This Is Our Commitment To Your Privacy

Benchmark Communications owns and operates the web site www.BMCommunications.com.  We understand the importance of your privacy, therefore we at Benchmark Communications, wish to make your visits to our web site a safe and enjoyable experience.  Since we do receive information from visitors to our web site, we believe that you should understand the terms and conditions surrounding our receipt and use of that information. Therefore, the following Privacy Statement gives you details of our privacy policies, including:

a.) what information we may collect about you when you visit our web site;
b.) how that information could be used or disclosed;
c.) also, your rights with respect to any information collection and the use of same.

Information Collected and Tracked:
Benchmark Communications gathers two types of information about users:

1.  Information that users provide through voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions made by completing a form on our site, by sending us e-mail containing information, requests to receive electronic newsletters, and as a participant in any polls or surveys (any or all we may now or in the future provide our visitors).

2. Information gathered through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows us to better tailor our content to our visitors' needs, or information we may request on behalf of any potential advertisers and sponsors to better understand the demographics of our audience. Under no circumstances does Benchmark Communications ever divulge any information about an individual user to a third party, excepting when the third party is filling a product order or service request on behalf of Benchmark Communications.  Should these instances occur, the third party will be governed by the rules of our Privacy Policy.

Benchmark Communications may collect user information via the following:
With regard to voluntarily supplied Information;  we may offer the following services, which require some type of voluntary submission of personal information by users: 

1. Service or Information Requests:   If you want specific or general information that requires you to complete an online form located within our web site, we would only ask you for information including contact details (such as your name and address) and demographic information. We will use this information as part of a data base for our specific use, or to tailor our site and content to suit the interests of our users, and to keep you informed about products and services that we think may be of interest to you. You may elect not to receive such information by opting out as described below.

2. Transaction Information:   If you want to order any information that may be offered on our web site, buy any products that may be offered, or subscribe for any of the services that may now, or in the future, be offered on our site, you would be asked to complete an order form that will request certain information from you, including financial information such as a credit card number and expiration date and general contact details in a secure transaction environment. We will use this information to complete the transaction that you have requested, that is: to deliver information, products or other services that you order and to invoice you. If an order is to be fulfilled by a third party, we would be required to provide your name and shipping information to the third party for the express purpose of processing your order request. In should be understood that these third parties will be governed by the terms and conditions of this privacy statement.

3. Electronic Newsletter Offerings:  As the function and usefulness of our web site grows, we will begin collecting the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from any such mailing list by following the link provided in each newsletter that points users to an unsubscribe page.  Users will or can where applicable, subscribe to potential newsletter offerings we may present on our web site.

4. Possible Discussion Groups:   The Benchmark Communications web site does not at this time make discussion groups available to our visitors.  However, this service will be available, and our policy is such that:  You will/are not required to provide any personal information in order to use such on site areas, unless you choose to do so. Please remember that any information that you choose to disclose in such areas will be publicly available; thus, you should exercise caution when deciding whether to disclose personal information, including your e-mail address.  Benchmark Communications will not/cannot accept any responsibility for ensuring the privacy of information that you choose to disclose in any discussion or forum type areas.  Please note:  Any information disclosed in a forum or  discussion area will become the editorial property of Benchmark Communications.

5. Future "E-mail this to a friend" Service:  In time, visitors to our web site users may be able to electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking on "e-mail this to a friend".  In this case, the user would need to provide their email address, as well as that of the recipient. This information is used only to let the recipient know who sent the e-mail. Such information will never be used for any other purpose.

6. Possible On Site Polling:   We may offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other visitors to determine what visitors to our web site think or feel  about various issues. Opinions or other responses to polls would be aggregated and are not identifiable to any specific user.  Benchmark Communications may use a system to "tag" users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question, thereby eliminating an unfairly skewed or  inaccurate polling result. This "tag" would not be correlated with information about any specific visitor.

