The world is too much with us;
late and soon, getting and spending,
we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours.
William Wordsworth, English Poet, 1770-1850
At ThrowMeAPillow, we consider the transmission of your personal information to us as the granting of a sacred trust. We will never let anyone else have your information. To use it, in any way, beyond the scope of this disclosure, would be a violation of that personal trust which you will have given to us.
We think this plain language explanation is the best way to approach this subject.
OUR PLAIN LANGUAGE PRIVACY POLICY
There is entirely too much advertising, especially bulk dumping of "junk mail" in our street side mail boxes and online. With that in mind, ThrowMeAPillow has no motivation to gather personal information about you when you visit our store, anymore than they would if you visited our brick and mortor store.
You do not have to "register" to shop here, anymore than you would if you came to our brick and mortor shop. You are free to come and go as you please.
Likewise, if you came to our brick & mortor shop, we would notice if you turned right around and left as soon as you stepped inside. If a lot of people did that, we might go to see what had offended them all. Therefore we track the anonymous statistics on where (which page) people enter, where they go inside and from where inside the site, they leave. This way we hope to get some idea as to what's working and what's not. We don't look at whether you go right or left as you leave our business. That's not our interest. We only watch inside the store and we only watch the anonymous statistics so that we can do a good self-examination based on cumulative traffic patterns.
We offer the Free Pillow Give-Away for the express purpose of building up a list of visitors. (but we actually do give away pillows and list the names of previous winners) We intend to send a quarterly note (never more than 4 times a year) to advise you of any significant updates in our stock. We hope you will welcome this friendly note with maybe a picture or two and perhaps a coupon inviting you to return. If you don't like that, you may "opt out". Please politely send us a blank e-mail with the words "opt out" as the Subject. You will be eliminated from the list. (and from subsequent drawings, no offense meant or taken)
Finally, of course, you go through the cashier, where you actually enter you Credit Card number and everything. (I used to be so nervous at this point that I would just get the 800 number from "contact us" and call in my order, since I trusted that method better than "pushing the button") ACTUALLY the entire "cashier" section takes place on a Secure Server. You will notice that our address on your explorer window, becomes, https:// instead of just http://. The "s" means, Secure". Your information is encrypted when it is sent, for your protection. It is virtually impossible, now-a-days for crooks to skim your info, because of this encryption. ("SSL" means Secure Socket Layer. Look for the little LOCKED padlock in the bottom right of your explorer window) It's called a "layer" because it ACTUALLY takes place on a separate website "underneath" or "behind" our site. We use PayPal for that service because of their extra security measures. Paypal does not show us your Credit Card info. (We get just the last four digits, you know, like, xxxx xxxx xxxx 1007). That is why your information is actually more secure encrypted through PayPal's SSL than it is if you call by phone and give anyone your Credit Card number. (We recommend you look for the PayPal logo at other internet stores!)
After your purchase, the only info we keep is your name, address, phone number and e-mail address and what you paid for. We need these to process your order and perhaps to contact you personally, if there is some simple question. (like- did you mean, "large or small?") You will be reminded that we have this info when we send a friendly quarterly note with maybe a picture or two and perhaps a coupon inviting you to return. (That reminder is good, right? If you don't think so, simply "opt out". Our quarterly note will always tell you how to do that.)
ThrowMeAPillow will never let anyone else have your information either. We consider the transmission of your personal information to us as the granting of a sacred trust. To use it, in any way, beyond the scope of this disclosure, would be a violation of that personal trust which you will have given to us. Letting anyone else have your info for any reason would be offensive and we will never do that.
We think this plain language explanation is the best way to approach this subject, but if you have any questions, please contact us for further explanation.
