- Book Reviews WITHIN ARM’S REACH by Ann Naplitano
- Book Reviews OCEAN’S GODORI by Elaine U. Cho
- Book Reviews I CHEERFULLY REFUSE by Leif Enger, Audio Edition
- Book Reviews A BETTER WORLD by Sarah Langan
- Book Reviews LIKE HAPPINESS by Ursula Villarreal-Moura
- Book Reviews THE MARS HOUSE by Natasha Pulley
- Book Reviews JADED by Ela Lee
- Book Reviews THE MORNINGSIDE by Téa Obreht
- Book Reviews BABY X by Kira Peikoff
- Book Reviews AFTER ANNIE by Anna Quindlen
~ Privacy Policy
Updated February 2015
Mom Central, and its parent entity, Influence Central, Inc., has developed this Privacy Policy as a commitment to each of our valued members to respect your privacy. This Privacy Policy is intended to describe for you, as an individual who is a user of MomCentral.com or a user of our other entities, or who otherwise provides us with information through various means, the information we collect, how that information may be used, with whom it may be shared, and your choices about such uses and disclosures.
We encourage you to be familiar with this Privacy Policy. Each user of MomCentral.com, or other properties is subject to this Privacy Policy, and your use thereof signifies your acceptance of its terms and agreement to be bound thereby.
At the end of this Privacy Policy, there is information on how to contact us in the event you have any questions. If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please refer to the end of this Privacy Policy for information on how to contact us.
Information We Collect and How We Use It
Information You Provide Us:
We collect personal information from you when you register with MomCentral.com, update your profile, interact with other members, and use various features of our site. To register with MomCentral.com, you must provide your name and e-mail address, and may also provide your date of birth and zip code. We also may request and retain information about your interests and activities, your opinion about products and services that we offer or are offered by a third party, your demographic information, your interaction with other users, and your use of the website. From time to time, we may ask you to respond to surveys or other requests for information, and we’ll collect the information you provide. We may also collect information from you when you participate in giveaways and promotions offered on our Site.
Information Other Sources Provide Us:
We may also periodically obtain both personal and non-personal information about you from business partners, contractors, other third-parties and public resources, and add it to other information we have collected. All personally identifiable information that we collect may become part of your Mom Central profile, and may be used by us as provided in this Privacy Policy or as disclosed at the time you provide the information or as otherwise agreed by you.
Information You Provide Us About Others:
We may also collect and store personal information about other people that you provide to us. If you use our website to send others (friends, relatives, colleagues, etc.) a product as a gift, information that may interest them or messages (such as invitations) through our system, we may store your personal information and the personal information of each such recipient.
Use of Other Technology To Collect Information
Web Log Files: As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type and language, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the website, to track users’ movements around the Website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may also use individual information we collect through web logs to send you targeted offers and other communications.
Cookies:
When you visit our website, we may assign your computer one or more cookies, to facilitate access to our site, personalize your online experience, and help provide information that is relevant to you. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record keeping purposes. Cookies can be either session cookies or persistent cookies. A session cookie expires when you close your browser and is used to make it easier for you to navigate our website. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. You may delete or decline cookies by changing your browser settings. (Click “Help” in the toolbar of most browsers for instructions.) If you do so, some of the features and services of our website may not function properly. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our site, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on our site. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, please note that you may not be able to use some of the interactive features offered on our website. Some of our business partners (e.g., advertisers) use cookies on the website. We have no access to or control over these cookies. [See the “Third-Parties” section.]
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs):
We employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Information gathered by clear gifs may be tied to our members’ personally identifiable information. Clear gifs may be used to deliver or communicate with cookies, to count users who have visited certain pages and to understand usage patterns. We also may receive an anonymous identification number if you come to our site from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website. We also use clear gifs in our HTML-based e-mails to let us know which e-mails recipients have opened. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.
Uses of Information
In General:
We may use information that we collect about you to create and manage your member profile, feature you in one or more areas of our site, communicate with you by e-mail, postal mail, telephone and/or mobile devices about products or services that may be of interest to you either from us or other third parties, develop and display content and advertising tailored to your interests on our site and on other sites, perform research and analysis about your use of, or interest in, our products, services, or content, or products, services or content offered by others, administer contests and giveaways, enforce our terms and conditions, and manage our business. If other uses are contemplated for information we are asking you to provide, they will be described to you at the time of collection.
We have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any activity and content associated with the public and private forums and interactive areas on our Site. Please review our Terms of Service for more information regarding your appropriate use of these areas.
Sharing of Your Information
Personal information:
We do not share your personal information with others except as indicated below or when we inform you and give you an opportunity to opt out of having your personal information shared. We may share your personal information with our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf. These services may include delivering packages, providing customer service and marketing assistance, performing business and sales analysis, supporting our website functionality, and supporting contests, giveaways, surveys and other features offered through our website, by phone, or by mail. These service providers may have access to personal information needed to perform their functions but are not permitted to share or use such information for any other purpose. When you engage in promotions offered through our website or other services, we may share personal information with the businesses with which we partner to offer you those products, services, promotions, contests and/or giveaways. When you elect to engage in a particular merchant’s offer or program, you authorize us to provide your e-mail address and other information to that merchant. Any third-parties to whom we may disclose personal information may have their own privacy policies, which describe how they use and disclose personal information. Those policies will govern use, handling and disclosure of your personal information once we have shared it with those third-parties as described in this Privacy Policy. If you want to learn more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit the websites of or to otherwise contact those third-parties. These entities or their servers may be located either inside or outside the United States.