7. On Site Surveys:  Benchmark Communications may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our web site visitors.  In the case of  of information gathered in this manner, we may share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our sponsors, advertisers, etc.  However, we would never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.

With Regard To Children On Our Web Site:
Benchmark Communications will never knowingly request any kind of personally identifiable information from any child below the age of 13 without specifically requesting parental consent.

Use of Web Site Tracking:
Benchmark Communications does track user traffic patterns across our web site.  However, this kind of information is not correlated with other information related to individual visitors to our site.  In this situation, we simply break down web site usage statistics as related to a visitor's domain name, browser type, and MIME type.  This is information that is read within the browser string.  By that we mean - information that is contained in every user's browser.

Benchmark Communications may track and catalog the specific subject pages that users
visit, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our site users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.

About Cookies:
We do not utilize text files called "cookies" in the browser files of your computer. Cookies themselves do not contain personal information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. Benchmark Communications will only use cookies to enable the "remember password" function, should we convert to a "user name" and "password" system on our site.

You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use our web site.

The Use Of Received Information:
Benchmark Communications uses information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in our site, whether to provide possible interactive or personalized elements on our site or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our users.

As mentioned previously, we would only use information that users voluntarily provide, in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing.  Benchmark Communications  never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.

We may occasionally use this information to send you information about Benchmark Communications and promotional material about our products and services and products that we think may be of interest to you, providing that you have not opted out as described below.

Where it may be applicable, Benchmark Communications may create aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers, sponsors, etc. This would allow our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allow our users to receive advertisements that are specific to their needs. Because we don't track the usage patterns of individual web site visitors, an advertiser or sponsor will never know that a specific visitor clicked their ad.  We will not disclose any information about any individual visitor except to comply with applicable laws or valid legal processes or to protect the personal safety of our visitors or the public. 

The Sharing Of Information:
Benchmark Communications will only use the aforementioned information to tailor our content to suit your needs and help our advertisers better understand our audience's demographics. This is essential to keeping much of our service free. We will not share information about individual users with any third party, except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public, or in the case of third-party order fulfillment.

Web Site Security:
This site incorporates appropriate safeguards to protect the security, integrity, completeness, accuracy and privacy of the personal information we have collected and we have put in place reasonable precautions to protect information from loss, misuse and alteration. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as required and only authorized individuals have access to the information you provide us.

Our Opt-Out Policy: 
We give our visitors options wherever possible. Such choices include:
• Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters. 
• Opting not to receive offers and promotions relating to Benchmark Communications. 
• Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely
  alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our visitors.

Information Correction:
You have a right to know about any personal information that Benchmark Communications may hold about you. You also have a right to correct, amend or delete much of the information that Benchmark Communications holds about you if it is incorrect. If you wish to exercise these rights please contact us by post or e-mail at the address shown in the Address section at the bottom of this page.  You can also opt-out of any newsletter or product/service by e-mailing us at info@BMCommunications.com and telling us you do not wish to receive such mailings or product information.

Use of External Web Site Links That Exist On Our Web Site:
Our web site provides links to various websites that we have no control over.  When you click on one of these links, you will be transferred out of our website and connected to the website of the organization or company that you selected.  Even if an affiliation exists between our website and a third-party website, we exercise no control over linked sites. Each of these linked sites is responsible for maintaining their own independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures.  If you visit a website that is linked to our site, you should consult that site's privacy policy before providing any personal information.

Giving Your Consent:
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by Benchmark Communications. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not disclose any personal information through this site.  Should we change our privacy policy in any way, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it. You are responsible for reviewing this privacy statement periodically to ensure that you are aware of any changes to it.

About Contacting Us:
If you have questions about this privacy statement, the privacy practices of this site or if you want to exercise any of the rights that you are given under this privacy statement, please feel free to contact us at info@BMCommunications.com.  Alternatively, you can contact us by regular mail, telephone or fax as indicted in the next section below: