These Terms and Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy (the "Terms and Conditions") were last updated on April 27, 2006
Welcome to usnews.com, the Web site of U.S.News & World Report magazine, which is published by U.S.News & World Report L.P. ("U.S. News"). As used in these Terms and Conditions, the term "Web site" refers to the Web site located at www.usnews.com as well as online services that include, but are not limited to, our E-mail newsletters, our archives, our premium online content, and our online discussion forums. U.S. News does not control, and is not responsible for, any third-party site to which the Web site links.
You agree that your use of the Web site is subject to the following Terms and Conditions. These Terms and Conditions may be modified at any time and from time to time; the date of the most recent changes or revisions will appear on this page. Continued access to the Web site by you will constitute your acceptance of any changes or revisions to the Agreement. If you do not agree with the Terms and Conditions, please do not use this Web site.
The materials contained on the Web site are provided by U.S. News as a service to you for your noncommercial, personal use on an "as is, as available" basis and may be used by you for information purposes only. You acknowledge that you are using the Web site at your own risk. U.S. News assumes no responsibility for error or omissions in these materials. U.S. News makes no commitment to update the information contained herein. U.S. News makes no, and expressly disclaims any and all, representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding the U.S. News Web site, including without limitation the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of text, graphics, links, products and services, and other items accessed from or via the Web site, or that the Web site will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of viruses or other harmful components. No advice or information given by U.S. News or any other party on the Web site shall create any warranty or liability.
U.S. News does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use or the results of the use of the materials at the Web site in terms of their correctness, accuracy, timeliness, reliability, or otherwise. Under no circumstances shall U.S. News or any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, or their respective partners, officers, directors, employees, or agents be held liable for any damages, whether direct, incidental, indirect, special, or consequential, and including, without limitation, lost revenues or lost profits, arising from or in connection with your use, reliance on, or performance of the information on the Web site.
U.S. News periodically schedules system downtime for maintenance and other purposes. Unplanned outages also may occur. U.S. News shall have no liability for the resulting unavailability of the Web site or for any loss of data or transactions caused by planned or unplanned system outages, or any outages of webhost providers or the Internet infrastructure and network external to the Web site.
Copyright
All materials published on the Web site are protected by copyright laws, and may not be reproduced, republished, distributed, transmitted, resold, displayed, broadcast, or otherwise exploited in any manner without the express written permission of either U.S. News or, in the case of content licensed by U.S. News from third parties, the entity that is credited as the copyright holder of such licensed content. You may download freely accessible material (one copy per page) from this Web site for your personal and noncommercial use only, without altering or removing any trademark, copyright, or other notice from such material; you must pay a fee to access articles from our archives and our premium online content.
In the event you believe that any content posted on the Web site infringes your copyright or other intellectual-property rights, you may notify U.S. News by providing the information required by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Action of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 512, to U.S. News's Copyright Agent:
Attention: Peter Dwoskin, Esq.
U.S. News & World Report L.P.
450 West 33rd Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001
(t) 212.210.6390
(f) 212.210.6313
copyrightagent@usnews.com
User Generated Content
U.S. News, through its forums, provides users an opportunity to post content to the Web site. U.S. News does not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, or agree with content posted by users. You shall not post or transmit any unlawful threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate and local, state, national, or international law, or infringe upon another's copyright or trademark. You understand that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, video, messages, or other materials posted or transmitted in a U.S. News forum, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, is the sole responsibility of the person from whom such content originated. This means that you, and not U.S. News, are entirely and solely responsible for all content that you upload, post, or otherwise transmit via the Web site. U.S. News does not and cannot review the content posted by users and is not responsible for such content. However, U.S. News shall have the right, but not the obligation, to delete, move, or edit any content that violates this agreement or is otherwise objectionable as determined by U.S. News in its sole discretion and without notice.
If you upload, post, or otherwise transmit content to the Web site, you acknowledge that any such submissions may be edited, removed, modified, published, transmitted, and displayed by U.S. News in any medium now existing or hereinafter invented, and for any purpose, including commercial uses. You waive any moral rights you may have in having the material edited, removed, modified, published, transmitted, or displayed in a manner not agreeable to you.
You agree to indemnify U.S. News and its parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, and each of their respective partners, officers, directors, employees, and agents, against, and to hold each of them harmless from, any and all claims and liabilities (including attorney's fees) that may arise from your submissions, from your unauthorized use of material obtained from the Web site, from your breach of these Terms and Conditions, and from any such acts arising through your use of the Web site.
Third Party Content Provider Notices
AFP text, photo, and graphic material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication, or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither the AFP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors, or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing.
Associated Press text, photo, and graphic material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication, or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither the AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors, or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing.
Premium Online Content
Purchasers of premium online content are not permitted to share, distribute, sell, or otherwise transfer their password to other individuals. The password is for the purchaser's sole use. Significant or unusual use of a single password (including but not limited to significant use of a single password on multiple computers) could result in suspension of that password. Premium online content is protected by copyright laws, and may not be reproduced, republished, distributed, transmitted, resold, displayed, broadcast, or otherwise exploited in any manner without the express written permission of U.S. News.
Featured Services
U.S. News is committed to providing visitors to its site with as many features as possible. The companies that U.S. News selects as featured services providers offer products and services that site visitors may find useful. U.S. News in certain cases may have a business relationship with certain third parties that it selects as a featured service providers. U.S. News is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any advice or information given, or of any statement made, by the companies providing featured services, or for the content, services, products, or advertising on or available from their Web sites, or for the availability and operations of their Web sites.
