold.net. The Statement of Privacy does not cover this type of transfer of your Personal Information. You should always be careful when distributing your Personal Information in this manner.  If you are visiting our sites from a public computer, such as one made available for public use at a library, make sure not to leave the computer with any Personal Information remaining visible on screen.

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