Your Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we are publishing this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about how your information is collected and used.

By using our Website in a way that leads you to provide us with personal information, you accept these policies.

State Law and Accompanying Rights

Please understand that you may have additional rights arising from state laws depending on your place of residence.

These state-based rights may increase, strengthen, or otherwise supplement any privacy right you have, whether inherently or under federal law.

Our policy is to fully comply with the privacy policies of each jurisdiction in which we operate. Accordingly, you are free to use our contact information to reach us at any time to assert your state rights.

Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy

Protecting the privacy of very young people is particularly important.

For this reason, our Website will never collect or retain information on our Website from persons we know to be under 18 years of age, and no part of our Website is structured in a way to attract anyone under 18.

Under our Terms of Use and Conditions of Use, children under 18 are not permitted to use our Website or access our services. It is not our intent to offer products or services to minors.

Google Analytics

Visible Plus uses Google Analytics to help analyze how users use the site. The tool uses “cookies,” which are text files placed on your computer, in order to collect standard internet log information and visitor behavior information in an anonymous form.

The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Website (including your IP address) is transmitted to Google. This information is then used to evaluate visitors’ use of the site and to compile statistical reports on site activity. We will never use the statistical analysis tool (nor allow any third party to do so) to track or collect personally identifiable information about visitors to our site.

Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. Neither Google nor we will link or seek to associate an IP address with the identity of a computer user. You can decline the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser.

Please note, however, that in this case you may not be able to use all the features of this Website. By using this Website, you expressly consent to the processing of your personal data by Google under the conditions and for the purposes described above.

Other Collection of Personal Information

When visiting our Website, the IP address used to access our Website may be logged along with the dates and times of access. This information is used only to analyze trends, administer our Website, track user movement, and gather general demographic information for internal use, such as statistical evaluations and Website improvement. Most importantly, logged IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Other information may also be collected, which is rather typical of most websites. For example, the source that referred you to our Website is generally known.

Similarly, your time spent on our Website and your destination when you leave our Website may also be tracked. Other commonly collected data includes the type of computer operating system you use to access our Website. Likewise, the type of web browser is often noted. Again, this is a common data collection practice, which ultimately helps provide a better experience for the end user.

Cookies are another common internet practice.

Cookies are an essential way to improve the user experience by allowing us to personalize your use of our Website. Simple information is transferred to your computer to allow the content and experience to reflect your actions, preferences, etc. You should simply assume that our Website uses cookies and note that you are free to modify your web browser to disable them or to receive a cookie notification so you can take whatever action you wish. Be aware that refusing cookies may disable certain features of our Website and render certain aspects unusable.

Sometimes you will be fully aware of the information received, since you are the direct source providing it. For example, you may comment on a blog post, reply to an email (whether a broadcast message or an autoresponder), provide an email address, respond to a survey, request a text message, or similar. Likewise, purchases necessarily involve the collection of certain information, such as credit card information, PayPal addresses, your physical billing and/or shipping address, your phone number, etc. If you refuse to provide some of this information, we may not be able to provide you with the products or services you requested.

An excellent example of limited access to our Website is where content may be protected by a username and password. Whether a username and password is generated by our Website or created by you, these will almost always be linked to other information about you or related to you. This is true because much of the protected content on the internet is subscription-based, often paid. Thus, the username and password must necessarily be linked to your other account data. Usernames and passwords, by their very nature, should remain confidential.

Processing of Personal Information

Please note that any personal information you provide to persons other than us or our providers is entirely optional. For example, you might disclose something in a blog comment. This “private” information is now “public” and we have no control over that. Similarly, if you share information with third parties not acting as service providers, that information is outside our control and subject to the policy in effect.

Our primary purpose in collecting personal and private information from you is simply to run our business. We may use this internally to better serve you. Accordingly, we see no reason to share your personal information with other parties or outside interests unless you have authorized us to do so. Of course, there are cases where your information is stored with third-party service providers, such as email service providers, because they provide top-quality and secure services and are far more advantageous for our end user than trying to handle such services “internally.” However, you are never required to deal directly with these third parties; they are limited in how they may use your information and may not sell or transfer it to third parties under any circumstances.

