Privacy Policy

Unregistered users

We encourage you to register with us in order to take advantage of FreeAutoMechanic's many personalization features. However, you may choose not to register and take advantage of any feature of our site where registration is not required.

If you do not register, then the information we collect from you is limited. We log your IP address in order to help diagnose problems with our server, administer our Web site and track usage statistics. Your IP address may vary each time you visit, or it may be the same, depending on whether you access our site through an always-on type of Internet connection (e.g., cable modem or DSL), or through a dial-up connection (e.g., AOL or Earthlink). Either way, it would be extremely difficult for us to identify you through your IP address, and we make no attempt to do so. If you reached our site by clicking on a link or advertisement on another site, then we also log that information. This helps us to maximize our Internet exposure, and to understand the interests of our users. All of this information is collected and used only in the aggregate; that is, it is entered into our database, where we can use it to generate overall reports on our visitors, but not reports about individual visitors.

We also place a small file known as a "cookie" on your computer's hard drive. A cookie may contain information that allows us to track your path through our Web site and to determine whether you have visited us before. However, unless you register with us, it contains no personally identifiable information that would allow us to identify you. Cookies cannot be used to read data off of your hard drive, and cannot retrieve information from any other cookies created by other Web sites. We use cookies in this manner to help us understand how visitors use our site, and to help us to improve our site. You may refuse to accept a cookie from us by following the procedures specific to your Web browser. Although you may do so, you may find that your browser reacts strangely when visiting not only our Web site, but other Web sites as well. Since cookies don't provide us with any information from which we can identify you, we suggest you allow us to place one on your computer.

If you visit our site by "clicking-through" from a site operated by one of our partners, and you have registered with that partner, then certain information about you that you have provided to that partner may be transmitted to us. You should review the privacy policy of the Web site from which you reached our site in order to determine what information was collected and how you agreed that our partner could use that information. Regardless of what information was transmitted to us, however, we don't keep it unless you register with us.

Registered users

If you choose to register with us, you'll be able to add content to our site. For example, you may post your own car reviews and participate in our discussion forums. In addition, you will benefit from the ability to personalize your FreeAutoMechanic site experience. The benefits of registering will increase over time as we get to know you better and introduce new features. We encourage you to register so that you can experience everything that FreeAutoMechanic has to offer!

If you register with us, we will collect personal information from you in addition to the non-personal information described above. That personal information may include your name, email address, mailing address, telephone number, user name and password. The information we collect may vary, but we only collect the information that you manually enter into our forms. We may store all or some of that information in a cookie file on your hard drive, so that our system will recognize you each time you visit our site. In that way, we can save your preferences from visit to visit and present you with a customized Web site, without requiring you to log into our site every time you visit. To improve services and enhance personalization, we may periodically obtain information about you from other independent third-party sources and add it to your registration information. Additionally, authorized FreeAutoMechanic personnel may update your registration information to accurately reflect any new information included in communications received from you.

If you visit our site by "clicking-through" from a site operated by one of our partners, and you have registered with that partner, then certain information about you that you have provided to that partner may be transmitted to us. You should review the privacy policy of the Web site from which you reached our site in order to determine what information was collected and how you agreed that our partner could use that information. We may or may not retain that information; if we do, then we will only use it in accordance with our privacy policy, regardless of the policy of the partner site from which you came to us.

If you reach our site through one of our partners (whether or not you have registered with our partner), and you choose to register with us, we may be required to give our partner some or all of your registration information. We will only do so in accordance with this policy, but we cannot control how our partner uses the information. If you have questions about our partner's privacy policy, you should review their policy before providing information to us. Of course, you can ensure that the personal information you provide to us is not shared with our partners (except in accordance with this policy), by visiting us directly instead of clicking-through from one of our partners.