FILExt - The File Extension Source

Simple Statement

In simple terms, FILExt collects and stores no information about you except that which is necessary for the proper operation of the FILExt discussion forum. Information collected on submittal and feedback forms on this site is used for data entry and correspondence with you regarding the submission or feedback. Once that correspondence is complete, the data is deleted. Data collected by the discussion forum software is kept in a secure form and only available to the forum software and the FILExt administrator. The data is never used for any purpose except to manage the forum. Of course, any data you input into messages you leave on the forum is available to anyone so use caution when posting messages.

That's it. FILExt never spams and never sends out E-mail except in response to submissions or feedback.

OK, that's the simple form; now...

The Fine Print

This privacy statement covers the site http://filext.com (FILExt). Because FILExt wants to demonstrate a commitment to our users' privacy, FILExt has agreed to disclose the following information practices:

• What personally identifiable information FILExt collects.
• What personally identifiable information third parties collect through the Web site.
• What organization collects the information.
• How FILExt uses the information.
• With whom FILExt may share user information.
• What choices are available to users regarding collection, use and distribution of the information.
• What types of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under FILExt control.
• How users can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should contact FILExt using one of the contact methods described at the bottom of this page.

Information Collection

Computer Knowledge is the sole owner of the information collected on FILExt. Computer Knowledge collects information from our users at several different points on our Web site:

• Web Forms
  The FILExt site has Web forms for submitting file extension information and Feedback to FILExt. These forms ask for your name and E-mail address. If this information is not correctly provided then you can receive no personal feedback to whatever you submit and if there are questions about the submittal they cannot be asked and therefore the submission may be ignored.
• Electronic Discussion Forum
  FILExt maintains an Electronic Discussion Forum. Participation in this forum is optional; however, if you wish to post in the forum you must register. Registration requires a name and E-mail address. This information is not displayed to other users of the forum except the FILExt administrator of the forum. Any information you might provide as part of your posting within the forum is freely available to anyone reading the forum. Providing this information is totally at your discretion.
• Cookies, Log Files, Clear GIFs and Third Parties
  FILExt uses Cookies, Log Files, and Third Parties for various purposes. In general terms, cookies are used to control the appearance of advertising; log files are used to obtain general site use information; third parties are used to feed advertising. These third parties may, in turn, use cookies and clear GIFs for tracking purposes of their own.

Information Use

In general, FILExt uses personal information for one purpose only: providing feedback to submittals made and/or feedback offered. FILExt offers no mailing lists and, except for the database necessary to maintain the discussion forum, maintains no lists of personal information. Once discussion of a particular submittal or feedback item is complete, the name and E-mail address of the person to which correspondence was directed is deleted.

Information collected during sign-up for the FILExt discussion forum is used solely for the management of that forum. Registration is required as a way of making certain that users posting in the forum are known to FILExt. This helps you by keeping inappropriate comments that might have been posted by an anonymous user out of the forum. No other use is made of the information collected. It is maintained in a database accessible only by the forum software and the FILExt administrator. With regard to the discussion forum, please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online, as in a discussion forum, that information can be collected and used by others. In short, by posting personal information online that is publicly accessible, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. FILExt has no control over this.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. Use of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on the FILExt site except that your discussion forum login information may be placed into a cookie should you direct the system to "remember" you when you log in.

The FILExt discussion forum uses both session and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user's hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions. The session cookie tells the forum software your logged-in identification so the software can track your use of the forum and therefore keep track of which messages you have read in the database. This allows the software to present different icons to you, showing you messages you have or have not read as a convenience to you as well as assisting in other forum administrative tasks. The persistent cookie contains your log-in information and will be used by the forum software to automatically log you into the forum on subsequent visits. This makes it unnecesssary for you to reenter the log-in information. If you do not wish this persistent cookie to be set, do not check the box that tells the forum software to remember you in the log-in box. If you do this, you will need to log into the forum each time you visit.

Some of the FILExt business partners use cookies on the FILExt site (for example, advertisers). However, we have no access to or control over these cookies, once we have given permission for them to set cookies for advertising.

This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by FILExt only and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers or affiliates.