Jurisdiction
You agree that any claim, action, or proceeding arising out of these Terms and Conditions, or your use of the Web site, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York applicable to contracts to be wholly performed therein, and any action based on or alleging a breach of this Agreement must be brought in a state or federal court in New York. In addition, you agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of such courts.
Privacy Policy
This privacy policy applies to the Web site only and does not cover information collected on any third-party sites to which this Web site links. This privacy policy is part of, and must be read in conjunction with, the Web site's Terms and Conditions. You can read the entire Terms and Conditions by either scrolling up to the top of this Web page or by clicking here. If you do not agree with the Terms and Conditions in their entirety, please do not use this Web site.
Web Site Users
U.S. News generally collects personally identifiable information such as a name, postal address, E-mail address, telephone number, or credit card information with your specific knowledge and consent.
How does the Web site use information supplied by me?
Occasionally, visitors to our Web site may be asked to supply certain personally identifying information, which is then retained by U.S. News. For example, we ask you for certain information if you choose to subscribe to our E-mail newsletters, register with our myusnews or our online discussion forums, or purchase either articles from our archives or our premium online content. If you choose to give us personally identifying information at such time, such information will be retained by us and used only to provide you with products or services you have requested, or with additional information from U.S. News about U.S. News, its affiliates, or selected outside companies whose products or services we feel may be of use to you. Any information from selected outside companies will be transmitted by U.S. News so that such companies will not have access either to your E-mail address or to your other personally identifying information. Moreover, we will not sell or rent any personally identifying information obtained through the Web site (other than in connection with magazine subscriptions ordered, as explained below) to any other company or organization.
If, at some point after giving U.S. News your personally identifying information, you do not wish to continue to receive additional information from U.S. News about U.S. News, its affiliates, or selected outside companies, in general, you may opt out by E-mailing webmaster@usnews.com and put the words "remove my name" in the subject line of your E-mail; in the case of our E-mail newsletters, you also may follow the procedures at our E-mail newsletter registration page. If you provide identifying information to subscribe to our magazine, either online or offline, please read the policy pertaining to "Magazine Subscribers" below.
From time to time, the personally identifying information that you provide to us may be shared with our suppliers or service providers who assist us in maintaining and managing our newsletters, myusnews, our archives, our premium online content, our online discussion forums, and other activities on the Web site. Such suppliers or service providers may use your personally identifying information only in the course of providing services to U.S. News, but they may not use such information for other purposes.
While your individual information is protected as discussed above, U.S. News reserves the right to use such individual information to create aggregated, anonymous data about users in order to develop statistics about activity on and visitors to the Web site. In addition, U.S. News may disclose personal information if we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to (1) comply with the law or with legal process; (2) protect and defend our rights and property; (3) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of the Web site; or (4) protect the personal safety, property, or rights of our users or the public.
What are "cookies" and how do you use them?
"Cookies" are pieces of information that are placed by a Web site in a storage place on your computer. Cookies do not contain information that is, in itself, personally identifying. Cookies are placed on your computer in a limited way to help deliver advertisements, to calculate unique site visitors, and to track usage throughout our site. Other uses include placement of cookies to make the login process more convenient for users of our E-mail newsletters, myusnews, our archives, our premium online content, and our online discussion forums. In addition, some advertisers may place cookies on your computer. We do not have control over cookies placed by advertisers.
In addition, we contract with certain third parties to help manage and optimize our Web site business, including the following:
We use the services of a third party marketing company, Omniture, to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising and how visitors use the Web site. To do this, we use Web beacons and cookies provided by this third party marketing company at this Web site. This information helps us learn things like what pages are most attractive to our visitors, which of our products most interest our customers, and what kinds of offers our customers like to see. You can "opt-out" of our ability to analyze such Omniture data by clicking here: www.omniture.com/privacy/2o7#optout
We also use a third party advertising company, DoubleClick, to deliver ads to you when you visit our Web site. In the course of providing this service, our third-party advertising company may place or recognize a unique "cookie" on your browser which collects information about your visits to this Web site, such as the number of times you have viewed an ad (but not your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number or other personal information). If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by our third party advertising company, please click here: www.doubleclick.net/us/corporate/privacy.
How is my credit card information used when I make a purchase?
When you make a purchase, we ask you to provide your credit card information so that we can process your payment. During the ordering process, such credit card information is transmitted to U.S. News (in the case of our premium online content) or (in the case of our archives, subscriptions, and mail order products) to one of our suppliers or service providers. In both cases, credit card information is then transmitted to third-party credit card processors and card issuers that must use your information to process your order.
Magazine Subscribers
From time to time, U.S.News & World Report is approached by third parties interested in contacting our magazine's subscribers. Perhaps they are in a similar business or have a product to offer that would interest our subscribers. We may provide our mailing list of magazine subscribers to such third parties if we believe our subscribers would be interested in hearing from them. Many of our subscribers find this a valuable and timesaving service. If you subscribe to our magazine and want us to exclude your name from mailing lists provided to third parties, mail a letter to the address below, or E-mail us at the address below with your request. Please specify that you would like your name removed from the mailing list, and include your full name and address or the address label from your magazine. Mail your request to:
U.S.News & World Report Subscription Service Department
PO Box 421197
Palm Coast, FL 32142-1197
Or send an E-mail to usnews@palmcoastd.com. Please allow six to eight weeks for your request to take effect.
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
No one under the age of 13 should provide any personal information. In general, U.S. News does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If in limited circumstances we do knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13, we will do so only with verified parental consent prior to collection. In the event that we learn that we have collected information from a child under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete this information from our database as quickly as possible. If you believe the Web site has any information about anyone under 13, please contact us at webmaster@usnews.com.
