The Boring Stuff
RipleyTheDog.com Privacy Policies
Last updated January 2018
RipleyTheDog.com is a general audience entertainment site dedicated to providing the Internet-using public with the most complete and enjoyable online comic viewing and blog experience. RipleyTheDog.com is operated by Gust Media Inc. Gust Media is concerned about your privacy and we encourage you to read our Privacy Policy to learn all about how we use information about visitors to our Web site(s).
The privacy policy below details the measures taken by Gust Media to protect your privacy in connection with your use of RipleyTheDog.com (“Site”). Gust Media does not intend to collect any personal information from children under 13.
What does this Privacy Policy cover?
1. This policy covers the treatment and use of personally identifiable information that is collected by Gust Media on the Site and when you sign up to use any of the services provided at the Site which are provided by Gust Media.
2. This policy does not guide the behavior of individuals not employed by Gust Media.
3. This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that Gust Media do not own or control – all of which is subject to and governed by the privacy policies and terms of use of the respective companies.
How is my personally identifiable information used by Gust Media?
Gust Media is the sole owner of the information collected from the Gust Media service. Your Personal Information can only be collected when you voluntarily provide it.
What is “Personal Information”? Personal Information is individually identifiable information about a person. This information can include a first and last name, credit card number, a home, billing or e-mail address or a personal identifier that reveals an individual’s e-mail address, or a telephone or social security number. Personal information also includes a persistent identifier, such as a customer number held in a cookie (See below for definition of “cookie”), where such identifier is associated with individually identifiable information.
Customized Experience. Gust Media gathers user information to provide you with a customized experience on our Site. Your user information helps us tailor the content, services, goods and advertising to your current and future needs. For this reason, we may ask you to register or to provide personal information when you visit certain areas of our site, register for free services, order products, enter contests or subscribe to a newsletter. If you choose not to register, you may not have access to areas that require personal identification.
Subscription Services. If you subscribe to our site(s) for premium content services, Gust Media will gather user information and personal information to grant you access to the site(s). Gust Media may use third parties to accept and process orders and credit card purchases for subscriptions, merchandise and products. If you choose not to register you may not have access to subscription areas that require personal identification.
E-mail Delivery. If you register with our site(s) for daily e-mail delivery, subscription services or purchase products from us, from time to time, we may e-mail you with informative messages about our services or third party products and services we believe may be of interest to you, such as new features and services, special offers and updated information. These e-mails may contain code that enables our database to track your usage of the e-mail, including whether the e-mail was opened and/or what links (if any) were clicked. We will combine that information to other information we have about you and may use that information to improve your site experience and/or provide customized e-mail communications to you.
When does Gust Media collect my information, including personally identifiable information?
Free Registration. When you register, Gust Media asks for your e-mail address, a user selected user name, and other information. Once you are a registered user you can update your profile and may be able to provide additional preferential information (e.g. a member name, a nickname, and certain user preferences). Gust Media may also ask for other optional information. (See below on Gust Media policy with respect to children under 13)
Subscription Services. When you subscribe, Gust Media asks for your e-mail address, a user selected user name, password and other necessary financial information to process the order. Credit card information is collected by Gust Media, however, the specific credit card number is not stored within the Gust Media System. Contact information from the order is used to fulfill premium purchases to our registered users and to get in touch with the user when deemed necessary. Once you are a subscribed user you can update your profile and may be able to provide additional preferential information. Gust Media may also ask for other optional information. (See below on Gust Media policy with respect to children under 13)
Order Forms and Products Store. Gust Media also uses an order form for users to request information, products and services. For that order form, we collect a user’s contact information (e-mail address) and necessary financial information to process the order (i.e. credit card number). Contact information from the order is used to send orders to our registered users and to get in touch with the user when deemed necessary. Gust Media may use third parties to accept and process orders and credit card purchases for merchandise and products. For some products, third parties host the store pages, ordering system, order data, collect order information, contact information and necessary financial information to process the order. Please see the privacy policies on their Web sites for more information about how the store uses this information.
Special Contests or Promotions. Gust Media may occasionally present a special contest or promotion that is sponsored by another company. To qualify for entry in that contest or promotion, we may ask you to provide personal information. If we plan to share that information with the sponsor(s) or with others, we will provide a statement to that effect in the contest or promotion terms.
