How to Protect Your Privacy While at this Site
We want this site to be a safe place for you to look for information and resources to help you prevent the sexual abuse of children. We offer the instruction on maintaining privacy not as a guideline for remaining silent, but as a means of creating a safe place to start the conversation. While using this site, your privacy and confidentiality are important to us. This web site does not have a mandatory requirement for any information that will identify you individually. Any information you provide is optional and at your discretion. There are, however, limitations to the confidentiality we are able to provide. At the same time, there are steps you can take to protect your own privacy. The information on this page will assist you in maintaining your privacy on your own computer or a public computer when using Internet Explorer or Netscape browsers to view this web site.
Why Privacy is Important
Stop It Now!® offers confidential access to information about sexual abuse of children as a vital first step in the process of protecting children, acknowledging the harm that sexual abuse causes, and helping families to heal.
People may feel intense fear or shame when considering that their own behavior or the actions of someone they love might be abusive. In research with adults at risk to sexually abuse children, a majority said they had wanted to stop but didn’t know how. Many said they would have sought help and stopped abusing children sooner if they had had a safe and confidential source for facts, information and referrals.
Stop It Now! advocates strongly for breaking the silence about sexual abuse of children. We offer the instruction on maintaining privacy not as a guideline for remaining silent, but as a means of creating a safe place to start the conversation. We believe that by assuring confidentiality, more people will choose to seek out the information necessary to prevent children from being harmed. We will be able to prevent sexual abuse only when those with concerns about harmful sexual behaviors find the courage to speak out.
Privacy / Security Issues
When you visit any web site, the Internet service provider hosting the web site automatically collects information essential for the operation of the site. The web server collects the web site usage information from visitors to help determine the areas of the web site that are being used the most and least, areas that need improvement and generic technical information about the computer systems that visitors are using to access the web site.
This information needed for normal operation of any site includes: date and time of each unique visit to the site, and the pages viewed during that visit; type of browser (for example: Internet Explorer 5.5, Netscape 7, etc.); name and version of the visitor's computer's operating system (for example: Linux, Macintosh, Windows XP); the domain name from which the visitor accessed the Internet (for example: if the visitor connects to the Internet through AOL, the domain name is aol.com); the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer the visitor uses to access the Internet (this is a number assigned to your computer by your service provider when you log on to your Internet service provider, for example: 012.34.567.89); the Internet address of the web site from which the visitor came (this is used to identify which search engines visitors are using to find the web site).
Any personal information we inadvertently collect via our web site is collected only for what is necessary for the operation of the web site and we use that information only for the purpose(s) for which it was collected. We do not disclose this information to other public or private bodies or individuals, except as authorized or required by law.
Using the Hide Site Function
The Hide Site button at the top right corner of this web site allows you to instantly hide the Stop It Now! Minnesota site from your screen. Think of this button as a direct "escape." When you hit this button, your browser will immediately transfer you to www.google.com, a site chosen simply because it is commonly visited and considered harmless.
Should I be concerned? If you are using a shared computer, such as within a family-setting, library, school, office or Internet caf̩, other people may be able to see your screen as you are visiting Stop It Now! Minnesota. If you want to keep your visits to Stop It Now! Minnesota private, then you may wish to use this function.
How do I hide the Stop It Now! Minnesota site screen? To hide the Stop It Now! Minnesota site from your screen:
- Hit the Hide Site button.
- Your browser will immediately transfer you to www.google.com.
- To return to Stop It Now! Minnesota, hit the "back" button in the top left corner of your tool bar.
Further Protecting Your Privacy
A cookie is a file that is stored on your computer. It contains data passed from web sites to your computer so that web sites can "communicate" with this file when the user returns to the site. If other people have access to a computer where a cookie is stored, then they may be able to find out what web sites you have been visiting. If you are using a shared computer, such as within a family-setting, library, school, office or Internet café
, other people may be able to determine what web sites you have visited. If you want to keep your visits to Stop It Now! Minnesota private, then you may wish to learn how to erase your Internet tracks after visiting this web site.
There are a number of "tracks" left on a computer (private or public) after browsing the Internet. These are Temporary Internet Files (and/or Cache in Netscape), Cookies, and History (and location bar in Netscape). All of these items can be erased or deleted so that the average computer user cannot determine what the previous user has been viewing. The following instructions outline how to erase your Internet tracks in most versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape.
Internet Explorer:
- Deleting Temporary Internet Files: Open Internet Explorer (IE)
- Select Tools
- Under Tools, select Internet Options
- In Internet Options, under the General Tab in the Temporary Internet Files section, select Delete Files (delete both Temporary Internet Files and Offline Content)
- Under the General Tab in Temporary Internet Files section, select Settings
- In Settings, in the Check for newer versions of stored pages section, select Every visit to the page
- To Delete Cookies: Follow steps 1-3 above
- In Internet Options, under the General Tab in the Temporary Internet Files section, select Delete Cookies then click OK
- To clear History: Follow steps 1-3 above
- In Internet Options, under the General Tab in the History section, select Clear History
- Click on Apply and then click OK
Netscape:
- To clear History & Location Bar: Open Netscape
- Select Edit
- Under Edit, select Preferences
- Within Preferences, Click + sign or Arrow next to Navigator
- Then click on History
- Under History, select Clear History and then Clear Location Bar
- To delete Cookies: Follow steps 1-3 above
- Within Preferences, Click + sign or Arrow next to Privacy & Security
- Select Cookies
- Under Cookies, select Manage Stored Cookies
- Under Manage Stored Cookies, select Clear All Cookies and then click Close
- To clear the Cache: Follow steps 1-3 above
- Within Preferences, Click + sign or Arrow next to Advanced
- Then click on Cache
- Under Cache, select Clear Memory Cache
- Select Clear Disk Cache
- Select Document in cache is compared to document on network: every time
Required vs. Optional Information
This web site does not have a mandatory requirement for any information that will identify you individually. Any information you provide is optional and at your discretion.
Privacy Statement
Stop It Now! has policies and procedures designed to protect the privacy of our visitors. We will never share your name and address with any external organization nor will we “sell” your name to advertisers or other partners.
It is important to note that when you click on a link that takes you off our site (Information Partners and web sites included in our Resources area) this Privacy Statement no longer applies.
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