WHATÕS GOOD IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD PRIVACY POLICY AND YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS
This Privacy Policy was last updated
on May 26, 2009 and is effective immediately.
At WhatÕs Good In The Neighborhood and
itÕs Partners ("WGITN"),
we are committed to protecting the privacy, accuracy and reliability of any
personally identifiable information (ÒPersonal InformationÓ) you choose to
provide and to safeguarding such information from loss, misuse, unauthorized
access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. This Privacy Policy applies to
those web channels for WGITN. This Privacy Policy governs
the collection of any Personal Information you provide to a WGITN web channel
that is part of the WGITN Network and does not cover any such information
collected by its corporate parent, affiliates, or any other company, unless
specifically stated. This Privacy Policy is also incorporated into the WGITN
Legal Terms for Web Channel Usage Agreement (ÒTerms of UseÓ) by reference. Any
capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy will have the same meaning
as defined in the Terms of Use.
Unless specified otherwise on the Service, all users must
be at least 18 years of age and a legal resident of the United States to
participate in any activity that requires the submission of Personal
Information. This Service is designed and targeted to United States (ÒU.S.Ó)
audiences and is governed by and operated in accordance with the laws of the
U.S. We make no representation that this Service is operated in accordance with
the laws or governed by other nations. By your participation in our Service
activities, you certify that you are at least 18 years of age and located in
the U.S. If you are located in the European Union or elsewhere outside of the
U.S. and you participate in activities on this Service contrary to our policy
that only U.S. residents are eligible for certain activities, you do so at your
own risk and initiative, and are responsible for compliance with any applicable
local laws. Please be aware that any Personal Information you voluntarily
submit to us will be transferred to the U.S and subject to U.S. law. By using
this Service, participating in any Service activities, and/or providing us with
your Personal Information, you consent to this collection, transfer and use of
Personal Information to the U.S., and waive any claims that may arise under
your own national laws. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. This Privacy
Policy may change from time to time without notice to you, so please check back
often. Certain revisions are effective to you as a user of this web channel
immediately upon posting. When we revise the Privacy Policy, we will post a
notice on the web channelÕs home page. For revisions that are classified as
significant changes in the use and disclosure of your information we will also
send a notice to your email address currently on file with WGITN, and meet any
other requirement under applicable law. If you have any questions or comments
regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us by sending an e-mail message
to mneiswanger@fifth-gear.net.
What are ÒYour California Privacy RightsÓ? Under
California law, California residents who have an established business
relationship with us will have the right to receive information about our
opt-out policy of sharing your Personal Information with WGITN corporate
affiliated companies (collectively, ÒWGITN AffiliatesÓ) and with non-affiliated
third parties, including Advertisers, for marketing purposes. If you wish to
learn about our opt-out policies and your rights under California law, please
send your written request to us using the email or postal mail address below.
In an email request, you must state ÒRe: Your California Privacy RightsÓ in the
subject line.
WhatÕs Good In The Neighborhood and itÕs Partners Attn: Michael Neiswanger/Your
California Privacy Rights 1040 West Main Street Suite 200 Dothan, AL 36301
For all requests, please include your name, street
address, city, state and zip code. We will not accept requests via the
telephone or by facsimile. We are not responsible for responding to requests
that are not labeled or not sent properly, or do not have complete information.
Your request to opt-out of our future sharing of your Personal Information with
either WGITN Affiliates or third parties will be processed within ten (10)
business days of the date it is received in accordance with the information
below. Please note that non-affiliated third parties are independent from WGITN
and if you wish to stop all communications from such third parties, you will
need to address your request to the non-affiliated third parties directly.
