The information on this web site is a public resource of general information, which is intended, but not promised or guaranteed, to be correct, complete and up-to-date.
Any User interacting with our site and providing any State Ventures site including, but not limited to, OceanCity.com, Annapolis.com, Shore Craft Beer, ShoreCraftBeerFest.com, Maryland.com, Virginia.com, North Carolina.com, Pennsylvania.com, and CollegePark.com, with name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, domain name or URL or any other personally identifiable information permits State Ventures to use such information for commercial purposes of its own, including contacting Users about products and services which may be of interest. For each visitor to our Web Site, our Web server recognizes only the visitor’s domain name, not the e-mail address. We collect information volunteered by the visitor, such as form submittals and/or site registrations. This information is used to improve the content of our Web site. Any User who does not wish to receive further contacts from any of the State Ventures sites should send State Ventures a specific request (i.e., stating do not use or do not share or both) by certified mail or by regular mail clearly marked ‘Privacy-Urgent’ addressed as follows:
CEO
State Ventures, LLC
4 Bay Street, Suite D
Berlin, MD 21811
State Ventures does not sell, rent or otherwise disclose its mailing lists to third parties.
State Ventures reserves the right to modify this Acceptable Use Policy at any time in its sole and absolute discretion.
We may use outside companies to display ads and collect information on our site. These ads may contain cookies for optimization purposes, and we do not have access to this information. These companies may use this information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements on site, other Web sites and other forms of media about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information. For more information, or to learn about opting-out of such advertising technologies, please visit: https://www.networkadvertising.org
This privacy statement covers the websites published by State Ventures. Because this website wants to demonstrate its commitment to our users’ privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices.
If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should first contact us.
State Ventures is the sole owner of the information collected on any of our websites and its other registered domain names. State Ventures collects information from our users at several different points on our website.
We store information that we collect through cookies, log files, clear gifs, and/or third parties to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users that details their viewing preferences. Consequently, collected information is tied to the users personally identifiable information to provide offers and improve the content of the site for the user. This profile is used to tailor a user’s visit to our website, and to direct pertinent marketing promotions to them. Your profile is shared in aggregate form only together with your personally identifiable information.
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. We use both session ID cookies 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.
By setting a cookie on our site, users would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site. See the “Profile” section.
Some of our business partners use cookies on our 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.
Like most standard website servers we use 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.
We employ (or our third party advertising company employs) a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
Clear Gifs can “work with” existing cookies on a computer if they are both from the same website or advertising company. That means, for example, that if a person visited “www.companyX.com”, which uses an advertising company’s clear gif, the website (or 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 (or website).
In addition, we use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If users would like to opt-out of these emails, please see the Opt-out section.
We may send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.
If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter, we ask for contact information such as name and email address. Out of respect for our users privacy we provide a way to opt-out of these communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.
On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.
Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our website.
We share aggregated demographic information with our partners and advertisers. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.
State Ventures may share website usage information about users with a reputable third party for the purpose of targeting our Internet banner advertisements on this site and other sites. For example, State Ventures uses cookies and clear GIFs on this site, which allow them to recognize a user’s cookie when a user visits this site. The information they collect and share through this technology is not personally identifiable.
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads and collect information when users visit our site. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements on our site, other websites and other forms of media about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, check out https://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.
These are the instances in which we will share users’ personal information:
Service Providers
We may partner with other third parties to provide specific services. When the user signs up for these particular services, we share names, or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. These third parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.
Links
This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, State Ventures, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website.
Surveys [& Contests]
From time-to-time our site may request information from users via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code). Survey information generally will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.
Chat Rooms, Message Boards, and Public Forums
Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online – for example on message boards, through e-mail, or in chat areas – 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.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement.