Last modified: November 4, 2009

Privacy Policy

EquineConnection.org currently a freelance, sole proprietorship offering made by Marti McGinnis, and her associated business partnerships; PonyBelle and StudioMudio, (EquineConnection.org) respects your privacy and this privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") is designed to assist you in understanding the collection, use, and safeguarding of information you may provide to EquineConnection.org, as well as ways to review and revise the information you provide. This Privacy Policy applies to information submitted via the web sites of EquineConnection.org and its affiliated sites and online properties (collectively, the "EquineConnection.org Network") as well as information submitted to EquineConnection.org through telephone and other traditional communications.

From time to time we may add new sites, domain names or services to the EquineConnection.org Network. Please note that this Policy applies only to sites owned and services maintained by EquineConnection.org or its corporate subsidiaries and not to web sites or services provided by other companies or organizations to which we link.

This Privacy Policy incorporates by reference EC's Terms of Use.

BY ACCESSING, BROWSING, USING THE EquineConnection.org NETWORK OR OTHERWISE SUBMITTING INFORMATION TO THE EquineConnection.org NETWORK AND/OR EquineConnection.org, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTAND AND AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND ANY OTHER TERMS OF USE PUBLICLY PRESENTED BY EquineConnection.org. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT THE INFORMATION DESCRIBED BELOW TO EquineConnection.org AND DISCONTINUE YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE EquineConnection.org NETWORK.

Your Privacy Rights. Under the laws of some jurisdictions, you may be entitled to request disclosure regarding how EquineConnection.org shares personal information with third parties for direct marketing purposes ("Information-Sharing Disclosure"). To the extent required by applicable law, EquineConnection.org shall provide the Information-Sharing Disclosure to its end users upon rightful request made in writing or by electronic mail to the following address: EquineConnection.org, Inc., 1124 Corman Lane, Nicholasville, KY 40356 or merryhorses@gmail.com.

Types of Information Collected. In order to better serve your online content needs and provide you with attentive and consistent customer service, EquineConnection.org may collect several types of information, including both personal and non-personal information as described below. The information EquineConnection.org collects depends on how you choose to use the EquineConnection.org Network.

1. "Non- Personally Identifiable Information" Collected.

The EquineConnection.org Network automatically tracks and collects certain information about your visit that does not generally identify you individually. Similar to other commercial web sites, the EquineConnection.org Network uses standard web measurement and tracking technologies like "cookies," (see explanation below, "Cookies"), web server logs, or other statistics programs, which keep records of traffic on the EquineConnection.org Network. This data is generally anonymous information that does not personally identify you, e.g., "clickstream data," such as:

i. the domain name of the site providing you with Internet access,

ii. the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your browser type and version,

iii. type of operating system and platform you use,

iv. the average user session length,

v. the number of hits and pages viewed,

vi. top search engines and keywords, and

vii. access times and other relevant statistics.

EquineConnection.org and/or its web service provider use this Non- Personally Identifiable Information in the aggregate to measure the use of the EquineConnection.org Network and to administer the EquineConnection.org Network. We also use this information to improve your online experience.

(b) "Cookies" are small pieces of information that a web site transfers to a visitor's hard drive. Your World Wide Web browser may have an option that allows you to accept cookies, reject cookies, or receive notification when a cookie is sent, but you should note that the use of restrictive browser settings may limit the functionality available to your browser when using the EquineConnection.org Network. Any cookies and other Internet traffic tracking technologies utilized in connection with the EquineConnection.org Network are not designed to gather any Personally Identifiable Information.

(c) From time to time, EquineConnection.org may use third party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies and EquineConnection.org may use Non- Personally Identifiable Information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. In addition, the EquineConnection.org Network and the third party advertising companies may utilize use web beacons (also known as "action tags" or "one pixel .gif files"), provided by our advertising serving partner, to measure the effectiveness of, and otherwise manage, our online advertising. These web beacons enable our advertising server to recognize a browser's cookie when a browser visits the EquineConnection.org Network and to learn which banner ads bring users to the EquineConnection.org Network. Any information collected using these web beacons or action tags is not personally identifiable and unless otherwise notified, our advertising server does not link online actions to an identifiable person. 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.

