SHWAT™ Intel

In the beginning, we took no paychecks and used our own funds to subsidize and operate SHWAT™. It grew, and continuing along that trajectory with no real financial model would have bankrupted the journey. Fortunately, backers came along side to support us. Some have banner ads here, some don’t. More recently, we’ve added some affiliate links where we get paid a few buck (like $5 – $10 ideally) when someone purchases using our link. It’s not much, but it offsets some expenses and gives people like you a chance to support this space.

That brings up the all important question – “How objective can you be when reviewing a backer’s product or some kind of affiliate deal?”

Real objective.

Without exception, our team has used – or at least tested – the products our backers/affiliates make or sell before a check was ever in the mix. In some cases, we used their products quietly for years, even before SHWAT™ was born. Sometimes we’ll receive a product to test.  That’s usually an exciting mail call, but it can go one of two ways from there.

If we like the product, you’ll probably see a review here. If we don’t like the product, we probably returned it along with a note on why we didn’t feel we could present it on SHWAT.com.

“Why don’t you do negative reviews?” is asked once in a while. The easy assumption could be that we don’t want to get cut out of the industry, but that’s not it. Case in point: A major night vision/thermal company had us out to a hunting ranch to test one of its new products a couple of years or so ago. The product was a noteworthy step forward in technology, but the user interface was so bad we felt we could not recommend it to you. The manufacturer took our feedback, made most of the changes we suggested and then released the product. We were then able to test it and enthusiastically tell you about it.

Fortunately for all of us, some companies recognize the value of what we produce and provide the backing to keep it all going. Yet you’ll not see us review one of their products here if we aren’t genuinely excited about doing so. We’ll also show you the competition, and our backers know this. With Pro Staff contributing content for you, our Editor in Chief cannot personally vet every product reviewed here. But we add to our Pro Staff selectively and tend to think pretty highly of those contributing these days. We tend to trust their judgment.

Hopefully you’ve already done some thinking about a product when you see it here. Our goal is that when you’re done watching our video or reading our story (both, hopefully!), you know whether or not it’s for you. Simple as that.

That said, we don’t suggest you ever rush out and buy something just because we love it. We’ll try to tell you what we love about something, then it’s up to you. Buy, research some more, or walk. Agree with us or not, we really do hope you have some fun while here!

Thank You

There are more important things than money, but without it we can’t keep bringing you the info and entertainment we all enjoy. So we thank our backers for making it possible and we thank you our audience for engaging with us here, on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, our newsletter – wherever your favorite place is. We’ll keep working hard to add value to your day!

CONTRIBUTOR INDEPENDENCE:

Contributors express views independently and individually. The thoughts and opinions expressed by one do not necessarily reflect the views of all (or any) of the other contributors.

DISCLAIMER:
The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of their SHWAT, LLC, its members, funding agencies, or staff.

How do we collect information from you?
We obtain information about you when you use our website, for example, when you contact us about products and services, or if you register to receive one of our newsletters.

What type of information is collected from you?
The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when. If you make a purchase a product from us, your card information is not held by us, it is collected by our third party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions, as explained below.

How is your information used?
We may use your information to: process orders that you have submitted; to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us;
dealing with entries into a competition; seek your views or comments on the services we provide; notify you of changes to our services; send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, appeals, other fundraising activities, promotions of our associated companies goods and services; process a grant or job application.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Who has access to your information?
We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf: We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to send you mailings). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties beyond the Star Limousine Network for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganization, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our supporters and customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Your choices
You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about our exciting products and services, then you can select your choices by ticking the relevant boxes situated on the form on which we collect your information.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: [email protected] or telephone on 214.699.1131.

How you can access and update your information
The accuracy of your information is important to us. We’re working on ways to make it easier for you to review and correct the information that we hold about you. In the meantime, if you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at: [email protected], or write to us at: P. O. Box 3071, Monument, CO 80132 USA. Alternatively, you can telephone 214.699.1131.

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information SHWAT™ holds about you. We may charge $10 for information requests to cover our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.

Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information
When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely. Any sensitive information (such as credit or debit card details) is encrypted and protected with the following software 128 Bit encryption on SSL. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the top of web browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Profiling
We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you. We may make use of additional information about you when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively. We may also use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.

Use of ‘cookies’
Like many other websites, the SHWAT website uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognize you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalized service.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. For more information on how to switch off cookies on your computer, visit our full cookies policy. Turning cookies of may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.

Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organizations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

16 or Under
We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.