Privacy Policy

This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for American Western Magazine ("ReadTheWest.com") online at ReadTheWest.com.

Because this website wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices. Occasionally ReadTheWest.com uses third parties, referred to as Partner sites, for some services offered on this website. In those instances you should contact the Partner site to determine their privacy policy, if any, that applies to the Partner's collection and use of such information. However, in no event shall ReadTheWest.com be liable for Partner's use or disclosure of such information.

This website has agreed to notify you of:

1. What personally identifiable information of yours or third party personally identification is collected from you through the web site

2. The organization collecting the information

3. How the information is used

4. With whom the information may be shared

5. The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under the control of ReadTheWest.com

If you feel that this company is not abiding by its posted privacy policy, you should direct an email to American Western Magazine at . Your inquiry will then be acknowledged and addressed.

The terms "we", "us" and "our" refer to ReadTheWest.com.

Information Collection and Use
Other than some services provided by Partner sites, American Western Magazine is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. American Western Magazine collects information from our users at several different points on our website.

Registration
In order to use the free email service and several of the forum boards offered on this website, a user must first complete a registration form and end-user's agreement as provided by a Partner site. The free email service is provided to American Western Magazine through a third party service provider. During registration a user is offered the opportunity to reject the end-user agreement. Should the user wish to continue with registration, the user is required to give their contact information (such as name and email address). This information is used to contact the user about the services on our site for which they have expressed interest. It is OPTIONAL for the user to provide demographic information (such as income level and gender). Click here for more information about this Partner's Privacy Policy.

ReadTheWest.com Shopping Cart Orders
We request information from the user on our order form. Orders are processed through a third party site, which offers a secured credit card processing company that bills users for goods and services they wish to purchase directly from our site. During the order process, a user must provide contact information (name and shipping address) and financial information (credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customers orders. Credit card information remains secure and is not shared with ReadTheWest.com nor with any seller for whom we have arranged to list their products and make such merchandise available for purchase on our site through this open market feature.

However, ReadTheWest.com does provide the seller with user's contact information (name, email and shipping address) which is needed by the seller to process the order. If the seller has trouble processing an order, this contact information is used to get in touch with the user.

ReadTheWest.com does not maintain a physical inventory of products or merchandise available for sale onsite, nor do we have direct involvement with online sales other than to provide an open online market for goods. Therefore ReadTheWest.com does not assume responsibility for lost or damaged goods, returns, or product refunds or credits purchased through this site.

In no event shall ReadTheWest.com be liable for any claims against the products or merchandise offered onsite.

In such cases the user must address these issues directly with the seller or the company who actually shipped the product or merchandise.

ReadTheWest.com takes pride in providing a friendly Western community to our online users. In such cases when the user is dissatisfied with the response of any seller participating in our online market, the user may file a complaint against the seller by sending us an email. Although ReadTheWest.com cannot act as a mediator between user and seller, nor do we have the right to otherwise seek to resolve or take action in such disputes, we do reserve the right to refuse seller space in our open online market as serviced by ReadTheWest.com Shopping Carts, and may otherwise cease relations with seller should numerous complaints be filed against seller.

Requests for merchandise catalogs must be addressed directly to the seller.

Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the users hard drive containing information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. Once the user closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates. If a user rejects the cookie, they may still use our site. Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.

Some of our business partners use cookies on our site (for example, Amazon.com and other advertisers). However, we have no access to or control over these cookies.

Log Files
We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track users movement onsite, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

American Western Magazine uses WebTrends Live to analyze traffic to this web site. WebTrends Live does not create individual profiles for visitors. Unlike some tracking services WebTrends Live does not have a database of individual profiles for each visitor. WebTrends Live only collects aggregate data. For more information about WebTrends Live privacy policy, please click here.

Sharing
Occasionally we will share only aggregated demographic and market information with our Partners and advertisers. This information is not shared with individual contributors, link sponsors, content providers or sellers participating in our online open market. Additionally, this information is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person.

Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with services that require an outside party, or not.

Links
This website contains a massive amount of links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website.

Newsletter Subscriptions - Opt-in
If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter or join our community, we ask for contact information such as name and email address, as well as a few questions which help us define our audience demographically.

The ReadTheWest.com newsletter is strictly an opt-in newsletter; this opt-in/opt-out service is provided by a third party service, whereby we rely upon this service to send to all new subscribers of our newsletter a welcoming email which acts to verify the email address as submitted and the request to be added to the our newsletter list, as well as to verify password and username.

Our newsletter subscribers and community members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals available only through our newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see how to opt-out below.

Newsletter Opt-out
Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter or promotional materials from our partners may opt-out of receiving these communications directly by replying to the "unsubscribe" link provided within the body of each newsletter, or by emailing us an .

Spamming
Spamming is the unforgivable practice in which unscrupulous surfers and webmasters "harvest" email addresses from public posting areas throughout the Internet, such as enews groups, guestbooks, online forums and chatrooms. These harvested email addresses are then sold or most often added to their own mailing lists without the addressee's knowledge or explicit opt-in request, resulting in a lot of unwanted email to a user's mail box. Spamming is against the law in most states and is NOT practiced nor tolerated by ReadTheWest.com. To help guard against this abuse, ReadTheWest.com requests that users refrain from posting their email address in any of the public areas onsite.

If a user suspects spamming practices are falsely being made in the name of ReadTheWest.com, user is asked to notify ReadTheWest.com immediately so that we may track down the spam originator and take appropriate action.

Surveys & Contests
From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level). Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.

In the event an advertiser offers a contest or sweepstake on our site, and the advertiser requests all contact information of user (name, email and mailing address, etc.), ReadTheWest.com will post notice on all such sweepstake entry forms onsite so that user may be informed. The rules and legal disclaimers of such sweepstakes will be provided directly by the advertiser and will appear on the entry form.

Security
This website takes every precaution to protect our users information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and off-line. All emails are kept confidential and are not shared with third parties.

When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when you are just surfing.

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our users information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices.

Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our main page so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.