Internet user privacy is of paramount importance to Compaq Computer Corporation, our advertising sales partner DoubleClick, AltaVista advertisers, end-users and our
web site affiliates. Below is information about our commitment to
protecting the privacy and ensuring the integrity of the medium.
Philosophy of Inclusiveness
When we index the web,
we look first for all publicly available web sites and then look
for the most active web sites. This enables our users to find
information based on a comprehensive and broad index that is
representative of the entire worldwide web. For webmasters, our
inclusiveness of sites regardless of size allows even small web
sites to be found by the millions of users that utilize AltaVista
everyday. In addition to our broad coverage of the web, by actively
indexing the most active web sites - our users have access to the
most up-to-date information on servers that tend to change on a
regular basis.
We do not edit or judge content when we index, unless the content
is in violation of our "Anti Index-Spamming" policy. When we provide
search results to our end-users, we do not make assumptions about
what a user is looking for. Instead, AltaVista provides search tools
such as our Dynamic Categorization Technology (AKA: COW9) that
allows our end-users to choose content based on their interest at a
given time.
AltaVista honors the right not to be included in our index
AltaVista respects the
right to privacy of web sites to not be included in our web index and
utilizes the Robot Exclusion Standard to allow webmasters the
option to ensure that their information is not made available through
the search engine. In addition, individuals who do not want newsgroups
posting included in our index can simply include a " X-no-archive: yes"
in the headers of their message.
AltaVista is Anonymous
Compaq Computer Corporation
and our ad partner, DoubleClick, does not know the name, email
address, phone number, or home address of anybody who visits
AltaVista. All users who receive an ad targeted by DoubleClick's Dart technology remain completely anonymous. Since we do not have any
information concerning names or addresses, we do not sell or rent
any such information to third parties. Because of our efforts to keep
users anonymous, the information DoubleClick has is useful only across
the DoubleClick Network, and only in the context of ad selection.
AltaVista Users can Opt Out of "Cookies"
Cookies are small text
files a Web site can use (thousands of sites are currently using them)
to recognize a repeat visitor to its site. Cookies are not programs
that come onto a user's system and damage files. Compaq Computer
Corporation, ad sales partners for AltaVista, DoubleClick, utilizes
cookies that contain no information about you - only a unique number
that has no meaning whatsoever outside of the DoubleClick Network.
DoubleClick uses this number to track ad exposure to assure a user is
not bombarded with the same ad over and over again.
While we believe that cookies enhance the Web experience for the user
by limiting the repetitiveness of advertising, they are not essential.
If you do not want the frequency of ad exposure controlled, there is
a simple procedure that allows the user to deny or accept this
feature. To find out more about this procedure, please
click here.
While some third parties offer programs to manually delete your
cookies, DoubleClick goes one step further by offering you a "blank"
or "opt-out cookie" to prevent any data from being stored. If you
would like more information on how to opt-out, please
click here.
Compaq Computer Corporation's ad sales partner, DoubleClick, makes
available all information practices at www.doubleclick.net,
including in-depth descriptions of targeting capabilities,
this stance on privacy, and full disclosure on the use of cookies
(above). In addition, we provide all users with the option to contact
them at info@doubleclick.net
with any further questions or concerns.
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