Random House takes your online privacy seriously. You may visit this site anonymously as often as you like without providing any personally identifying information (such as your names, address or e-mail address. We do not collect personally identifying information from you except when you specifically provide it, and we protect the information we receive. With your consent we may gather personal information from you through surveys, competitions and newsletters. We never link your name to cookies unless you specifically provide your name to us as part of surveys, competitions and newsletters, and we never share it with third parties. Please read below for a further explanation of what information we gather and how we use it.

As you explore our website, you will come across places in which we ask you to provide us voluntarily with information about yourself. In many of these instances we are seeking only your e-mail address and your name (along with your competition answer), so that we can contact you by name in the event that you win. If you decide to participate, we will not use your name or e-mail address for any purpose other than as stated, and will not sell or rent your name or address to third parties.

At other places in this site, we ask for your feedback, opinion or suggestions, and provide you with a link for e-mailing us your response. If you send your e-mail to us, it will include your e-mail address in the “From” line. But again, as in the case of subscriptions and competitions we undertake to use the e-mail address we receive in this manner only for the purpose of responding to your questions or suggestions, and will not – without your agreement – approach you with unsolicited offers or provide your e-mail address to anyone else.

In contrast to the example given above, Random House does, on occasion, seek to gather a broader profile of some of the visitors to sections of this site. The information that we request, through such methods as surveys or sometimes in connection with an entry in a competition, may be provided to our editorial, marketing or publicity departments. It may also be shared in aggregate form with our content providers, such as authors or other publishers with whom we are co-operating on a project, or with advertisers, to provide them with demographic information about the visitors to our site. Once again, we will not sell or rent this information to third parties that are not affiliated with Random House.

One last area in which we ask for your name is on bulletin boards or forums – places on the site where you can participate in a discussion of a particular subject by posting written comments which are then entirely public. We ask for a name simply so that other people reading a string of comments will be able to determine which comments come from the same person. You may, therefore, provide a nickname or alias, if you prefer, so that your identity is not disclosed. You should be aware that if you do voluntarily disclose personal information (e.g. user name, e-mail address) on the bulletin boards or forums, that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other posters or parties. If you choose to participate anonymously, you should remember that you are still legally liable for the material you post, including libel and copyright infringement.

If you have previously provided us with your e-mail address or any other information and later decide that you do not want us to have it, you may ask us to delete it by e-mailing the information to: . Our system will remove the address from which you send the email unless you advise us that you registered with a different email address.

Cookies are electronic tags that most major websites place on your computer in the process of sending your computer a file, such as a web page. We use them as well. In essence, a cookie is a unique identifier that tells us simply when a computer that has previously visited our site returns, and what pages it requests on each of its visits. Cookies help us keep track of visitors’ (or more accurately, their computers) patterns in using our site, including such things as the type of browser they use, the frequency of their visits and the pages that are most popular. They also help us to keep track of such things as multiple responses to surveys, user passwords and user preferences. They can help smooth your travel through our site by keeping track of information that has already been provided by your computer so that you do not need to repeatedly re-enter it at different locations on our site. In no event does the cookie we place on your computer tell us anything about your visits to other websites (except those you enter through a link on our site), or your use of the internet in any other way.

If you would still prefer not to receive any cookies, most browsers can be set to refuse cookies or to alert you when one is being sent. It is possible, however, that some portions of this site may not function properly if the cookies are disabled.

We would like to be able to tell you that the personal information you provide us is absolutely safe. Unfortunately, several well-publicised instances of computer security breaches make it impossible for anyone to be so confident. The most we can tell you is that we take reasonable steps to protect the information you provide us from theft, alteration or unauthorized inspection.

We encourage you to get involved with your children’s online usage and to be aware of the activities in which they are participating. We also ask you to check back here regularly to see what our latest policies are, particularly those relating to children.

You should be aware that if your children voluntarily disclose their names, e-mail addresses or other information on bulletin boards or chat areas of other websites, such disclosures may result in unsolicited messages from other parties. We suggest that you discourage your child from providing such information on this site or elsewhere unless you are confident that the information will not be misused.