Vinyl Institute Privacy Policy
Effective Date: April 15, 2019
This Privacy Policy informs you about the information the Vinyl Institute, Inc. (“we,” “our,” or “us”) collects when you use the website where this Privacy Policy appears and how we use, share, and protect the information collected. Your use of the website constitutes your agreement with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you should not use the website.
Your use of the website is also subject to the separate Terms and Conditions.
You can click on the links below to be directed to each section of this Privacy Policy.
What information do we collect?
What do we use your information for?
How do we protect and store your information?
Do we use cookies or similar technologies?
What information do we collect?
We collect information voluntarily provided by you, and we collect certain information automatically when you use the website. For example, we collect information voluntarily provided by you when you sign up to receive e-mail updates, interact with the website, or contact us with a request, question, or comment. The information collected depends on the feature offered, and may include your first name, last name, e-mail address, mailing address, company name, and phone number.
As a general matter, each time you use the website, the hosting company’s server automatically collects basic technical information, such as your IP address, device information, browser type and operating system, referring domain, clickstream data (e.g., pages viewed and time spent), and access times. We use this information, which does not allow us to contact you, to understand and analyze trends, administer the website, learn about user behavior, and gather demographic information about our users as a whole.
What do we use your information for?
Any of the information we collect from you may be used, either individually or combined, to administer and facilitate use of the website, communicate with you and respond to your requests, register you for e-mail updates, and enhance and improve the website and user experience.
How do we protect and store your information?
We strive to employ reasonable security measures to maintain the security of your personal information. We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt information during transmission. Keep in mind, however, that no data transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure, so we cannot guarantee its absolute security. You transmit information to us at your own risk.
We retain information collected for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which the information is collected, as required by applicable laws, or for other legitimate purposes such as resolving disputes and enforcing our agreements.
We and our third party service providers may use “cookies,” which are identifiers that facilitate the interaction between your computer or device and the website. Different types of cookies, such as session and persistent cookies, are used for different purposes. We and our third party analytics providers may place cookies or use other technologies, such as tags and clear GIFS (sometimes called web beacons), to facilitate site navigation, personalize your experience, perform analytics, and remember your information when you use the website. Information collected through cookies and other technologies may include your IP address, device information, browsing activity, and search engine referrals.
This website may use the following types of cookies:
| Cookie Name | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| ss_cid | 2 years | Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on a site |
| ss_cvr | 2 years | Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on a site |
| ss_cvisit | 30 minutes | Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on a site |
| ss_cvt | 30 minutes | Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on a site |
| ss_cpvisit | 2 years | Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on a site |
| ss_cookieAllowed | 30 days | Remembers if a visitor agreed to placing Analytics cookies on their browser if a site is restricting the placement of cookies |
| Crumb | Session | Prevents cross-site request forgery (CSRF). CSRF is an attack vector that tricks a browserinto taking unwanted action in an application when someone’s logged in. |
| RecentRedirect | 30 minutes | Prevents redirect loops if a site has custom URL redirects. Redirect loops are bad for SEO. |
| CART | 2 weeks | Shows when a visitor adds a product to their cart |
| hasCart | 2 weeks | Tells Squarespace that the visitor has a cart |
| Locked | Session | Prevents the password-protected screen from displaying if a visitor enters the correct site-wide password. |
| SiteUserInfo | 3 years | Identifies a visitor who logs into a customer account |
| SiteUserSecureAuthToken | 3 years | Authenticates a visitor who logs into a customer account |
| Commerce-checkout-state | Session | Stores state of checkout while the visitor is completing their order in PayPal |
| squarespace-popup-overlay | Persistent | Prevents the Promotional Pop-Up from displaying if a visitor dismisses it |
| squarespace-announcement-bar | Persistent | Prevents the Announcement Bar from displaying if a visitor dismisses it |
| Test | Session | Investigates if the browser supports cookies and prevents errors. |
| _ga | 2 years | Used to distinguish users. |
| _gid | 24 hours | Used to distinguish users. |
| _gat | 1 minute | Used to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_<property-id>. |
| AMP_TOKEN | 30 seconds to 1 year | Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. |
| _gac_<property-id> | 90 days | Contains campaign related information for the user. If you have linked your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, Google Ads website conversion tags will read this cookie unless you opt-out. Learn more. |
| __utma | 2 years from set/update | Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
| __utmt | 10 minutes | Used to throttle request rate. |
| __utmb | 30 mins from set/update | Used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
| __utmc | End of browser session | Not used in ga.js. Set for interoperability with urchin.js. Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether the user was in a new session/visit. |
| __utmz | 6 months from set/update | Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached your site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
| __utmv | 2 years from set/update | Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. This cookie is created when a developer uses the _setCustomVar method with a visitor level custom variable. This cookie was also used for the deprecated _setVar method. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
Most web browsers allow you to set preferences about cookies you wish to accept. To control cookies on a device, consult your browser settings and follow the instructions. If you remove or block cookies, you may not be able to use or access certain features.
We may share your personal information with select third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, and servicing you. For example, we may engage third parties to perform the following types of services on our behalf: website hosting; database and server maintenance and security; and sending postal mail and e-mail communications on our behalf.
We will not otherwise share your personal information without your consent, except when we believe release is appropriate to comply with laws, in response to a court order or legal request, to enforce our site policies and to investigate violations, to safeguard this website, or to protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on this page. Any changes will take effect upon posting. Please check back periodically for any changes we may make to this Privacy Policy, as your continued use of this website constitutes your agreement with the then current Privacy Policy.
Contact Us
Vinyl Institute
1747 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 825
Washington, DC 20006
privacy@vinylinfo.org
T: 202.765.2200