OUR PRIVACY POLICY This privacy statement (“Privacy Policy”) covers all websites (such as, www.TheCitizen.com) owned and operated by Fayette Publishing Inc., doing business as The Citizen Newspapers (“The Citizen,” “we,” “us,” “our”) and all associated services provided by The Citizen. This privacy policy covers The Citizen’s treatment of personal information that it gathers when you access or use any of The Citizen’s websites or services. This policy also covers personal information that The Citizen’s business partners share with The Citizen. Please read the following to learn more about our privacy policy. By visiting our websites, submitting information or using any of our services, you expressly agree that you are accepting the practices outlined in this privacy policy. The Citizen knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. This is how we want to be treated, too. INFORMATION WE COLLECT The Citizen operates several websites including TheCitizen.com. It is our policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect while operating our websites. WEBSITE VISITORS Like most website operators, The Citizen collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. The Citizen’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how our visitors use our websites. From time to time, The Citizen may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website. The Citizen also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. The Citizen does not use such information to identify its visitors, however, and does not disclose such information, other than under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information, as described below. GATHERING OF PERSONALLY-IDENTIFYING INFORMATION Certain visitors to The Citizen’s websites choose to interact with The Citizen in ways that require us to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that The Citizen gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask any visitor who wants to become a “registered user” to provide a username and email address. Those who engage in transactions with The Citizen – by purchasing access to certain areas or services provided by our site, for example – are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, The Citizen collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with The Citizen. The Citizen does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities. The Citizen may aggregate personally-identifying information about the behavior of visitors to its websites and customers of its services. For example, The Citizen may monitor which news stories are most requested by its customers and users. The Citizen may display this information publicly or provide it to others in a non-personally identifiable aggregated form (e.g. statistical form). COLLECTION IN GENERAL INFORMATION WE AUTOMATICALLY COLLECT We may receive and store certain types of non-personally identifiable information whenever you interact with us, including, without limitation, the sort of information that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. The Citizen’s purpose in collecting such information is to better understand how The Citizen’s visitors use its website. From time to time, The Citizen may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website. The Citizen also collects potentially personally-identifying information like the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of website visitors. INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE TO US We may receive and store any information you enter on our website or provide to us in any other way. For example, in order to use certain services or functions of our websites, you may be required to register with a username and email address on the The Citizen website. The Citizen collects such information only insofar as is it deems reasonably necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the user’s interaction with The Citizen. You can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent you from engaging in certain activities. COOKIES A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. The Citizen uses cookies to help The Citizen identify and track visitors, their usage of The Citizen website, and their website access preferences. The Citizen visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using The Citizen’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of The Citizen’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies. DELETING AN ACCOUNT. All statistics and logs collected on behalf of an account holder are purged upon deletion of that user’s account, although The Citizen may retain such information for longer periods of time as part of its back-up emergency system. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONALLY-IDENTIFYING INFORMATION We neither rent nor sell your personal information to anyone. We share your personal information only with your consent or to our business partners and affiliates as described below: PERSONNEL/AGENTS The Citizen discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, agents and contractors that (1) need to know that information in order to process it on The Citizen’s behalf or to provide services available at or through The Citizen’s websites and services, and (2) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, agents and contractors may be located outside of your home country; by using The Citizen’s websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. AFFILIATED BUSINESSES We are affiliated with a variety of businesses and work closely with them in order to provide our services to users. We will only share personal information with affiliates to the extent that is necessary for such affiliates to provide the services. For example, when a website visitor searches on The Citizen, the IP address and query may be shared with The Citizen’s advertising partners. We require our affiliates to provide the same level of privacy protection that we do and they do not have the right to share or use personal information for any purpose other than for an authorized transaction. Some of our affiliates may be located outside of your home country; by using The Citizen’s websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. BUSINESS TRANSFERS If The Citizen or substantially all of its assets were transferred or acquired (for example, in the case of a merger or acquisition) customer information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. OTHER DISCLOSURES The Citizen may disclose potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information when The Citizen believes in good faith that release is required by law, court order, or when The Citizen believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of The Citizen, third parties or the public at large. THIRD PARTIES This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that The Citizen does not own or control, or to individuals that The Citizen does not employ or manage. The Citizen websites may permit you to link to other websites on the Internet, and other websites may contain links to the The Citizen websites. These other websites are not under The Citizen’s control. The privacy and security practices of websites linked to or from the The Citizen websites are not covered by this privacy policy, and The Citizen is not responsible for the privacy or security practices or the content of such websites. COMMUNICATIONS If you are a registered member of one or more of The Citizen’s websites and have supplied your email address, The Citizen may periodically send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with The Citizen and our products. If you are a registered member of The Citizen website and do not wish to receive such emails, please follow the instructions included in each email sent. If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users. CONDITIONS OF USE If you decide to visit the The Citizen website, your visit and any possible dispute over privacy is subject to this privacy policy and our terms of use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of Georgia state law. PRIVACY POLICY CHANGES The Citizen may change its privacy policy from time to time, and in The Citizen’s sole discretion. The Citizen encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its privacy policy. If changes are made, notice will be given in The Citizen website at http://www.TheCitizen.com/. Your continued use of our sites and services after any change in this privacy policy will constitute your acceptance of such change. QUESTIONS The Citizen’s full contact information, including location, may be found on our front page in the far left column at the bottom. Creative Commons Creative Commons License This work (the Privacy Policy) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Effective Date of This Privacy Policy This Privacy Policy is effective as of July 18, 2008. |