Privacy Policy | The Westleaf
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Privacy Policy

This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy” or “Policy”) explains the data protection practices of Westleaf Media LLC and its subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively, “WM”, “we” and “us”) when you visit or use the websites, mobile-optimized version of our websites, and our digital applications to which this policy is linked, as well as when you visit or use third-party subscription pages and or submit offline subscription forms and requests, for print and digital magazines, websites and other editorial properties published by WM (the “Publications”) that are linked to or contain the URL for this Privacy Policy (all of the foregoing, collectively, “Services”). Third-party subscription pages for Publications and other interactive web and digital pages where we collect information about you are considered “Services” when linked to this Privacy Policy and this Policy applies to information collected through such pages, but this Policy does not apply to other information collected through the third party website(s). Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, this Policy does not extend to information submitted on the WM Careers page or to employees, former employees, candidates, contractors, service providers, or business contacts of WM. 

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For the avoidance of doubt, this Policy also does not pertain to the editorial activities of our Publications, journalists, editors, photographers and other editorial staff who may collect, publish and distribute information about you from sources unrelated to your use of the Services (collectively, “Editorial Activities”). Without limiting the foregoing, this Policy does not apply to any Editorial Activities concerning information that you may share at any of our conferences, summits, panels or other events.

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For information about the publisher and blogger network advertising services of Westleaf Media, LLC, please read  view our Advertising page. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the Services’ Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy, you must discontinue using the Services and all components and features therein. By using the Services, you acknowledge you have read and understand this Privacy Policy.

The Information We Collect

We obtain information about you through the means discussed below when you use our Services. The information we collect and the purposes for which we use it will depend to some extent on the specific Services you use and how you interact with WM. For example, we collect the information you provide when you enter a sweepstakes or contest, complete a survey, participate in a reader panel, register for a part of our Services, register for a summit or event, make a purchase of goods or services, request a refund, participate in our social networking features, request back issues of our Publications, subscribe to our Publications, subscribe to newsletters, promotional correspondence, or other electronic services, or send us an email or feedback. If you elect to post material to any blogs or forums, or participate in our social networking features or other community boards that may be offered on our Services, then such materials will be collected and some information, including your posted pseudonym, may be publicly available for others to view. We, or our service providers on our behalf, may collect the following information about you or your use of the Services:

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Information You Provide to Us:

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  • Registration, Subscription or Contact Information such as e-mail address, name, phone number, shipping address, and billing information

  • Customer service information such as questions and other messages you address to us directly through online forms, by email, over the phone, or by post; and summaries or voice recordings of your interactions with customer care

  • Demographic, statistical and interest information such as your age, date of birth, gender, interests, lifestyle information, and hobbies

  • Financial and transactional information such as credit or debit card number, verification number, and expiration date, to process payments and information about your transactions and purchases with us

  • Employment or Education Information when you register for events or for networking insights services such as education history, employment experience, business contact information

  • User-generated content such as comments on articles, photos, videos, audio, any information you submit in public forums or message boards, reviews and feedback or testimonials you provide about our Services

  • Research, survey, or sweepstakes information (including contact information and user generated content) collected if you participate in a survey or sweepstakes; includes information needed for you to participate (such as contact information), and to fulfill your prize

  • Contact Information about others, (including personal identifiers) such as name and mailing address to send a gift or use our send-to-a-friend functionality. If you use send-a-friend on our Services, your email address may be included in the communication sent to your friend.

  • Social media information (which may include contact information, photos, location, user generated content, demographic information) if you link your account or access the Services through a third-party connection or log-in, we may have access to any information you provide to that social network depending on your privacy settings such as your name, email address, friend list, photo, gender, location, and current city; and information you provide to us directly through our pages on social networking and blogging platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WordPress, and Twitter)

  • Other information any other information you choose to directly provide to PMC in connection with your use of the Services

 

 Information We Collect Automatically:

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  • Device information and identifiers such as IP address; browser type and language; operating system; platform type; device type; software and hardware attributes; and unique device, advertising, and app identifiers

  • Internet network and device activity data such as information about files you download, domain names, landing pages, browsing activity, content or ads viewed and clicked, dates and times of access, pages viewed, forms you complete or partially complete, search terms, uploads or downloads, the URL that referred you to our Services, the web sites you visit after this web site; if you share our content to social media platforms; and other web usage activity and data logged by our web servers, whether you open an email and your interaction with email content, access times, error logs, and other similar information. See “Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies” below for more information about how we collect and use this information.

  • Geolocation information such as city, state and ZIP code associated with your IP address or derived through Wi-Fi triangulation; and precise geolocation information from GPS-based functionality on your mobile devices, with your permission in accordance with your mobile device settings

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Information from Third Parties:

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We may also collect the information outlined above, such as contact information, demographic and social media information, from other sources including public and commercial data sources, affiliates, entities providing conferences and other event, marketers, social media networks, third party advertising partners in accordance with your privacy preferences on such services, and partners such as those providing surveys or sweepstakes with us. We use this information to update, validate or supplement the information that you provide or we collected automatically, to target our communications so that we can inform you of products, services and offers that may be of interest, and for internal business analysis or other business purposes.  If other users of the Services provide information about you, such as your name and mailing address to send a gift or to use our send-to-a-friend functionality, we collect that information from such users.

How We Use the Information We Collect

Depending on the Services you use and how you use them, we, or our service providers, may use your information to:

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  • Provide the Services you request, including to maintain and service your account, for example to:​

    • Maintain and service your account

    • Payment processing

    • Send communications that you have requested on your behalf

    • Administer your entries into sweepstakes, contests, promotions, or surveys

    • Provide community features and post your content

  • Process and fulfill your transactions, including subscriptions and the purchase of other goods

  • Communicate with You & Provide Customer Service to Provide the Services, for example to:

    • Provide transactional or service communications, such as to notify you when you have won one of our contests or sweepstakes or other promotions, when we make changes to subscriber agreements, send you an email newsletter, process refund requests, or to contact you about your account

    • Respond to your requests for information

    • Provide you with customer service and technical support

  • Personalize your experience to Provide the Services, for example to:

    • Customize certain features of the Services,

    • Deliver relevant content and to provide you with an enhanced experience based on your activities and interests

    • Send you personalized newsletters, surveys, and information about products, services and promotions offered by us, our partners, and other organizations with which we work

    • Customize the advertising on the Services based on your activities and interests

    • Create and update inferences about you and audience segments that can be used for targeted advertising and marketing on the Services, third party services and platforms, and mobile apps

    • Create profiles about you, including adding and combining information we obtain from third parties, which may be used for analytics, marketing, and advertising

    • Conduct cross-device tracking by using information such as IP addresses and unique mobile device identifiers to identify the same unique users across multiple browsers or devices (such as smartphones or tablets, in order to save your preferences across devices and analyze usage of the Service.

    • using inferences about your preferences and interests for any and all of the above purposes

  • Republish Information You Provide on the Services, for example to:

    • pursuant to our Terms, use and edit information submitted by you in response to opportunities provided on the Services, which you provide to us through emails, blogs, forums, in response to polls, or through any other user generated submission, for editorial purposes, including your name, likeness, photograph, and biographical information you provide, with or without attribution, including publication in the Publications, and in trade media, and advertising

  • Improve the Services and develop new services, for example to:

    • Engage in analysis, research, and reports to better understand how you use the Services, so we can improve them and develop new services

  • Our Marketing and Third-Party Marketing and Advertising Purposes, for example to:

    • Send you newsletters, promotional emails, surveys and information about products, services and promotions offered by us, our partners, and other organizations with which we work

    • Customize content that our third-party partners deliver on the Services (e.g., personalized third-party advertising)

    • Create and update inferences about you and audience segments that can be used for targeted advertising and marketing on the Services, third party services and platforms, and mobile apps

    • Create profiles about you, including adding and combining information we obtain from third parties, which may be used for analytics, marketing, and advertising

We may combine the information we collect about you, including from third parties, and conduct cross-device tracking for the marketing and advertising purposes above.

  • Bug detection and error reporting, including to understand and resolve technical issues, app crashes and other issues being reported

  • Audit consumer interactions on the Services including to measure the placement, frequency, efficacy and compliance of advertising and ad impressions

  • Security, Fraud, and Legal Compliance, including by detecting, protecting against, and prosecuting security incidents, fraud, and illegal activity for example to:

    • Monitor prevent, and detect fraud, such as through verifying your identity

    • Combat spam or other malware or security risks

    • Monitor, enforce, and improve the security of our Services

    • Comply with any applicable procedures, laws, and regulations, subpoenas, governmental requests or legal process, or in connection with a legal investigation, if in our good faith opinion such is required or permitted by law;

    • Establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (e.g., to enforce compliance with our Terms of Use, Privacy Policies, or other contracts or legal rights)

    • Protect or defend our Services, users, or others

  • Aggregate and/or De-Identified Information. We may aggregate or anonymize information and/or de-identify any information collected through the Services so that such information can no longer be linked to you or your device (“Aggregate/De-Identified Information”). We may use this Aggregate/De-Identified Information for any purpose permitted under the law, including without limitation for research and marketing purposes, and disclose such information to third parties, including advertisers, promotional partners, and sponsors in our sole discretion.

