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Information Collected Online
Most of the information provided by The Weather Channel is offered without our collecting any personally identifiable information from you. For instance, you can view weather conditions in your hometown or anywhere in the world without giving out any personally identifiable information. In order to maximize your experience and to provide you with enhanced products and services, however, The Weather Channel collects personally identifiable information (e.g., name, e-mail address, etc.) and demographic data (e.g., zip code, gender, birth date, interests, etc.) that you voluntarily supply to us. When you make a purchase or sign up for one of our premium services, we will also collect your billing address, phone number, and credit card information. Some examples of instances when we collect personally identifiable information include when you:
- Subscribe to our premium or enhanced services. Examples include Inbox Weather (weather information delivered to you via e-mail), Desktop Weather (a software application which you can download to your desktop to receive weather information), Wireless Weather (a family of services which allow you to receive weather information on your cellular phone or PDA)
- Complete a survey
- Register for a promotion, contest or sweepstakes
- Make a purchase from our online store
- Send us an e-mail message or complete an inquiry form to receive additional information
- Submit a photo to the photo gallery
- Participate in an online forum or community, or
- Customize weather.com.
Thus, you have a choice as to whether to provide your personally identifiable information. Although you are not required to disclose any personally identifiable information to us, portions of our Web site and other specialized services may be unavailable to you without such information.
In the case of participation in a chat session you are not required to provide any personally identifiable information. However, we do require you to select a user name. Also, the sessions are monitored and transcripts are posted on the Web site for access by other users. You should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used by other users to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums.
How We Use Your Information
We use the information you provide in a limited number of ways. We may use the information to service your account, conduct a transaction that you have requested, display information and advertisements that match your interests and profile, notify you if you've won a contest or sweepstakes and compile demographic statistics about our users. We may on occasion combine information about you that we have with information we obtain from other parties to enhance our ability to market to you those products or services that may be of interest to you.
How We Share Your Information
One of the most valuable assets of our business is you. The Weather Channel does not rent, sell or share personally identifiable information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies except as described below.
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The Weather Channel and its Affiliates
We provide you with the opportunity to opt in to receive special offers from The Weather Channel and it affiliates. If you opt in, The Weather Channel and its affiliates will use your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from weather.com and its affiliates, including The Weather Channel, Inc. and WSI Corporation. These products may include, for example, schedules for special programs on The Weather Channel cable network or offers to purchase a calendar from The Weather Channel.
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Companies Offering Promotions, Products, or Services
In two types of instances, we provide you with the opportunity to opt-in to receive promotions, products or services from third party sponsors: 1) only with your permission, The Weather Channel will periodically send to you, via e-mail, offers and promotions from our third party sponsors which we select based upon your interests or user profile. In these instances, we do not share your personally identifiable information with the third party sponsors-we do the mailing for them. Additionally, you will always have the opportunity, with each e-mail, to opt-out of receiving future offers. 2) In other instances, we provide you with the opportunity to receive products and services from specifically identified third parties directly through our site. In these instances, you must explicitly consent to receive each offer. When you explicitly agree to receive offers from specific third parties, your personally identifiable information is shared with the specific third party to enable them to provide you with the offer you have requested. All information provided to third parties is governed by the Privacy Policies of these third parties. We are not responsible for the information collection practices of these third parties, and you should review the Privacy Policies of these parties before supplying personally identifiable information to them.
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Third-Party Processors
When you submit your personal information on the weather.com Web site, it may be shared with a selected third party ("Third Party Processors"). These Third Party Processors may include, for example, companies that operate our online store and companies that process credit card information or handle shipping for The Weather Channel. These Third Party Processors may organize, administer, process, and/or analyze data on our behalf to help us provide more relevant offers to you and to eliminate the delivery of duplicate offers. In addition, these Third Party Processors correct and/or update users' data based on information we provide them. We may also use Third Party Processors to deliver materials to you via e-mail or postal service. The data we provide to Third Party Processors is securely stored and maintained by them so that it can be accessed when needed for future purposes. Further, all such Third Party Processors are contractually bound by us to keep the information confidential. All information provided to Third Party Processors is used by them only to carry out the service they are providing for The Weather Channel.
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Links to Other Web Sites
Like many Web sites on the Internet, The Weather Channel links to pages located on Web sites maintained by various other entities not bound by our Privacy Policy. In some cases you may link to pages of other Web sites that are framed with elements of weather.com such as in the header or footer. The URL will identify the site you are visiting. We are not responsible for the information collection practices of other Web sites. The Privacy Policies of other organizations may differ from ours, for example, with respect to the level of security, use of cookies, and collection, use and disclosure of personally identifiable information.
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Purchase or Sale of Businesses
The Weather Channel continually looks for ways to improve our business. One such way of improving our business might be to buy or sell a company. If we buy or sell a business, databases containing personally identifiable information will likely be transferred as part of the sale. If we buy a business, we will honor the requests of that business' former customers regarding their personally identifiable information. If in connection with a sale there will be material changes to the way personally identifiable information is being used, affected consumers will be notified via e-mail and will be given the opportunity to opt-out.
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Other Limitations on Privacy
We may provide personally identifiable information without your permission (i) pursuant to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, or orders; (ii) where The Weather Channel believes our property or an individual's safety or security is at risk; iii) if we find that your actions violate our Legal Restrictions and Terms of Use; or iv) where otherwise required by law.
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E-mail a Friend
If you choose to use our service that allows you to e-mail a page of our site to a friend, in most circumstances we do not have access to and do not collect any personally identifiable information regarding you or your friend. On certain pages of the site, we need to have access to your and your friend's e-mail addresses temporarily to send the e-mail due to technical requirements. This information is deleted as soon as the e-mail is sent and is not used for any other purpose.
