Privacy Policy – CU Benefits Alliance
This site is owned and operated by CU Benefits Alliance (http://cubenefitsalliance.com/). Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At CU Benefits Alliance, we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.
Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.
Information CU Benefits Alliance Gathers & Tracks
CU Benefits Alliance gathers two types of information about users:
Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions to receive our electronic newsletters, to participate in our message boards or forums, to email a friend, and from participation in polls and surveys.
Information CU Benefits Alliance gathers through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows us to better tailor our content to readers’ and understand the demographics of our audience. Under no circumstances does CU Benefits Alliance divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.
CU Benefits Alliance Gathers User Information In The Following Processes:
Optional Voluntary Information
We may at any given time offer the following free services, which require some type of voluntary submission of personal information by users:
1. Electronic newsletters (Dispatches)
We occasionally offer a free electronic newsletter to users. CU Benefits Alliance gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every newsletter that points users to the subscription management page. Users can also subscribe to the newsletters at the time of registration.
2. Message boards/forums
Users of the site’s Message Boards and Forums must register separately for these services (both are free of charge) in order to post messages, although they needn’t register to visit the site. During registration the user is required to supply a username, password, and email address.
3. “E-mail this to a friend” Service
Our site users can choose to electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking “e-mail this to a friend”. The user must provide their email address, as well as that of the recipient. This information is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient know who sent the email. The information is not used for any other purpose.
4. Polling
We may offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other users and see what our audience thinks about important issues. Opinions or other responses to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. CU Benefits Alliance may use a system to “tag” users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual users.
5. Surveys
CU Benefits Alliance may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We may share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.
Children
Consistent with the Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.
Usage tracking
CU Benefits Alliance tracks user traffic patterns throughout our site. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. CU Benefits Alliance does break down overall usage statistics according to a user’s domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user’s browser).
CU Benefits Alliance sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that users enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites 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 website for you.
Cookies
We may place a text file called a “cookie” in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does 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. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can’t read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. CU Benefits Alliance uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above).
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 this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in message boards, forums, polling, and surveys.
Use Of Information
CU Benefits Alliance uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our users.
As stated above, we 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 occasionally send out newsletters to subscribers and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in the information we are sharing. CU Benefits Alliance never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.
When we use tracking information, it is 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. We track search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what interests our users. But we don’t track which terms a particular user enters.
CU Benefits Alliance may occasionally create an aggregate report on user demographics and traffic patterns. We will not disclose any information about any individual user except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.
Sharing Of Information
CU Benefits Alliance uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and better understand our audience’s demographics. 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.
Google Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States . Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above
Opt-Out Policy
We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:
- Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters.
- Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users
- Your Consent
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by CU Benefits Alliance. If we decide to change our privacy policy, 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.