IP Address. An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a unique string of numbers that is assigned to your computer by your Internet Service Provider. Web servers automatically identify your computer by its IP address. We will use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our site. Your IP address also may be used to gather broad demographic information.
Cookies. A “cookie” is a small line of text that is stored with your Web browser for record-keeping purposes and to help us provide better service to you. Your browser has options to accept, reject, or provide you with notice when a cookie is sent. Gust Media may utilize “cookie” technology by sending and/or receiving information from our computers to your browser and computer. We also use cookies to customize our site(s) and deliver content specific to your interests.
Computer-Generated Information. Gust Media may use server logs to track your movement through our Web sites and properties – in addition, we may use this information to customize the user experience or provide registrant continuity between our various Web sites and properties. Gust Media may also use other technologies to verify and track your use of certain services, confirm receipt of certain e-mailed products or to test the integrity of our systems, products and services.
Advertisements. The ads appearing on this Web site are delivered to you by our Web advertising partners. In the process of serving ads, advertisers place a cookie in your browser’s cookie file and may use information (excluding your name, address, e-mail address or other personal information) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements on this site and other Web sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you. By delivering ads on the Sites, Gust Media is able to record what ads a user — identified by the unique cookie — has seen, and what Gust Media site pages the user was viewing when the ads were delivered. This Web usage information is combined with other ad delivery information Gust Media has (e.g., what type of operating system your computer uses) collected from your visits to Gust Media Sites and other sites not affiliated with Gust Media. This non-personally identifiable information is used as part of the ad serving process for reporting and to select and direct the ads you see online at Gust Media Sites. Additionally, some ads are generated by third party ad serving systems that also may place a cookie on your browser to provide web usage information to those third parties. Please note that if an advertiser asks us to show an advertisement to a certain audience (for example, men ages 18-34) or audience segment (for example, men ages 13-24 who have viewed sports content) and you respond to that ad, the advertiser or ad-server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience they are trying to reach. As always remember, we only authorize our third-party ad servers to employ anonymous cookies for ad delivery and anonymous targeting. Our third-party ad servers do not collect, nor do we give them access to, any personally identifying information about you.
Opting Out of Third-Party Ad Servers
We recognize that not all users wish to receive ads targeted to their interests and we put the wishes of our users first. If you want to prevent a third-party ad server from sending and reading cookies on your computer, currently you must visit each ad network’s Web site individually and opt out of this type of advertising. You may find more information from these sites:
Links to Other Sites. The Gust Media Sites contain links, including banner and other ads, to other Web sites. Gust Media is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites. The Gust Media Sites may also link to Web sites that feature Gust Media trademarks and names along with trademarks and names of other companies. You should look at the privacy policy on that co-branded Web site, as the co-branded Web site may not be under Gust Media’s control.
Information from Other Sources. For reasons such as improving member experience and providing customized communications to our users, we may receive information about you from other sources and add it to the information that we have received from you.
Who does Gust Media share information with?
We will not share your personally identifiable information with third parties (aside from entities that perform services for us, such as fulfilling orders, that either are bound to comply with our privacy policy or have privacy policies that protect your information) unless you have “opted-in” to such sharing. If you have previously opted-in to such sharing under a prior privacy policy version, you are still considered to have opted-in under this Privacy Statement. As stated, Gust Media may use third parties to accept and process orders for merchandise and products.
However, Gust Media may disclose information you provide if required to do so by law or if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is necessary to (1) comply with the law or with legal process served on Gust Media; (2) protect and defend the rights or property of Gust Media; or (3) act in an emergency to protect someone’s safety.
We may gather demographic information from you (for example, your age, education level or household income) from time to time. We will not share that information in a manner that identifies you as an individual with any other entity, unless we let you know that at the time of collection or we have your permission. When we share demographic information with third parties, we will give them aggregate information only.
As we develop our business, we may buy or sell assets, and, depending upon the transaction, your personal information may be one of the transferred assets. In the event that Gust Media is acquired by another company, your personal information may be part of the assets transferred to the acquiring party.
What are my options to control the use of my personally identifiable information?
You will have the ability to request the deletion of your Gust Media registration at any time by utilizing the registration system established for this purpose. However, we may maintain certain other information as part of our internal processes to prevent accidental loss of user data or information and to prevent or discourage fraudulent activities that may involve Gust Media registration or account information. We may also continue to maintain information about your registration or account and your computer access to our Web sites or services as part of our server logs.
