We take the privacy of our readers very seriously. On this page, we have tried to address some of the main privacy concerns that you might have.

Information we gather:

We collect only the domain name, but not the e-mail address, of visitors to our web sites. We also collect data on pages that readers access or visit and information volunteered by readers, such as survey information and/or site registrations.

The information we collect is used for internal review and is then discarded. Unless otherwise stated, all information collected will be solely used to improve the content of our site and services. This data is not shared with other organizations for commercial purposes.

We only send direct e-mail to readers who sign up for one of our mailing lists.

If you supply us with your postal address online you will only receive the information you specifically request -- never any unsolicited mail.

Persons who supply us with their telephone numbers online may receive telephone contact from us with information regarding orders they have placed online or to receive information requested online.

What about cookies?

Our site may use cookies for our access logs. They are small pieces of data sent by your computer and used to identify the domain you are from and the pages you look at. This allows us to better estimate the size of our readership. We do not use cookies to store personal information about users or to track users' movement through our sites.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability has issued an information bulletin stating that privacy advocates' fears over the use of cookies -- a popular technique for tracking Web site visitors -- are unfounded. The claims that Web cookies may be used to gather information on "passwords, credit card numbers, and a list of the software on your computer" is not even "close to the truth," according to the bulletin. In fact, information that is gathered via cookies -- usually a user's numerical Internet address, browser type and operating system -- can also be recorded in a Web server's log files. "Cookies just make it easier. [A server] cannot find out your name or e-mail address, or anything about your computer using cookies," says the bulletin. Click here to read the full report.

If you have questions:

If you ever have any questions about our privacy policy, please contact us. We respect your rights and privacy, and will be happy to answer any questions or concerns you might have.