Privacy Policy

Salon.com Privacy Policy

Last Revised October 1, 2011.

We respect your privacy, and we want you to know how we use the information you provide us. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) applies to your use of our websites located at www.salon.com, as well as to all other online and mobile websites, blogs and interactive applications operated by Salon Media Group Inc. (“Salon,” “us” or “we”), collectively our “Site,” unless a different policy is provided on a particular site or application. In this Privacy Policy, we do our best to describe the kinds of information collected, the methods used to collect it, how Salon uses the information, and the choices you have about the way your information is collected and used.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By using the Site you accept and agree to this Privacy Policy, and to the collection and use of your information in the manner it describes. In addition, you accept and agree to Salon’s Terms of Service (http://www.salon.com/about/tos), which are incorporated by this reference.

Information We Collect
We need certain information in order to implement features or complete transactions that you have requested. In addition, we try to provide you with information relevant to your needs and interests. The information we gather helps us to better serve these purposes. We may ask you to provide us with demographic information, information regarding your interests or other personally identifiable information. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, personally identifiable information (“personal information”) is personally identifying information about an individual, such as an individual’s first and last name, phone number, email address or other information that identifies a particular individual, and information about an individual’s use of online services that is directly linked to such personally identifying information.

Providing us with personal information is voluntary, and you can always choose not to provide certain information, but if you do not then you will not be able to take advantage of or participate in some of the Site’s features. Salon gathers personal information and other information in three main ways: (1) Requesting and receiving personal information voluntarily submitted by visitors when using or registering to use or receive our services or offers; (2) collecting personal information visitors voluntarily provide when participating in any contests, sweepstakes or other promotions; and (3) by tracking and analyzing online and mobile data and activity through mechanisms that identify site usage, browser types, IP addresses or device IDs, and other data, as explained in greater detail below.

Traffic and Usage Data
Each time a visitor comes to the Site, our servers — like most on the Web — collect some basic technical information, including, for example, the visitor’s domain name (e.g., whether you logged on from aol.com or whitehouse.gov), referral data (e.g., depending on your browser, the address of the last page or series of pages you visited prior to clicking through to our Site), and browser and platform type (e.g., a Mozilla browser on a Macintosh platform). We also count, track and aggregate each visitor’s activity as part of our analysis of general traffic flows at our Site (e.g., tracking where traffic comes from, how traffic flows within the Site, etc.). To these ends, we may merge information about visitors and visits into group data, and that data be shared on an aggregated basis with our advertisers or business partners. When we do provide aggregated information to other businesses, no one will be able to identify you or contact you based on that aggregated information.

Use of Cookies
Like many websites, we use browser “cookies.” Cookies are a website’s way of remembering who you are. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your computer’s hard drive or stored temporarily in your computer’s memory. There are two kinds of cookies: “session” cookies and “persistent” cookies. Session cookies are deleted when you close your browser. Persistent cookies remain on your computer and retain information for later use tomorrow, next month or whenever they are set to expire. We use cookies to help us to identify account holders and to optimize their experience on our Site. Also, we will use cookies to monitor and maintain information about your use of this Site.

Most Web browsers accept cookies automatically. You can delete cookies manually or set your browser to automatically delete cookies on a pre-determined schedule. For example, in the Internet Explorer menu bar, select: Tools Internet OptionsBrowsing HistoryDelete to view manual and automatic options. If you decline to accept cookies, you may not be able to take advantage of or participate in certain features of this Site.

Other companies that place advertising on our Site also have the ability to assign their cookies to you. Salon does not control the placement or use of cookies by third parties whose advertisements appear on the Site, and Salon is not responsible for their control or their collection or use of information about you. However, you can opt out of the collection of certain information about you by many online advertisers. In order to do so, go to the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

Use of Flash Cookies and HTML5
Our Site enables the use of the Adobe Flash Player. Adobe’s Flash Player is used by the vast majority of websites that offer video and other interactive content. By default, your use of the Adobe Flash Player generates “flash cookies” (also known as “persistent identification elements” or “local shared objects”). Adobe provides a short disclosure about Flash Cookies in its End User License Agreement, stating “Use of the web players, specifically the Flash Player, will enable the Software to store certain user settings as a local shared object on our computer. These settings are not associated with you, but allow you to configure certain settings within the Flash Player.” The Adobe Flash Player (and similar applications) use flash cookies to remember user settings, preferences and usage in a manner similar to the browser cookies referenced above. However, flash cookies can store more information than browser cookies and are managed through a different interface than the one provided by your Web browser. You can control the degree to which you accept flash cookies by accessing your Adobe Flash Player management tools directly through the settings manager for Adobe Flash, located at http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html. (Users running the Windows operating system can generally view flash cookie files in this folder: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player. Users running the Apple operating system can generally view flash cookie files in this folder: /users/[username]/Library/Preferences/macromedia/Flash Player. Flash cookies, or LSO files are stored typically with an “.SOL” extension. If you do not allow flash cookies on your computer, you may not be able to take advantage of or participate in certain features of the Site.