2. "Personally Identifiable Information" Collected.

(a) Personally Identifiable Information about you is not collected unless you specifically provide it to EquineConnection.org. For example, when you submit your email address for communication purposes or offer your contact information with the intention of being a content provider, you will be asked to provide certain Personally Identifiable Information. The Personally Identifiable Information we collect about you through such sources will vary, depending on the nature of the transaction and the information required to fulfill your request for our services, but may include, without limitation, first and last name, home and email addresses, home and business telephone numbers, facsimile number, and/or other identifying information that permits EquineConnection.org to contact you.

(b) In general, EquineConnection.org collects Personally Identifiable Information from users of the EquineConnection.org Network in connection with access to certain online areas or services, including during (i) registration for certain online community services and tools such as content submission, payment information, message boards, chat rooms or other community services ("Member"); (ii) registration for special communications, such as email updates and newsletters; (iii) user surveys; and (v) events, sweepstakes, contests or promotions. Your Personally Identifiable Information is stored on EquineConnection.org computer servers (or those of its service providers) located in the United States.

(c) We may gather data about the areas of the EquineConnection.org Network you visit or access. We do not use any of this navigational data about where you "as an individual user" go on the EquineConnection.org Network or share any of this data with third parties. However, we do use and share navigational data in an aggregate, non-personal form to understand how our users as a group use the EquineConnection.org Network.

3. Use of Information Collected.

(a) EquineConnection.org uses Personally Identifiable Information to customize and personalize content displayed on the EquineConnection.org Network and to send to its visitors newsletters, emails, features, and other material, or otherwise for the purposes for which it is submitted, including to complete transactions and fulfill services you have requested, as well as for reference in the event that we need to contact you when processing your requested transaction. Further, your Personally Identifiable Information, including any email submissions and their content, may be used in connection with customer-relations correspondence and may be retained for use in evaluating and improving our customer-relations and assistance programs. We may share Personally Identifiable Information you submit with our affiliates, as well as with unaffiliated third parties who perform services for EquineConnection.org or who otherwise are involved in the fulfillment of your service request (e.g., information systems maintenance and development providers, data archiving, end user communication and similar services).

(b) EquineConnection.org also may use this information to identify and develop products and services that may be of interest to you and/or share this information with certain third parties for direct marketing purposes with respect to special offers, products, services, programs, promotions, surveys, publications, invitations or other opportunities that may be of interest to you (for more information regarding such practices, see Section 1, "Your Privacy Rights," above).

(c) Authorized parties with whom we may share your information are subject to terms similar in intent and purpose to those in this Privacy Policy. We do not sell individual customer/end user names or other Personally Identifiable Information to third parties and have no intention of doing so in the future.

(d) Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, EquineConnection.org does not disclose or release your Personally Identifiable Information to third parties; provided that, to the extent permitted by law, EquineConnection.org may use or disclose Personally Identifiable Information:

i. for compliance purposes, such as immigration and customs control, security, and legal support;

ii. in connection with legal requests from government authorities or third parties pursuant to a subpoena or other legal process;

iii. to perform payment verifications, debt reporting or collection, or to otherwise protect the rights or property of EquineConnection.org, its employees, customers, or end users.

(e) You should be aware that if you voluntarily disclose Personally Identifiable Information (e.g., user name, email address) on a bulletin board, chat room, profile page or on any other community forum offered on the EquineConnection.org Network, such information may be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other parties. EquineConnection.org has no control over this use of your Personally Identifiable Information. We advise users to be especially careful in such public areas about disclosing Personally Identifiable Information, such as full name, home address, or phone number.

