Privacy Policy

1. Our Commitment to Privacy. This notice describes our Privacy Policy. Our Privacy Policy is designed to advise you about how we collect, use, and protect the personal information you provide. By visiting this site, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. GuitarGate reserves the right to modify the Privacy Policy from time to time. Your continued use of this site serves as your acceptance of this Agreement in whole including any modifications. The term “User” or “you” refers to a visitor or a member. GuitarGate is a general audience site and does not knowingly collect information from children under 13 years of age. 
 
2. What Information is Collected.

In order to better provide you with our numerous services, we collect two types of information about our users:  Personally Identifiable Information and Non‑Personally Identifiable Information. 

Personally Identifiable Information:  This refers to information that lets us know the specifics of who you are.  When you engage in certain activities on this site, such as registering for a membership, submitting content and/or posting content in discussion forums or other public areas, exchanging information and data with other members, entering a contest or sweepstakes, filling out a survey, or sending us feedback, we may ask you to provide certain information about yourself by filling out and submitting an online form.  It is completely optional for you to elect to engage in these activities, however, we will request Personally Identifiable Information such as your first and last name, mailing address (including zip code), E-mail address, telephone and facsimile numbers, payment information, a short biography about your music and guitar experience and other personal identifying information.  Additionally, when becoming a member, you will be asked to provide payment information.

Depending upon the activity, some of the information we ask you to provide is identified as mandatory and some as voluntary.  If you do not provide the mandatory data with respect to a particular activity, you will not be able to engage in that activity. GuitarGate members may also choose to provide or store information including, photos, videos, links to the user’s other social media accounts, and any other information the member wishes to share. This information is provided at the User’s own discretion.

If you sign in with Google, GuitarGate will use your Google email address, user name, and name to populate default values for your user profile. No other Google information is collected or used.

Non‑Personally Identifiable Information:  This refers to information that does not by itself identify a specific individual.  We gather certain information about you based upon where you visit on our site in several ways.  This information is compiled and analyzed on both a personal and an aggregated basis.  This information may include the Web site's Uniform Resource Locator ("URL") that you just came from, which URL you next go to, what browser you are using, and your Internet Protocol ("IP") address.  A URL is the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.  An IP address is an identifier for a computer or device on a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol ("TCP/IP") network, such as the World Wide Web.  Networks like the Web use the TCP/IP protocol to route information based on the IP address of the destination.  In other words, an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the web, allowing web servers to locate and identify your computer.  Computers require IP addresses in order for users to communicate on the Internet.

(a) Automatic Information: When you visit a website, you disclose certain information, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and the time of your visit. This site, like many other sites, records this basic information about visits to our site.
 
(b) "Cookies": When you use our site we will store cookies on your computer in order to facilitate and customize your use of our site.  A cookie is a small data text file, which a Web site stores on your computer's hard drive (if your Web browser permits) that can later be retrieved to identify you to us.  Our cookies store randomly assigned user identification numbers and the country where you are located. Browsers are set up to accept cookies, but you can change your settings to have your browser notify you when you receive a new cookie or to refuse to accept cookies. However, by blocking cookies you may not be able to access some of the features of GuitarGate. 
 
3. How and When the Information is Used. We do not sell, trade, or rent your Personally Identifiable Information to others.  We do provide some of our services through contractual arrangements with affiliates, services providers, partners and other third parties.  We and our service partners use your Personally Identifiable Information to operate our sites and to deliver their services.  For example, we must release your credit card information to the card‑issuing bank to confirm payment for membership to GuitarGate. The information we collect is used for administering our business activities. It is also used to make the site easier for you to use by not making you enter your personal information more than once. We may use the information to notify you about changes to our website, new services, or special offers and to respond to requests for assistance from our customer support team. 
 
4. How We Protect Your Information. The privacy and protection of your information is important to us. We do not make any personal information available to third parties without your permission.

Your access to some services and content is password protected. We advise that you do not disclose your password to anyone. In addition, we recommend you sign out of password-protected services at the end of your session.

In order to most efficiently serve you, credit card transactions and order fulfillment are handled by established third party banking, processing agents and distribution institutions.  They receive the information needed to verify and authorize your credit card or other payment information and to process and ship your order.

This Site may contain links to other Sites. We are not responsible for and shall not have any liability arising from the privacy practices or the content of other Sites.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  As a result, while we strive to protect your Personally Identifiable Information, you acknowledge that:  (a) there are security and privacy limitations of the Internet which are beyond our control; (b) the security, integrity and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and us through this site cannot be guaranteed; and (c) any such information and data may be viewed or tampered with in transit by a third party.
 
5. Who Has Access to the Information. Information about our users is important to us. We will not disclose any individually identifiable information to any third party without first receiving that user's permission.

If you use a third party such as YouTube.com to host your videos that are posted on the site, you are subject to their terms of use and privacy policy as well.

We will provide you with the means to ensure that your personal information is correct and current. You may review and update this information at any time by logging into your account.

To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity, such as password and username, before granting access to your data.

 We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as handling the processing and delivery of mailings, providing customer support, hosting websites, processing transactions, or performing statistical analysis of our services. Those service providers will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and are prohibited from using it for any other purpose than for delivering the service to us in accordance with our instructions and policies. However, our fraud detection vendors may use data to help improve their services. This helps them more accurately detect fraudulent transactions. We may access or disclose information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the our rights or property or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the services; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of our employees, customers or the public. We may also disclose personal information as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of assets.  

6. Methods We Use to Protect Your Information. We use security software to protect the confidentiality of your financial information. In addition, our business practices are reviewed periodically for compliance with policies and procedures governing the security and confidentiality of our information. Our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons.

We use SSL encryption when collecting or transferring sensitive data such as credit card and personal information. Credit card numbers are only used for processing payment and are not used for other purposes. We encrypt your Personally Identifiable Information and thereby prevent unauthorized parties from viewing such information when it is transmitted to us.

7. Children. This website does not provide services or sell products to children under the age of 13. If you are under 18, you must obtain the consent of your parent or guardian.
 
8. Changes to Privacy Policy. If our Privacy Policy or procedures change, we will immediately post those changes to our website. Any such changes will be effective immediately upon being posted, unless otherwise stated in the change.
 
9. Effective Date. This Privacy Policy is effective as of 7/1/2017.