Third Party Advertising

The ads appearing on the FILExt Web site are delivered to users by Google Adsense, our Web advertising partner. Information about users' visits to the FILExt site, such as the number of times users have viewed an ad (but not user name, address, or other personal information), is used to serve ads to users on the FILExt site. For more information about how advertising partners collect and use this information please see their privacy statements:

• Google Adsense Privacy Statement

Google Adsense allows some third-party companies access to serve ads in the same place as the Google-served ads. These ads may use the techniques described below as well. If you wish to turn off any such use you will have to visit the website of the company concerned and read their privacy policy and act accordingly. FILExt does not control which companies Google may extend this permission to and so cannot give you specific links to the pricacy statements that might be involved.

Third party advertisers generally use clear GIFs (also known as Web bugs and Web beacons) to track your progress through a Website. These GIFs, once served, can be used to track number of visits to pages and other aggregate data in a manner similar to cookies. No individual data is associated with these clear GIFs.

Clear GIFs can "work with" existing cookies on a computer if they are both from the same advertising company. That means, for example, that if a person visited "www.companyX.com", which uses an advertising company's clear GIF, the advertising company would match the clear GIF's identifier and the advertising company's cookie ID number, to show the past online behavior for that computer. This collected information would then be given to the advertising company.

Affiliates

Affiliates are companies that sell products FILExt feels might be useful to FILExt customers. FILExt trades advertising space to these companies in return for a negotiated percentage of the purchase price for any products you purchase from the affiliate. Links to affiliates from the FILExt site direct you to the company's site or to a retailer the company deals with to sell their products. It's important for you to realize that when you click on one of these affiliate links you are leaving the FILExt site and FILExt has no control over any privacy matters relating to those sites. Once you leave the FILExt site and arrive at an affiliate site you need to check their privacy policy to determine how they use personal information they might collect. At a minimum, affiliate sites will generally set a persistent cookie when you arrive at their site from the FILExt site.

There is no complete listing of Affiliates as they frequently change. When you leave the FILExt site please check the privacy statement for the site you arrive at. You have left the FILExt site when you do not see the FILExt graphic logo in the upper left corner of the Web page or the page is attempting to sell you something. FILExt has no materials (software or otherwise) for sale directly to consumers.

Log Files

Like most standard Web site servers FILExt uses log files. This includes Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Communications from FILExt

Communications from FILExt in response to submittals and/or feedback will generally carry a Computer Knowledge (cknow.com) return address. Automatic responses from the FILExt forum will carry a filext.com address from the user "vb_boss". These are machine-generated responses for such things as sending you a password confirmation when signing on to the forum or reminders when someone has posted to a thread you have marked for watching. Except for the user "vb_boss" you should never see an E-mail with a filext.com "From" address. Any mail received with a filext.com return address other than the above will most likely be a forgery. Unfortunately, the structure of the Internet's E-mail system make such forgeries fairly easy to accomplish (see Joe Job).

Sharing Legal Disclaimer

In general terms, FILExt does not share user's personal information with anyone.

FILExt may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein FILExt has a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on the FILExt Web site.

Links

The FILExt Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that FILExt is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. FILExt encourages users to be aware when they leave the FILExt site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by FILExt.

Security

FILExt takes every precaution to protect users' information. When you submit sensitive information via the FILExt Web site, your information is protected both on-line and off-line. Passwords for the discussion forum are encrypted and even the FILExt administrator has no access to the raw data. Should you forget your password you can ask that it be sent to you by the system. To do that, send your user name to the Webmaster via the contact form or click on the appropriate link on a forum page.

If you have questions about the security at the FILExt site please use the contact information below.

Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information

The main FILExt site collects no personal information that is stored beyond the time necessary to respond to a submission or feedback. Once this action is complete the name and E-mail address are deleted.

The FILExt forum has an option that allows you to change your user profile. To change this information simply click on the change profile link.

Notification of Changes

If FILExt decides to change its privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement.

If, however, FILExt is going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection FILExt will notify users via their recorded E-mail address and by posting to this privacy statement.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the FILExt privacy policy, please contact FILExt using the contact form on the FILExt Web site.

If you prefer contact via postal mail please use the address:

Computer Knowledge
PO Box 5818
Santa Maria, CA 93456-5818
U.S.A.