This is the web site of:
www.WatchCount.com . We can be reached via e-mail in 2 ways on our
Contact Us page, and via the email address publicly registered in the web's Whois database.
For each visitor to our web site/pages, our web server automatically recognizes and collects the visitor's IP address. Information about searches performed on this site and public browser data ("referrers", "user agents", etc.) are also collected. This information we collect is used to track hits to our website, as part of security measures, and to assess a general understanding of how our visitors are using our site. We don't share this collected information with any 3rd party (exception: in the extremely rare circumstance that eBay should ask us for it, we'll hand over said info), although a portion of this data is temporarily retained by
StatCounter.com for a few hours (or days) and discarded on a rolling basis.
With respect to ad servers: To try and bring you offers that are related to the theme of our site, we have relationships with other companies (namely,
Google) that we allow to place ads on our web pages. As a result of your visit to our site, said ad server companies may collect
general, non-personally-identifiable information such as your domain type, your IP address and clickstream information. For further information, consult the privacy policies of:
http://www.Google.com/privacy.html . You can see Google's list of approved third-party advertising companies (and links to their sites and policies) here:
https://www.Google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94149 .
With respect to cookies that are issued to, or subsequently retrieved from, our visitors' browsers: We use cookies to record session information ("temporary/transient/session cookies") so that our services operate properly for each visitor. We also may receive anonymous referrals/sales commissions from
eBay if visitors make purchases on eBay after clicking through to eBay while using our site (such cookies are issued by
eBay.com itself). Moreover, we use cookies to track repeated hits to our site (such cookies are issued by
StatCounter.com as well as this site). Google, and its 3rd-party advertisers, too may issue and read cookies to/from your browser when you click on their ads served on this site. Web beacons may also be used to collect public, non-personally-identifiable information such as the country you are visiting from. (Sure seems like we track a lot of stuff, huh... Not really; it's all fairly common statistics and referral information that webmasters like us typically want to review in aggregate form.)
None of the above cookies or web beacons track personally identifiable information, nor do they track activities beyond the 4 sites mentioned (possible exception: we can't speak for how Google tracks activities after clicking through one of their, or their partners', ads). You can easily remove or block these persistent ("non-transient") cookies from your browser by using functions/settings within your browser. If you do so, you are still more than welcome to continue using our site, although temporary/session cookies are still required for our site to function correctly. Session cookies are easily removed by closing all of your browser windows, or shutting down your computer, or simply detonating your computer with dynamite (although such drastic measures are rarely needed). Your public, non-personally-identifiable information that is seen by web beacons can be shielded by said web beacons simply by disabling image downloads in your browser (simply closing your eyes won't help).
(Side note: Generally speaking, you can actually surf the web in a near-invisible manner by disabling most functions in your browser, like: images, JavaScript, and cookies - however most sites won't work properly for you without them.)
If you use our
WatchCount.com Widget (WCW) or
Dynamic Watch This Item Link (DWTIL) on any web pages, we may collect the IP addresses of visitors to those pages (or maybe just if/when they click through). This information is used to help us monitor the performance of our services, mitigate abuse, and provide a basis for analysis of aggregate data. Such information won't be released to any 3rd party (exception: eBay, as mentioned up above). We do not issue or read cookies to visitors who merely view a WCW or DWTIL, although if they click through to our site, they may receive cookies as stated up above.
From time to time, we may use this general, non-personally-identifiable customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in this privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the policy changes to our web site on this web page to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our web site periodically.
With respect to security: Since we don't collect any personally identifiable or sensitive information from our visitors, we do not use encryption or high-security protocols.
Cookies, web beacons, IP addresses, ad servers... Don't worry; these things are all fairly standard with most any website you visit and are almost always used in benign ways, such as helping the website function properly and cleanly for its visitors. We fall into that majority.
If you feel that our site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact state or local chapters of the Better Business Bureau - but first please give us a shout via our
Contact Us page; we'd rather not have the BBB breaking down our door or prank calling us in the middle of the night.
Thanks for your time. We tried to keep this short and sweet to minimize boredom. (
Did we succeed?)
