Last Amended: January 22, 2007
Effective March 1, 2000
To protect your privacy, we provide this notice explaining our complete online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make it available on our home page and at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested.
- The Information We Collect
- How We Use Information
- Cookies
- PC Pitstop Support Forums
- Our Commitment to Data Security
- How You Can Access or Correct Your Information
- How to Contact Us
Your privacy is important to us. By participating in the Council of Better Business Bureau’s BBBOnLine� Privacy Program, we have committed to meet the program’s strict requirements regarding how we treat your information and have it verified by BBBOnLine. Further information about this program is available at bbbonline.org.
The Information We Collect
Account information:
The test process at PC Pitstop prompts you to create an account so that you can save the results for later analysis or comparisons.
To create an account, you enter your name (or nickname) and e-mail as part of the registration process. While we suggest you create an account for greater convenience in testing, you may instead use the site anonymously without supplying a name or email address.
System information:
Tests at PC Pitstop do not access any personal information (such as the contents of personal documents or web browsing history) stored on a PC. The data collected from the PC includes items such as:
- System board, BIOS, CPU, video, and memory configuration;
- Disk drives, disk controllers, and installed hardware;
- System name, Windows version, and browser type;
- System status such as CPU load and available disk space;
- Programs running during testing.
- Software installed on your PC.
Cookies:
We use cookies on the site to provide memory of your session and (if you request it) for convenience items such as remembering your login information. For a full explanation of the cookies we use, and how we use them, see the Cookies section of this statement.
How We Use Information
Account information:
The personal information that you voluntarily give us (name and e-mail address) is kept strictly confidential, and will not be sold or made available outside of PC Pitstop. When you create or change your account, we will send a message to the email address confirming the changes made and options you have chosen. PC Pitstop periodically distributes an e-mail newsletter, and you choose whether you want to receive a newsletter from us when you create your account. If you later decide not to receive the newsletter, you can remove yourself from the mailing list at any time; see How You Can Access Or Correct Your Information.
System information:
The information we collect about your PC is stored in our database, analyzed then presented to you in summary and detailed reports, along with any tips that you can implement to improve system performance. How you use these recommendations is up to you; the tips are not automatically implemented and no changes are made to your system configuration.
PC Pitstop’s TechExpress feature gives registered users the opportunity to e-mail their tests results to friends, colleagues or support technicians. Since the system information collected by PC Pitstop is very detailed, PC Pitstop advises its visitors to ensure that their system results do not compromise their privacy before sharing their results.
As part of our market research model, we collect aggregate information about all of the PCs tested at our site. This data is derived directly from the PC Pitstop system data collection described above. During this process, your anonymity will be 100% protected. We only look at trends in totality, not at the individual level. Examples of the types of market research reports we produce can be found here:Research.
Cookies
PC Pitstop cookies:
To be able to remember your computer’s test results as you use our site, we use cookies. PC Pitstop does not use cookies to track PCs in locations outside our site. No personal information is collected through the use of PC Pitstop’s cookies. You must accept some cookies for the site to work, but others are optional. Details on all the cookies used at PC Pitstop are available here:Cookies FAQ.
Third-party cookies:
PC Pitstop uses banner advertising throughout its site that is sold by third-party agencies such as Tribal Fusion, and they may place and collect cookie information. The PC Pitstop site does not control the issuing or use of third-party cookies; they are not required, and you may reject or delete them if you choose. The privacy policies for these ad companies differ from PC Pitstop’s; you may review their policies and/or contact the agencies via their Web sites: Tribal Fusion,
Commission Junction,
DoubleClick.
PC Pitstop Support Forums
PC Pitstop’s Support Forums are located at http://support.pcpitstop.com/. The forums are used for technical support about issues within PC Pitstop. Postings you make on the forums will become publicly viewable. Registration on the forums is separate from registration on the main site, and requires a publicly viewable name (or nickname) and an email address that can be kept private. Users may change their forums profile at any time by clicking on the “My Controls” link at the top of each forums page. Email addresses collected from registrations on our support forums are covered by the privacy policies discussed in this document.
Our Commitment to Data Security
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
How You Can Access Or Correct Your Information
Account information:
When you have created an account, you can access to review all your personally identifiable information that we collect at any time. Browse to https://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/default.asp
and log in with your e-mail address and password. You may then change your login information by selecting the Change Login link. Click here to update your newsletter profile or opt-out of our newsletter. For instructions on changing your forums profile, see the PC Pitstop Support Forums section above.
If you have forgotten your password, we provide a mechanism that e-mails your password to you. Since the “forgot my password” feature sends your password to the email address that you used for registration, do not use an email address that can be accessed by others that you would not want to see or change your PC Pitstop account information.
System information:
If you have created an account, you can review or delete the system information saved about the computers you have tested. Go to the Full Tests page at https://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/default.asp,
log into the site, and click the “View previous test results” link. From this page you can view or delete all your saved results.
How to Contact Us
Should you have any other questions or concerns about these privacy policies, please contact us via our web site feedback page at https://www.pcpitstop.com/contact.asp.