Purpose of this Privacy
Policy
This privacy policy
describes how The Hearst Electronics Group (“HEG”), a division of Hearst
Communications, Inc., treats the personally identifiable information that is
collected about you when you visit the web sites to which this policy is
linked.
What
is Personally Identifiable Information
“Personally identifiable
information” is information that we can use to identify you as an individual.
Personally identifiable information includes your name, address, telephone
number and any other information that is connected with you personally.
Information This Privacy
Policy Does Not Apply To
This privacy policy does not
apply to information collected about you by anyone except HEG and only applies
to the web sites to which this policy is linked. Any information you provide when you visit
web sites other than those covered by this policy (including other web sites
affiliated with Hearst) is subject to the privacy policies of the organizations
who run and/or own those web sites. This policy does
not apply to information you may provide to us off-line.
Collection of Personally
Identifiable Information
HEG generally collects
personally identifiable information with your specific knowledge and consent.
Certain portions of our sites require registration, and you will be required to
provide personal information in order to gain access to those areas. When you enter a sweepstakes or contest,
complete a survey, or subscribe to our magazines or newsletters, you will be
asked to provide information such as your e-mail address, name, phone number,
and sometimes shipping address. Optional demographic information may also be
requested. This information may be collected on our behalf by third party
service providers who have been instructed to use the information only as
directed by HEG.
HEG uses this information to
provide you with the service you have requested. If you subscribe to any of our magazines, we
may use your e-mail address to send you a confirmation notice and your mailing
address to send you your magazine.
Similarly, if you enter online sweepstakes, we will use this information
to notify you if you are a winner. We may also use your information to contact
you by e-mail or off-line with special offers from HEG or third parties who
have asked HEG to market to its users on their behalf. If you don’t want us to
send you email messages, you can contact us at privacy@hearstelectroweb.com.
If you make postings to any
bulletin boards we may host from time to time, that information will become
public and we have no control over how others might use that information.
In addition, HEG may share
or disclose personally identifiable information about you to other companies or
individuals when:
·
You have
registered on one of our sites, in which case your information may be shared
with third parties from whom you have
researched product information or to whose website you have linked;
·
we utilize third
party service providers to provide products, services or functions on our
behalf (such as sending emails, newsletters or processing credit cards or
fulfilling subscriptions), and ask these service providers to agree to maintain
the confidentiality of your personally identifiable information and not to use
your personally identifiable information for any reason except to carry out the
purpose(s) for which we hired them;
·
we authorize
third parties, such as advertisers and others who may have products we think
might be of interest to you, to use our mailing lists to off-line (in that
event, we do not share your e-mail address);
·
we have
contacted you in advance to notify you that we may furnish you e-mail messages on behalf of third parties and you have not opted out of
receiving such messages;
·
the entity to
whom the information is disclosed is one under control of, or under common
control with HEG (for these purposes, a company controlling 20% or more of the
voting stock of another entity shall be deemed to control such entity);
·
we need to
protect our legal rights (for example, if we are trying to collect money you
owe us);
·
we must comply
with applicable laws, regulations, or legal or regulatory process; or
in connection with a sale, merger, transfer, exchange,
or other disposition (whether of assets, stock, or otherwise) of all or a
portion of the business conducted by the web sites to which this policy
applies.
HEG also shares web site
usage information about visitors to our web sites with reputable third parties for the
purpose of targeting future campaigns and upgrading visitor information used in
reporting statistics.
Cookies
HEG (or third party service
providers on our behalf) may set and access cookies on your computer. A cookie
is a small amount of data (often including a unique identifier), that is sent
to your browser from a web site’s computers and stored on your computer’s hard
drive. HEG uses cookies to understand site usage and to improve the content and
offerings on our site.
We may use cookies to
control the display of ads, to track usage patterns on the sites, to deliver
editorial content, to record requests for subscriptions and to personalize
information.
Our cookies may contain
personally identifiable information and such cookies may be shared with others
to the same extent indicated above.
HEG (or third party service
providers on our behalf) may also use cookies to collect aggregate information
about web site users on an anonymous basis.
We may share aggregate demographic and usage information with our
prospective and actual business partners, advertisers and other third parties
for any business purpose.
Some of our advertisers may
serve you cookies as well. We do not have control over cookies placed by
advertisers.
If you don’t want cookies,
most Web browsers include an option that allows you to not accept them.
However, if you set your browser to refuse cookies, some portions of our sites
may not function efficiently.
IP
Address
Your
Internet Protocol (“IP”) address is usually associated with the place from
which you enter the Internet, like your Internet Service Provider, your company
or your university. We may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with
our servers, gather broad demographic information, and administer our website.
Kids
And Parents
The sites covered by this
policy are not intended for use by children, especially those under age 13. No
one under age 13 is allowed to provide any personal information or use our
public discussion areas, forums and chats. Minors between the ages of 13 and 17
must get the permission of their parent(s) or legal guardian(s) before
subscribing to any magazines on our sites.
If your children disclose
information about themselves in our public discussion areas, they may get
unsolicited messages from other parties. Accordingly, you should tell them not
to do so.
If you’re worried about your
children’s activities or their privacy on our site, we encourage you to e-mail HEG at
privacy@hearstelectroweb.com.
Non-U.S. Users
If you are located outside
of the
Changes
to Privacy Policy and Notice
HEG may change this policy
from time to time in its discretion.
Your continued use of our sites indicates your consent to this privacy
policy and any amended versions of it.
If you have any questions or concerns about use of your personally
identifiable information, please contact us at privacy@hearstelectroweb.com.
This policy was last updated
on August 25, 2006.