Privacy

We take your privacy very seriously. This privacy policy is intended to inform you about the information that is collected from you when you visit the Site; how this information may be used and disclosed; how you can control the use and disclosure of your information; and how your information is protected. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact our legal team at [email protected].

WHAT INFORMATION THE SITE COLLECTS

Information you provide directly to us:

You are not required to provide information directly to us in order to view the Site. However, when you use certain Site functions, such as when you register for certain services, access certain content or features, or directly contact the Site, we may ask you to provide information, including:

1. contact information, such as name and email address;
2. username and password;
3. information posted in community discussions and other interactive online features;
4. search queries conducted on the Site; and
5. correspondence you send to us.

Information automatically collected when you visit and interact with the Site:

When you visit and interact with the Site, certain information may be collected automatically, including:

1. your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address;
2. your browser type and operating system;
3. the web pages you were visiting immediately before and after you came to the Site;
4. activities within community discussions;
5. web pages and advertisements that you view, and links that you click on, within the Site;
6. your bandwidth speed and information about the software programs that are installed on your computer;
7. aggregated data about email click-through rates and user video viewing;
8. standard server log information; and
9. information collected through HTML cookies, Flash cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies. For more information, please see our discussion of cookies and other tracking technologies.

Information we collect from other sources:

We may access information about you from third-party sources and platforms (such as Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting, social networking sites, databases, online marketing firms, and ad targeting firms), including:

1. if you access third-party social networking services (such as Facebook Connect or Twitter) through the Site, your username and connection lists for those services;
2. demographic data, such as age range, gender, and interests;
3. advertisement interaction and viewing data, such as ad click-through rates and information about how many times you viewed a particular ad; and
4. unique identifiers, including mobile device identification numbers, that can identify the physical location of such devices in accordance with applicable law.

Please note that the Site may combine the information that we collect with information we obtain from third-party sources.

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT

We use the information that we collect for a number of legitimate interests:

Email Communications:

We may use the information that we collect to send you e-mail communications, such as information about your account or changes to the Site, promotional messages about our own or our marketing partners’ products and services, and our email newsletters.

Advertising:

In order to provide our readers with free access to our content, we display advertisements on the Site, many of which are targeted based on information about you. For example, using information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other sources, we may use demographic data or information about your online activities or interests to display targeted advertising that may be relevant to your preferences. Through this process, advertisers reach Site visitors who are most interested in their products, and you see advertising for products or services in which you may be interested. For more information on how cookies and other technologies work, please see our Cookie Policy.

Third-party advertisers and advertising platforms also may serve targeted ads on the Site. For more information, please see our section on third-party online advertising. Please remember that the information practices of third-party advertisers or platforms collecting data on our Site are not covered by this privacy policy.

User Accounts:

To provide you with an open, but also civil, discussion forum, we track user involvement in our community discussions. For example, our forum moderators monitor discussions and delete comments that we deem inappropriate in our forums. For more information on this process, please see the Site’s community rules, forum rules or comment policies about comment moderation guidelines.

Request Fulfillment:

We may use the information that we collect to fulfill your requests for products, services, and information. For example, we may use your contact information to respond to your customer service requests or to enable you to participate in features on the Site such as surveys, polls, sweepstakes, and message boards.

Statistical Analysis:

In order to learn more about how our Site is used, we aggregate and analyze the data that we collect. We may use this information, for example, to monitor and analyze use of the Site, to increase our Site’s functionality, and to better tailor our content and design to suit our visitors’ needs.

Enforcement:

We may use the information that we collect to prevent illegal activities, to enforce the Site’s Terms and Conditions, and to otherwise protect our rights and the rights of our users.

By using the Site, you consent to the uses identified above and any other use of information identified in this privacy policy. In addition, we may use the information that we collect for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent.

RETAINING, MODIFYING AND DELETING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

You may access, retain, modify or delete the information we hold about you. If you wish to exercise this right, please contact us using the contact details below. If you would like to update, correct, modify or delete from our database any personal data you previously submitted to us, please let us know by accessing and updating your profile. If you delete certain information you may not be able to use certain Site features in the future without re-submitting such information. We will comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Also, please note that we will maintain personal data in our database whenever we are required to do so by law.

Please note that we need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting such change or deletion (for example, when you enter a promotion, you may not be able to change or delete the Personal Data provided until after the completion of such promotion). We will retain your personal data for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY

We limit access to contact information about you to employees or service providers who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information to provide products or services to you or in order to do their jobs. We also have adopted commercially reasonable technical, physical, and administrative procedures to help protect information about you from loss, misuse, and alteration.

Please note that no data transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We want you to feel confident using the Site, but we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us.

CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to change this policy at any time. Please check this page periodically for changes. Your continued use of our Site following the posting of changes to these terms will constitute acceptance of those changes. Information collected prior to the time any change is posted will be used according to the rules and law that applied at the time the information was collected.