Welcome to OutProud Online, owned and produced by OutProud and its subsidiary and affiliate corporations, successors, and assigns (collectively referred to as "OutProud"). OutProud Online Products and Services (collectively, the "Products and Services") are offered by OutProud through web pages at or linked to the URLs www.outproud.org, www.outpath.com, www.channelq.com, www.transproud.com, and www.queeramerica.com, (collectively referred to as "OutProud Online," which may expand or change from time to time) are made available subject to this Privacy Policy. This statement discloses the privacy practices of OutProud Online. By using the Products and Services, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this Privacy Policy or any other privacy or data collection policy applicable to any individual OutProud Online web site. 1. What information of yours does OutProud Online collect? 2. What are "cookies" and how does OutProud use them? 3. What organization is collecting the information? 4. How does OutProud Online use the information? 5. With whom does OutProud Online share the information that is collected? 6. How can you access, edit or delete your information? 7. What types of security procedures are in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of your information? 8. OutProud Online notice regarding the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998 9. What can you do to better protect yourself on the Internet? Contact information for questions regarding this statement should be directed to: OutProud Privacy Site Coordinator Privacy Compliance OutProud 369 Third Street, Suite B-362 San Rafael, CA 94901-3581 email: privacy@outproud.org Please note that OutProud Online contains links to other sites and that these sites' Privacy Policies may not conform to our own. So bear in mind that sites that are linked to from OutProud Online sites, may have privacy policies which differ from that of OutProud Online. This policy may be updated from time to time so please check back periodically. 1. What information of yours does OutProud Online collect? The goal of OutProud Online is to provide you with the information, services and resources that are most relevant and useful to gay youth and those who serve them. To achieve this goal, OutProud Online sometimes needs to collect information to understand what differentiates you from its hundreds of thousands of other unique users. We collect two types of information from you, "anonymous information" and "personally identifiable information." Anonymous information refers to information that cannot be tied back to a specific individual. Each time a visitor comes to an OutProud Online site, OutProud collects some information to improve the overall quality of the visitor's online experience. OutProud collects the visitor's IP address (e.g., whether the user is logged on from a .com, .gov or .edu domain), referral data (e.g., the address of the last URL a user visited prior to clicking through to an OutProud Online site), and browser and platform type (e.g., a Netscape browser on a Macintosh platform). OutProud also collects aggregate search terms from its search services for internal reporting and targeted content presentation (that is, web pages which are dynamically displayed based on your individual interests. OutProud collects this user information for purposes of product monitoring, product improvement, and targeted content. In addition to this anonymous data, OutProud may also collect personally identifiable information. Personally identifiable information refers to information that tells us specifically who you are, such as your name and postal address. Wherever and whenever OutProud collects personal information through registration we make an effort to include a link to this Privacy Policy on that page. OutProud collects personal information in the following ways from different parts of its network of web sites: Most of the personal information is gathered when you register with one or several of OutProud Online sites. If you choose to register, you may provide OutProud with your name, postal address, email address, birth date, gender, sexual orientation, zip code and other information. While not all of this information may be required, the more information you volunteer (and the more accurate it is), the better we are able to customize your experience. Once you register you are given an OutProud Online ID and are able to take full advantage of the many offerings around OutProud Online, including personalization services, when they become available. In addition to registration for various services on the Network, OutProud may ask you for personal information at other times, including when you search QueerAmerica, for example. In such instances, this information is only used to search a database and is not retained in any form. If you participate in the Internet Survey of Queer and Questioning Youth, you may be asked to provide some very personal information. Should you choose to reply, please know that this information is in no way linked to you, nor is sufficient identifying information of any type collected such that your responses could be traced back to you. We believe it is important for you to be confident that your responses are anonymous and confidential. If you contact OutProud Online, we may keep a record of that correspondence, including your email address. We use that information so that we may respond to that email, and for future reference. 2. What are "cookies" and how does OutProud use them? A cookie is a small text file containing a unique identification number that is transferred from a web site to the hard drive of your computer so that the web site may identify you and track your activities on the web site. This unique number identifies your browser-- and possibly you -- to computers whenever you visit a site making use of them. A cookie can, in fact, let a web site know personally identifiable information about you, such as your real name and address. Many visitors to OutProud Online are youth who are either still questioning their sexuality, or who have not yet publicly acknowledged that they are queer. Given this, we believe it's essential not to leave as few records of their visit as possible, and therefore do not use cookies in any manner. 3. What organization is collecting the information? When you register information in any Internet domain of OutProud Online, that information is generally collected and maintained solely by OutProud Online unless specifically stated otherwise at the point of collection. For example, the results -- including the database of responses -- of the Internet Survey of Queer and Questioning Youth are shared with a wide number of individuals and organizations conducting research on, or otherwise advocating for, queer youth. Be aware that OutProud Online may have links on our sites that take you to other sites that may collect personally identifiable information about you. OutProud hopes that all third parties involved adhere to our policies regarding the privacy of our users. However, this OutProud Online Privacy Policy does not cover third party data collection practices and OutProud Online does not assume any responsibility for any actions of third parties. 