How We Share the Information Collected

Depending on the Services you use and how you use them, we, or our service providers, may use your information to:

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  • Provide the Services you request, including to maintain and service your account, for example to:​

    • Maintain and service your account

    • Payment processing

    • Send communications that you have requested on your behalf

    • Administer your entries into sweepstakes, contests, promotions, or surveys

    • Provide community features and post your content

  • Process and fulfill your transactions, including subscriptions and the purchase of other goods

  • Communicate with You & Provide Customer Service to Provide the Services, for example to:

    • Provide transactional or service communications, such as to notify you when you have won one of our contests or sweepstakes or other promotions, when we make changes to subscriber agreements, send you an email newsletter, process refund requests, or to contact you about your account

    • Respond to your requests for information

    • Provide you with customer service and technical support

  • Personalize your experience to Provide the Services, for example to:

    • Customize certain features of the Services,

    • Deliver relevant content and to provide you with an enhanced experience based on your activities and interests

    • Send you personalized newsletters, surveys, and information about products, services and promotions offered by us, our partners, and other organizations with which we work

    • Customize the advertising on the Services based on your activities and interests

    • Create and update inferences about you and audience segments that can be used for targeted advertising and marketing on the Services, third party services and platforms, and mobile apps

    • Create profiles about you, including adding and combining information we obtain from third parties, which may be used for analytics, marketing, and advertising

    • Conduct cross-device tracking by using information such as IP addresses and unique mobile device identifiers to identify the same unique users across multiple browsers or devices (such as smartphones or tablets, in order to save your preferences across devices and analyze usage of the Service.

    • using inferences about your preferences and interests for any and all of the above purposes

  • Republish Information You Provide on the Services, for example to:

    • pursuant to our Terms, use and edit information submitted by you in response to opportunities provided on the Services, which you provide to us through emails, blogs, forums, in response to polls, or through any other user generated submission, for editorial purposes, including your name, likeness, photograph, and biographical information you provide, with or without attribution, including publication in the Publications, and in trade media, and advertising

  • Improve the Services and develop new services, for example to:

    • Engage in analysis, research, and reports to better understand how you use the Services, so we can improve them and develop new services

  • Our Marketing and Third-Party Marketing and Advertising Purposes, for example to:

    • Send you newsletters, promotional emails, surveys and information about products, services and promotions offered by us, our partners, and other organizations with which we work

    • Customize content that our third-party partners deliver on the Services (e.g., personalized third-party advertising)

    • Create and update inferences about you and audience segments that can be used for targeted advertising and marketing on the Services, third party services and platforms, and mobile apps

    • Create profiles about you, including adding and combining information we obtain from third parties, which may be used for analytics, marketing, and advertising

We may combine the information we collect about you, including from third parties, and conduct cross-device tracking for the marketing and advertising purposes above.

  • Bug detection and error reporting, including to understand and resolve technical issues, app crashes and other issues being reported

  • Audit consumer interactions on the Services including to measure the placement, frequency, efficacy and compliance of advertising and ad impressions

  • Security, Fraud, and Legal Compliance, including by detecting, protecting against, and prosecuting security incidents, fraud, and illegal activity for example to:

    • Monitor prevent, and detect fraud, such as through verifying your identity

    • Combat spam or other malware or security risks

    • Monitor, enforce, and improve the security of our Services

    • Comply with any applicable procedures, laws, and regulations, subpoenas, governmental requests or legal process, or in connection with a legal investigation, if in our good faith opinion such is required or permitted by law;

    • Establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (e.g., to enforce compliance with our Terms of Use, Privacy Policies, or other contracts or legal rights)

    • Protect or defend our Services, users, or others

  • Aggregate and/or De-Identified Information. We may aggregate or anonymized information and/or de-identify any information collected through the Services so that such information can no longer be linked to you or your device (“Aggregate/De-Identified Information”). We may use this Aggregate/De-Identified Information for any purpose permitted under the law, including without limitation for research and marketing purposes, and disclose such information to third parties, including advertisers, promotional partners, and sponsors in our sole discretion.

Legal Grounds for Using (Processing) Your Information

If you are a visitor from the European Economic Area, our legal basis for collecting and using the information described above will depend on the information concerned and the context in which we collect it. We collect information from you:

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  • Where we need it to perform our contract with you (i.e. our Terms of Service),

  • Where the processing is in our legitimate interests (provided that these aren’t overridden by your interests or rights) (such as personalizing our services and marketing for example), or

  • If we otherwise have your consent.

If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your information, please contact us using the contact details provided under the “Contact Us” section below.

Online Analytics and Advertising

Delivery of Advertising and Other Content. In addition to ads and content that we serve you directly, WM may use third party advertising companies and marketing services to serve ads and other content when you visit the Services, as well as on other websites you visit and other applications you use. The ads may be based on various factors such as the content of the page you are visiting, your searches, demographic data, user-generated content, and other information we collect from you. These ads may be based on your current activity or your activity over time and across other websites and online services and may be tailored to your interests. Third parties, whose products or services are accessible or advertised via the Services, may also place cookies or other tracking technologies on your computer, mobile phone, or other device to collect information about you as discussed above. We also allow other third parties (e.g., ad networks and ad servers such as Google and others) to serve tailored ads to you on the Services, other sites, and in other applications, and to access their own cookies or other tracking technologies on your computer, mobile phone, or other device you use to access the Services. We sometimes provide our customer information (such as email addresses) to service providers, who may “match” this information in de-identified form to cookies (or mobile ad identifiers) and other proprietary IDs, in order to provide you with more relevant ads when you visit other websites and mobile applications.

 

We neither have access to, nor does this Privacy Policy govern, the use of cookies or other tracking technologies that may be placed on the device you use to access the Services by such non-affiliated third parties.

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If you are interested in more information about tailored browser advertising and how you can generally control cookies from being put on your computer to deliver tailored advertising, you may visit the Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out Page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Consumer Opt-Out link, or Your Online Choices to opt-out of receiving tailored advertising from companies that participate in those programs.

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To opt out of Google Analytics for display advertising or customize Google display network ads, visit the Google Ads Settings page. We do not control these opt-out links or whether any particular company chooses to participate in these opt-out programs. We are not responsible for any choices you make using these mechanisms or the continued availability or accuracy of these mechanisms.

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Please note that if you exercise the opt out choices above, you will still see advertising when you use the Services, but it will not be tailored to you based on your online behavior over time.

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Mobile Advertising. When using mobile applications from WM or others, you may also receive tailored in-application advertisements. We may use third-party service providers to deliver advertisements on mobile applications or for mobile application analytics. Each operating system, iOS for Apple phones, Android for Android devices, and Windows for Microsoft devices provides its own instructions on how to prevent the delivery of tailored in-application advertisements. We do not control how the applicable platform operator allows you to control receiving personalized in-application advertisements; thus, you should contact the platform provider for further details on opting out of tailored in-application advertisements. Often, you may opt-out by adjusting the ad tracking settings on your mobile device or resetting the “Advertising Identifier” (like an IDFA) from your mobile device’s settings page, which will prevent continued use of existing behavioral data tied to the previous “Advertising Identifier.” You may review the support materials and/or the device settings for the respective operating systems to opt-out of tailored in-app advertisements.

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Do Not Track. WM does not act on “do not track” requests from your browser because, this way, we are able to personalize your experiences on our Services.

California Data Access & Deletion Rights

If you are a California resident, the CCPA allows you to make certain requests about your personal information. Specifically, the CCPA allows you to request us to:

  • Inform you about the categories of personal information we collect or disclose about you; the categories of sources of such information; the business or commercial purpose for collecting your personal information; and the categories of third parties with whom we share/disclose personal information.

  • Provide access to and/or a copy of certain personal information we hold about you.

  • Delete certain personal information we have about you.

  • Provide you with information about the financial incentives that we offer to you, if any.

Please note that certain information may be exempt from such requests under California law. For example, we need certain information in order to provide the Services to you.

Verification: We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before responding to a request, which may include, depending on your request and relationship with you verifying your name, email address, address, and/or having you respond to an email from us.

You are also permitted to designate an authorized agent to submit certain requests on your behalf. In order for an authorized agent to be verified, you must provide the authorized agent with signed, written permission to make such requests or a power of attorney. We may also follow up with you to verify your identity before processing the authorized agent’s request.

If you would like further information regarding your legal rights under California law or would like to exercise any of them, please click here or call (877) 365-3500.

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Notice of Right to Opt Out of Sale of Personal Information

California residents may opt out of the “sale” of their personal information. We sell certain of your information to third parties to provide you with offers and promotions and opportunities that may be of interest to you.

