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Privacy Policy:
Site
PRIVACY STATEMENT
We recognize the
importance of protecting the privacy of all information provided by users of our
web sites, subscribers to our magazines, registrants for our events, recipients
of our e-mail newsletters and all other customers of our products and services.
We created this policy with a fundamental respect for our customers' right to
privacy and to guide our relationships with our customers. This Privacy
Statement discloses the privacy practices for all products and services owned.
INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE
We collect information from
our website users, subscribers and other customers. In this section of our
Privacy Statement, we describe the type of information we collect and how we use
it to provide better services to our customers.
Registration and Ordering
When using some of our
websites and signing up for certain selected services (such as free
subscriptions), users must first register. During registration, users are
required to give their contact information (such as name, e-mail address,
mailing address and phone number). For internal purposes, we use this
information to communicate with users and provide requested services, and, for
our website visitors, to provide a more personalized experience on our sites. We
also may collect demographic information (such as job title and purchasing
responsibilities, company information and professional certification). We use
aggregate demographic information about our audience to improve our service, for
marketing purposes and/or industry reporting purposes.
Many of our products and services are free to subscribers who meet certain
demographic criteria. Independent auditors may need to certify the eligibility
of these subscribers. In order to do that, we may collect unique identifiers
(such as mother's maiden name) that we disclose to the auditors strictly for
industry reporting and audit verification purposes.
For our services that require payment (such as certain events, products and
subscriptions), we also collect credit card information (such as account name,
number and expiration date), which is used for our or our agent's billing
purposes only, and is not otherwise shared.
E-mail Newsletters
If users wish to subscribe
to our e-mail newsletters, we ask for contact information (such as name, e-mail
address and, occasionally, demographic information). We use this information in
the same manner as we use contact information in the registration and ordering
process described above. Recipients of our newsletters can unsubscribe using the
instructions listed at the end of the e-mail newsletter.
Surveys and Contests
From time to time we invite
web site users and other customers to provide information via surveys or
contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and
the website user or other customer therefore has a choice whether to disclose
requested contact information (such as name and mailing address) and demographic
information (such as zip code or job title). In addition to the other uses set
forth in this policy, contact information collected in connection with surveys
and contests is used to notify the winners and award prizes and to monitor or
improve the use of, and satisfaction with the website or other product or
service. Subject to the given customer's preferences (as described in the
"Permission" section below), such information also may be shared with third
party sponsors of such surveys or contests.
Interactive Features
At some of our sites, we
offer interactive and community features such as discussion boards, webcasts and
user profiles. Note that all personal information sent or posted via such
features becomes public information for which we are not responsible.
Tell-A-Friend
If customers elect to use
our referral service for informing a friend about our sites and services, we may
ask them for the friend's name, job title and e-mail address. We will store and
use this information to send the friend an invitation. This information may also
be used to provide information about our company and related products and
services. The friend may contact us as specified in the tell-a-friend message to
request that no further communications be sent.
Communications with Us
We have features where our
customers can submit information to us (such as our feedback forms). Where such
submissions include requests for service, support or information, we may forward
them to our agents, as needed, to best respond to the specific request. In
addition, we may retain e-mails and other information sent to us for our
internal administrative purposes, and to help us to serve customers better.
Please note that letters to the editor and similar submissions may be made
public.
Communications from Us: Service Updates, Special Offers
In order to best serve our customers, we may send updates that contain important
information about our products and services. For example, we send new members a
welcoming message, and verify password and username for our password-protected
web sites. We may also communicate with a customer to provide requested services
and for account-related issues via e-mail, phone or regular mail. In addition to
such service and product-essential messages, we offer our customers the option
to receive information about our company, related products, services and special
deals. Users, however, can choose not to receive these communications from us,
as set forth in the "Permission" section below.
Automatic Data Collection
Our web sites, newsletters
and, from time to time, certain other products and services have features that
automatically collect information from customers, to deliver content specific to
customers' interests and to honor their preferences. This information assists us
in creating products and services that will serve the needs of our customers.
For example, we use "cookies," a piece of data stored on the user's hard drive
containing information about the user. Cookies benefit the user by requiring
login only once, thereby saving time while on our web site. If users reject the
cookies, they may be limited in the use of some areas of our web site. For
example, the user may not be able to participate in sweepstakes, contests or
drawings. Additionally, we may note some of the pages the user visits on our web
sites and via our email newsletters through the use of pixel tags (also called
clear gifs) and web beacons. The use of cookies, pixels and web beacons enable
us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on
our sites and via our email newsletters.
