World History Group and its family of consumer publications are strongly committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe online experience for all of our users and subscribers while offering the highest quality publications and services to them. Because we gather certain types of information about and from users and subscribers so that we can fulfill your requests and better serve your needs, we feel you should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the collection and use of this information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather, how we use it, how to correct or change it, and what steps we take to safeguard personal information provided to us both online and offline. Please note that some of our websites are subject to separate privacy policies. We encourage you to always check the privacy policy on each website you visit to be sure you understand the privacy policy governing that site, since use of this site constitutes agreement with these terms. We urge you to read the complete Online Privacy Policy below, as well as our Terms and Conditions of Use, and contact us if you have any questions, but offer this short summary to highlight key points.
In general, you may visit our digital issue or use the companion mobile applications (iPad®, iPhone®, Android® and other smartphone or tablet devices, collectively referred to as the “Digital Issue”) without identifying yourself or revealing any personal information. All references in this Privacy Policy to “we,” “our,” or “us” are references to World History Group and its family of consumer publications and all references to “you,” “users” and “subscribers” are references to those individuals who access a Digital Issue of our publications or the print version.
- We collect personal and non-personal information from you to provide information and service, to understand your interests, and to conduct our business, and may combine it with information we receive from third parties.
- We may share personal and non-personal information about you with third parties in the circumstances described in this policy.
- We use cookies, web beacons and other technologies to provide personalized content, certain functionalities, and to better understand the features our visitors prefer.
- We reserve the right to share information to satisfy a legal request, protect people or property, or in connection with a transfer of one or more of our business units.
- We adopt reasonable procedures to protect the personal information you send to us. Credit card and other sensitive information are encrypted during transmission to our sites. However, we provide no guarantees that your data will always be secure.
What Information Do We Collect About You?
What Do We Do with Information We Collect?
How Do We Share Personal Information?
- World History Group and Its Agents
- Participating Vendors
- Credit Card Companies
- Advertisers, Sponsors and Promotional and Business Partners
- Important Note
What About Third Party Advertisers?
How Can You Control Your Personal Information?
Security of Your Personal Information
Changes in Corporate Structure
Visitors Outside the United States
WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU?
You can visit our websites, read articles and other materials, and check on offerings without giving us any personally identifiable information. So that we can provide our users and subscribers with the most efficient and enhanced, personalized service, we request information about you in certain circumstances, and collect certain information automatically. We also use contact lists and other information we may obtain from third parties. For the convenience of our customers and to better serve you, a customer account includes all the collected personal information we may have, but you can update or correct your contact information or change your preferences about receiving offers and information from us or third parties at any time. All information we have about you will be available to all of our brands and affiliates at World History Group.
We collect personally identifiable information, such as names, mailing addresses, and/or e-mail addresses, when you subscribe to one of our magazines, place an order (see the section below for more information on subscriptions and orders), or register at one of our web sites. Website visitors may register to receive one of our e-mail updates, respond to a survey, or enter online contests and sweepstakes; we may offer offline contests and sweepstakes as well. Registration may be required to participate in message boards, bulletin boards, or chat rooms at our websites or to take advantage of special offers.
Sometimes registration can be accomplished by submitting only a user name and password. Other types of offerings require submission of additional information. The information we collect may include your e-mail address, name, address, phone number, age, gender, hobbies, family information, and similar demographic information or information related to your interests. Some of our sites may offer you the opportunity to receive offers directly from third parties, or to match you directly with a trusted fulfillment partner. In the latter case, in addition to contact information and other details, we will ask you to provide a social security number and certain financial and credit-related information to facilitate a response from our fulfillment partners. Registration forms will indicate what information is required and what information (if any) is optional.
If you wish to subscribe to one of our publications or place an order for products or services online, you must generally establish a credit card account with us or our vendors. In addition to the customary information needed to fill your order (full name, email address, physical address, ship-to name and address, gift information, etc.), subscriptions and orders necessitate collection of your credit card number and credit card expiration date. Electronic order acknowledgments are sent when an subscription or order is placed online. Most of our websites allow visitors to subscribe to our publications online, and some sites also offer areas where you may purchase items online. We may offer online and offline subscribers a “bill me” option if they do not wish to use a credit card, but visitors should check online stores to see if other payment options are permitted for online store purchases apart from credit cards.
Information Collected Automatically
Our websites automatically collect certain information, such as your IP address, browser type, domain name, access times and referring website address. This helps facilitate your online experience at our websites. In addition, we use cookies to track usage patterns at our site and to control the display of ads, as well as to offer other functionalities (such as screening for age, helping to track items in your shopping basket at sites which offer online shopping opportunities, and “recognizing” you to speed up your log-in when you visit our sites). See below for more detail on cookies.
We conduct market research in an effort to continually improve our publications and websites and may purchase lists of potential subscribers or customers from third parties. Those lists may include information on current subscribers or customers. This information is included in our database. That helps us, for example, minimize multiple mailings and e-mailings, and provide information tailored to your interests.
What We Do Not Collect
We do not collect any information about your online activities with websites unrelated to World History Group or your particular online preferences other than your browsing of World History Group websites. We will not recognize Web browser “do not track” signals. Because we link to social media sites, and from time to time may include third-party advertisements, other parties may collect your personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across different web sites when you visit any World History Group website.
WHAT DO WE DO WITH COLLECTED INFORMATION?
We use information you provide to fulfill your requests, improve our publications, products and services, and operate our business. For example, we use personal information so that we may display or send custom, personalized content to our website visitors and to send newsletters, mail, e-mails, features, promotional material, surveys and other updates, information or offers to our users and subscribers. A user may, at any time, opt out of receiving promotional offers by mail, telephone or e-mail. We also use collected information to evaluate and administer our products and services, fulfill customer requests, like subscription and other orders, respond to any problems that may arise, such as magazine delivery failures, difficulties in navigating our sites or accessing certain features, as well as to gauge user trends to determine what products and services are most popular with users, and to put you in touch with trusted fulfillment partners who can provide services that we cannot.
We allow users of our website to send articles or links by email to other parties who may be interested in them. We do not retain any email addresses (unless you are a member who already has voluntarily provided your email address) of either the sender or recipient of such articles or links after they are sent, and do not share “send a friend” e-mail addresses with third parties.
Of course, we use personal information to allow you to subscribe online or to make product purchases at certain of our websites. Rest assured that we and our technical and fulfillment agents and consultants follow careful procedures to safeguard credit card data in connection with your transactions.
We may produce reports for advertisers, sponsors and vendors containing anonymous, aggregate information about our users and subscribers, such as demographic, age and online usage information. This allows us to provide content and offers that are most relevant to our subscribers and users and to work more closely with advertisers.
HOW DO WE SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION?
Personal information is available to World History Group, including its brands and affiliates, and its or their technical and fulfillment agents and consultants who make this site and our publications, products and services available to you. Anonymous information is available to our advertisers, sponsors and promotional and business partners. We share your personal information with third parties only as described below.
World History Group and Its Agents. World History Group may access both anonymous, aggregate demographic data and any personal information you provide for internal marketing or other business purposes, including sending you notices of subscription renewal deadlines, new publications, services or products we offer likely to be of interest, and filling subscription and other orders. To facilitate subscriptions and orders, World History Group will cache your order information, and create an authorization with a merchant account (i.e., your credit card company). There are many companies who may be required to assist World History Group in making its publications, products and web sites available to you. Web host firms, technical and database consultants, advertising agencies, and fulfillment firms, including firms assisting us in offering contests and promotions, may have access to personally identifiable information in the course of making our products and services available. All companies working for World History Group must comply with our information collection, use and disclosure policies, and are not permitted to sell your information to third parties or to use it except as authorized by us and you, or as permitted or required by law.
Participating Vendors. Some of our sites offer opportunities to make purchases online from special participating vendors. On sites with online purchase opportunities for products and merchandise, we will also give participating manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers or distributors the order information and authorization for the merchant bank. Any time you order from a participating vendor, that vendor will automatically have all the information related to the order. Participating vendors may use that information to advise you directly of other products and offerings that they provide. World History Group is not responsible for their privacy policies, and urges you to inquire about their information practices. In addition, all vendors will receive the same anonymous, aggregate data that our advertisers do.
Credit Card Companies. As in any transaction, your credit card company will have all relevant information about the name of the vendor, item(s) purchased, and date and total cost. World History Group will not otherwise provide any personal data to your credit card company.
Advertisers, Sponsors and Promotional and Business Partners. We share anonymous, aggregate demographic information (such as gender, age, income, hobbies, interests, etc.), and anonymous information obtained from cookies and similar technologies, with our advertisers, sponsors, promotional and business partners, and with participating vendors at sites offering online sales opportunities. No personally identifiable information is disclosed to any of these third parties in providing these reports. Credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and passwords are not shared with advertisers, sponsors or promotional partners, and are only shared with specific vendors with whom you place an online order.
Offline and online contact information is handled differently. As is customary in the publications business, offline contact information is shared with third parties who may send you offers or information about their products or services. You must opt-out if you do not wish to receive information from us or third parties by mail.
We may extend e-mail offers to you on behalf of our business partners about their products or services, but only if you have indicated that you would like to receive such offers. Although World History Group may receive a fee from our business partners for this service, World History Group sends those offers on behalf of the business partner, and does not share your e-mail address with them. Of course, you may opt out of receiving those offers at any time.
At our websites, visitors will also have opportunities to sign up directly with certain advertisers and sponsors to enter contests or sweepstakes, receive e-mail updates, or to receive information directly from them. Third party vendors and advertisers will also use technical and other consultants. We urge visitors to carefully review the privacy policies of these firms. World History Group is not responsible for the privacy policies and procedures of any third party.
Trusted Fulfillment Partners. Sometimes we will give you the opportunity to opt in to receive e-mail offers directly from third parties not affiliated with World History Group. If you decide to accept these offers, we will provide your contact information to the third party. As our trusted fulfillment partners may keep and use your information whether or not you purchase their products or use their services, your personal information will be subject to their privacy policies, and you should contact them directly for more information about their specific privacy and opt-out policies.
Public Postings. You should be aware that if you voluntarily disclose information, personal or otherwise, online in any community area (whether through World History Group’s websites or any other service available online), that information can be collected and used by others. For example, if you use chat, forums, bulletin boards or message boards, or if you post personal information online (such as your e-mail address, photograph, etc.), you may receive unsolicited messages from others. World History Group has no control over this use of your personal information.
We reserve the right to use or disclose any information without notice or consent as needed to satisfy any law, regulation or legal request; to conduct investigations of consumer complaints or possible breaches of law; to protect the integrity of our site and our property and assure adherence to our terms of use; to protect the safety of our visitors or others; to fulfill your requests; or to cooperate in any legal investigation or process.
Your Web browser offers so-called “cookies” which, if you allow their use, store small amounts of data on your computer when you visit a website. Cookies do not contain any personally identifiable information about you and therefore cannot be used to identify you personally. Cookies assist us in tracking which of our features you like best. Cookies also enable us to customize our content according to your preferences. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying your browser and our websites are viewable even if you disable the cookie function on your browser. However, if you disable cookies, some advanced and customized features or offerings will not be available to you. Our third party advertisers may also use cookies.
Some of our Web pages may contain electronic images known as Web beacons, which are also called single-pixel gifs. These images allow us to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. We also may include Web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or newsletters in order to count how many messages have been opened and acted upon. Web beacons are not used to access your personally identifiable information but they are a technique we use to compile aggregated statistics about our website usage. Web beacons collect only a limited set of information including a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the Web beacon resides. Some of our Web pages may also contain Web beacons placed there by our advertising partners to help us determine the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns.
WHAT ABOUT THIRD PARTY ADVERTISERS?
Some of the banner ads displayed in our websites are provided by outside companies. These ads contain cookies and may also contain Web beacons. Unlike cookies and Web beacons used by World History Group in content it controls at its Web sites, cookies or Web beacons received with banner ads are collected by our advertisers and we do not have access to this information. We use reputable third parties to serve some or all of the advertisements that are placed within our sites and they may use information (not including personally identifiable information) about your visits to our sites and other sites to assist in serving advertisements to you. They may share anonymous information with their clients such as date/time of the banner ad shown, the specific ad shown, the IP address, etc.
HOW CAN YOU CONTROL YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We believe that choice in how and when you are contacted is key to customer satisfaction, so we offer several ways for you to update your contact information or change your preferences.
1. If you have an online account at one of our websites, you may be able to log on and update or change your contact or account information. Check the site for further information.
2. If you are a subscriber to one of our magazines, you may be able to log on and update or change your contact or account information by contacting us at http://www.palmcoastd.com/ows-img/weider/Subscriber_Services.htm.
3. You may unsubscribe to any of our online e-mail updates by following the unsubscribe instructions in the body of any message.
