NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM - PRIVACY POLICY

Transcription

1 I. Scope of the Privacy Policy The National Geographic Society and our subsidiary, NGHT, LLC, which also is known as nationalgeographic.com (collectively, National Geographic, we or our ) understand the importance of our customers privacy. This Privacy Policy tells you what information we collect about you when you visit this website (our Site ) or use an online application that contains a link to this Privacy Policy. Our Privacy Policy also tells you how we use, share and protect this information; what choices you have about how this information is used; and how you can access and update this information. Our Site offers certain content, activities, games and services, which are referred to as the Services. This Privacy Policy applies to information collected on the Site where this Privacy Policy is posted, with the exception of the sections of this Site that are intended for visits from children under the age of 13, including,, and certain online features specifically designed for kids. In recognition of the need to provide additional privacy protections for children, we have a separate privacy policy that applies to those sections. To read the Kids' privacy policy,. Certain aspects of this Privacy Policy also apply to the personally identifiable information we collect offline. please click here For purposes of this Privacy Policy, personally identifiable information means information that identifies and can be used to contact a particular individual, such as name, postal address, address, and phone number. When other information, such as newsletter choices, magazine or product purchases, or consumer product preferences, is associated with personally identifiable information, this other information also becomes personally identifiable information. II. Information Collected Information You Provide Directly to National Geographic If you are interested in obtaining information, products or services from National Geographic, or in participating in certain activities on this Site, you may need to provide us with information about yourself. For example: If you order a product from us, we ask for your name, postal address, address, telephone number and your credit card number. If you are ordering a product as a gift for another person, we will ask you for that person s name, postal address and phone number in order to enable us to deliver the gift to the recipient. If you participate in an activity such as a survey or sweepstakes, we may also ask you to provide other types of information such as gender and personal interests, which we may associate with personally identifiable information that we have obtained about you. 1 of 6

2 In addition, we may combine personally identifiable information that you have provided to us with other information that is publicly available or that we receive from other sources. Information We Collect Automatically In addition to information you choose to provide to us, we also use standard Internet technologies to collect automatically certain additional information. For example: IP Address. When you come to our Site, we collect your Internet Protocol ( IP ) address, which identifies the computer or service provider that you use to access the Site. We may use IP addresses to collect information regarding the frequency with which specific visitors visit various parts of our Site. We may combine this information with personally identifiable information that we have collected to make our Site and our communications to you more targeted to your interests. Cookies. Our Site also uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that are stored on a user s computer and allow websites to remember information about users. We use cookies for a variety of purposes in order to enhance the quality of our Site. We use transient (also called session ID ) cookies to provide continuity from page to page. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. We also use persistent cookies. Persistent cookies allow our online store and certain other parts of our Site to recognize your browser when you return after your first visit to that part of our Site. Cookies allow us to personalize your return visits to our Site and to save you time during certain activities, such as checking out from our online store. You have the choice to set your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. (Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.) It is up to you whether to allow us to send you cookies. However, if you do not accept cookies from us, your ability to use some areas of our Site will be limited, such as our shopping cart feature or online games. Web beacons and other technologies. The Site uses other tracking tools, including web beacons. Web beacons are images on the Site (or in s that the Site sends to you) that help us determine what parts of the Site you have visited, whether you have opened an that we have sent to you, or otherwise to measure the effectiveness of the Site. These technical methods may involve the transmission of information directly to us or to a service provider authorized by us to collect information on our behalf. Click here for more information about how we use a third party service to collect and use information on this Site. The information we collect automatically may be combined with information that is personally identifiable so that we can make our Site and communications more interesting to you. Third-Party Online Advertising Some of the advertisements you see on this Site and other websites are delivered by third parties who also collect information through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies about your online activities on this and other websites, in an effort to understand your interests and deliver to you advertisements that are tailored to your interests. These third parties also may use information about you that we provide, such as your age, gender, or interests, or the features within the Site 2 of 6

3 that you use, to target and serve advertisements to you and to analyze the delivery of advertisements on the Site. However, we will not provide personally identifiable information about you to these companies, except as otherwise permitted under this Privacy Policy. Third parties that currently serve ads on our Site, and thereby may collect information about your online activities to deliver tailored ads, include, but are not limited to, DoubleClick. These companies may offer you a way to choose not to have your information used for advertising purposes. These and other third-party companies may also be members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI"), which offers a single location to opt out of receiving tailored ads from member companies. To opt out or to obtain information about the technologies member companies use or their own privacy policies, please visit the NAI consumer opt out page. Also, through the Digital Advertising Alliance ("DAA"), several media and marketing associations have developed an industry self-regulatory program to give consumers a better understanding of and greater control over ads that are customized based on their online behavior across different websites. To make choices about interest-based ads from participating third parties, please visit the DAA consumer opt out page. III. Information Use National Geographic may use information that we collect about you for a variety of business purposes, including: to maintain and manage your account, deliver Services that you have requested, and enhance your experience on our Site; to process and track your product or service orders and provide the services you request; to communicate with you about the Site or other products or services in which you may be interested, or to respond to your inquiries or comments; to perform business analyses or for other purposes to improve the quality of our business, the Site, and the products and services we offer; or in accordance with your consent. IV. Information Sharing and Disclosure We take very seriously our responsibility to maintain your privacy with respect to your information. We will therefore share that information only with the following entities, and only under these circumstances: with entities that provide services on our behalf, including Site development, maintenance and support, payment processing, distribution, and promotions management, only to the extent that these entities need the information to perform their services or as required by law, unless any additional use or sharing of the information is separately permitted under another provision of this Privacy Policy; within the National Geographic family, which is defined for this purpose as corporate affiliates of National Geographic ( Affiliates ) and entities that are authorized to use the National Geographic name to brand their products or services (such as National Geographic tour 3 of 6

