HomeTerms of Use
PLEASE READ BEFORE USE OF OUR SITE AND MATERIALS. By using the Earthguide website, you agree to these terms of use. If you choose not to follow these terms, please do not use this site. Earthguide reserves the right to change and update these terms at any time, without notice. Please check these terms periodically for changes. Your continued use of this site following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes.
All content contained in the Earthguide pages is property of the Regents of the University of California, unless noted otherwise. No material from Earthguide may be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed without explicit permission, except for non-commercial home or educational use only.
Some materials and information used on the Earthguide website were generated by third parties who have consented to Earthguide's use or placement of such materials on this site. These materials are owned by those parties. Use of these third party materials for any purpose is prohibited. Persons seeking to use or modify third party materials for any purpose should contact the owner of such materials directly. These materials include icons and graphics used in links to other organization's sites, as well as various items of general content.
Hyperlinks that Earthguide provides to external websites do not imply official Earthguide endorsement of, or responsibility for, the content contained on those sites. These are provided as a service to the user, and Earthguide does not retain editorial control over them.
Links to the Earthguide website from external sites do not constitute Earthguide endorsement or review of those sites. Earthguide does not restrict use of links to the site. However, Earthguide reserves the right to request removal of a link to this site at any time.
Disclaimer
While Earthguide makes every effort to ensure an error-free resource, errors do occur. We ask that you notify us immediately of any errors you discover so; we will make every effort to correct them. However, neither Earthguide, the University of California San Diego and the Regents of California, as well as any other sponsoring organizations or individuals, makes any warranty, express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed; nor represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. The materials in this site are provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind either express or implied. We shall not be held liable for any improper or incorrect use of the materials or information contained on this site and we assume no responsibility for any user's use of them. We do not warrant that the functions contained in the materials will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that this site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or other harmful components.
Please refer to the University of California San Diego's Terms of Use for additional applicable information on official UCSD website policy.
Privacy
This privacy policy establishes how Earthguide will use information we gather about you from your visit to our website. The privacy of our visitors is important to us.
When you read or download information:
Like most web servers on the Internet, our servers collect and store all of the information that your web browser sends when it requests a web page, including:
- the name, domain, and numerical internet address of the "host" computer (typically a computer belonging to your Internet Service Provider and not your personal computer) from which you access the Internet;
- the date and time you accessed our site;
- the Internet address of the web page that you came from;
- the page you requested from our site and the number of characters sent to your computer; and
- the information your web browser software sends as its so-called "User Agent," which typically identifies the browser software and may also indicate the operating system and type of CPU used in your personal computer.
Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users.
The logs are periodically summarized and analyzed in order to study site usage over time and to perform other studies to help us improve the site's organization, performance, and usefulness.
When you e-mail us:
When you send us personal identifying information via e-mail (that is, in a message containing a question or comment, or by filling out a form that e-mails us this information), we use it to respond to your requests. We may forward your e-mail to other individuals who are better able to answer your questions. In these cases, we may retain the information not only to respond to your request, but also as a record of correspondence.
When you participate in an online survey:
When you voluntarily provide us with personal information as part of an online survey, we use it to perform various quantitative and qualitative analyses to improve service and satisfaction. We may forward the information collected to others, including contract personnel, who perform the actual analysis. Information collected via online surveys may be maintained at our discretion for an indefinite period of time. You are under no obligation to participate in such surveys. Non-participation will not inhibit your use of our web site in any way.
Collection and release of gathered information
We want to make it clear that we will not obtain personal identifying information about you when you visit our web sites, unless you choose to provide such information to us. Except in the course of officially authorized law enforcement investigations, or in the event of a suspected attempt to deliberately circumvent our system's security with the intent to gain unauthorized access or to do physical damage (for example, an attack by hackers), we do not attempt to identify individuals.
Retention of collected information
Cookies - Some applications may save a "cookie" on your computer's hard disk to provide a history of actions taken. Cookies are used to track movement within our site to allow us to better serve our visitors. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, we do not attempt to identify individual users.
Web server activity logs - Monthly extracts of the log files are archived and stored off-line at our discretion for an indefinite period of time. Some statistical summaries derived from these data may be retained online or off-line at our discretion for an indefinite period of time.
Accessibility
Earthguide is committed to and is making every possible effort to ensure that all website materials are accessible to people with disabilities. If you cannot fully access the information on a particular page, please contact us via e-mail.