Parents
The PC Talk (PCT) Privacy and Information Sharing Policy
PC Talk, and the associated forums (collectively noted herein as PCT) are operated and presented to users in all locations by private parties interested in providing game assistance. This Privacy Policy covers use of Personally Identifiable Information collected by PCT.
We are committed to providing an engaging, helpful, and safe website for people of all ages. We are dedicated to safeguarding any personal information collected on the PCT websites. We ensure that our Privacy Policy and our information practices adhere to the United States Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. To help ensure a rewarding online experience for our visitors, we provide you with this Privacy Policy that describes the information practices of the PCT website (http://pctalk.info/), including how we collect, use and disclose personal information.
I - The Information We Collect
Your private information is not a commodity for this site or anyone else to buy, sell, or trade. We have no interest in trying to find out who you are. However, the operation of any website requires the collection of certain Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
We require consent from a parent when a child wants to register. As described in this Privacy Policy, we directly collect from child users during our initial registration process a parent's email address, the child's account name, and the child's password. Occasionally, issues may arise that require further contact with the parents of child users. The types of PII that may be collected at that time include the parent's full name, email address, and mailing address. The PCT website does not condition a child's participation in an online activity on the child providing more personal information than is reasonably necessary for that activity.
When you register, the only real, valid contact information you must provide is a working email address. This is because the forum software requires one if you forget your password. Though you are not required to use your real name (in fact, it is suggested you use no information that will lead anyone directly to you as an individual, including your real name), it is still required that you use some propriety when developing your profile. Everything must be at least PG rated as we have members of all ages on the forum. Anyone using inacceptable verbiage in their registration will have their application summarily deleted. Please do not use your email address as your username! If you do, you probably will find yourself denied access. We do not allow emails as usernames because it is then too simple for spammers to sell such information to their valid email lists for spamming purposes.
The PCT website requires child users to provide a parent's valid email address in order to register on the website to participate in the forum discussions, ask questions, and view content. We use the parent’s email address to send the parent a message that can be used to activate the child's account, to notify the parent about our privacy practices, and to send the parent communications either about the child’s account or about features of our website, including periodic parent information, and for such other purposes as described in this Privacy Policy. This email address is correlated with the account user name. With the parent’s prior permission, we also may use this email address to send notices regarding followed topics and posts. The parent may revoke their permission to receive any emails at any time by contacting administrators at: admin@pctalk.info or by clicking on unsubscribe links in those emails.
A user name and email address may also be requested when a user submits a form through the "help" features of the PhpBB website so that they may respond to the inquiry. The e-mail address is collected for the sole purpose of responding directly on a one-time basis to a specific inquiry.
For some of our online activities - such as polls, surveys, games or contests - we may ask users to provide information that is not personally identifiable, such as country of residence or a user’s favorite color. As a forum and fansite, we enable users to chat online through our website, at which time users, including child users, may reveal personally identifiable information. Preventative measures include live moderation. Our moderaters and administrators will remove any personally identifiable information we are aware of posted by child users. Nonetheless, if you use a Public Forum on this website, and disclose personally identifiable information, you should be aware that such information could be read, collected or used by other users. We strongly encourage you not to disclose personal information (such as real name, email address, telephone number, etc.) about the user or about any third party and are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit through the Public Forums.
Additionally, when visitors come to our site, we may passively collect certain non-personally identifiable computer information, such as the type of computer operating system (e.g., Windows 10 or Mac OS), the user's IP Address, the web browser (e.g., Firefox, Internet Explorer) being used, the frequency with which guests visit various parts of our sites, and information regarding the Internet service provider, in order to make our sites more interesting and useful to you and for various purposes related to our business. We or one of our contractors on our behalf may collect this non-personally identifiable information through the use of software technologies such as unique identifiers or "cookies." Cookies are small text files that the forum software places on visitors' computers to store their preferences. You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn on/off all cookies. You do this through your browser (such as Firefox or Internet Explorer) settings. Please note that most browsers are automatically set to accept cookies. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies. If you turn cookies off, you won't have access to many features that make your Web experience smoother, and some of our services may not function properly. There are cookies set by the server that this site resides on to monitor page views, bandwidth useage, and traffic use. Only IF abuse of the site occurs are these viewed, or associated with an IP address.