4. How does OutProud Online use the information it collects? Any personal information you provide to OutProud when registering for Products and Services at any of its sites is maintained and accessible only by OutProud Online unless specifically stated otherwise. OutProud may request information from its users so that users can enjoy customized experiences across OutProud Online, including personalization services, interactive communications, discussion groups and many other types of content and services. Most of these Products and Services are free to you. In order to provide great content and services free of charge, OutProud may display advertisements. The following are examples of how OutProud Online may use the information it collects: OutProud Online may offer its users the ability to personalize content such as news, local resources, links to other web sites, and more. OutProud may use the aggregate data collected to inform our sponsors as to numbers of people who have certain demographic characteristics and the number of those people who have seen and "clicked" on specific pages or advertisement(s). We may also disclose to those third-party sponsors the overall demographics available regarding who saw and "clicked" on their advertisement. No personally identifiable information will be disclosed to any individual, whatsoever, as part of this process; only information in an aggregate form. OutProud also uses the aggregate data to perform statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behavior of our registered users and visitors, to measure user demographics and interests regarding specific areas of OutProud Online and to analyze how and where best to use our resources. Without such data, we would not know what the most popular areas of OutProud Online are, and we would not be able to change and update the content and services appropriately. OutProud Online may, from time to time, use your information to contact you about changes or enhancements to Products and Services on OutProud Online If you told OutProud Online that you were interested in receiving offers or information, OutProud may send you email about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. For those who elect to receive such materials from OutProud or third parties, and who indicate that they do in their profile, OutProud will release personally identifiable information. Information released may include your name, email address and other information supplied in OutProud Online registration process, and only when you specifically grant us that right. OutProud Online sometimes uses an individual registered user's data to "pre-populate" forms that are displayed for the purpose of collecting individual data by OutProud Online and/or its advertisers and sponsors. OutProud may be required by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide information on individual users to the appropriate governmental authorities. In matters involving a danger to personal or public safety, OutProud may voluntarily provide information to appropriate governmental authorities. If you are a member of the military, you should not register any personally identifying information at our site in the eventuality that it may be subpoenaed. 5. With whom does OutProud Online share the information that is collected? At this time OutProud Online only shares the results of the Internet Survey of Queer and Questioning Youth. This data is made available both on an aggregated basis, and also in the form of a database which contains individual responses. There is no personally identifying information about anyone in this database, nor can any responses be traced back to an individual. We share the information with qualified researchers, government and social services organizations. 6. How can you access, edit or delete your information? OutProud Online provides its registered users the ability to access and edit the personal information in their user profiles. Currently, to access and edit your personal information, you have to go to the specific OutProud Online site where you registered. For locations where you can access and edit your personal information, click on one or more of the following: Channel Q: Enter your email address to be removed from the distribution list. OutProud Forum: Enter your OutProud Forum User ID to be removed from the directory. 7. What kinds of security procedures are in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of your information? OutProud Online has security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of your user data under our control. Only authorized employees have access to the information you provide us and strict rules on OutProud Online employees who have access either to the databases that store user information or to the servers that host our services. While we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration to data will not occur, we make every effort to prevent such unfortunate occurrences. Any other particularly sensitive information, such as your credit card number collected for a commerce transaction (donation) at OutProud or to purchase premium services from OutProud Quote, is encrypted prior to transmission. You are ultimately responsible for the security of your OutProud Online ID and password. Please take care when using and storing them. OutProud recommends that you do not divulge your password to anyone. You should log out of your browser at the end of each computer session to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and correspondence, especially if you share a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place like a library or Internet cafe. 8. OutProud Online notice regarding the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998 The U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 went into effect on April 21, 2024 and sets forth specific legal guidelines with respect to what personal information can be collected from a child, defined to be under the age of 13 years old, by an operator specifically targetting children with their services. OutProud Online, in compliance with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998, provides notice that: Our resources are intended primarily for respondents 13 years and older, although we have younger individuals make use of them, as well (and everyone, of any age, is absolutely welcome to use all of our resources). We do not collect a first name, a last name, an address, an email address, a telephone number, a social security number, nor any other data that may identify a specific individual. Some OutProud Online sites may request the user to create a User ID, however this can be any designation, not relating to the individual's actual identity. OutProud is a non-profit organization and none of our information is sold for commercial purposes. This site, therefore, fully complies with the requirements set forth by COPPA. 9. What you can do to better protect yourself on the Internet Know the risks. When you communicate with others online, you should be aware that, when disclosing personal information such as one's actual name, member name, email address, etc., on a web page, in a newsgroup, chat room or forum, that information may be collected and used by others to send that person unsolicited email from other parties, outside OutProud Online. Some of the email you receive may be useful to you, but some may not. In an effort to curtail unsolicited email, OutProud may block certain email addresses and domains from sending email to email addresses at our domains. Educate yourself. We recommend that you read our brochure "Watching Out for Yourself in Internet Relationships." Use PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) http://www.pgp.com or another encryption program. Last updated September 10, 2000.

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