HTML is the software language used for building most of the sites on the World Wide Web. Almost all Web pages you visit on the Internet are built using HTML code. HTML5 is simply the fifth and latest iteration of this language. HTML5 is a popular standard for presenting content, especially content delivered to mobile devices. Some HTML5 code may allow your responses to advertising and other activities to be monitored across websites, and for such information to be stored on your computer or mobile device and accessed by others you do or have done business with. Solutions that allow users to opt out of or block this sort of tracking are being developed through browser add-ons and other tools. Salon accesses user activity information stored through this feature of HTML5. As with cookies, other companies that place advertising on our Site may have the ability to access information using this feature of HTML5. Salon does not control and is not responsible for any such access or for their use of information obtained.

Web Beacons
Our Web pages or e-mail messages may contain a small graphic image called a Web beacon, which is sometimes also called a “clear gif,” that allows us to monitor and collect certain limited information about our users, such as the type of browser requesting the Web beacon, the IP address of the computer that the Web beacon is sent to and the time the Web beacon was viewed. Web beacons can be very small or invisible to the user, but, in general, any electronic image viewed as part of a Web page or email, including HTML-based content, can act as a Web beacon. We may use Web beacons to count visitors to our Web pages or to monitor how our users navigate our Site, and we may include Web beacons in email messages in order to count how many of the messages we sent were actually opened or acted upon. We use Web beacons to compile aggregate statistics about our Site and our marketing campaigns.

Security of Information
Salon makes extensive efforts to ensure the safety of your sensitive information. However, no website, Internet transmission, computer system or wireless connection is completely secure. Salon cannot guarantee that unauthorized access or disclosure, hacking, data loss or other breaches will never occur. Your use of the Site is at your own risk. Salon urges you to take steps to keep your information safe by memorizing your password or keeping it in a safe place (separate from your account information), logging out of your account, and closing your Web browser. In addition, you should not provide your password to others. By registering for or using the Site, you are responsible for any use of the Site accomplished through the use of your password.

Salon will take commercially reasonable steps to protect the security of sensitive information by establishing a secure connection with your Web browser when you are requested by Salon to provide such information. Salon uses the Security Socket Layer (“SSL”), an industry standard security protocol for encrypting sensitive information. Unfortunately, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable and data transmission over the Internet cannot be guaranteed 100 percent secure. We cannot and do not ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to Salon and you do so at your own risk.

Salon Core
In order to subscribe to Salon Core, subscribers to our Salon Core service provide Salon with personal information including name, address, email address and credit card information. Some of that personal information may be shared with our promotional partners, as more fully set forth below. Salon Core members have the opportunity to sign up for certain third-party offers, which may include, but aren’t limited to, magazine subscriptions and online services. At the time of registering for their subscription, Salon Core subscribers are asked whether they wish to receive email from Salon, such as notification of new Core benefits.

Salon Newsletters
In order to receive Salon Newsletters, subscribers provide Salon with personal information including an email address, ZIP code, gender, age range and income range. Salon collects this information so that we can effectively target advertisements. This information may be shared in aggregate form with our advertisers. When we present aggregated information to outside companies, no one will be able to identify or contact you based on that information.

If you select “yes” in response to the statement “I would like to receive occasional offers or information from Salon and our marketing partners by e-mail” on the newsletter registration page, Salon may email you occasional messages about our or our marketing partners’ products.

Our newsletter registration and confirmation pages may also contain other offers to receive messages from specific advertisers or other third parties. If you choose to opt in to receive such messages, your email address will be shared with those specific advertisers or third parties, and Salon will have no control over the messages that you receive from them.

“Email to a Friend” Feature
The Site offers an “email a friend about this story” feature, allowing Site visitors to send email to friends to inform them about an article they might be interested in reading. In order for this feature to function, we ask for email addresses for the recipient (so we know who to mail the message to) and from the sender (so we can tell the recipient who sent the email). We do not store or save these addresses and you will not receive email or other communications from Salon or its partners as a result of having used this feature.

“Email a friend about this story” is a mail service that individual visitors to the Site make use of to send individual emails. While this tool cannot be used to send mass “spam” mailings, Salon has no control over how our visitors use it, and any email sent through it originates with, and is the responsibility of, the sender, not Salon.

Sharing Information
We may provide information to select outside companies when we believe their products or services may be of interest to you, so that they can contact you with offers. If you respond to an offer and provide information directly to another company, that information will be subject to their privacy policy, not this Privacy Policy. If you later decide that you do not want that third party to use your information, you will need to contact the third party directly. Salon is not responsible for the manner in which other businesses collect or use your personal information.