IP Addresses, Cookies, Web Beacons, Gifs, and Information Saved by Other Technologies
The Weather Channel and Third Party Processors acting on our behalf uses various Internet technologies which help us to manage our site operations and track usage behavior so that we can tailor information and advertisements to make your visits more enjoyable and meaningful. These Internet technologies include:
- IP Addresses: random numbers assigned to individual computers which The Weather Channel uses to administer our Web site and help diagnose problems with our servers.
- Cookies: small electronic files transferred from our Web site to your hard drive. Cookies enable The Weather Channel to recognize repeat visitors, track usage behavior and facilitate your access to and use of our site. If you wish, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a Cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all Cookies. You can do this by resetting your browser (such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer) settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your Cookies. If you turn Cookies off, however, you won't have access to many of the features which make your experience more efficient and some of our services will not function properly.
We have developed a simple mechanism that allows us to protect some of your custom settings -- even if your weather.com cookies are deleted -- by saving a backup of certain cookie values to a different location on your computer. We can then simply reset these saved values to your cookies when you revisit the site, allowing you to continue enjoying your customized experience on the weather.com website and on other products and services from The Weather Channel. You may enable or disable this functionality at any time. If you disable this functionality and your cookies are deleted, you won't have access to many of the features which make your experience more efficient and some of our services will not function properly.
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Information saved via other technologies: using similar methods, we can save some of your settings by creating small electronic files in a different location on your computer. This enables The Weather Channel to recognize repeat visitors, track usage behavior and facilitate your access to and use of our site. We can read the saved settings when you revisit the site, allowing you to continue enjoying your customized experience on the weather.com website and on other products and services from The Weather Channel. You may enable or disable this functionality at any time. If you disable this functionality and your settings are deleted, you won't have access to many of the features which make your experience more efficient and some of our services will not function properly.
- Web Beacons (sometimes called single-pixel Gifs): electronic images that allow The Weather Channel to count users who have visited certain Web pages we wish to track. For example, The Weather Channel may include Web Beacons in promotional email messages in order to count how many messages have been opened and acted upon. Web Beacons may also be placed by our advertising partners on The Weather Channel Web pages to help determine the effectiveness of Internet advertising campaigns.
Information that is collected via IP Address, Cookie and Web Beacon and other technologies is not personally identifiable. However, if you choose to provide The Weather Channel with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in these technologies. In addition, we may share aggregate (not individual) site usage statistics and demographic information and other non-personally identifiable information with advertisers and other third parties, but this information will not include any personally identifiable information. Personal information about you as an individual will not be provided to any third party without your consent, except under the circumstances described above in the "Third Party Processors" and "Other Limitations on Privacy" sections. To obtain information about the privacy and security practices of Omniture, a Third Party Processor with which The Weather Channel contracts to assist it in tracking site usage using these Internet technologies, click here.
Use of Cookie and Web Beacon Technology by Advertisers and Ad Serving Networks
The Weather Channel works with 24/7 Real Media, DoubleClick and other third parties to serve ads on our site. Some of these ads contain Cookies and/or Web Beacons that are used to track user behavior. This privacy policy does not cover the use of Cookies or Web Beacons set by 24/7 Real Media, DoubleClick or any other third party advertisers. The Weather Channel does not have control over, or even access to, the information contained in these third party Cookies or Web Beacons. For more information about how 24/7 Real Media, DoubleClick, and other ad serving networks use the information collected by these Cookies and Web Beacons and about your option not to accept Cookies placed by these companies, please click here.
Opting-Out, Corrections and Cancellations
In order to receive an offer or promotion from The Weather Channel or a third party in an e-mail, a user must have chosen to receive it during a registration process. To completely ensure that we have your consent, we make sure that each e-mail we send you presents the additional opportunity to opt-out of receiving future e-mails.
If you have registered with us and have obtained a password, you may reset your password, update your personally identifiable information, correct any information, make changes to your preferences, unsubscribe to any e-mail subscriptions or to opt-out of any services, by accessing your weather.com profile online from the "Weather Tools" section by selecting "My Profile" or you may contact us directly.
If you elect to make e-mail inquiries on the www.forgetaway.weather.com site, you cannot opt-out of storage of this information by us for use by the property lister, property manager, and owner. To update any information you entered in your e-mail inquiry on the www.forgetaway.weather.com site, you will need to contact the property lister, property manager, or owner directly.
Children's Privacy
The Weather Channel is committed to protecting the safety and privacy of young people using the Internet. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 and believe that children should get their parents' or guardians' consent before giving out any personally identifiable information.
Our Web site may contain links to third party Web sites geared to children. The linked sites are not under the control of The Weather Channel. We are not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site, nor are we responsible for the privacy practices of the operators of those sites with respect to children. We strongly encourage parents and guardians to review the Privacy Policies of all linked sites.
Our Commitment to Security
Keeping the information you provide to The Weather Channel secure is important to us. We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures designed to protect and safeguard your data. Of course, although The Weather Channel uses standard industry practices to protect your personally identifiable information, we cannot guarantee that your communications with our site will never be unlawfully intercepted, or that your personally identifiable information will never be unlawfully accessed by third parties.
Changes to the Privacy Policy
The Weather Channel reserves the right to alter our Privacy Policy as business needs require. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes here so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information and whether we will disclose it to anyone. All changes to this policy will be posted on our Web site prior to the time they take effect. In the event that we make material changes to the way we use personally identifiable information, affected consumers will be notified via e-mail and will be given the opportunity to opt-out.
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