Privacy Policies

The Home PC Firewall Guide is intended to provide relatively non-technical information to computer users about Internet security. Product selection and use are up to you. If you have problems with an Internet security product, you should contact the vendor.

We support the Consumer Web Watch guidelines to promote credible information practices on the Web; for more information click here.

Links -- Our site contains links to hundreds of other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these other sites. If you discover spyware, scumware, malware (virus, trojan, worm), privacy invasive cookies or web bugs on these sites, please notify the webmaster of that site and let us know too. Notes: Some cookies and web bugs perform useful services for end users and websites. You can use the security features of your browser and/or get software to block, manage or remove them.

Shopping Data -- We do not sell products or services ourselves. We are an affiliate of companies and merchants that do. When you purchase a product or service using an affiliate link on our website, you are providing personal information to them, not to us. As an affiliate, no personal information is shared by them with us. We prefer it that way. We are not responsible for data that we do not have. For more information, see the privacy policies at each vendor's website (like Zone Labs for ZoneAlarm Pro) or at affiliate services like Amazon.com.  Notes: Some vendors and affiliate service providers (like Zone Labs and Commission Junction) use cookies and web bugs to perform useful services for end users and affiliate websites. You can use the security features of your browser and/or get software to block, manage or remove them.

Personal Data -- With one exception, we do not collect personal information about anyone. The exception is our newsletter for which our subscribers voluntarily give us their email address. Sign up for the newsletter is double opt-in and we do not ask for or accept any other personal information. An opt-out link is given in every issue. It is our policy that we will not share these email addresses with anyone. For more information about our service provider, see the privacy policy page at YourMailingListProvider.com.

Computer Data -- Like most websites, we review visitor statistics to help us understand visitor interests and to help us improve our site. You can use the security features of your browser and/or get software to block or manage what data can be collected.

Google Ads & Targeting -- Ad-Sense ads run in the top left position on some pages as well as in the right column and at the bottom of each page. Given the nature of Google's service, it is not possible for us to review and approve advertisers and vendors or their products and services.

The user information collected through the new (March 2009) Google interest-based advertising is used in accordance with Google's privacy policies. It is not used to identify users personally and they don't use personally identifiable information to show interest-based ads. Please review the Privacy Policy for Google Ads for more information.

In addition, Google is enabling users to see how ads are being customized to their interests via the Ads Preferences Manager, which they can find through the Google Privacy Center and most "Ads by Google" links seen in Google ads. Users can add or remove categories to improve the relevance of the ads they see or opt out of interest-based ads entirely. With this tool, Google hopes that users will feel engaged and comfortable with the ads shown to them. For more information, please visit the Google ads privacy center.