Essential Madness recognises the importance of keeping your personal information safe and in your control. For this reason, the following Privacy Policy has been designed. This Privacy Policy outlines exactly what information we collect and how we use it. It also outlines how your personal information is secured, and our regulations regarding the collection of information on minors (13 years and younger). This Privacy Policy also explains how you can be in control of your own personal information, with the ability show and hide any information you choose to disclose. Essential Madness also recognises that you may want to opt out of certain correspondence and maybe even delete your account. We make all these options available to our users. We have also provided contact details for any queries or complaints you may have regarding your privacy on Essential Madness. By registering and participating on Essential Madness, you are acknowledging that you have read, understood, and accept the policies outlined in this document.
What Information we Collect and How we Use it
When you register with Essential Madness, there are two different types of information we collect from you: personal details that are provided by you, and Web data such as browser information, IP address, and cookies.
Personal Information
The personal information we collect from you is provided by you upon registration. This information includes your Username, site password (which can be unique from any other password you use), and your date of birth.
The Username and password is stored so that the site can recognise you upon login, and store any flagged content that you choose to follow, such as articles, forum posts or stories that you choose to follow. The only reason we store birth dates is to ensure that users are above the age of 13 years. All personal details are hidden from view of the public unless chosen otherwise by the user.
Aggregate Data
Aggregate data refers to the non-personal information we may collect in terms of electronic web-based information. This includes information regarding what Internet browser you are using, your operating system, cookies, IP address and Internet Service Provider details. Other non-personal information that may be collected are your viewing behaviours (ie. What pages you view most on Essential Madness, and what areas you comment in most).
This information is obtained for the purpose of enhancing your experience on our website and personalising your visits. This may mean that we can highlight possible pages of interest to you within the site, and present you only with advertisements that may interest you.
Information of Minors
Essential Madness prohibits registration to users 13 years or younger. We do not knowingly store information of minors (13 years and younger), and if it becomes evident that there is a profile owned by a person breaching this age restriction, the account will be investigated and removed. It is recommended that users above the age of 13 and below the age of 18 seek parental permission before creating an account on Essential Madness and disclosing personal information.
Third Parties
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
- Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site.
- Google's use of the DART cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visit to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network Privacy Policy.
Access and Control Your Own Personal Information
Essential Madness allows all registered users to view their personal information that has been collected and stored by us. Users have the ability to display or hide each individual piece of information, except for their Username, as that is what identifies them to other users. Users can also change or delete any personal information, including having the ability to delete their own profile.
Aggregate data collected for individual users can be requested by the user by contacting admin[at]essentialmadness.com.
Public Information
While it is our primary concern at Essential Madness to ensure that all personal information of our users remain secure and within the control of its owner, we cannot ensure the security of personal information that is disclosed by users on any of our forum boards or article and story comment boards. Once any personal information is posted on public discussion boards it becomes public information, which is viewable by registered and non-registered visitors to the site.
Security
Essential Madness understands the importance of securing any personally identifiable information, and strives to ensure the best possible technology and site practices are employed to maintain this integrity.
The security measures undertaken by Essential Madness include password encryption using SHA1 technology, session, IP and cookie verifications to ensure sessions cannot be hijacked, and 40 byte rotating cookie variables to prevent cookie theft.
Cookies
Cookies are data that is transferred to and from individual computers as a means of tracking behaviour. The information gathered by cookies is used to personalise a user’s experience on the site, by enabling the ability to make educated article suggestions, and providing targeted advertisements. The main reason for employing cookies is to ensure that the majority of information presented is of actual interest to the user, rather than randomly generated material.
We understand that many people do not wish to have their viewing and interactive behaviour recorded, and so it is important to note that most browsers offer the ability to disable the cookie feature.
Policy Changes
Essential Madness strives to ensure our Privacy Policy is always at its best and complies with current industry standards. For this reason, our policy may undergo modifications. When any Privacy Policy changes are made, all registered users will be informed upon their next visit to the site.
For Further Information
Essential Madness staff are dedicated to ensuring the happiness and satisfaction for all their users, and so encourage any concerns, queries or complaints to be directed to: admin[at]essentialmadness.com. We take user feedback and concerns very seriously, and thus, each communication to us will be acted upon and responded to within 30 days.
