This site, www.outdoors.org, and related subsites, such as White Mountain Guide Online, are owned and operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At the AMC, we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.

Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand our policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.

GATHERING AND TRACKING OF INFORMATION
The AMC gathers two types of information about users:

• Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. This information is collected when, for example, users sign up to receive our electronic newsletters, email a friend, participate in interactive features (e.g. polls, surveys, BBS), make a donation, apply for a seasonal job, or become a member.
• Information the AMC gathers through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows us to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to better understand the demographics of our audience. Under no circumstances does the AMC divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.

The AMC Gathers User Information In The Following Processes:

Optional Voluntary Information
We offer the following free services, which require some type of voluntary submission of personal information by users:

1. Electronic newsletters policy: We offer free electronic newsletters to users. The AMC gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe and its members. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every newsletter that points users to the subscription management page.
2. AMC Bulletin Board System (BBS) and Community: Users of the site's BBS and Community features must register separately for these services (both are free of charge) in order to post messages, although they need not register to visit the site. During registration the user may be required to supply information such as a username, password, email address, and mailing address.
3. "E-mail a friend" policy: Our site users can choose to electronically forward a link or page to someone else by clicking "e-mail a friend". The user must provide their email address, as well as that of the recipient. This information is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient know who sent the email. The information is not used for any other purpose.
4. Polling: We may offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other users and see what our audience thinks about important issues. Opinions or other responses to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. The AMC may use a system to "tag" users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual users.
5. Surveys: The AMC may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our sponsors, advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.

Children
Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without obtaining parental consent.

Usage tracking
The AMC tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. The AMC does break down overall usage statistics according to a user's domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user's browser).

The AMC may track and catalog the search terms that users enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.

Cookies
We may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. The AMC uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above).

You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in our BBS, Community, online store, polling and surveys.

USE OF INFORMATION
The AMC uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in our network of sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our users>

It is our intention to send only e-mail communications that will be useful to you and that you want to receive. When you join the AMC, renew your membership, make a reservation, take action through the Conservation Action Network, or register for a program and provide your email address, we may contact you via e-mail to provide information about conservation issues and update you on AMC activities and promotions that may be of interest to you. If you are a member of one of our e-newsletters, we may invite you to join other AMC e-newsletters.

As stated above, we use information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. The AMC never shares e-newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners. except in very limited circumstances as explained in Sharing of Information below where a third party service is only permitted to use information to provide a service to AMC or a service or product to a site user.

We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you. We may track search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what interests our users. But we don't track which terms a particular user enters>

The AMC creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers, sponsors and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their needs. Because we don't track the usage patterns of individual users, an advertiser or sponsor will never know that a specific user clicked on their ad. We will not disclose any information about any individual user except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public>

SHARING OF THE INFORMATION
The AMC uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and better understand our audience's demographics>

The AMC does not sell or exchange email addresses. In some instances, we use third-party companies to help us provide products and services to you, like a service that sends out our emails and e-newsletters or an order fulfillment house. In those instances we need to share your email address with them. We require that those companies use the information only to deliver the specific product or service they are contracted to provide>

In some cases, we use a third-party email service provider to send emails. The service provider is prohibited from using your email address for any purpose other than to send AMC-related email. Every time you receive an email newsletter, you will be provided the choice to opt-out of future emails by following the instructions provided in the email>

When you become a member of the AMC, we do not share your phone number with other organizations. Some information on our membership lists, such as your name and physical street address, may be rented or exchanged on a reciprocal basis with other organizations This policy applies whether you apply for membership through our website or through other means. If you do not want your name exchanged or rented, please email or call Member Services at amcmembership@outdoors.org or 800-372-1758 and let us know you want your name removed from the AMC's list. You can also write: Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Assoc., Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512, or call 212-768-7277 and ask that your name be removed from all mailing lists. We use third-party companies to help us provide products and services to you. In those instances we need to share your personal information with them. We require that those companies use the information only to deliver the specific product or service they are contracted to provide>

We may release personal information if required by law, for example, to comply with a court order or subpoena>

SECURITY
The AMC makes every effort to ensure the secure collection and transmission of sensitive user information using industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies. For example, when entering personal address, phone number, and credit card information, we use Secure Socket Layer encryption to ensure unauthorized individuals cannot intercept and read this data over a network connection. You will know you are in secure mode when the padlock or key icon in the lower right-hand or left-hand corner of the computer screen appears in the locked position. In addition, when accessing a secure server, the first characters of the site address will change from "http" to "https." Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our customers>

OPT-OUT POLICY
We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include>

• Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters.
• Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users

YOUR CONSENT
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by the AMC. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it>

Questions: Any questions on this privacy policy may be sent to: webeditor@outdoors.org>