Unless you opt-out we may e-mail you with information from Gust Media, including information about selected third parties. If you do not want to receive information from Gust Media or third parties that we have selected, you may decline to receive it (or “Opt-Out”) when you provide personal information to Gust Media. You may also contact Gust Media by postal mail at the address below.
What about kids’ personally identifiable information?
This Site is a general audience site. Gust Media respects the privacy of parents and children and is committed to complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).Except as stated below, Gust Media do not collect or maintain personally identifiable information from children who identify themselves as under the age of 13. One exception to this policy is a situation where a child sends us an email and identifies himself/herself as under the age of 13. In such a case, we will respond (if appropriate given the nature of the email), and then we will permanently delete the email from the child, and our response to the child. Another exception is when a child under the age of 13 attempts to register or sign up for a program or service, and identifies himself/herself as under the age of 13. In such a case, we notify the child that they may not register or sign up, and we delete any personally identifiable information that had been provided by the child.
Furthermore, Gust Media have taken steps to avoid the inadvertent collection or maintenance of personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13, even if we are unaware that such is the case. Therefore, we will delete all email inquiries, and all of our replies, unless it is obviously that the sender is over the age of 12. Furthermore, for users of the greeting card service on the Site, after the electronic greeting card is sent, we permanently delete the email addresses of the sender and the recipient(s).
Gust Media assumes products purchased through credit card means are purchased by adults.
If a parent believes that his or her child has submitted personal information to Gust Media, he or she can contact us via e-mail or postal mail as listed below. Gust Media will promptly delete the information upon learning that it relates to a child under the age of 13.
Gust Media believes that parents should supervise their children’s online activities and consider using parental control tools available from online services and software manufacturers that help provide a kid-friendly online environment. These tools can also prevent children from otherwise disclosing online their name, address and other personal information without parental permission.
What else should I know about my privacy?
Gust Media’s Commitment to Data Security Protecting user privacy and Personal Information is a high priority for Gust Media.
We use our best efforts to ensure the security of your Personal Information. Gust Media maintains physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard your Personal Information. We exercise great care in providing secure transmission of information between your PC and our computers. Unfortunately, no electronic communication over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. While we strive to take great care to protect your Personal Information, we cannot warrant the security of any information that you submit to us, and you do so at your own risk.
We also take precautions to protect your Personal Information off-line. Access to all user information is restricted. Only our employees, agents and processors whose jobs require accessing users’ Personal Information are granted database access or administrator-level accounts on servers that contain such Personal Information. Finally, all servers containing users’ Personal Information are kept locked in a secure data center and require a secure login to access them remotely.
Security. Gust Media has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. These include a firewall to prevent unauthorized access to our systems and maintenance of registration information in a separate database. Although we will exercise reasonable care in providing secure transmission of information between your computer and our servers, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information transmitted to us over the Internet and we accept no liability for any unintentional disclosure. We will protect the transmission of credit card information through industry standard, SSL (secure socket layer) encryption.
Refer a Friend. If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site or particular features or content, we ask them for the friend’s name and e-mail address. Gust Media will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the Site. The email address is used solely for this purpose, and is not kept or maintained by Gust Media.
Your personal information is password-protected, and you should take appropriate measures to protect the secrecy of your password. If you use a computer in a public place or share a computer with others, remember to sign out and close your browser window when you finish a session with Gust Media in order to prevent others from accessing your personal information.
Contacting Gust Media.
Gust Media would like to receive your comments and questions about this Privacy Statement. Please address comments or questions regarding Gust Media’s Privacy Statement to us via e-mail or postal mail.
You can complete our Contact Us form on the site or you may also contact Gust Media by mail at:
Gust Media Inc.
Attn: Gust Media – Privacy
3126 South Boulevard, Suite 139
Edmond, OK 73013
USA
Acceptance of Privacy Statement.
Your use of the Gust Media Sites, including any dispute concerning privacy, is subject to this Privacy Statement and Gust Media’s Terms and Conditions of Use. By using the Gust Media Sites, you are accepting the practices set out in this Privacy Statement and those Terms and Conditions of Use. We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Statement at any time by posting the changes on this page. Please check the revision date at the bottom of this page to determine if the statement has been modified since you last reviewed it. Your continued use of any portion of the Gust Media Sites following posting of the updated Privacy Statement will constitute your acceptance of the changes.