Under the CCPA, sale is also broadly defined such that it may include allowing third parties to receive certain information, such as cookies, IP address, and/or browsing behavior, to deliver targeted advertising on the Services or other services. Advertising, including targeted advertising, enables us to provide you certain content for free and allows us to provide you offers relevant to you.

Depending on what Services you use, we may provide the following categories of personal information to third parties for these purposes:

  • For online targeted advertising purposes: demographic and statistical information, user-generated content, device information and identifiers, connection and usage data, geolocation, and social media information.

  • For sharing with third parties to send you relevant offers and promotions and opportunities: contact information (e.g., name and physical address) and publication subscription information.

California “Shine the Light” Disclosure

The California “Shine the Light” law gives residents of California the right under certain circumstances to opt out of the sharing of certain categories of personal information (as defined in the Shine the Light law) with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. If you would like to opt out of such sharing, please use the sale opt out form noted above. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the following address: Westleaf Media LLC,  Roswell Road Suite G-6325  Atlanta, Georgia  30328 Attn: Privacy Officer. In your request, please specify that you want a “Westleaf Media California Privacy Rights Notice.” Please allow at least 30 days for a response

 International Users

Some international users of our Services have certain legal rights to access certain information we hold about them and to request its deletion. For example, your local laws may permit you to request that we:

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  • Provide access to and/or a copy of certain information we have about you;

  • Prevent the processing of your information for direct-marketing purposes;

  • Update information which is out of date or incorrect;

  • Delete certain information which we have about you;

  • Restrict the way that we process and disclose certain of your information;

  • Transfer your information to a third party provider of services; and

  • Revoke your consent for the processing of your information.

 

We will consider all requests and provide our response within the time period stated by applicable law. Certain information may be exempt from such requests in some circumstances, which may include if we need to keep processing your information for our legitimate interests or to comply with a legal obligation. We may request you provide us with information necessary to confirm your identity before responding to your request.

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If you would like further information in relation to your legal rights under applicable law or would like to exercise any of them, please contact us using the information in the “Contact Us” section below at any time.

Privacy Information for Nevada Residents

Under Nevada law, Nevada residents who have purchased goods or services from us may opt out of the “sale” of “covered information” (as such terms are defined under Nevada law). “Covered information” includes, among other things, first and last name, address, email address, and phone number. As discussed above, we share your information with third parties (e.g. magazine publishers, retailers, participatory databases) that want to market products or services to you. In some circumstances, this sharing may qualify as a sale under Nevada law. If you are a Nevada resident who has purchased goods or services from us, you may submit a request to opt out of such activity. Please note we may take reasonable steps to verify your identity and the authenticity of the request.

Retention of Your Information

We keep your information for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which it is processed. The length of time for which we retain information depends on the purposes for which we collected and use it and/or as required to comply with applicable laws.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We use and allow certain other companies to use certain tracking technologies, including cookies, web beacons, and other similar technologies (collectively, “Cookies”) on the Services. We endeavor to adhere to the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) self-regulatory principles governing interest-based advertising.

 Links to Third Party Sites

When you are on the Services, you may be directed to other websites that are operated and controlled by third parties that we do not control. We are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by any of these third parties. If you access a third-party website from the Services, you do so at your own risk, and you understand that this Privacy Policy does not apply to your use of such websites

Security

We implement appropriate administrative, technical and security safeguards to help prevent unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of the information we collect. However, no systems can be completely secure. Therefore, while WM uses reasonable efforts to protect your information, WM cannot guarantee its absolute security, and your use of the Services indicates your agreement to assume this risk.

Special Note For Parents

The Services are for a general audience and are not designed or intended for use by children, especially those under age thirteen (13) or sixteen (16) in the EU.

Transfer Information to the United States

The Services are operated in the United States of America (USA) and are intended for users located in the USA. If you are located outside of the USA, please note that the information you provide to us will be transferred to and processed in the USA, where laws regarding processing of personal data may be less stringent than the laws in your country.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time without prior notice. Any changes will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy.

Disputes; No Rights of Third Parties

If you choose to access the Services, subscribe to our Publications or use any of our Services, any dispute over privacy is subject to our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, resolution of disputes by binding arbitration, and application of the laws of the United States, and the State of New York. This Privacy Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties.

Contact Us: Data Privacy Officer

If you have any questions or concerns about any aspect of this Privacy Policy, please contact our Data Privacy Officer at the address set forth below.

 

Data Privacy Officer

Westleaf Media 

6595 Roswell Road Suite G-6325  

Atlanta, Georgia  

ZIP Code 30328 

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