Everything contained within this website, the book, the e-newsletters, merchandise and credit cards is original material created by our American Dream Town artist (Thitz) and the web designing artists (J. Torrent & team) unless otherwise noted. A US ™ was applied for in 2003 (or ©2003 if you prefer) by Ingrid Lemme, American Dream Town, USA with all rights reserved. In other words, it's against the law for you to copy any graphics off our site, copy the idea, design, or cut and paste any recognizable chunks of HTML, JavaScript or else.

Though we have reserved all rights, if you're interested in reproducing something from this site, just ask. We’ll especially love to give the towns that are listed for the American Dream Town Award our permission. You don't need permission to link to our site, assuming you're not putting it within your frameset and that your site is in good taste.

American Dream Town™ Privacy Policy

Last Updated on December, 2003

American Dream Town™ has adopted information management guidelines that serve as the basis for our mission and a customer and advertiser relationships. These guidelines were developed with the knowledge that Internet technologies are rapidly changing, and business models are still not established. Accordingly, guidelines are subject to change. Any such changes will be posted on this page. If the changes represent a material departure from our current practices with respect to the use of personal information, the changes will be posted on this page three days prior to taking effect and registered users will be notified via email.

American Dream Town™ on the Web is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of Web sites to which it may link.

American Dream Products and Services from AmericanDreamTown.com:

While the majority of American Dream Town™ is offered free of charge, we do charge fees for our trade marked products and services, such as pre-registering a town for the upcoming year.

Products and Services from Third Parties or Partners:

American Dream Town™ may offer products or services from our partners or third parties. Where you are so notified during the purchase process, the information you provided at registration may be shared with the provider of the product or service. However, we will never share your billing and credit card information, which American Dream Town™ collects and stores to enable the purchase of these products. This information will only be shared with third parties who perform tasks required to complete the purchase transaction. Examples of this include fulfilling orders and processing credit card and Pay Pal payments.

Contests, Special Offers, Surveys:

On occasion, American Dream Town™ also collects additional personal information from subscribers in connection with optional contests or optional special offers. If this information is to be shared with a third party, we will notify you at the time of collection.

Additionally, American Dream Town™ may collect additional personal information from subscribers in connection with optional surveys. Information that you provide in answer to optional survey questions may be shared, but only in the aggregate, with advertisers and partners unless we notify you at the time of collection.

Cookies:

American Dream Town™ employs cookies to recognize you and your access privileges on American Dream Town™, as well as to track site usage. Subscribers who do not accept cookies from the domain www.AmericanDreamTown.com and www.MyAmericanDreamTown.com cannot access most areas of American Dream Town™ .

We use a 2nd party advertising server to display ads / banners on our site. In addition, advertisers may elect to use third-party advertising companies to serve ads onto our Web site. During the course of serving these advertisements, the third-party advertisers may place or recognize a unique "cookie" on your browser. We do not have access to these cookies or any information that they may contain. Acceptance of cookies from domains other than American Dream Town™ is optional.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs):

We use a 2nd party advertising serving system to display ads on our site. In addition, advertisers may elect to use third party advertising companies to serve ads onto our website, and in these instances may use a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs/action tags) to help better manage advertising on our site. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. Clear gifs may ping or alert the advertiser's server about the online movements of Web users. For instance, advertisers may place a clear gif allowing them to recognize an existing cookie on your browser if from the same service. The main difference between cookies and clear gifs 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. Please understand that we do not have access to any information collected by these clear gifs nor additional information they may be tied to by the advertiser.

IP Addresses:

The American Dream Town™ logs IP addresses, or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We do not use IP address logs to track your session or your behavior on our site.

Log Files:

Log data is only used in aggregate to analyze usage of our web site.

What does American Dream Town™ do with the information it gathers/tracks?

Statistical Analysis and Banner Advertising: American Dream Town™ may perform statistical analyses of user behavior in order to measure interest in the various areas of our site (for product development purposes) and to inform advertisers as to how many consumers have seen or "clicked" their advertising banners. We also use demographic and preference information to allow advertising banners on our Web site to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom they are most pertinent. This means that users see advertising that is most likely to interest them, and advertisers send their messages to people who are most likely to be receptive, improving both the viewer's experience and the effectiveness of the ads. In this statistical analyses and banner advertisement targeting, we will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form. Personal information about you as an individual subscriber will not be provided to any third party without your consent, except under the circumstances described in Compliance with Legal Process below.

E-Mail:

If you so elect at registration or in the American Dream Town™ section of our Member Center, American Dream Town™ will periodically send you promotional email about services offered by American Dream Town™ and its advertisers. Additionally, the email address provided by you at registration may be used by American Dream Town™ to contact you regarding; (1) account status (including confirmation of registration); (2) major changes to the website and or to the Subscriber Agreement and Privacy Policy; and (3) participation in user surveys, asking for feedback on the website and existing or prospective products and services, as well as information to better understand our users. User surveys greatly help us to improve our mission and website, and any information we obtain in such surveys will not be shared with third parties, except in aggregate form. (Effective as of December 1st, 2003).

We use e-mail links located in the Site Help area our Member Center to allow you to contact us directly with any questions or comments you may have. We will use your email address to respond directly to these questions or comments.

Except as permitted by this policy, American Dream Town™ does not send unsolicited e-mail.

Data Security:

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online.

With whom does American Dream Town™ share the information it gathers/tracks?

American Dream Town™ shares the information it gathers, in aggregate form only, with advertisers and other partners. We will not release personal information about you as an individual to third parties, except under the circumstances described in Compliance with Legal Process below.

Programs from Our Partners:

During the registration process, new users who select to register for certain featured offers from our partners will begin receiving e-mail from these companies. You will only receive e-mail messages from these companies if you elect this opt-in service. American Dream Town™ may use this information as set forth in this privacy policy. Should you decide to discontinue your e-mail subscription or would like more information on these companies, please contact our affiliate or our partners directly.

Compliance with Legal Process

We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to (1) comply with the law or with legal process; (2) protect and defend our rights and property; (3) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of American Dream Town™; or (4) protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions).