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Corner Privacy Statement

LAST UPDATED: August 28, 2002

The Weather Channel Interactive, Inc. ("The Weather Channel") is strongly committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy discloses how we collect, use and share information we gather about you on The Weather Channel's Web sites and the choices you have regarding our use of and your ability to correct the information. This Privacy Policy applies only to The Weather Channel's Web sites and The Weather Channel's Internet-enabled services, excluding those properties which primarily serve international markets (e.g., weather.co.uk). We hope that this disclosure will enhance your experience on the Internet and reinforce the trust that you place in The Weather Channel's products and services.

TRUSTe Membership

The Weather Channel is a member of the TRUSTe program and is in compliance with TRUSTe privacy principles. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build users' trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. When you visit a Web site displaying the TRUSTe trustmark, you can expect to be notified of what personally identifiable information of yours is collected; what organization is collecting the information; how the information is used; with whom the information may be shared; what choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information; what kind of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under the company's control; and how you can make changes to the information. If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement or would like to modify your contact information or personal preferences, you may access your weather.com profile from the "My Weather" section by selecting "My Profile" or you may contact us directly. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed within five business days, please contact TRUSTe. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with The Weather Channel to resolve your concerns.

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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
  • Send us an e-mail message
  • Submit a photo to the photo gallery
  • Participate in an online forum or community, or
  • Personalize 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.

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 personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies except as described below.

weather.com and its Affiliates

We provide you with the opportunity to opt in to receive special offers from weather.com 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., WSI Corporation and The Weather Channel Latin America, LLC. 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.

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.

Third-Party Processors

When you submit your personal information on the weather.com Web site, it may be shared with a reputable third party ("Third Party Processors"). These Third Party Processors may include, for example, companies that process credit card information 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.

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.

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.

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.

IP Addresses, Cookies, Web Beacons and Gifs

The Weather Channel 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.
  • 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 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 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.

Use of Cookie and Web Beacon Technology by Advertisers and Ad Serving Networks

The Weather Channel works with 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 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 Real Media uses the information collected by these Cookies and Web Beacons, please review Real Media's Privacy Policy. For more information about how DoubleClick uses the information collected by these Cookies and Web Beacons, please review DoubleClick's Privacy Policy.

Opting-Out, Corrections and Cancellations

In order to receive an offer or promotion from The Weather Channel or a third party, 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.

To 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, you may access your weather.com profile online from the "My Weather" section by selecting "My Profile" or you may contact us 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 personal 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 to protect and safeguard your data. Of course, although The Weather Channel uses standard industry practices to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee that your communications with our site will never be unlawfully intercepted, or that your personal 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.
The Weather Channel Interactive, Inc.
P.O. Box 724554
Atlanta, GA 31139
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