In addition, Salon may share your personal information with third parties under the following circumstances:

Third parties providing services on our behalf: We may engage third parties to perform services in connection with the operation of our business. Examples of these services include: (a) distribution of marketing and promotional material; (b) website evaluation and analytics; (c) fulfilling magazine, newsletter or other subscriptions; (d) data collection, storage, management, analysis and, where applicable, cleansing, and (e) any other services designed to assist us in maximizing our business potential. These third parties may have access to information about visitors to our Site, including personal information, to the extent it is needed to perform their duties and functions. Salon generally requires service providers to keep personal information about our visitors confidential.

Investigations and security: We may release information about our users, including personal information, when legally required to do so, at the request of governmental authorities conducting an investigation, in response to a subpoena or other legal process, or to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing our Site and applicable laws. We may also disclose such user information whenever we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Salon, or any of our respective affiliates, business partners, customers or others.

Aggregate Information: We may disclose non-identifying, aggregated user statistics to third parties for a variety of purposes, including describing our services to prospective partners and other third parties. Examples of such non-personal information include the number of users who visited this Site during a specific time period or purchased a specific product through this Site.

Promotions: If you choose to enter a contest, sweepstakes or promotion offered by Salon, your personal information may be disclosed to third parties for purposes of posting your entry with attribution or otherwise as permitted in the official rules for the contest, sweepstakes or promotion in question, fulfilling your prize or including your name on a winners list, or as otherwise necessary for purposes of the contest, sweepstakes or promotion. We may also require you to consent to the use of your personal information or other information, such as name, voice or likeness, in advertising, promotional and marketing materials, in which case the rules will so state. In addition, we may offer promotional content, including sweepstakes and promotions, sponsored by or co-branded with a third party, who may obtain the personal information that you submit.

Surveys: Salon may from time to time conduct voluntary surveys of visitors to the Site to obtain aggregate demographic information about them. Such information may be compiled and shared in the aggregate with advertisers and other third parties, but no personal details will be traceable or associated with specific individuals.

Opting Out of Information Sharing
You may opt out of having your personal information shared with others. (Aggregate information complied by us or on our behalf may be shared even if you opt out of sharing personally identifiable information.) To opt out, you need to consistently exercise your opt-out choice whenever you provide personal information to us. Alternatively, you may send us a message at privacy@salon.com. You must include “Opt Out” as the subject line, and your full name, email address and postal address in your message. [Note: This obligates you to include an "opt out" feature in all online registration processes, email solicitations, promotions, etc. You may specify that opting out will prevent users from participating in specific features or promotions, if you want.]

Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy
Protecting the privacy of the very young is important to us. For that reason, we do not collect or maintain information at our Site from those we actually know are under 13, and no part of our Site is structured to attract anyone under 13. If you are under the age of 13, you are not permitted to use the Site. If you are aware of anyone under the age of 13 using our Site, please notify us. Upon confirmation, we will terminate any account that user may have, and we will eliminate any personal information we may have obtained from that user.

Unsubscribe and Data Removal Policies
If you would like to remove your name and e-mail address from our Core registration database, you can send an email requesting removal to corehelp@salon.com.

Other Sites and Services
Salon may contain links to, or advertisements about, non-Salon websites. Other sites may also reference, advertise or link to the Site. Salon does not endorse or sponsor other websites, is not responsible for their privacy practices or content, expressly disclaims any statements or assertions made on such websites, and denies all liability associated with your use of, and the content on, such other websites and advertisements. Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy do not apply to information gathered through other websites. We encourage you to be aware of when you leave this Site and to read the privacy policies of each website that you use.

Consent to Processing in the United States
This Site is operated in the United States. By providing any information to Salon, all users, including, without limitation, users in the member states of the European Union, Canada or elsewhere outside of the United States, fully understand and consent to this Privacy Policy. By using our Site, participating in any of our services and/or providing us with your information, you consent to the collection, transfer, storage and processing of your information to and in the United States. In addition, you waive any restrictions on such collection, transfer or storage of your information imposed by the laws of any country other than the United States.

Revisions to Privacy Policy
We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to modify, update, add to, discontinue, remove or otherwise change any portion of this Privacy Policy, in whole or in part, at any time. When we amend this Privacy Policy, we will revise the “last updated” date located at the top of this Privacy Policy. For changes to this Privacy Policy that we consider to be material, we will place a notice on the Salon website located at www.salon.com by revising the link to read substantially as “Updated Privacy Policy” for a reasonable amount of time. By providing information to us or using the Site in any way after this Privacy Policy has been revised, you consent and agree to the revised Privacy Policy. The most current version of this Privacy Policy will be available on the Site and will supersede all previous versions of this Privacy Policy.

Choice of Law
This Privacy Policy, including all revisions and amendments thereto, and any disputes arising from or relating to this Privacy Policy or your use of the Site, are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to any conflict or choice of law principles that would require application of the laws of another jurisdiction.

Questions about our Privacy Policy
If you have any further questions or concerns about Salon’s privacy policies and use of personal information, please send them to privacy@salon.com.