Privacy Policy

THIS DOCUMENT SETS FORTH THE ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY (THE "PRIVACY POLICY") FOR DIVESPOTS.COM, REFERRED TO HEREINAFTER AS THE "SITE". IF YOU HAVE OBJECTIONS TO THE PRIVACY POLICY, YOU SHOULD NOT ACCESS OR USE THIS SITE. THIS PRIVACY POLICY DOES NOT GOVERN PRIVACY PRACTICES ASSOCIATED WITH OFFLINE ACTIVITIES.

We respect your privacy! Below is an outline of the information that DiveSpots.com gathers, how it is used, and how you can "opt-out". We invite you to contact us if you have questions about this policy. You may contact us by mail at the following address:

You may contact us by email using our Contact Us page.

Information We Collect

The information we learn from customers helps us personalize and continually improve your experience at DiveSpots.com. Here are the types of information we gather.

• Information You Give Us: We receive and store data that you send us through our online member registration forms. Although a member profile is not required to use this site, some features of the site will not be available. For example, we will not show GPS coordinates unless you register with us first. The reason for this is simple: we must know that you have accepted the terms of use of this site. Most of the data in the membership profile is optional and all of it is stored on our secure data center.
• Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many Web sites, we use "cookies," and we obtain certain types of information when your Web browser accesses DiveSpots.com. Clickstream data such as your IP address, your browser version, your operating system, and the date and time you visited us is stored in a log file or database. This information cannot be used to identify specific individuals, and is only used for anonymous user analysis, to provide accurate statistics to advertisers in the form of aggregated data, and research and development.
• E-mail Communications: To help us make e-mails more useful and interesting, we often receive a confirmation when you open e-mail from DiveSpots.com if your computer supports such capabilities. If you do not want to receive e-mail or other mail from us, please adjust your communication preferences in your profile. We view SPAM abuse as a serious issue that impacts the value and beauty of the Internet -- we do not SPAM!

Use of Cookies

Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your browser to enable our systems to recognize you on each return to DiveSpots.com through the "Remember Me" feature. The use of cookies is completely optional. If you prefer that we not store a cookie to recognize you, simply uncheck the "Remember Me" checkbox on your profile or on the Login page.

The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, cookies allow you to take full advantage of some of DiveSpots.com's coolest features, and we recommend that you leave them turned on.

Traffic Data

Each time a visitor comes to DiveSpots.com, information is collected to improve the overall quality of the site. We collect the visitor's domain name/IP Address (e.g., whether the user is logged on from aol.com or yale.edu or 255.255.255.0), referral data (e.g., we record the address of the last URL a user visited prior to clicking through to DiveSpots.com), and browser/platform type (e.g., a Netscape browser on a Linux platform).

In addition to collecting these types of information, DiveSpots.com's advertisement delivery system collects aggregate search terms for internal reporting and targeted advertising. DiveSpots.com's advertisement delivery system collects visitor information for purposes of product monitoring, product improvement, and targeted advertising.

DiveSpots.com also counts, tracks, and aggregates the visitor's activity into our analysis of general traffic flow at DiveSpots.com (e.g., tracking where traffic comes from and how traffic flows within the site). We may merge this information into group data, which may then be shared on an aggregated basis with potential advertisers, research firms, and business partners. DiveSpots.com will not disclose your individual identity or personal data. When DiveSpots.com does present aggregated information to potential advertisers, research firms, and business partners, no one will be able to identify you or contact you.

How Your Information Is Used

Information about our members is an important part of our business, and we are not in the business of selling it to others. We share customer information only as described below.

We may use the information you provide about yourself to fulfill your requests for our products, programs, and services, to respond to your inquiries about our offerings, and to offer you other products, programs or services that we believe may be of interest to you.

We sometimes use this information to communicate with you, such as to notify you when you have won one of our contests or when we make changes to our subscriber agreements, to fulfill a request by you for an online newsletter, or to contact you about your account with us.

The information we collect in connection with our online forums and communities is used to provide an interactive experience. We use this information to facilitate participation in these online forums and communities and, from time to time, to offer you products, programs, or services.

If you choose to submit content for publication (e.g., a "blogs", "forums", "reviews"), we may publish your screen name and other information you have provided to us.

We sometimes use the non-personally identifiable information that we collect to improve the design and content of our site and to enable us to personalize your Internet experience. We also may use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage, as well as to offer you products, programs, or services.

We may disclose personally identifiable information in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also may disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency's request, or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law. In addition, we may transfer information about you if we are acquired by or merged with another company.

Agents and contractors of DiveSpots.com who have access to personally identifiable information are required to protect this information in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Notice by, for example, not using the information for any purpose other than to carry out the services they are performing for DiveSpots.com.

Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personally identifiable information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Notice.

Certain DiveSpots.com sites may disclose personally identifiable information to companies whose practices are not covered by this privacy notice (e.g., other marketers, magazine publishers, retailers, participatory databases, and non-profit organizations) that want to market products or services to you. If a site shares personally identifiable information, it will provide you with an opportunity to opt out or block such uses.

We may on occasion combine information we receive online with outside records to enhance our ability to market to you those products or services that may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive marketing information from this site, please update your communications preferences on your DiveSpots.com profile.

DiveSpots.com never shares, sells, or rents any personal information without your permission, unless ordered by a court of law. Information submitted to us is only available to employees managing this information for purposes of contacting you or sending you emails based on your request for information.

Protection of Your Personal Information

The personal information that you provide in connection with registering yourself as a user of DiveSpots.com is classified as Profile Information. Profile Information is protected in several ways. Access by you to your Profile Information is available through a password and unique member user name selected by you. This password is encrypted within our database. We recommend that you do not divulge your password to anyone. In addition, your Profile Information resides on a server that only selected DiveSpots.com personnel and contractors have access to via password. We encrypt your personal information and thereby strive to prevent unauthorized parties from viewing such information.

Conditions of Use, Notices, and Revisions

Our business changes periodically, and our Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use may change also. DiveSpots.com reserves the right to change the Privacy Policy from time to time at its sole discretion, and will provide notice of material changes on the Privacy Policy page of the site. We stand behind the promises we make, however, and will never materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of customer information collected in the past without the consent of affected members.

If you choose to visit DiveSpots.com, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Notice and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of the law of the state of Florida. If you have any concern about privacy at DiveSpots.com, please contact us with a thorough description, and we will try to resolve it.

DiveSpots.com hereby reserves the right to transfer any data collected in the event of an acquisition, full or partial, of the company or its assets. If you have questions regarding our privacy policies, or require assistance in opting out of our email lists, please contact us using our contact form.