Aggregated and Non-Personal Information:
We may share aggregated and non-personal information we collect on the site. We may also share it with third- parties to develop and deliver targeted marketing on our websites, on websites of third parties, or by other means. We may combine non-personal information we collect with additional non-personal information collected from other sources. We also may share aggregated information with third-parties, including advisors, advertisers and investors, for the purpose of conducting general business analysis. For example, we may tell our advertisers the number of visitors to our website and the most popular features or services accessed. This information does not contain any personal information and may be used to develop website or other content and services that we hope you and other customers will find of interest and to target content and advertising.
Legal Matters
Safety:
We may, without your consent, access and disclose your information, any communications sent or received by you, and any other information that we may have about you or your account as may be permitted or required by law (including, but not limited to, court order or subpoena), or to prevent or investigate suspected fraud, violations of our Terms of Service, or activity that appears to us to be illegal or may expose us to legal liability. Additionally, we may disclose your information in situations that we believe to be emergencies involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person or property if we believe that your information in any way relates to that threat.
Sale of Business or Assets:
In the event that Influence Central, Inc., substantially all of its assets, or a line of business are acquired or merged with another company, personally identifiable information of our members may be one of the assets sold or merged in connection with that transaction. We will notify our members of such a change in ownership or transfer of assets by posting a notice on our site.
Communications from the Website
Special Offers and Updates:
We consistently have the opportunity to send you information on products, services, special deals, and promotions offered by us and/or a third-party. In cases where we are presenting an offer by a third-party, the offer will be brought to you by Mom Central and typically fulfilled by the third-party. If you accept the offer, you will become a customer of the company that is fulfilling the offer and we will not have control over their use of the personally identifiable information that you provide to them when you accept the offer.
E-Mail and Newsletters:
Mom Central – or our parent entity, Influence Central, Inc., – may use your information to send you e-newsletters, updates and communications about Mom Central or Influence Central. You may opt-out of receiving future emails as described at the bottom of each communication from us. If you don’t want to opt-out of all communications be sure to select ‘Update Profile and Subscription Preferences’ instead of ‘Unsubscribe From All Emails’. Unsubscribing from all emails, ultimately removes you from program participation as well.
Service-Related Announcements:
We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email.
Customer Service
Based upon the personally identifiable information you provide us, we will send you a welcoming e-mail to verify you. We will also communicate with you in response to your inquiries, to provide the services you request, and to manage your account. We will communicate with you by e-mail or telephone, in accordance with your wishes
Third-Party Communications
Ad Servers:
We may use third-party advertising service providers and/or technologies to serve ads when you visit our website, or in our e-mail newsletters. If your browser is set up to accept cookies, our third-party advertising service providers and/or technologies may place cookies or web beacons on your computer when you visit our Site or interact with our email messages. Please note that this happens whether or not you click on an advertisement placed by these companies.
Surveys/Contests:
We may use a third-party service provider to conduct surveys or contests; that company will be prohibited from using our users’ personally identifiable information for any other purpose.
Links to Other Sites:
The website contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by us. Please be aware that MomCentral.com is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites.
We encourage you to be aware when you leave MomCentral.com, to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information.
Access to Personally Identifiable Information:
If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate it by making the change on your member profile page, or by e-mailing us at contactus@momcentral.com or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below. We are, however, unable to update or delete any of your personally identifiable information that has been shared with a third-party as permitted in this Privacy Policy.
Opt-out:
If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at contactus@momcentral.com or through the contact information, below. If you don’t want to opt-out of all communications be sure to select ‘Update Profile and Subscription Preferences’ instead of ‘Unsubscribe From All Emails’. Unsubscribing from all emails, ultimately removes you from program participation as well.
Security: We have taken appropriate security measures (including physical, electronic and procedural measures) to help safeguard your personal information from unauthorized access and disclosure. In addition, we use encryption in the transmission of your sensitive personal information between your system and ours, and we use firewalls to help prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to your personal information. We want you to feel confident using our website, but no system can be completely secure. So although we take steps to secure your information, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information, searches, or other communications will always remain secure. You should also take care with how you handle and disclose your personal information.
Children’s Privacy:
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. You should be aware that the website is not intended or designed to attract children under the age of 13. We do not collect personally identifiable information from any person we actually know is a child under the age of 13.
Changes in this Privacy Statement:
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by e-mail, or by means of a notice on our home page.
International Users:
MomCentral.com is hosted in the United States. If you are using the website from outside the United States, by providing your information to this site, you are consenting to the transfer of your information to the United States for processing and maintaining in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. You are also consenting to the application of United States law in all matters concerning this Site.
Influence Central, Inc., also has an office in Toronto, Canada. When Canadian moms pass through their information to us via the Website, we in turn send it to our office in Canada for that person to receive appropriate communications specific to Canadian moms.
Contact Us:
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:
55 Chapel Street
Suite 300
Newton, MA 02458
617.244.3002
contactus@momcentral.com
