This privacy statement covers the practices used for WWW.TIMEATLAS.COM.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, please email me.

Information Collection and Use

Information Collection

Productivity Portfolio is the sole owner of the information collected on WWW.TIMEATLAS.COM. Productivity Portfolio collects information from our readers at several different points on our Web site.

Orders

Some of our content may be sold such as specific research reports. Our payment processor, Pay Pal, requests additional information from each purchaser. You must provide contact information (such as name and email) and financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill the order. If we have trouble processing an order, the information is used to contact you. We do not have access to your Pay Pal financial data.

Email Updates

We also use the services of FeedBurner, aWeber and Litmus to deliver email updates. Although we initiate the updates, the subscriber's email addresses are kept on the vendor's secure servers. A user may unsubscribe from the service by clicking the link in the email.

Feedburner is used for delivering updates that appear from our RSS feed. aWeber is the email service provider for our mailing list. Litmus provides testing info so I can see how the emails look in different email applications. It also has other tools so I can see how the email looks for color blind users. Remind me the next time I get the logo updated to see how it looks for color blind users first.

Information Use

Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of data stored on your computer from our website. These cookies are created by our content management system (CMS). Although I no longer use a paid membership model, the content management system still has a membership model. For example, as the site administrator, I still have a login and password. I also wrote an article on browser cookie basics and their uses on the web if you want more information.

I'm continuing to experiment with various affiliates who may set their own cookies. The affiliates and ad location may change based on their performance. The purpose of these cookies is to identify timeatlas.com as the referring source so I'm properly compensated if you decide to purchase their products. In other words, the cookies help the vendor determine this site as the source so they know who to pay if you decide to purchase the product.

Some of our advertising partners such as Google, ValueClick, Microsoft and IDG TechNet may place cookies or web beacons in the course of serving ads to this site. They may also serve interest based advertising or retargeting ads. This means you may see ads on this site based on other web sites you visit. There is a Google Ads Preferences setting which you may use to refine your selections or opt-out of their programs. This isn't an area I control.

I also allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit www.networkadvertising.org.

If you're a user of the Action Enforcer service, which is Flash based, the application stores all your task information in a web shared object (WSO). This information is stored on your computer much like a cookie. If you delete the file, you will lose your custom lists, tasks, and timer groups. We do not have access to this information and can not recreate it for you if you mistakenly delete it. You can check the online users guide to find more information on this file.

If you use Firefox, you can view the contents for the cookies our site sets.

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. On the Options dialog, click the Privacy icon at the top.
3. Click the Cookies tab
4. Click the View Cookies button
5. Click the +sign next to timeatlas.com
6. Highlight any cookie to see its contents

If you're an Internet Explorer user, you can manage your cookies through a freeware application called IECookiesView from Nir Sofer.

If you go through this review process, you will see I have a cookie that expires in 32 years. I haven't a clue as to why the CMS system sets one for so long. I mean...who the heck is going to be using the same PC for that many years? Best I've done is to use a Sony monitor for 10 years and a HP Lasrerjet for about the same.

Log Files

Like most websites, our server creates big ugly log files. This file includes Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information unless you tattooed it on your body. 

As you probably guessed, parts of this policy were lifted from one of those "best practices" privacy policies. Pretty boring and sterile so I've added some more info below. Somebody must be making money off the word "aggregate".

The web server log files are kept in several places. The current version is kept by our web hosting company. Sometimes, I download the file to my PC for analysis with Splunk for diagnosing errors. Our web hosting company uses a rotating system where the previous file is archived. Files older than 3 months are overwritten.

You can see a good idea of the type of information I see and how I use this data in the article I wrote called, Annual Report on Your Data and our Server Logs.

This is also an area where I continually try different programs. If you have your own site you probably know the ordeal of analysis. Presently, I'm using Google Analytics, ChartBeat, Woopra and Clicky. At various times, I have used ClickTale for heatmaps and to watch user interaction. If you have any concerns or questions, please let me know.

At this point, you might think that a lot of data has been recorded. And you're right. The question is whether it's useful data that a vendor can use. I can't speak for other folks, but I can tell you the info can be helpful. As example, by looking at the data, I can see trends such as more people coming to the site using an Apple OS. This is one of the reasons I stopped using Flash for my screencasts and moved to MP4.

Testing

Did that heading scare you? Don't worry I haven't wired the keyboard or activated your webcam although I would prefer it if you smile more often. On occasion, I do have various tests going on the site and use software services like Visual Website Optimizer or Optimizely. A test might be something as simple as changing a color or giving you a different version of a page or message if you're on an older browser. (Yes, I am talking to you people who insist on using very old versions of Internet Explorer). Based on these tests, I may then incorporate the change into production.

I also use a paid video hosting service called Wistia. The service allows me to get analytics on the videos which are used to refine them. For example, if I see red bands on various portions of the analytics snapshot, I know people are rewinding that section and watching it again. This might make me think I need to revise the video. Perhaps, I need to rephrase the callout or slow down the frame. The service also gives me geographic insights as well. Still new to all this video stuff and I have a lot to learn.

Sharing

Legal Disclaimer

Though I make every effort to preserve user privacy, I may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein I have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

Service Providers

I use several third party providers to distribute ads and our RSS feed. These third parties do not have access to user information other than what they may collect.

Links

This Web site contains numerous links to other sites. Please be aware that I am not responsible for the privacy practices of the other sites. That would be a hoot! I encourage our readers to be aware when they leave our site to read the privacy statements of each Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies only to information collected by this Web site. I like to use EULAlyzer to capture and evaluate end user license agreements and privacy policies.

Email-A-Friend

If you elect to use our referral service by emailing a friend an article link, the site asks you for the friend's name and email address. Productivity Portfolio will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. Productivity Portfolio uses this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email. The friend's email address is not stored, nor are they added to our mailing list. Signing up for our mailing list also requires a double opt-in.

Security

This Web site takes precautions to protect your information. I have chosen a payment vendor that utilizes SSL. When a product order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number), that information is encrypted and is protected with SSL encryption software by our payment vendor. While on a secure page, such as the payment form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers displays.

While I require our payment vendor to use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, I also protect user information off-line. Our users' information is restricted to our office. Only people who need the information to perform a specific job or service are granted access to personally identifiable information.

Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information

Notification of Changes

If I decide to change our privacy policy, I will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places I deem appropriate so our readers are always aware of what information I collect, how I use it, and under what circumstances, if any, I disclose it. I will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

If, however, I plan to use readers' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection I will notify users. Users will have a choice as to whether or not I use their information in this different manner.

In addition, if I make any material changes in our privacy practices that do affect reader information already stored in our database, I will post a prominent notice on our Web site notifying users of the change. In some cases where I post a notice I will also email users, who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.

If you've read this far down into this document, pat yourself on the back. Too few people read Privacy Policies. And if you're the first reader to get this far, send me an email using our Contact Us form with the text, "I can't believe I read the whole policy", I'll send you a $25 Amazon gift certificate. Congrats Griselda!