Information we gather and how we use it

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Information we gather

The information we gather falls into two categories: 1) personal information voluntarily supplied when you subscribe, order, complete a survey, register for an online discussion, enter a contest, or provide your e-mail address, and 2) tracking information collected as you navigate Crosscut.

Anyone can view our sites, but a free registration process may be required to access the full range of information and services. If Crosscut requires that you supply a unique e-mail address and demographic information to register, you are agreeing to the terms of our user agreement. You can read that here.

On occasion, Crosscut may collect personal information from readers in connection with optional sweepstakes, contests, or special offers. This information may be shared with a third party other than Crosscut. If you do not want any personal information shared, you may decline to participate in sweepstakes, contests, or special offers that involve submission of personal information.

Crosscut may collect personal information from readers in connection with voluntary surveys. The information you provide may be shared, but only in the aggregate, with advertisers and partners.

As is standard practice on the Web, Crosscut uses “cookies” and other technologies to recognize you and provide personalization, as well as to help us understand which parts of our Web sites are the most popular, where our visitors are going, and how much time they spend there. Users who do not accept cookies from the domain Crosscut cannot access certain areas of our sites.

We reserve the right to place a Crosscut cookie on your computer with a unique anonymous number to ensure that your browser does not see the same ad over and over again, to sequence ads in a series, and to measure the number of unique visitors that have viewed a particular ad or visited a particular Web page.

Crosscut logs Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We use the IP address log, in aggregate, to track access to our site.

What we do with information

Crosscut may perform statistical, demographic and marketing analyses of subscribers and their subscribing and purchasing patterns for product development and to inform advertisers about the nature of our subscriber base. We also use such information to allow advertising to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom such advertising is most pertinent.

We may use demographic and preference information to allow advertising on our Web sites to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom they are most pertinent. This means users see advertising that is most likely to interest them, and advertisers send their messages to people who are most likely to be receptive, improving both the viewer's experience and the effectiveness of the ads. We will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form.

Any information you disclose when posting to public areas of the site becomes public immediately.

Comments or materials sent to Crosscut, including questions, comments, suggestions, or the like, are non-confidential. When we publicly post letters or e-mail to the editor, we may include your e-mail address. Crosscut may use this and other voluntarily provided information for journalistic or promotional purposes outside the original use of the information.

If you choose to receive them, Crosscut will periodically send you e-mail newsletters or promotional e-mail about services offered by Crosscut. Crosscut may employ a third-party service provider for this purpose.

E-mail policy

Crosscut complies fully with the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. We will not share, sell, rent, swap, or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address without your permission, except in cases where a third party is performing a service on Crosscut’s behalf. If you feel you have received an e-mail from us in error, please contact editor@crosscut.com.

Crosscut reserves the right to send you e-mail relating to your account status. This may include order confirmations, renewal/expiration notices, notices of credit-card problems, other transactional e-mails, and notifications about major changes to our Web site and/or to our privacy policy. If you have registered for online discussions or other services, you may receive e-mail specific to your participation in those activities.

If you no longer wish to receive a specific newsletter, follow the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each newsletter.

We may send you an e-mail inviting you to participate in user surveys, asking for feedback on Crosscut and existing or prospective products and services, as well as information to better understand users. Any information we obtain will not be shared with third parties, except in aggregate form.

When you sign up to receive e-mail from us, we may place a one-pixel gif image to determine whether readers viewed the e-mail. This process does not leave any information on your computer, nor does it collect information from your computer. Crosscut may share this data with others in aggregate.

If you send us e-mails, you should be aware that information disclosed in e-mails may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose personal or confidential information in e-mails. We will use your e-mail address to respond directly to your questions or comments.

Crosscut readers may use a tool to send links to articles to others through e-mail. The e-mail address(es) that you supply to this service will only be used to send the requested article.

With whom we share information

If you have registered, Crosscut will not sell, rent, swap, or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address or any information that personally identifies you without your permission. We do, however, share information about our audience in aggregate form.

We may contract with other companies to provide services on our behalf, including credit-card processing and billing, shipping, e-mail distribution, list processing and analytics, or promotions management. We provide these companies only with the information they need to perform their services. These service providers are restricted from using this data in any way other than to provide services for Crosscut, and they may not share or resell this data.

We reserve the right to disclose any opt-out information to third parties so they can suppress your name from future solicitations, in accordance with applicable laws. We may occasionally release personal information as required by law, for example, to comply with a court order or subpoena.

Protection of information

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place physical, electronic, and procedures to protect the information we collect online.

We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to comply with the law or with legal process; to protect and defend our rights and property; to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Web sites; or to protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public. (Among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions.)

Changes to this policy

This Privacy Policy may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page.

For more information, contact editor@crosscut.com.

Updated March 1, 2007

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