1. Collection of Personal Information You
do not need to provide any Personal Information (which is information that can
identify you or can be used to contact you) to use a WGITN web channel or to
obtain information from most of the features and activities of a WGITN web
channel. In general, you can visit our web channels without telling us who you
are or revealing any Personal Information. However, if you want to participate
in certain online services, you may be asked to provide some Personal
Information, such as your name, mailing address, business address, telephone,
mobile phone, birth date or age, and/or e-mail address. You might be asked to
choose a user name and password, and provide that information when accessing
certain online features or services. If you do not want to give us any Personal
Information, you can always choose not to participate. The choice is yours. We
are only interested in offering you convenient online services that match your
interests and needs. Unless stated otherwise, we do not purposefully request
contact information for a mobile phone, text messaging or any wireless device
that includes a domain name address (such as Ò.netÓ or Ò.comÓ) as part of the
contact information. Federal law prohibits the sending of commercial email
messages directly to a wireless device that uses a domain name, unless you have
first given your affirmative consent. We may inadvertently collect a wireless
device number that includes a domain name when you send us an inquiry or register
for a contest or membership club. However, we will not knowingly use that
contact information for sending commercial email. We reserve the right to
respond to user inquiries or requests sent via a wireless device that uses a
domain name as such messages are not deemed to be commercial email and
therefore, are not regulated by Federal law. However, when Òcomputer to phoneÓ
commercial emails are prohibited by law, we may reject your wireless device
contact information when such information is submitted for certain features or
services. We will attempt to notify you if we will need new contact
information. All users of the Service are required to provide true, current,
complete and accurate Personal Information when prompted and we will reject and
delete any entry that we believe in good faith to be false or fraudulent. Any
prize or benefit shall be forfeited due to a rejected or disqualified entry.
Your continued participation indicates your acceptance of this Privacy Policy
and of the collection, use, disclosure, management and storage of your Personal
Information as described below. We may from time to time, transfer or merge any
Personal Information collected off-line to our online databases or store
off-line information in an electronic format. We may also combine Personal
Information we collect online with information available from other sources,
including information received from Advertisers, or marketing companies. This
Privacy Policy covers all such Personal Information and will remain in full force
and effect as long as you are a user of the Service or a participant in Station
activities. The list below contains some of the instances when a WGITN web
channel, one of its operational service providers or vendors (third party
companies that provide internal support to the Service) may collect your
Personal Information. Please note that many of our web channels may offer
additional online features and services and may ask you to provide some
Personal Information before permitting you to access those areas.
Automated News Services and Updates. This Service may
offer you special subscription features for news and news-related topics: 1)
ÒE-News,Ó ÒE-Sports,Ó or ÒE-WeatherÓ provides news, sports, and weather
updates, respectively, via email; and 2) the ÒFirst AlertÓ feature provides
weather information at your desktop. For the email updates, you are only
required to submit an email address. To subscribe to the First Alert feature,
you are required to provide your first and last name, zip code, email address,
location of the email address, gender, and birth date. The submission of other
information such as your computerÕs operating system,
ranges for household income and education, and a general description of your
profession is voluntary.
Polls. Many WGITN web channels offer polling areas, which
provide users with an opportunity to vote on local and national issues of
concern. When you choose to participate in a poll, we may ask you to provide
your name, gender, age or birth date, zip code and/or e-mail address. This
information helps us to ensure the accuracy of our polling data.
Surveys. WGITN web channels also may allow users to
complete surveys about products or services offered by WGITN or other
companies. These surveys may ask for your name and e-mail address, and/or other
information, such as your gender, age or birth date and income level. This
information helps us to understand our survey results.
Contests/Trivia. WGITN web channels also afford users
many opportunities to play contests or trivia games. When you enter into a
contest, trivia game or any other promotional opportunity, we may ask for your
name, password information, and telephone number and address (physical and
electronic) so that we can contact you if you win. Sometimes we may require you
to provide additional information, such as your birth date, gender and income
level. Of course, if you do not want to provide such information, you do not
need to participate in the online activity.
Purchases & Shopping. Some WGITN web channels enable users to purchase products.
When you purchase products, we may request your name, billing and/or shipping
address, email address, telephone number and credit card information. This
information allows us to send you the items you ordered, to process payment
information, and to respond to product and billing questions. Credit card or
debit card account information will be collected via a secured transmission
process and will be stored in a commercially reasonable secured manner.
Alternatively, the Service may use a third party operational service provider
to conduct the financial transaction in a secured manner; the third party
payment website will be accessible via a hyperlink from the WGITN Network
StationÕs web channel and will be solely responsible for all financial
transactions and the collection, use, storage and disposal of your Personal
Information.
Chat/Message Boards/Blogs. WGITN web channels also may
offer users the chance to participate in public areas, such as chat rooms,
message boards, blogs and/or news groups. When you choose to participate in any
of these areas, we may request your name, password information and address
(physical and electronic). This information helps us respond to questions or
concerns about use of these public areas. We reserve the right to edit or
delete any Personal Information disclosed to the public.