4. Below are more details about the Personally Identifiable Information we, or third parties, may gather from you and how we may use it.

(a) Email Newsletters. EquineConnection.org offers email newsletters to its users who sign up and Contributors. We will use your email address to send you only the specific newsletter(s) that you signed up for. If you want to update your email address or stop receiving a newsletter, follow the procedures to unsubscribe at the bottom of any newsletter we send you or by emailing or calling EquineConnection.org at any time at merryhorses@gmail.com or 720-214-1000. We may contact you regarding account status, changes to this Policy, our content agreements or other terms of use, to confirm your registration or for any other business reason related to your use of EquineConnection.org Networks.

(b) Service Providers. We offer our Members other services provided by third parties such as RSS and widget feeds, among others. When you register for membership on the EquineConnection.org Network or activate a related service by clicking on a particular service link (i.e. RSS feed) on the EquineConnection.org Network, you may be automatically registered to receive the services we offer and some of your Personally Identifiable Informationmay be transferred from EquineConnection.org to those third-party service providers. By becoming a Member, you authorize us and our third-party service providers to send you email updates and information about promotions and special offers. We take care to require that our third-party service providers only use our Member's data as necessary to provide the particular service and to give you updates on that service provider's products and services.

(c) Co-registration with Other Networks. As a Member, we may offer you the ability to co-register with select third-party partner sites. In some instances where EquineConnection.org provides co-registration, the co-registration partners allow you to opt-out of their membership. If you choose to co-register with our partners and accept their terms of service, then you are automatically registered as a Member of their select web sites and your Personally Identifiable Information is transferred to those organizations. As a result, you may receive information from one of these web sites as any of their Members would. We advise you to review the privacy and data collection policies of the third-party partner sites for further information. In order to cancel your membership with any of these partners you will need to go directly to the partner's site.

(d) Advertisers. EquineConnection.org may send you emails on behalf of our advertisers. If you opt to receive information from our advertisers they may use your Personally Identifiable Information to send you advertisements or other notices, via email or postal mail, and it is possible that your information may be shared with others.

(e) Promotions. We may ask you for Personally Identifiable Information at other times, including, but not limited to, when you enter sweepstakes, contests or promotions sponsored by EquineConnection.org or a third party. If you choose to enter sweepstakes, contests or promotions sponsored by a third party, the Personally Identifiable Information you provide will be subject to the privacy policy of the third-party sponsor. We encourage you to check the applicable third-party policy before providing any Personally Identifiable Information.

(f) Surveys and User Research. EquineConnection.org conducts email and web-delivered surveys from time to time, as well as instant polls, to gather information about our users. Taking these surveys and polls is entirely optional. You have no obligation to respond to them. We share only the aggregate results of these surveys, not Personally Identifiable Information, with our advertisers and partners to help them better understand our services and monitor the reach of their advertising or other offerings on our service. We also use some of the Personally Identifiable Information that you provide in these surveys to help us understand your interests and to make the EquineConnection.org Networks more useful to you.

(g) Purchase of Products or Services. When you purchase products or services from or through the EquineConnection.org Networks we may require Personally Identifiable Information such as name, address, telephone number and billing information, including credit card, debit card or bank account data. EquineConnection.org will not disclose your Personally Identifiable Information, including billing information, except to the extent necessary to complete your transaction, for example during an online purchase or where needed to deliver a product or service you ordered.

(h) Merger or Acquisition. In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of all or substantially all of its assets, or the sale of an individual website owned by EquineConnection.org, EquineConnection.org may transfer your Personally Identifiable Information to a third party as a part of such merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale. In such an event, we will require such third party to honor our current Privacy Policy, until the third party provides you with notice of changes to the Privacy Policy and permits you to exercise any rights you may have under applicable law to limit disclosures of information about you.