4 expeditions, the National Geographic MasterCard, and the National Geographic holiday greeting card program); with identified entities whose products or services you specifically use or request to receive while you use the Site; with other selected third parties so that they may send you promotional materials about goods and services that they offer, but you have the opportunity to opt out of our sharing personally identifiable information about you as described below in the section entitled Your Choices, and we will not share your address with third parties for promotional purposes unless you specifically agree to such sharing; when we believe that doing so is required by law, may be necessary to protect any person s property, rights, or safety, or to investigate a potential violation of law, will help to enforce any terms of use or other legal agreement, or will help resolve disputes that arise in the ordinary course of business, or in the event of a corporate transaction, such as a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale; in aggregated or other non-personally identifiable form; or in accordance with your consent. V. Your Choices We understand the importance of protecting our customers privacy, and we therefore provide you with the opportunity to opt-out of having your personally identifiable information used or disclosed for certain purposes. You can opt out of receiving promotional communications from National Geographic and our Affiliates and our licensees, or request that we not share personally identifiable information about you with third parties for the third parties marketing purposes, by contacting us at: National Geographic Attn: Marketing Services - Privacy th Street NW Washington, DC Telephone: 800-NGS-LINE ( ) TDD: Outside the United States and Canada: You also can change your preferences relating to our newsletter program by going to or by clicking here. Because we plan our communications in advance, it may take several weeks for your request to become effective. If you continue to receive our communications in error after expressing an opt-out preference, please let us know so that we can investigate the situation. VI. Third Party Sites If you click on or interact with a hyperlink or advertisement that you find on the Site, you may 4 of 6

5 leave our Site or send information to a different website. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to your interactions with other websites, even if you find a link to them on our Site, and so you should read the privacy policy of the third-party website provider to see how your personally identifiable information will be treated on its site. VII. Information Security The security and confidentiality of your information is extremely important to us, and we take a number of steps to safeguard any personally identifiable information or credit card information that you provide to us. We use data encryption technology to help protect against loss, misuse or alteration of your credit card information. Secure Socket Layers (SSLs) encrypt the credit card information sent between your computer and our database. However, no method of transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, and therefore we cannot warrant or guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used or released in a manner that is inconsistent with this policy. VIII. Personally Identifiable Information Contained in User Content Some sections of our Site may allow users to post or transmit messages, comments, screen names, computer files and other materials. If you choose to make personally identifiable information public through these Services, National Geographic will consider that information public and will not limit its disclosure in the manner described here. IX. Children s Privacy Other than certain sections of this Site that are intended for visits from children under the age of 13 including and our Site is a general audience site, and we do not knowingly collect information about children under 13 years old through the Site. Should a child whom we know to be under 13 make known to us his or her personally identifiable information, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child to inform him or her that we must have parental consent before receiving his or her personally identifiable information. If we learn that we have collected personally identifiable information from a child under 13 other than in a manner authorized by law, we will delete that information from our database. X. Changes in this Privacy Policy We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the most recent version of the Policy on the Site, along with an indication of the date on which the Policy was amended most recently. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share personally identifiable information that we collect about you through the Site, we will notify you by sending you an at the last address that you provided us and/or by prominently posting notice of the changes on the Site. In any event, changes to this Privacy Policy may affect our use of personally identifiable information that you provided us prior to our notification to you of the changes. 5 of 6

6 XI. Contact Us If you have questions or wish to send us comments about this Privacy Policy, please write us at: National Geographic Society Attn: Marketing Services - Privacy th Street NW Washington, DC This policy was last updated August 1, 2011 A mountaintop is leveled for coal. The DEEPSEA CHALLENGER submarine is hoisted above the water for the first dive. Picture of Mel the weird fish from marine reserve video Photo: Student Rose Mandungu stands in front of a colorful apartment complex made from shipping containers in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. us-condit-dam-breach-vin.jpg Photo of Havasu Falls, Arizona Photo: Parrotfish smile, Heron Island Great barrier Reef, Australia Photo: Crowds on the streets of Calcutta. Photo: Diver near coral underwater in Papua New Guinea Photo: Will Gadd ice climbs in Eidfjord, Norway Photo: A coconut grove at sunset in Aina Haina on the island of Oahu in Hawaii Yellowstone spring picture 6 of 6