Comments/Questions. We afford users an opportunity to
submit comments or questions online. You must provide, at minimum, your name to
submit a comment or question, in some instances email address is optional. If
you choose to provide other Personal Information with, or in your comment or
question, we may retain such information in our public correspondence files
unless you are identified as a person less than 13 years of age. General
correspondence received from children identified as being less than 13 years of
age will be deleted and destroyed consistent with the requirements of the
ChildrenÕs Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (ÒCOPPAÓ). However, WGITN
Partner Stations are obligated by the Federal Communications Commission to
maintain certain public correspondence related to the operations of the Station
in its public inspection file, which may also be available via a StationÕs web
channel. Such correspondence will be maintained in the WGITN partnerÕs network
StationsÕ public inspection file and made available for review by the general
public as required by the FCC, even such correspondence knowingly received from
children.
2. Use and Disclosure of Personal Information WGITN web
channels use your Personal Information for three general purposes. First, we
use the information to provide you with the services you request and to respond
to billing and/or other questions related to such service offerings. Second, we
use the information to understand your use of our web channels and to notify
you about updates to one of our web channels or to send you marketing materials
or promotional offers from the Service, WGITN partnerÕs Network Stations, or on
behalf of our advertisers, sponsors, and promotional partners (collectively,
ÒAdvertisersÓ) that may be of interest to you. Third, we may use this
information in aggregate form to help us evaluate and modify existing services,
and to help us develop additional services that are likely to be of interest to
our users.
We reserve the right to collect Personal Information
using any new technology yet to be developed and to use such technology to
provide new services and features to you, as well as for marketing and
promotional purposes. Specific information regarding your choice to Opt-out to
such use, or for sharing your Personal Information with Advertisers, will be
provided once the new technology, service, or feature is introduced.
On occasion, WGITN or one of its Partners may share your
Personal Information with our Advertisers. You will have an opportunity to
ÒOpt-outÓ of such sharing at the time of registration for the event or feature
or by contacting the Service at [Michael Neiswanger – mneiswanger@fifth-gear.net].
We also provide you with an option to ÒOpt-outÓ of
receiving advertising and promotional email from us about WGITN, its partnerÕs Stations
or our Advertisers in compliance with federal law by installing an Opt-out
mechanism with all such commercial email messages. You must use the designated
method in the email message to notify us of your Opt-out request, as we cannot
guarantee that other methods of notification will be effective or timely.
Please be aware that we may continue to contact you via email for
administrative, transactional or informational purposes, including follow-up
messages regarding contests you have entered or other transactions you have
undertaken. By law, such messages are not considered to be commercial email.
We are not responsible for removing your Personal
Information from third party lists or entities which you have previously
authorized us to share your information. You will need to contact those
entities directly. We may also share aggregate Personal Information and
non-Personal Information about website usage with unaffiliated third parties,
including, but not limited to, government agencies, Advertisers, and the media
(i.e., __% of WGITN users are female, __% of users have visited certain
sections, etc.). This aggregate information does not contain any Personal
Information about a specific individual.
We may share your Personal Information with unaffiliated
third parties in limited instances. For example, we may share your Personal
Information with unaffiliated third parties as is necessary to process or
collect payments, or service registered-user accounts. We also may hire third
party technology providers to host the WGITN Network and to store your Personal
Information.
In the event that the assets or stock of the Service, WGITN,
its Network Stations, and WGITNÕs parent company are
sold or transferred, merged with a different company or entity, restructured,
or subject to other fundamental corporate changes, we reserve the right to
disclose any and all databases compiled from Personal Information. We will seek
to obligate the companyÕs successor to agree to the terms of the Privacy
Policy, as it may hereafter be modified, but cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so or that the successor company will comply with this obligation.
Finally, we may be required to disclose Personal
Information by law or legal process, to protect and defend the rights or
property of a WGITN web channel, to respond to or participate in a governmental
inquiry or investigation, or to protect the personal safety of users of our web
channels. We also reserve the right to contact appropriate authorities when activities that are illegal (or reasonably presumed to be
illegal) or violate our policies is taking place on a WGITN web channel. Except
under the limited circumstances described above, we will not disclose any of
your Personal Information to unaffiliated third parties.
3. How We Protect Personal Information We take reasonable
measures to protect the privacy, accuracy, and reliability of any information
you choose to provide and to protect such information from loss, misuse,
unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Only authorized
employees are permitted to access Personal Information, and they only may do so
for permitted business functions. Any employee who violates our privacy access
policies will be subject to disciplinary action.
However, please note that this Service does not use a
secured connection for the transmission of Personal Information except for the
purchase of goods and services. When a user transmits Personal Information over
an unsecured Internet connection, Personal Information during the transmission
such as your email or registration could be copied or intercepted by unknown
third parties. Therefore, you understand, acknowledge and agree that you transmit
certain Personal Information over this Service at your own risk.