If personal information is not provided to us, then PCT may not be able to provide access to certain content and functionality on the PCT website, or to provide other information or services which may be requested.
II -How We Use, Disclose, and Store the Information We Collect
In addition to the purposes described in Section I, we may actively collect and use email addresses and user names to track usage and to ensure users are following the site's Terms of Use. In addition, we may use an email address and user name to ban a user temporarily or permanently from the PCT website if that user engages in inappropriate conduct on the site. We may also use email addresses and user names to enable parents to review PII that the children have submitted to the PCT website and to provide notification regarding the site, such as any future amendments to this Privacy Policy. We also may use information in the aggregate to analyze site usage, as well as to offer services.
We may disclose information where we are required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena, or where we disclose information to data processors who act on our behalf (service providers or other group companies who provide support for the operations of our website and who do not use or disclose the information for any other purpose). To the extent permitted by applicable law, we also may disclose PII in response to a law enforcement agency's or other public agency's (including schools or children services) request or if we feel that such disclosure may prevent the instigation of a crime, facilitate an investigation related to public safety or protect the safety of a child using our website, protect the security or integrity of our website, or enable us to take precautions against liability.
If we sell all or part of our business or make a sale or transfer of our assets or are otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, we will not transfer any personal information to a third party as part of that transaction: Any such transaction will be limited to the Domain name and current site content including user postings, but exclusive of any member information.
III - Collection of Information for Third-Party Sites and Sponsors Administrators collect and maintain information from children through PCT and we comply with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Questions about privacy policies and use of children’s information may be directed to:
IV - Security
The security of your personal information is important to us. We have in place appropriate electronic, and live moderation procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect online.
At some point it may become necessary to transfer your personal information to third parties in locations around the world for the purposes described in this privacy policy. Wherever your personal information is transferred, stored or processed by us, we will take reasonable steps to safeguard the privacy of your personal information.
V - Financial Information
At this time PCT does not require payment for any services or memberships. We do not, therefore, request any personal financial information.
Parents of child registrants will be notified of any changes in this or any other privacy issues.
VI - Access to Information, and Objection to Information Collection and Retention
Please contact us as provided in Section 8, if you would like to access the PII that we have collected online from you or your child, correct factual errors in such information, request to have this information deleted, or request that we no longer collect or maintain such information. The deletion of data may lead to a termination of the PCT account and/or membership.
Please be sure to include your email address and/or a telephone number where we can reach you. We will respond to access requests within 30 days. To protect you and your child's privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to help verify your identity before granting you access to the personal information that we collect and maintain about you or your child.
VII - Changes to this Privacy Policy
From time to time, we may change this privacy policy to accommodate new technologies, industry practices, regulatory requirements or for other purposes. We will provide notice to you if these changes are material and, where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent.
VIII - Contact Us
If you have questions or wish to send us comments about this Privacy Policy, please send an e-mail with your questions or comments to:
(If you are not 13 years of age or older, you must have your parent or guardian's permission to contact us.)
Please be assured that any personal information that you provide in communications to the above will not be used to send you promotional materials, unless you so request.
If you choose to email us, we assure you that your name, email address, or other identifying information will be kept confidential and will not, under any circumstances, be viewed by anyone other than the intended recipient(s). The contents of any emails become the property of PCT and may be published if it is considered relevant. No identifying information will be revealed, unless under legal injunction as specified in Section 2 of this policy.
IX - Effective Date
The privacy policy set out above is effective as of November 16, 2013, and applies to all information previously obtained by PCT. We reserve the right to change the privacy policy at our sole discretion. PCT users will be informed of any such change by the posting of a new privacy policy on the PCT website and the effective date of any change of privacy policy will be clearly marked. As required by law, we will not use PII in ways that are materially different from the ones described in this Privacy Policy without also providing notification of such practices and obtaining consent to any such different uses. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page.
X - Disputes
If you believe that PCT has not responded to your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you may contact the United States Federal Trade Commission through its online consumer complaint form available here: FTC Complaint Assistance.
XI - Disclaimers
This site may provide hyperlinks to offsite websites. PC Talk is not responsible for the privacy policies or any other practices of these sites.
This site resides on iPowerweb.com as a "paid for" host of the PC Talk's domain name.
Their Privacy Statement Can Be Read Here