However, of course, your information is part of a whole. This body of information, on the other hand, can be used to understand our overall user base. Additionally, we may share this information about our Website visitors as a whole, not individually, with third parties for various purposes, at our sole discretion. While we vigorously defend privacy, there may be occasions when we are compelled to set aside these ideals. Just as major search engines are forced to provide data against their will, so too with our Website. Illegal activity or other serious acts or allegations could create legal liability for our Website. In such cases, we reserve the right to share your information, or we may simply be compelled to do so by law.

On the other hand, there may be times when we need to share your personal information in order to protect our own interests. For example, in the event of an alleged or suspected copyright infringement or other intellectual property violation, it may be necessary to share personal information.

Google AdSense and the DoubleClick DART Cookie

As a third-party advertising provider, Google may use cookies to serve ads on this Website. Google’s use of DART cookies allows them to serve ads to visitors based on their visits to this Website, including prior visits, as well as to other websites on the internet. To opt out of DART cookies, you can review Google’s Ad Network and Content Network privacy policies at: http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html. Tracking of users via DART cookies is subject to Google’s own privacy policies.

Other third-party ad servers or advertising networks may also use cookies to track user activity on this Website, in order to measure advertising effectiveness and for other reasons that will be set out in their own privacy policies. Our Website has no access to or control over these third-party advertiser cookies. However, you may be able to disable some, though probably not all, at a single location: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

Links to Third-Party Websites

We have included links on this Website for your use and reference. We are not responsible for the privacy policies of these sites. You should be aware that the privacy policies of these websites may differ from ours.

Comment Policy

As you know, Web 2.0 is about conversation. But without a few simple ground rules, that conversation can turn into a disgraceful brawl that discourages others from joining in.

So here is the comment policy of Visible Plus. By posting on my blog, you agree to the following terms:

You may comment without registering. You can log in via Disqus, OpenID, Twitter, Facebook, or not at all. It’s up to you.

You may post anonymously. I don’t recommend it, but you can if you wish. I may change this rule if it is abused.

You may ask follow-up questions. If you have a question, chances are you’re not the only one.

Others probably feel the same way. Therefore, I would prefer to receive your comments on Visible Plus rather than by email. It’s a better use of my time to address everyone at once rather than respond to several similar emails.

You may disagree with me. I welcome debate. However, I ask that if you disagree with me — or with someone else — that you do so respectfully. In my opinion, there is far too much shouting in the public square for me to tolerate it here.

Visible Plus reserves the right to remove your comments. This is my blog. I have no obligation to publish your comments. The First Amendment gives you the right to express your opinions on your blog, not mine.

Specifically, I will remove your comments if you post something that, in my opinion, is (a) snarky; (b) off-topic; (c) defamatory, libelous, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, pornographic, offensive, false, misleading, or otherwise violates or encourages others to violate my sense of decorum and civility or any law, including intellectual property laws; or (d) “spam,” meaning an attempt to advertise, solicit, or promote goods or services. You may, however, post a link to your own site or your latest blog post.

You retain ownership of your comments. I do not own them and I expressly disclaim any liability that may arise from them. By commenting on my site, you agree to retain all ownership rights to what you post here and to release me from any liability that may result from such posts. You grant Visible Plus a license to publish your comments. This license is worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free. You grant me the right to store, use, transmit, display, publish, reproduce, and distribute your comments in any format, including but not limited to a blog, book, video, or presentation.

In short, my goal is to foster interesting conversations with caring, honest, and respectful people.

I believe this simple comment policy will facilitate that.

NOTICE OF CHANGE: As with all our administrative and legal notice pages, the content of this page may and will change over time.

As a result, this page may read differently the next time you visit. These changes are necessary and are made by Visible Plus in order to protect you, as well as our website, Visible Plus. If this page is important to you, you should check it regularly, as no further notice of changed content will be provided before or after the change takes effect.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: The legal notices and administrative pages of this Website, including this one, have been carefully drafted by an attorney. Visible Plus has paid for the license to use these legal notices and administrative pages on Visible Plus for your protection and ours. This material may not be used for any reason whatsoever, and unauthorized use is monitored via Copyscape to detect infringers.

QUESTIONS / COMMENTS / CONCERNS: If you have any questions about the content of this page, or if you simply wish to contact us for any other reason, you can do so by following this link: Contact