4. Accessing or Deleting Your Personal information If you
have submitted Personal Information through a WGITN web channel and you would
like to access that information, please send an e-mail to mneiswanger@fifth-gear.net.
We will use reasonable efforts to supply you with this information and to
correct any factual inaccuracies that you identify. Upon your request, we also
will remove your Personal Information from our active databases. Given the
limitations of our computer systems, corporate business policies, and federal
or state laws, we may not be able to delete all of your Personal Information.
We reserve the right to deny access to any user if we believe there is a
question about his/her identity. And if the burden or expense of providing
access to a userÕs Personal Information is disproportionate to the potential
privacy risks to that user, or if the legitimate rights of others would be
violated, we may chose to not provide access to such information. In such
cases, we will provide you with an explanation and a contact person for further
inquiries.
5. Collection, Use and Disclosure of Non-Personal
Information WGITN web channel may collect and freely disclose information about
you that is not personally identifiable, as described in the next two sections
below. We reserve the right to merge any such information with your Personal
Information but will do so only in accordance with WGITN guidelines and
applicable law.
6. Internet Protocol Addresses An Internet Protocol (IP)
address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access
the Internet. This number by itself does not identify your name, e-mail address
or other Personal Information. If you request pages from any WGITN web channel,
that web channel's server will enter your IP address into a log. To maintain
user anonymity, WGITN does not associate or link IP addresses with records
containing Personal Information unless it is necessary to enforce the law, our
Terms of Use, protect WGITN, its users, employees, operational service
providers or Advertisers, or to defend against or investigate any charges or
claims against WGITN. We also do not permit IP addresses to be associated and
viewed with posts to chat rooms, blogs and bulletin boards by other users. We
store IP addresses for a period of time to help us to identify anyone who
refuses to comply with our Terms of Service, applicable law, and to identify
visitors who threaten our Service, web channel, customers or others. We also
will use this information to measure web channel traffic for purposes of system
administration and for our Advertisers. This aggregate data also helps us to
understand how people are using the web channel and helps us improve your
online experience.
7. Passive Collection of User Information via Cookies and
Web Beacons WGITN web channels passively collect certain kinds of non-Personal
information automatically through the use of "cookies."
"Cookies" are small text files that recognize repeat visitors,
facilitate ongoing access and personalization to some of our features and
activities and other websites, and will allow us to understand how and when
pages are visited and by how many people. Cookies can store a variety of
information, including IP addresses, navigational data, server information,
data transfer times, user preferences, shopping cart information and passwords
needed to access our web channels and Service. We use cookies to make
improvements and updates based on which areas are popular and which are not. We
may also use cookies to serve customized advertising or content to you based on
your geographic location, age, gender, or other demographics that you have
provided to us and to ensure the accuracy of our polling data. You may
configure your browser to warn you each time a cookie is being sent. If you do
not want to allow our cookies on your computer, you must configure your browser
to turn off all cookies used by WGITN, our system does not allow you to opt-out
to them individually. However, if you do so, you might not be able to access
important functions or enjoy certain conveniences or customized features of our
Service. A web beacon (also called a web bug, pixel tag or a clear GIF) is
typically a small transparent graphic image that is placed on a web page or in
an email and is used to monitor the activity of the user visiting the webpage
or email. Web beacons are used for website traffic reporting, auditing and
reporting user clicks on an ad, and tracking the number of unique visitors to a
webpage or ad. Web beacons and cookies may also be used in combination to
customize your experience on this web channel by monitoring your activity and
interests.
Our Advertisers and third party network advertising
servers, such as Google, will also place cookies and/or web beacons on your
computer to personalize your experience on this web channel. Cookies and web
beacons are standard in the Internet advertising industry. Google will use the
DART Double Click Cookie to use non-Personal Information about your visits to
and activities on this web channel and other websites within the ad serving
network in order to provide advertisements and promotions about goods and
services of interest to you. Such non-Personal Information includes your IP
Address, search activity, website viewing history, purchase and transaction
history, and/or advertising views. This information is not merged, linked or
associated with your Personal Information, such as an email address. Please
note that WGITN does not control Advertiser cookies or web beacons, and such
technology is not subject to this Privacy Policy. Please see GoogleÕs ÒPrivacy
Policy for Google Ads and the Google Content NetworkÓ for more information
about this form of personalized advertising and learn about your opt-out
choices. http://www.google.com/privacy_cookies.html
Please be aware that opting out of a network advertising
server does not mean you will no longer receive online advertising. It does mean
that the network from which you opted out will no longer deliver ads tailored
to your web preferences and usage patterns. Additionally, the Google Opt-out
Tool is cookie-based. In order for the Tool to work on your computer, your
browser must be set to accept third party cookies. If you buy a new computer,
change web browsers or delete this cookie, you will need to perform the opt-out
task again.
