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Dimensions Weekly - Privacy Policy
Effective as of SEPT 1, 2009
The DW Sites are general audience web sites, and DW does not knowingly collect PII from children under 18 years of age. From time to time we may revise this Policy to reflect industry initiatives or changes in the law, our information collection and use practices, the features of the DW Sites, or technology. If we make revisions that change the way we collect or use your PII, those changes will be posted in this Policy and the effective date will be noted at the beginning of this Policy. Therefore, you should review it periodically so that you are up to date on our most current policies and practices. If we materially change our practices regarding use of your PII, your PII will continue to be governed by the Policy under which it was collected unless you have been provided notice of, and have not objected to, the change.
COLLECTION: Collection of PII by DW
General. DW collects PII in order to create or enhance our relationship with you. When we collect PII from you it is because you are voluntarily submitting the information to us in order to participate in certain activities including (i) registration for certain online services and tools such as downloads, message boards, chat rooms or other community services; (ii) registration for special communications, such as email updates and newsletters; (iii) subscription registration; (iv) purchase products or services from or through the DW Sites; (v) user surveys; (vi) events, sweepstakes, contests or promotions; and (vii) registration for online multi- or single-player gaming. We may obtain PII from third parties that we consider to be reputable. We also may receive on the DW Sites user-generated content or information of any type or medium, which may include PII, including but not limited to: audio conversations; text chat and video images from chat rooms; user reviews; and game guide submissions.
Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information in public areas of an DW Site, such as the member home pages and message boards, your information can be viewed and possibly used by others. We advise users to be especially careful in such public areas about disclosing PII, such as full name, home address, or phone number.
Cookies. Cookies are small bits of information that are placed on the hard drive of your computer when you visit the DW Sites. We may use cookies to recognize users who have already registered for an DW Site, allowing those users to speed up their future activities on the DW Sites. Information about your activities on DW sites and other non-personally identifiable information about you may also be used to tailor the online ads you encounter to those we believe are consistent with your interests. Third party advertisements displayed on the DW Sites may also contain cookies set by Internet advertising companies or advertisers. DW does not control these cookies. You should check the privacy policy of the Internet advertising company or advertiser to see whether and how it uses cookies. See the "Notice" section below for more information on third party advertisements.
DW may use cookies and similar tools to relate your use of the DW Sites to PII obtained from you or a third party. For example, if you've asked us to provide you with information about our products or promotions, cookie and/or click stream data about your activities on the DW Sites may allow us to limit the materials we provide you to items we think you will find interesting, based on your prior online activities and preferences. We will not coordinate your PII and web site activity information in this manner without first obtaining your express affirmative consent.
You can set your computer to alert you each time a cookie is being sent or to refuse cookies completely. However, without cookies, you may not have access to certain features on the DW Sites. Web beacons. The DW Sites may contain electronic images known as Web beacons - sometimes called single-pixel gifs - that may be used to assist in delivering or accessing cookies on our sites and allow us to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. We may include Web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or our newsletters in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.
We may also employ Web beacons from third parties in order to help us compile aggregated statistics and determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns. We prohibit Web beacons on our sites from being used by third parties to collect or access your personal information.
Finally, we may work with other companies that advertise on the DW Sites to place Web beacons on their sites in order to allow us to develop statistics on how often clicking on an advertisement on an DW site results in a purchase or other action on the advertiser's site.
NOTICE: DW Will Provide You with Notice About its PII Collection Practices
When you voluntarily provide PII in response to our request or we authorize a third party to collect PII from you on the DW Sites, we will inform you about who is collecting the information, how and why the information is being collected, and the types of uses DW will make of the information At the time you provide your PII, DW will notify you of your options regarding our use of your PII (See "Choice" below). This Policy describes the types of other companies that may want to send you information about their products and services and with whom we may want to share your personal information, as provided in this Policy (See "Use" below).
Sometimes we collect PII from consumers in manual format or off-line, such as a post card or subscription form. Providing detailed notice in those situations often proves impractical, so consumers will instead be provided with a short notice that describes how to obtain the full text of this Policy and other relevant information from us.
When you sign up with our partners for services such as game hosting, user pages, and other services, you are providing information to the partner offering the service as well as to DW. Use of your PII by the partner is subject to that partner's privacy policy, and you should carefully read the privacy policy of the partner providing the service before deciding to take advantage of the service.
The DW Sites may be linked to Internet sites operated by other companies. Some of these third party sites may be co-branded with an DW or affiliated entity's logo, even though they are not operated or maintained by DW. The DW Sites also carry advertisements from other companies. DW is not responsible for the privacy practices of web sites operated by third parties that are linked to the DW Sites or for the privacy practices of third party or national Internet advertising companies. Once you've left an DW Site via such a link or by clicking on an advertisement, you should check the applicable privacy policy of the third party or advertiser site to determine how they will handle any PII they collect from you.
The DW Sites may also be linked to sites operated by companies affiliated with DW. separate privacy policies and practices, which some of the advertisements that appear on theDW Sites are delivered to you by national Internet advertising companies such as those listed below. These companies utilize certain technologies to deliver advertisements and marketing messages and to collect anonymous information about your visit to the DW Sites, including information about the ads they display, via a cookie placed on your computer that reads (or approximates) your IP address.
CHOICE: DW Will Provide You with Choices About the Use of Your PII
DW will not use your PII for purposes different from those about which you have been notified, or share your PII with third parties that are not affiliated withDW, unless you have asked to receive certain information and/or services from third parties or participate in certain third-party programs (such as beta or demos) and have been notified that the fulfillment of such a request requires the sharing of your PII or you have consented to such sharing.
For example, DW provides game owners/publishers with certain hosted technology and software that enables various game related functionalities, such as online multi- or single-player gaming, on our Sites. If you are not already a registered user of the DWSites you may be asked to provide PII in connection with your use of such services. In addition, we may share your PII with game owners/publishers so that they can provide you with the services you have elected to receive. Similarly, DW may provide downloads of software for, or host play of, pre-release test, or "beta", versions of games as well as partial game demonstrations, trials and full game downloads provided by the owner/publisher. In order to receive or participate in these programs, you may be required to provide PII, which we may provide to the owner/publisher. Any PII that you provide to game owners/publishers will be subject to the game owner's/publisher's privacy policy, and we have no control over the ways that game owners/publishers to whom you provide your PII may use your PII.
USE: DW's Use of PII
DW will use your PII in a manner that is consistent with this Policy. If DW obtains PII from a third party, such as a business partner, our use of that information is governed by this Policy.DW may use PII in aggregate, anonymous form for research purposes. We may contact you regarding account status, changes to this Policy, our User Agreement or other terms of use, to confirm your registration, for customer service purposes or for any other business reason related to your use of DW Sites.
DW may share your PII with companies that are affiliated with us, that is, are part of the News America Group of companies. Provided you have given us consent, DW may also share your PII with advertisers and business partners that are not affiliated with MMF, but would like to send you information about their products and services, such as sponsors of promotions or sweepstakes that appear on the MMF sites. We will never share your credit card information with third parties except those DW uses to perform tasks (such as order fulfillment and payment processing) required to complete purchases you make through web sites.
DW employees, agents, and contractors are required to have a legitimate business reason to obtain access to your PII. DW may share your PII with outside contractors or agents who help us manage our information activities (i.e., sweepstakes administration, order fulfillment, statistical analyses), but they must have agreed only to use your PII to provide DW with a specific service and not for any other purpose.
DW may also enter into agreements with outside companies that possess the technology that allows DW to customize the advertising and marketing messages you receive on the DW Sites. Your non-PII and click stream data about your activities on our sites may be shared with these companies so this customization can be accomplished. These companies have agreed not to share your information with any third party or use it for any other purpose. Anonymous click stream and demographic information may also be shared with DW 's advertisers and business partners.
DW automatically updates software used in conjunction with certain of the services available on the DW Sites. In order to accomplish this, DW collects information about a user's current version of the software from the user's computer. This information is not archived but is only used to determine which software requires updating.
DW may record audio conversations or copy text chat or video images from chat rooms on the DW Sites and may use and therefore disclose such material for use in connection with promoting the DW Sites. In addition, DW may collect other user-generated content such as user reviews and game guide submissions to post on our community hub site.
There may be instances when DW may disclose PII without providing you with a choice in order to protect the legal rights of DW, other companies within the News America Group or their employees, agents, and contractors; to protect the safety and security of visitors to our web sites; to investigate, prevent or protect against suspected fraud, illegal activity, violations of our user agreement or for risk management purposes; or to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims. In addition, if DW sells all or part of its business or makes a sale or transfer of assets or is otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, DW may transfer your PII to a third party as part of that transaction.
SECURITY: DW Protects the Security of PII
DW uses reasonable administrative, technical, personnel, and physical measures to safeguard PII in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure, or modification. Passwords and other sensitive information stored by DW are encrypted in transit.
Notwithstanding these security measures, please be aware that when you submit PII to the DW Sites over the Internet, the information may travel over many systems that are not under the DW 's control and may not be secure. If a password is used to help protect your accounts and personal information, it is your responsibility to keep your password confidential. Do not share this information with anyone. Anyone who has access to your password will have access to your PII, as well as to any credit card information that you have submitted. If you are sharing a computer with anyone you should always log out before leaving a site or service to protect access to your information from subsequent users.
ACCESS: How to Access, Correct, or Delete Your Preferences Regarding Your PII
To access, correct or update your account or other Personal Information such as your city or interests, please use the "My Account" link on the DW Site on which you are registered.
-DWMAGAZINE.COM
