Privacy Policy

Turfgrass.com Privacy Policy and Disclaimer

We will collect no personal information about you unless you choose to provide that information to us.

Here is how we handle information about your visit to our web site:

Information collected and stored automatically

If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the web site, do searches, read pages, or download information, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically.  This information does not identify you personally.  We automatically collect and store only the following information about your visit:

1. The Internet domain (for example, "yourISP.com" if you use a private Internet access account, or "yourUniversity.edu" if you connect from a university's domain) and IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our web site;
2. The type of browser, operating system, and monitor settings used to access our site;
3. The date and time you access our site;
4. The searches you make;
5. The pages you visit; and
6. If you linked to Turfgrass.com from another web site, the address of that web site.

We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors--to learn about the number of visitors to our site, what part of the site they are interested in, how long they use Turfgrass.com, the types of technology our visitors use, and how we can make this site more useful to you and other visitors.

WE DO NOT TRACK OR RECORD INFORMATION ABOUT THE IDENTITY OF INDIVIDUALS AND THEIR VISITS

We do sometimes write a small file on your computer – a "cookie."  If you do not return, the cookie automatically expires after 1 year or less.  For example, if you choose to set your preferences on the Turfgrass Forums, the cookie is used record your preferences, e.g., the number of days of topics to view, or to store your password on your PC, if you choose.  A cookie is also used to track the time of your last visit, that way you can see a little yellow light bulb to indicate for any forum, "New Posts Since Your Last Visit."  Other than cookies, and the 6 items described above, we do not obtain any information from you or the computer you use to access Turfgrass.com

If you post a message on the Turfgrass Forums

If you post a message, a topic or a reply, we anticipate that it will be retained indefinitely.  While you must use an author "name" in posting a message, this may be a trivial or fictitious name or "handle" not associated with you directly.  If you voluntarily post other personal information, that is your choice, and not necessary to use the Turfgrass Forums.

If you register to use Turfgrass Forums

To reduce the number of postings for inappropriate or unrelated services and products, aka "spam", registration on Turfgrass Forums is usually required to post a message, but not to visit the forums or to read postings.  Registration also gives you the opportunity to edit your post later, by using a password.  If you do register, you must supply an email address and a name or "handle" for administrative purposes, but you do not need to provide any other information.  The "administrative purposes" for which your email address will be used include recovery of a lost password, and infrequent announcements about the functionality of the Turfgrass Forums, such as bugs and major changes.

Any other information that you do provide, in the form of a "Profile" is entirely optional, and at your discretion.  It may include a home page, occupation, location, interests, and ICQ number, which will be on public view.  In addition, your date of registration, the total number of your posts, and your status (whether a Friend, Turf Master who posts frequently, or Moderator) will be tracked automatically and on public view.  Your email address will not be on public view, unless you purposely include it in a message or somewhere other than your registration.

If you subscribe to a mailing list

If you subscribe to a mailing list, then you must supply an email address which will be used only for electronically mailing you the newsletter.  If you also post a message to the newsletter, then all the information you send, including your name, email address, and the content of your message may be published to other subscribers of the electronic newsletter, but may also be edited or declined.

If you send us personal information

If send us email, your identity and other personal details will be kept private unless you specifically tell us otherwise.  The contents of your message may be used by us in a legal manner to reply to you, to assess general problems in turfgrass, and may be excerpted or paraphrased for use in advising others.  For example, if you ask a question about the maintenance of a particular kind of grass in a particular state and country, we may quote a portion of your question in describing a general problem and a solution which will help others.

Be assured that:

1. Your personal information such as you name, email address, and other personal identifiers, will not be shared with anyone not directly associated with Turfgrass.com
2. Your email address will not be provided to any third party or used for any electronic mailing lists, public or private.

The only exceptions to the above points would be pursuant to a bona fide Court Order.

The use we will make of your information is to

1. Consider your suggestions.
2. Possibly respond directly to you for clarification.
3. Process your request for materials if you make one.
4. Try and answer your questions if you ask them.
5. Help others with similar questions.

Links to Other Sites

Our web site has links to other sites.  Once you link to another site, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.

Minors

We at Turfgrass.com are especially concerned about protecting children's privacy.  While we anticipate that there will be no material on Turfgrass.com which would be harmful to minors, we believe that children under the age of 13 should not and will not use the site without parental or teacher involvement.  We urge parents and teachers to be involved in children's Internet explorations.  It is particularly important for parents to guide their children when children are asked to provide personal information online.  We always suggest that children get their parents' or guardians' permission before providing any information online--at our site or any other site--and hope parents and guardians will always be involved in those decisions.  Most importantly, when children do provide information through this web site, it is only used to enable us to respond to the writer, and not to create profiles of children.

Intrusion detection

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, we employ software programs to monitor traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.  In the event of authorized law enforcement investigations, and pursuant to any required legal process, which may include but is not limited to a bona fide Court Order, information from these sources may be used to help identify an individual who is suspected of breaking the law.

Questions or concerns about Turfgrass.com privacy

If you have any questions or concerns about Turfgrass.com, please feel free to contact:
turfgrass.com/contact/

Thank you for using Turfgrass.com.

Use of our material and information

All materials on the Turfgrass.com web site are Copyrighted and are protected from unauthorized use by Federal law and Common Law.  Any request for use of the material must be directed to: turfgrass.com/contact/ Except for specific authorization, and except for Fair Use, any other use of Turfgrass.com materials is a violation of the Copyright(s).

Turfgrass.com is provided by Turfscience
P. O. Box 290067, Fort Lauderdale, FL  33329
954-236-8622