Privacy Policy

CompuServe's Privacy Policy - An Overview

CompuServe Interactive Services, Inc. is strongly committed to protecting the privacy of consumers of its interactive products and services. Throughout cyberspace, we want to contribute to providing a safe and secure environment for consumers, and in particular, ensure that kids' information is protected.

While this privacy policy applies to the CompuServe.co.uk site and all of the other Internet-accessible CompuServe-branded services, like CompuServe Instant Messenger (CSIM), we will refer here only to CompuServe.co.uk to make reading this policy easier. The CompuServe online service has a separate privacy policy for its members. If you are a CompuServe member, you can find that policy within our Terms of Service. The purpose of this CompuServe.co.uk privacy policy is to inform you, as a welcome visitor to CompuServe.co.uk, what kinds of information we may gather about you when you visit CompuServe.co.uk, how we may use that information, whether we disclose it to anyone, and the choices you have regarding our use of, and your ability to correct, the information. Finally, please note that this policy applies only to CompuServe.co.uk and Web sites that carry the CompuServe brand, and not to other companies' or organizations' Web sites to which we link. We have clearly marked CompuServe.co.uk and these branded Web sites with our logo so you know where this policy applies.

Information About All CompuServe.co.uk Visitors

In general, our service automatically gathers certain usage information like the numbers and frequency of visitors to CompuServe.co.uk and its areas, very much like television ratings that tell the networks how many people tuned in to a program. We only use such data in the aggregate. This collective data helps us determine how much our customers use parts of the site, so we can improve our site to assure that it is as appealing as we can make it for as many of you as possible. For example, CompuServe.co.uk uses a technology nicknamed "cookies" to save your customization preferences for the top page on CompuServe.co.uk. CompuServe does not combine information collected through cookies with other personally identifiable information to tell us who you are or even what your member name, user ID or e-mail address is. We also may provide statistical "ratings" information, never information about you personally, to our CompuServe partners about how our members, collectively, use CompuServe. We do this so they too can understand how much people use their areas and our site in order for them to provide you with the best possible Web experience as well.

Information About You

Sometimes, we may specifically ask for information about you when you sign up to use a service, like CompuServe Instant Messenger (CSIM), or when you order a product. We will need certain information -- such as name, Internet address, user ID or member name, billing address, type of computer, credit card number -- in order to provide that service or product to you. We may also use that information to let you know of additional products and services about which you might be interested. We may ask you for information about your interests so that both you and we can take advantage of the interactivity of the online medium, but you may always choose to respond or not. Additionally, we may provide you with an opportunity to be listed in a directory on one of our CompuServe-branded services -- these listings are also optional and you can make changes to or eliminate this information when you want to.

Disclosure

We do not use or disclose information about your individual visits to CompuServe.co.uk or information that you may give us, such as your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number, to any outside companies. But as we mention above, we may share with our Web site partners aggregated statistical "ratings" information about the use of CompuServe.co.uk.

Special Attention to Kids

CompuServe Interactive Services, Inc. takes special care to protect the safety and privacy of young people using our services. We do not specifically collect information about children and believe that children should get their parents' consent before giving out any personal information. We encourage you to participate in your child's experience in cyberspace and to review our important safety tips before your child explores the Internet. CompuServe recommends that parents who are CompuServe members use CompuServe's Adult Controls and/or Parental Controls or, if not, other Web filtering technology to supervise their kids' access to the Web.

CompuServe.co.uk Privacy Policy Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy for CompuServe.co.uk, we will post those changes here so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information and whether we will disclose it to anyone.

Remember: CompuServe employees will NEVER ask for your password. Don't give your password or billing information out to anyone. IF you are at all worried about your account security please GO SECURITY.