Sonoma County Wine Auction has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for the website: www.winecelebration.sonomawine.com.
PERSONAL INFORMATION AND DATA GATHERING
Sonoma County Wine Auction often uses third-party development partners to assist in online development and deployment as well as in data and information collection. These companies are strictly bound by our privacy policy covered below, as well as by all other conventions and business practices of Sonoma County Wine Auction concerning user information and data from online sources. For the purposes of this document, the terms “We,” “Us” and “Sonoma County Wine Auction” also represent these third-party developers.
We collect anonymous information from visits to our site to help us understand the usage patterns of our site, and to provide better customer service. Information collected in this manner is provided automatically by your system and the systems that you use to connect to our site. For example, we keep track of what time people enter our site, how long they stay on the site, and what sections they visit on the site. This information is kept in aggregate, anonymous format. We use this information to better tailor our site for our visitors and their usage patterns, as well as to gauge performance and other measures of the site, again in anonymous and aggregate format.
Cookies are sometimes used to further track usage patterns of the site by users in aggregate and anonymous format. Cookies left on your system by our site are sometimes used for the purpose of allowing users the convenience of not having to re-enter usernames and passwords on our site, however, no username or password information is kept on your local machine. Only a unique identifier is kept on your system that will allow you to access the records stored on our secure, password-protected server(s). No financial or personal information will ever be left on your system in the form of a cookie.
Registration is required to use certain features of our site. We will collect general contact information, such as name and e-mail address, as well as demographic information, such as age, gender and zip code. Data collected from online user-completed forms is stored in secure, password-protected server locations. Demographic information collected is used to help us, or our partners, to analyze our aggregate user base and better tailor our site, promotions or other features to better serve that user base. Contact information is also used to better understand our user base.
From time to time, Sonoma County Wine Auction will contact our registered users who have opted in to be e-mailed with promotional information that we feel would be applicable to, and desired by that user. At any time a user wishes to opt-out of these e-mails, they may do so by contacting us via our online form. Once opted-out, the user will not receive any further communication from us, aside from any system messages that are necessary to that user in specific transactions, such as e-commerce order summaries.
FURTHER USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION AND DATA GATHERED BY SONOMA COUNTY WINE AUCTION
Sonoma County Wine Auction will occasionally utilize partners and vendors to assist it in analysis of the data and information collected by our sites. This information is used in aggregate and anonymous format for the purpose of better tailoring our website, promotions or other company endeavors to better suit our user base. This information is shared with our partners and vendors only on an as-needed basis. Financial information will never be shared with any organization other than those necessary for completing the financial transaction required.
On occasion, Sonoma County Wine Auction may sponsor sweepstakes and other promotions that are managed by third-party organizations. Information and data gathered in those instances will be held by the third-party and will normally be shared with Sonoma County Wine Auction. Once shared, that data and information is subject to Sonoma County Wine Auction’s stated privacy policy. Information and data retained by the third-party will be subject to the privacy policy stated by the third-party. Sonoma County Wine Auction will make a reasonable best-effort to have the third-party utilize that information in accordance with Sonoma County Wine Auction’s stated privacy policy, however, cannot take final responsibility for the third-party’s actions.
Sonoma County Wine Auction may share any data and information gathered on its branded websites with other internal Sonoma County Wine Auction or Sonoma County Wine Auction branded website owners and managers. Information shared will still be subject to this privacy policy.
Information and data gathered solely by Sonoma County Wine Auction will never be sold, traded or shared with third-parties for any other reason than assisting Sonoma County Wine Auction in its analysis, research and promotional needs.
This site may contain links to other sites. Sonoma County Wine Auction is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.
PUBLIC FORUMS
This site may make chat rooms, forums, message boards, and/or news groups available to its users. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information. We also encourage visitors to be courteous in communicating with others and to be smart about choosing when and to whom to release personal information online. Never disclose any personal information that is of a sensitive or confidential nature on any public area of our site.
SECURITY
This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. All registration information is stored in secure locations on password-protected servers.
CHOICE/OPT-OUT
Our site provides users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from our partners at the point where we request information about the visitor. Please contact us via our online form to “opt-out” of this feature, and have yourself removed from our databases. This will not affect the use of cookies and other system data that we gather from you, as this is generally anonymous information that is used in aggregate form.