8. Safeguarding Children's Privacy WGITN web channels
will not knowingly collect Personal Information or any other identifying data
from children under 13 years of age without first obtaining verifiable consent
from a parent or legal guardian. Requests for parental consent will explain how
we collect, use, and disclose children's Personal Information, and will include
an opportunity for parents to prevent use of their children's Personal
Information, as well as to prevent their children from participating in
features which involve the collection of Personal Information. In addition,
if/when we request Personal Information from children less than 13 years of age
with verifiable parental consent, we will not require the child to disclose
more Personal Information than is necessary in order to participate in any
online feature or service.
Should a child whom we know to be under 13 submit
Personal Information to a WGITN web channel without first obtaining verifiable
parental consent, we will immediately reject any such entry and delete that
information from our database, unless such information meets an exception under
the ChildrenÕs Online Privacy Protection Act or pertains to the programming or
operations of WGITN Network Stations and therefore, will be subject to the
regulations of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). We are required by
the FCC to post any such emailed comments on this web channel. (See above
Comments/Question Section.)
Except to meet FCC, other regulatory and legal purposes,
we will not use, distribute or disclose any child's Personal Information to
third parties without prior parental consent. Unless we are required to retain
any Personal Information for regulatory, tax or other legal purposes we will
promptly remove such information from our database if a parent withdraws his or
her consent to our use or maintenance of Personal Information collected from
his or her child.
9. External Links WGITN web channels may provide links to
various external websites or services (collectively referred to as a ÒLinked
WebsiteÓ). (Please see the ServiceÕs Legal Terms for Web Channel Use Agreement
for more information.) When you click on one of these links, you will be
transferred from a WGITN web channel and connected to the service or website of
the third party organization or company that you selected. Even if an
affiliation exists between WGITN and a third party Linked Website, you
understand, acknowledge and agree that WGITN exercises no control and has no
responsibility for the content, privacy policies or business practices of a
Linked Website. Each of these Linked Websites (such as ÒAsk the ExpertsÓ and
ÒMy CaptureÓ) maintains its own independent privacy and data collection
policies and procedures. If you visit a website that is linked to a WGITN web
channel, you should consult that website's privacy policy before providing
those websites with any of your Personal Information.
10. Framed Websites/Pages The Service may also include
certain pages that are ÒframedÓ and link to third party websites (ÒFramed
PagesÓ). We provide these Framed Pages as a convenience to our users. A Framed
Page may have the same look and feel as other pages on the Service, with a WGITN
or Network Station logo and border, but Framed Pages are often merely gateways
to other websites. Even if an affiliation exists between WGITN and a Framed
Page, you understand, acknowledge and agree that WGITN exercises no control
over Framed Pages, and WGITN is not responsible for any content or the privacy
policies or data-collection practices of a Framed Page. The privacy policy of
the Framed Page, if any, will control your use of, and provision of information
to or through, the Framed Page. If you visit a Framed Page, you should consult
the Framed PageÕs privacy policy before providing any Personal Information.
11. Terms, Changes and Questions By using a WGITN web
channel, you signify your agreement to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you
do not agree with these terms, please do not use the web channel or disclose
any Personal Information. If we decide to change this Privacy Policy, we will
post those changes on the web channelÕs home page. We will also notify you of
significant changes via email (if we have your current email address). If you
do not agree to the changes in the Privacy Policy, you understand, acknowledge
and agree that your only recourse is to stop using our Service, and your continued
use of our Service constitutes acceptance of such changes in the Privacy
Policy, except where further steps are required by applicable law. The
effective date of this Privacy Policy is noted in the beginning of this Privacy
Policy.
If you have any questions or comments about this policy
or our use of Personal Information, you may send an e-mail to mneiswanger@fifth-gear.net
or send a letter to the following address:
Good In The Neighborhood Attn: Michael Neiswanger 1040
West Main Street Suite 200 Dothan, AL 36301 We will use reasonable efforts to
promptly investigate any complaint you may have regarding our use of Personal
Information. Copyright © 2009 WhatÕs Good In The Neighborhood All Rights
Reserved.