4. You may write to us and update your contact information or ask that we not share your personal contact information with third parties at: World History Group Magazines, Inc., c/o Privacy Coordinator, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500 . In those instances, we will retain your information in a “do not promote” file in our database.
5. You may also contact us at comments {[@]} historynet.com.
We will take commercially reasonable steps to implement your opt-out requests promptly, but you may still receive promotional information from us by mail for up to 60 days due to printing and mailing schedules, and up to 10 days for e-mail.
SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt important information, such as your credit card data, in an effort to prevent unauthorized access during transmission of your orders over the Internet. We incorporate standard industry practices internally and with our service providers suitable to the degree of sensitivity of the information involved to maintain the security of your personal information and to avoid its disclosure except as described in this policy. We take special precautions to safeguard your credit card data in our system.
Your personal information may also be protected by the password you created when you registered at one of our websites where this feature is offered. The confidentiality of any password is yours to protect. You may change it anytime by following the instructions at the website where you registered.
Although we use our best efforts to assure that your data remains secure when maintained by us, security during Internet transmissions or within any system cannot be assured. World History Group employees are made aware of its privacy practices through periodic communications and training. We limit access to personal data only to those World History Group employees or agents with a specific need to access or retrieve this information. We store data on multiple service systems, in controlled, secure environments. To maintain the highest level of security, we conduct internal reviews of our security measures on a regular basis. Remember, however, that any personal information you post in chat rooms or message boards is available to anyone. We ask our agents, promotional and business partners, and trusted fulfillment partners to provide assurances of reasonable security, but are not responsible for the privacy or security practices of any third party.
Most of our publications and web sites are intended for adults. Some web sites and publications, however, are intended for teens 13 and older but may include features or material that may be appealing to children under the age of 13. World History Group is strongly committed to protecting the safety and privacy of children who visit our Web sites. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13 and have adopted techniques to age-screen users on our teen-oriented sites to ensure compliance with this Privacy Policy and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying regulations establish United States federal law that protects the privacy of children using the Internet. Many of our sites include chat rooms, bulletin boards and other features that we believe are unsuitable for children under 13 and which are not necessarily monitored. We encourage all parents to talk to their kids about online safety and to monitor their children’s use of the Internet.
World History Group may offer links to or from Web sites it controls to other sites within the World History Group family as well as to sites operated by third parties. We offer links to third party sites so that you can conveniently visit our vendors and advertisers or locate other content likely to be of interest. We are not responsible for the content, practices or policies of sites operated by third parties and urge you to inquire about them before providing any personally-identifiable information.
CHANGES IN CORPORATE STRUCTURE
In developing our business, we might sell certain assets, or the company, or parts of it, may be sold, merged or otherwise transferred. In such transactions, user information, whether personally identifiable or otherwise, may be one of the transferred assets.
YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
Under the California “Shine the Light” Law (Civil Code § 1798.83), California residents have the right to receive, once a year, information about third parties with whom we have shared information about you or your family for their marketing purposes during the previous calendar year, and a description of the categories of personal information shared. To make such a request, please send an email to comments {[@]} historynet.com and please include the phrase “California Privacy Request” in the subject line, and provide us with your name, address and email address. We will respond to you within thirty days of receiving such a request.
VISITORS AND SUBSCRIBERS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES
Our websites and the servers that make these sites available worldwide are located in the United States. All matters relating to these sites are governed by the laws of the State of New York in the United States. Any information you provide in subscribing to one of our publications or registering or ordering at one of our web sites will be transferred to the United States. By visiting our sites and submitting information, you authorize this transfer, processing and use.
We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy as necessary to protect our users and to comply with a changing environment. We recommend that you check the policy when you visit our site to be sure you are aware of and understand our current policy. If we make material changes to this policy or in how we will use or collect your personally identifiable information, we will prominently post such changes prior to implementing the change. We will not make material changes in how we handle previously collected personal information that have retroactive effect unless legally required to do so, and we will e-mail registered website visitors information on material changes to this policy. Your continued use of the Site means you accept the updated privacy policy.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please e-mail us at comments {[@]} historynet.com. Please include the URL of the Web site and/or name of the publication involved in your request. Requests under the California “Shine the Light” Law (Civil Code § 1798.83), should be directed to comments {[@]} historynet.com and include the information noted in Your California Privacy Rights.
Or you can contact us by mail at:
World History Group
Privacy Coordinator
19300 Promenade Drive
Leesburg, VA 20176-6500
Updated June 1, 2014