Privacy Policy

Updated December 15, 2022.

This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their "Personally Identifiable Information" (PII) is being used online. PII, as described in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.

General Privacy #

When registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter any of the following:

Your name or nom de plume ("username")
Your email address

If at any time you would like to delete your registration, you can e-mail us with your username at info@fwdlabs.com and we will promptly remove your account.

We collect information from you when you register, sign up for our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication, surf the website, or use certain other site features.

We may use the information we collect from you in the following ways:

To personalize your experience and to allow us to deliver the type of content in which you are most interested.
To improve our website in order to better serve you.
To allow us to better support you in responding to your support requests.
To send periodic emails regarding your interests.

Our website is scanned on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities in order to make your visit to our site as safe as possible. We use regular malware scanning and run general maintenance on a daily basis. For operation and maintenance purposes, this site may collect files that record interaction with this site (e.g. system logs) and use other Personal Data (e.g. IP Address) for this purpose.

Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. In addition, all sensitive/credit information you supply is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.

We implement a variety of security measures when a user enters, submits, or accesses their information to maintain the safety of your personal information. All user registrations have their IP address screened against spam databases to block suspicious accounts from gaining access to abuse our site.

Browser Cookies #

We use browser cookies. They are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. For instance, we use cookies to login to your account if you have one on this site. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

We use cookies to:

Know you are logged into your own account.
Help remember choices and process form submissions on the site.
Understand and save user's preferences for future visits.
Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may also use trusted third-party services that track this information on our behalf.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since browsers are each different, look at your browser's Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.

What happens if a user disables cookies in their browser?

If you turn cookies off, some of the features that make your site experience more efficient may not function properly. Some of the features that make your site experience more efficient may not function properly.

Third Parties #

We use the following services to improve the website, each of which have their own policies regarding personal data collection plus some opt out methods:

Google including Google Analytics (policy, out opt), Google Fonts, and reCAPTCHA
Amazon Web Services (policy)
YouTube including YouTube's video widget (policy)
Twitter including Twitter Tweet buttons (policy)
Facebook (policy)
FullStory (policy, out out)

Third-party disclosure

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your Personally Identifiable Information unless we provide users with advance notice. This does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or serving our users, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release information when it's release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others' rights, property or safety.

However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Third-party links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products or services on our website. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

California Online Privacy Protection Act #

CalOPPA is the first state law in the nation to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law's reach stretches well beyond California to require any person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting Personally Identifiable Information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals or companies with whom it is being shared. See more at https://consumercal.org/about-cfc/cfc-education-foundation/california-online-privacy-protection-act-caloppa-3/.

According to CalOPPA, we agree to the following:

Users can visit our site anonymously.
Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page or as a minimum, on the first significant page after entering our website.
Our Privacy Policy link includes the word 'Privacy' and can easily be found on the page specified above.

You will be notified of any Privacy Policy changes on this Privacy Policy page.

You can change your personal information by emailing us or by logging in to your account.

How does our site handle Do Not Track signals?

This site does not support "Do Not Track" requests.

Does our site allow third-party behavioral tracking?

This site does upon occasion use third-party behavioral tracking for testing and improving the user experience of the site.

COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act) #

When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13 years old, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, United States' consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children's privacy and safety online.

We do not specifically market to children under the age of 13 years old.

We respect the privacy of children, and do not collect any more personal information than reasonably necessary to enable them to participate in the activities we offer at our Web site.

With respect to our online information collection practices from children under 13 years of age, we collect the following types of personal information directly from children online:

e-mail address

While not required, users of this site are allowed to enter the following types of information from children online and associate that information with one or more of the above identifiers:

information about a user's hobbies
information about a user's city/country

Please note that parents may consent to the above collection and use without necessarily consenting to the disclosure of personal information to third parties.

With respect to the collection by other organizations of personal information from children at our site, our policy is that we do not have any agreements with outside organizations to collect personal information at our site.

Use and Sharing of Information

The information we collect from all users is used to enable them to participate in a chat room or bulletin board and to tailor/customize the visitor's experience at our site.

With respect to sharing information, we do not share children's personal information beyond what is optionally entered, like in an optional message board post.

Parental Review

Parents can review the information that we have collected from their children online, prevent the further use or maintenance of such information, or direct the deletion of their children's personal information by e-mailing us at the above address.

FIP (Fair Information Practices) #

The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law in the United States and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe. Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect personal information.

In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:

We will notify you via email within 7 business days
We will notify the users via in-site notification within 7 business days

We also agree to the Individual Redress Principle which requires that individuals have the right to legally pursue enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or government agencies to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors.

CAN-SPAM #

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

We collect your email address in order to:

Send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions.
Market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred.

To be in accordance with CAN-SPAM, we agree to the following:

Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
Include the physical address of our site headquarters.
Monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can email us at info@fwdlabs.com and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence.

Contact Us #

If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us at info@fwdlabs.com. Our postal address is FWDLABS, PO BOX 9722, NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA 91609. You can reach us by telephone at 716-FWD-LABS (716-393-5227).