muskogeeNOW.com's privacy policy

muskogeeNOW.com collects potentially identifying information about you when you visit the site, and especially when you comment on the stories here.

What information we collect when you visit and how we use it

• Your IP Address. When you visit the site, we collect and record your IP address, which is a number that is assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider that is unique to your computer. The reason we collect and record this number is simple: When we count how many people are visiting our site (a number that our advertisers are very interested in), we don't want to count people twice. So when you visit three or four pages on our site, we only count that as one visit, and therefore our numbers don't get artificially inflated. That is the ONLY reason we collect IP addresses when you visit, and the ONLY way we use that information.
• The time of your visit. This information is again used so we can ascertain traffic patterns on the site and determine how better to serve you. Readership patterns help us understand when people use the site and thus how we can most effectively update it to serve them.
• Where you came here from. When you come to our site, you had to get here somehow. Knowing where you came from helps us understand which sites are sending us the most traffic and which marketing efforts are the most effective. Part of our success stems from the fact that we keep our costs low, and honing our marketing efforts is part of that.
• What kind of computer and browser you're using. Understanding this again helps us target both our web design and our efforts in improving how the content from this site is delivered to you.

What information we collect when you comment and how we use it

• Your IP Address. Why do we collect this information twice? Well, the truth is, it's simpler for us to do it that way. We get a lot of spam comments on this site, and using IP address information on comments, we are able to ban most spammers so they are unable to continue submitting spam comments. When you comment, your IP address is recorded with the comment in case you are a spammer. If we later find out you are a spammer, we will use that IP address information to ban you from making further comments.
• Your email address. We use email addresses to verify that an actual person has posted the comment and not a "robot," which is a computer program that posts spam comments on web sites. When you comment, we send an email to the email address you provided, and that email contains a unique authorization code that tells us a real person received the email, and thus the email address is valid and less likely to be a spam robot. In addition, should we need to contact you about your comment, we need to know the email address we have for you is valid. And finally, if you would like to track responses to your comment, we need your email address to enable that feature so we can email you when people have responded. HOW WE WILL NOT USE YOUR EMAIL: We will never send you spam or marketing email, and we will never sell or give your email address to people who do. Furthermore, we do not publish the email address with your comment.

What information we place on your computer and why

• A cookie that stores your name and one that stores your email address. This is to make commenting more efficient for you. Once you have commented on our site, the "Name" and "Email" entry fields disappear from the comment solicitation box so that you don't have to bother entering them again to enter subsequent comments. The cookies allow us to enable that feature. If you would like the cookies gone from your browser, simply click the "Log Out" link that appears next to your name over the comments box.