Thank you for visiting our Web site. Here at Loch Ness Productions, we take the issue of personal privacy seriously. This page details the ways we get information from our customers, and what we do with that data. We want you to understand what we do — and do NOT do — with the data we collect.

Generally speaking, we deal with two classes of customer data: institutional and individual.

Most of our institutional data involves non-personal information — locations of planetarium theaters, how they're equipped, Web addresses, etc. We publish this information about planetarium theaters around the world in HTML form, and online. Occasionally, we make some of the data available in mailing label or database form to parties with interests in the planetarium field. But, all this information is about planetarium facilities, which are, for the most part, public institutions.

The data we collect about individuals — human beings, not theaters — is what most people are naturally concerned about. Since you're reading this on our Web site, we'll talk here about information we collect through the Web site.

Simply stated, our policy is to collect no personal information about you when you visit our Web site, unless you affirmatively choose to make such information available to us.

Browsing our Web Pages

Think of our Web site as a storefront. When you stop in to browse, we glance at the clock, and note which door you came in. That's all. We don't learn a thing about you personally, unless you deign to speak to us.

In other words, when you view one of our Web pages, our host's server automatically logs the date and time, the requested page, and the domain that made the request. It does not recognize your E-mail address. From the server logs, we can summarize statistics about the numbers of hits our pages receive, and what domains they're coming from. We basically look at the information and say, "Well, that's interesting." But, that's about it. We don't share this information with other organizations. Again, only aggregate information is collected; no personal information is identified.

Banner Ads and Cookies

As you browse through our pages, you may notice the wonderful lack of banner advertising from other companies. This is because we do not partner with or have special relationships with any ad server companies.

We do have links to Web sites run by other companies and individuals, and there are many sites with links to us. You may have reached our page through such a link, portal, or search engine. Naturally, we have no control over what their policies are regarding cookies, ads, or privacy. For the most part, we do not set or use cookies on any of the Loch Ness Productions web pages.

Media players embedded on various pages link to external sites — YouTube, CD Baby, etc. These sites may plant cookies identifying our domain on your computer, and they might feed ads to their players. Our blog is powered by WordPress, and WordPress may plant cookies identifying our domain on your computer. If you order something and pay using PayPal, Paypal may plant cookies identifying us. Again, we have no control over what their policies are regarding privacy.

How We Collect Personal Data

Let's say that, after you've looked through our web pages, you get an insatiable itch to buy something from us. (Don't be concerned — this is perfectly normal and nothing to be worried about.) When you fill out the order form, naturally you'll have to provide us with that personal data we're all concerned about here.

Our order forms ask for your name, email address, phone number, what you want to buy from us, how and where you want it shipped, and the payment method. For most of you, that means providing a credit card number to our payment processor, though approved institutions might use a purchase order instead.

We recommend using our secure order forms. We use industry-standard encryption technologies when transferring and receiving your data, by redirecting the transmission through our Web host's secure server (note the browser's address bar will have a lock icon and say "https" instead of an "http"). Of course, you may print out the form from your browser, then mail it to us. You may also phone in your order, or have your purchasing department send us a purchase order.

Regardless of how we get it, once we receive your order, the pertinent data are entered into our offline database for order handling and accounting. That's the only place it resides. It is important for you to know that NO personal financial information of any kind is kept on our Web site or made available online. None. We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information we have collected from you.

How we Use the Personal Data We Collect

We use the personal information you provide to generate shop orders, packing lists, mailing labels, invoices, and receipts — the usual office routines you would expect us to follow in filling your order. Once we've processed your order, your data remains squirreled away in our computer database. We will not disclose any of your personal information to anyone else.

Contacting You by Mail or E-mail — Opt in / out

Once you order something, we consider it the establishment of a business relationship with us. Naturally, we feel it is our responsibility to inform you about product updates, new releases, and so forth. From time to time, we send out our company's newsletters, announcements, and catalogs by email or snail-mail — though frankly, it doesn't happen that often. Anyway, you can opt in or out of receiving such notices; just contact us.

We do not exchange mailing lists containing personal information with anyone else. Plain and simple.

Updating Your Information

We do our best to maintain accurate records. If you are concerned, you are welcome to contact us to find out what information we have in our database about you, and to correct it if necessary. You should take comfort in the fact that we don't keep it online, which is why you can't check it directly yourself.

In summary, if you choose to share personal information with us, that information will only be used for the purposes you authorized. It will not be disclosed to third parties or other government agencies, unless required by state or federal law.

Updates to our Privacy Policy

If our information practices change at some time in the future, we will post the policy changes to this page. You are encouraged to check back here periodically for revisions to our policy. If we decide to use customer information for new, unanticipated purposes not previously disclosed in our privacy policy, we will provide a mechanism for you to opt out of these new uses.

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, or have suggestions on how this policy might be improved, please contact us!

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How we Collect Planetarium / Institutional Data

We have been collecting data about planetarium facilities around the world for more than three decades, and we publish the data as The LNP Dome Theater Compendium. It is available to anyone who wants to buy it. It's a directory containing information about all the dome theaters in the world we know about — addresses and phone numbers, equipment, staff listings, and more. It is usually generated anew whenever someone orders it, and transmitted as an E-mail attachment. Here is more detailed information.

Here on our Web site, we post a small subset of the larger database as The LNP Dome Theater Compendium Online! Here is more detailed information.

To provide corrections and updates, planetarians voluntarily provide data using our Compendium Update Form. This form provides us with institutional information, such as the name of a facility, its parent organization, address, phone and fax numbers, Web site URL, theater configurations, and equipment listings. It can also provide us with staff contact information; however, individuals can choose whether or not their name and email addresses may be published by checking the appropriate boxes on the update form.

Please note: if you are not a planetarium or planetarian (dome theater professional), your name will not appear in the LNP Dome Theater Compendium.

How we Use the Planetarium / Institutional Data We Collect

Besides publishing the LNP Dome Theater Compendium, we use planetarium data you provide to:

• update our database

• fill orders

• send information about Loch Ness Productions products

• provide to other parties with interests in the planetarium field

About third parties: From time to time we sell some of the institutional data we collect, in the form of mailing labels or their electronic equivalent in database form to other planetarium facilities, vendors, and others whom we feel may prove beneficial to the planetarium field. We don't sell the data to just anyone who asks for it, and really, it doesn't happen very often.

Just to be clear, we NEVER make information available to any third party regarding an individual's:

• home addresses

• home phone numbers

• credit card numbers

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, or have suggestions on how this policy might be improved, please contact us!