(i) Legal Authorities. We may also disclose Personally Identifiable Information in cases when we reasonably believe that it is necessary to identify someone who may be violating EquineConnection.org policies or EquineConnection.org Networks' User Agreements or other terms of use, or who may be a threat to EquineConnection.org or third-party rights, property, or personal safety. The EquineConnection.org Networks may disclose Personally Identifiable Information to comply with valid legal process such as a duly issued search warrant, subpoena or court order.

5. Reviewing/Changing Personally Identifiable Information.

You can request access to your Personally Identifiable Information in order to review and edit any such information you have provided to the EquineConnection.org Network at any time by making such request in writing to: merryhorses@gmail.com

6. Opting Out.

You may opt out of receiving communications about special offers or programs from EquineConnection.org or other information for which you subscribed by clicking on a link provided at the bottom of the email communication.

7. Security of Personally Identifiable Information.

(a) EquineConnection.org takes reasonable precautions and has implemented reasonable technical measures intended to protect against the risks of unauthorized access to, erroneous disclosure of, and unlawful interception of Personally Identifiable Information submitted to the EquineConnection.org Network, including the use of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology supported by most versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Firefox, Opera and other popular browsers.

(b) Once your information is received by EquineConnection.org, we use commercially reasonable efforts to limit access to Personally Identifiable Information about you to those employees and service providers whom we determine need access to that information to provide the requested products or services and/or other offers or opportunities that may be of interest to you. However, please be aware that your email transmissions and/or other communications to EquineConnection.org containing Personally Identifiable Information may be unlawfully intercepted or accessed by third parties and/or the EquineConnection.org Network may be subject to hostile network attacks or administrative errors. Accordingly, EquineConnection.org cannot and does not guarantee that your Personally Identifiable Information is completely secure and safe from such risks.

8. Third-Party Sites.

The EquineConnection.org Network may contain links to other web sites. EquineConnection.org is not responsible for the collection, use or disclosure of information collected through third-party web sites and expressly disclaims any liability related to such collection, use or disclosure. EquineConnection.org is not responsible for the practices employed by web sites linked to or from the EquineConnection.org Network nor the information or content contained therein. Links to other web sites are provided solely as a convenience. Your browsing, use and interaction on any other web sites, including web sites which have a link to the EquineConnection.org Network, are subject to that web site's own rules and policies and EquineConnection.org recommends that you review the information collection practices of such sites before using them or providing them with information.

9. Children's Use of The EquineConnection.org Network.

The EquineConnection.org Network is not designed for or directed to children under the age of 13 and EquineConnection.org does not knowingly collect Personally Identifiable Information from children under the age of 13. We recommend that children under the age of 13 be supervised by an adult while using the Internet and request that children under the age of 13 not provide any Personally Identifiable Information to the EquineConnection.org Network.

10. Consent; Changes to This Privacy Policy.

By accessing or using the EquineConnection.org Network or otherwise providing the information described above to EquineConnection.org, you consent to EquineConnection.org's collection and use of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. EquineConnection.org reserves the right, at any time and without notice, to add to, change, update or modify this Privacy Policy, simply by publicly posting such change, update or modification on the EquineConnection.org Network. Any such change, update or modification will be effective immediately upon public posting on the EquineConnection.org Network. By continuing to access, browse, or use the EquineConnection.org Network or otherwise providing the information described above to EquineConnection.org, you acknowledge that you have read, understand and agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy, as amended.

11. Further Questions.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or the collection and use of information submitted to EquineConnection.org, please direct your inquiries to merryhorses@gmail.com.

12. Miscellaneous.

This Privacy Policy shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Kentucky, other than such laws, rules, regulations and case law that would result in the application of the laws of a jurisdiction other than the State of Kentucky. The EquineConnection.org Network and the servers that host the EquineConnection.org Network are located in the United States. Any information you provide will be transferred to the United States. By visiting and using the EquineConnection.org Network and submitting information thereto, you authorize this transfer. If any part of this Privacy Policy is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of this Privacy Policy shall continue in force and effect.