tiogapublishing.com Privacy Policy

 

Tioga Publishing recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of all information provided by users of our web sites, subscribers to our services, recipients of our e-mail newsletters and all of our customers. We created this policy with a fundamental respect for our users’ right to privacy and to guide our relationships with our users. This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for web based collection of information.

INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE

Tioga Publishing  collects information from our website users, subscribers and customers. In this section of our privacy policy, we will describe the type of information we collect and how we use it to provide better services to our customers.

Registration and Ordering

When using our websites and signing up for certain selected services (such as subscriptions), users must first register. During registration, users are required to give their contact information (such as name, e-mail address, mailing address and phone number). We also may collect demographic information. For internal purposes, we may use this information to communicate with users and provide requested services, and to provide a more personalized experience on our sites. We may use any aggregate demographic information about our audience to improve our service, for marketing purposes and/or industry reporting purposes.

Many of our products and services are free to subscribers. Independent auditors may need to certify the eligibility of these subscribers. In order to do that, we may collect unique identifiers (such as mother’s maiden name) that we disclose to the auditors strictly for industry reporting and audit verification purposes.

For our services that require payment (such as products and subscriptions), we also collect credit card information (such as account name, number and expiration date), which is used for billing purposes only, and is not otherwise shared.

E-mail Newsletters

If users wish to subscribe to our e-mail newsletters, we ask for contact information (such as name, e-mail address and, occasionally, demographic information). We use this information in the same manner as we use contact information in the registration and ordering process described above. Recipients of our newsletters can unsubscribe using the instructions listed at the end of the e-mail newsletter.

Surveys and Contests

From time to time we invite users to provide information via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether to disclose requested contact information (such as name and mailing address) and demographic information (such as zip code or job title). In addition to other uses set forth in this policy, contact information collected in connection with surveys and contests is used to notify the winners and award prizes, to monitor or improve the use and satisfaction of the site, and may be shared with sponsors of such surveys or contests.

Interactive Features

At some of our sites, we offer interactive and community features such as discussion boards. Note that all personal information sent or posted via such features becomes public information for which we are not responsible.

Share This Story

If users elect to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site and to share a story, we may ask them for the friend's name, e-mail address or other information. Tiogapublishing.com and its affiliate newspapers will store and use this information to send the friend the requested information.

Communications with Us

We have features where users can submit information to us (such as our feedback forms). Letters to the editor and similar submissions may be made public. Requests for service, support or information may be forwarded as needed to best respond to a specific request. We may retain e-mails and other information sent to us for our internal administrative purposes, and to help us to serve customers better.

Communications from Us: Service Updates, Special Offers

In order to best serve our customers, we may send updates that contain important information about our sites and services. For example, we may send new members a welcoming message, and verify password and username for our password-protected sites. We may also communicate with a user to provide requested services and for account-related issues via e-mail, phone or regular mail.

Automatic Data Collection

Our web sites have features that automatically collect information from users, to deliver content specific to users' interests and to honor their preferences. This information assists us in creating sites that will serve the needs of our users.

We use "cookies," a piece of data stored on the user's hard drive containing information about the user. Cookies benefit the user by requiring login only once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookies, they may be limited in the use of some areas of our site. For example, the user may not be able to participate in sweepstakes, contests or drawings.

For our internal purposes, we gather date, time, browser type, navigation history and IP address of all visitors to our site. This information does not contain anything that can identify users personally. We use this information for our internal security audit log, trend analysis and system administration, and to gather broad demographic information about our user base for aggregate use.

We may combine demographic information supplied by a subscriber at registration with site usage data to provide general profiles, in aggregate non-personally identifiable form, about our users and their preferences in the content of the site and advertising. We may share this composite information with our advertisers and business affiliates to help them better understand our services.

WITH WHOM YOUR INFORMATION IS SHARED

When we have co-branded, customized, private label, powered by or sponsored products and services, or when we join with other parties to provide specific services, we may share (provide and receive) personal information with them. We do not share credit card information with such third parties.

Other than as set forth above, we do not share personally identifiable information with anyone, apart from those acting as our agents in providing our product(s)/service(s), and which agree to use it only for that purpose and to keep the information secure and confidential. Also, our parent, subsidiary and affiliate companies, entities into which our company may be merged, or entities to which any of our assets, products, sites or operations may be transferred, will be able to use personal information. We will also disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena or other legal obligation, in response to a law enforcement agency's request, or in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) our rights or property. Users should also be aware that courts of equity, such as U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, might have the authority under certain circumstances to permit personal information to be shared or transferred to third parties without permission.

We may share aggregate information, which is not personally identifiable, with others. This information may include usage and demographic data, but it will not include personal information. For instance, we may share with advertisers our "stats", the number of visitors we receive to our website and the heaviest days of use.

CORRECTION/UPDATING PERSONAL INFORMATION

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code), or if a user no longer desires our product(s)/service(s), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data.

PERMISSION

Our users provide us with permission to certain information as outlined above when they register or use portions of the website as outlined in the Terms of Service. In some cases, we may ask for additional information or provide opportunities for users to request to be placed on certain mailing lists. These are optional and require specific action by the user.

SECURITY

We use reasonable precautions to protect our users' personal information and to store it securely. Sensitive information that is transmitted to us online (such as credit card number) is encrypted and is transmitted to us securely. In addition, access to all of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, a billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Finally, the servers on which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

LINKS

Our web sites contain links to other sites. Tioga Publishing  is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each web site to which we may link that may collect personally identifiable information.

INTEREST-BASED ADVERTISING We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.

NOTIFICATION and CHANGES

If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so our users are aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under which circumstances, if any, we disclose it. Users should check this policy frequently to keep abreast of any changes.

For questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site or any dealings with Tioga Publishing , contact us at: Tioga Publishing, 3006 Princeton St./PO Box 118, Wellsboro, PA 16901, 570-724-2287.