In addition, some of our business affiliates use cookies on our web sites and in
our email newsletters, in ads or promotions. However, we have no access to or
control over these business affiliates' cookies; we urge users to read their
privacy policies for information. In particular, we use third-party advertising
technology to serve ads for our products and services when you visit certain of
our Web sites. This technology uses information about your visits to these Web
sites (not including your name, address, or other personal information), to
serve our ads to you. In the course of serving our advertisements to you, a
unique third-party cookie may be placed or recognized on your browser. In
addition, we use web beacons, provided by our ad serving partner, to help manage
our online advertising for our products and services. These web beacons enable
our ad server to recognize a browser's cookie when a browser visits these sites
and to learn which banner ads bring users to our Web sites. The information used
in this process is not personally identifiable,
We also use an email delivery and marketing company to send emails (including
newsletters) for which you have registered (or otherwise agreed to receive). Web
beacons and cookies may be used in such email messages to help us measure the
effectiveness of our advertising and how customers use our web sites and other
products and services.
For our internal purposes, we gather date, time, browser type, navigation
history and IP address of all visitors to our web sites. This information does
not contain anything that can identify users personally. We use this information
for our internal security audit log, trend analysis and system administration,
and to gather broad demographic information about our user base for aggregate
use.
We may combine demographic information supplied by a customer at registration
with web site usage data to provide general profiles, in aggregate
non-personally identifiable form, about our customers and their preferences in
the content of the site and advertising. We may share this composite information
with our advertisers and business affiliates to help them better understand our
services.
WITH WHOM YOUR INFORMATION IS SHARED
When we have co-branded,
customized, private label, "powered by" or sponsored products and services, or
when we join with other parties to provide specific services (however we do not
share credit card information with such third parties), then we may share
(provide and receive) personal information with such third party, subject to the
customer's preferences (as described in the "Permission" section below.
These sponsors will use the information according to their own privacy policies,
and we urge participants to read those policies and be aware of their privacy
practices before registering.
Finally, on occasion, we may provide targeted lists of names and offline and
online contact information for marketing purposes to third parties, subject to
our Permission policies, as described below, pursuant to which we give customers
the option of not having their name or contact information disclosed to third
parties.
Other than as set forth above, we do not share personally identifiable
information with other companies, apart from those acting as our agents in
providing our product(s)/service(s), and which agree to use it only for that
purpose and to keep the information secure and confidential. Also, our parent,
subsidiary and affiliate companies, entities into which our company may be
merged, or entities to which any of our assets, products, sites or operations
may be transferred, will be able to use personal information. We will also
disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law, for example, in
response to a court order or a subpoena or other legal obligation, in response
to a law enforcement agency's request, or in special cases when we have reason
to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or
bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference
with (either intentionally or unintentionally) our rights or property. Users
should also be aware that courts of equity, such as U.S. Bankruptcy Courts,
might have the authority under certain circumstances to permit personal
information to be shared or transferred to third parties without permission.
We may share aggregate information, which is not personally identifiable, with
others. This information may include usage and demographic data, but it will not
include personal information.
CORRECTION/UPDATING PERSONAL INFORMATION
If your personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code), or if
you no longer desire our product(s)/service(s), we provide a way to correct or
update your personal data: you may either contact Customer Support for the
applicable product or service.
Please note that we will endeavor to implement your permission requests within
a reasonable time, although for a time you may continue to receive mailings,
etc., transmitted based on information released prior to the implementation of
your request. In addition, please note that even after such request is
implemented, you will continue to receive information directly related to the
product or service for which you registered (or which you otherwise agreed to
receive), so you always are kept informed.
YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
Beginning on January 1,
2005, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits those customers that are
California residents to request that we not share your personal information with
third parties for their direct marketing use. To make such a request, write us
at:
Legal Department - Privacy Officer
c/o P.O. Box 145907, Brackenhurst, Alberton, 1452 SA
SECURITY
We use reasonable
precautions to protect our customers' personal information and to store it
securely. Sensitive information that is transmitted to us online (such as credit
card number) is encrypted and is transmitted to us securely. In addition, access
to all of our customers' information, not just the sensitive information
mentioned above, is restricted. Only employees who need the information to
perform a specific job (for example, a billing clerk or a customer service
representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information.
Finally, the servers on which we store personally identifiable information are
kept in a secure environment.
LINKS
Our web sites contain links
to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of
such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site
and to read the privacy statements of each web site to which we may link that
may collect personally identifiable information.
CHILDREN
Our websites are not
directed at individuals under thirteen years of age, and we do not intend to
collect any personally-identifiable information from such individuals.
NOTIFICATION and CHANGES
If we change our Privacy
Statement, we will post those changes on this page so our users are aware of
what information we collect, how we use it and under which circumstances, if
any, we disclose it. Users should check this policy frequently to keep abreast
of any changes.
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