Beliefnet.com Privacy Policy
Effective as of October 20, 2008.
Beliefnet, Inc. (“Beliefnet” or “we” or “us”) is part of the News America Group, which has adopted a set of Privacy Principles (the “Principles”) (http://www.newscorp.com/privacy.html) applicable to all its U.S.-based companies. Beliefnet has implemented those Principles in this privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”), which describes how we collect, use and share personally identifiable information (“PII”) we obtain online from and about individuals located in the U.S.
Beliefnet’s web site (http://www.beliefnet.com) and all other related web sites owned or controlled by us (collectively or individually the “Site”) are general audience web sites, and we do not knowingly collect PII from children under 13 years of age.
Our Privacy Policy applies to "Visitors,” which means that you simply browse the Site, “Subscribers,” which means that you have subscribed to receive one or more Beliefnet newsletter or partner emails and "Members," which means that you have registered with Beliefnet. The term "User" refers to a Visitor, Subscriber or a Member. By using our Site, you signify your agreement with all the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Site.
From time to time Beliefnet may revise this Privacy Policy to reflect industry initiatives or changes in the law, our PII collection and use practices, the features of our Site or technology. If we make revisions that change the way we collect or use your PII, Beliefnet will post those changes in this Privacy Policy and the effective date will be noted at the beginning of such Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the Site after Beliefnet posts a revised Privacy Policy signifies your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy. Therefore, you should review it periodically so that you are up to date on our most current policies and practices. If Beliefnet materially changes its practices regarding collection or use of your PII, your PII will continue to be governed by the Privacy Policy under which it was collected unless you have been provided notice of, and have not objected to, the change. In the event the last e-mail address you provided to us is not valid or is not capable of delivering the notice to you, Beliefnet’s dispatch of an e-mail containing the notice to that e-mail address shall nonetheless constitute effective notice.
A. COLLECTION: COLLECTION OF PII BY BELIEFNET
1. General. When Beliefnet collects PII, such as your full name, email address and birth date,from you it is because you are voluntarily submitting PII to us in order to register as a Member or a Subscriber, or inorder to participate in activities like creating a personal profile (“Your Profile”), sweepstakes, contests, games, surveys, forums, in connection with content or suggestions you submit to us, or because you want us to furnish you with products, services or information. We may also obtain PII from reputable third parties.
You may also choose to voluntarily provide or store non-PII information in Your Profile (as described in Section A.1(a) below) or provide or store non-PII information on other public forums provided on our Site, including but not limited to, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, private messages, chats or any other materials (collectively “Content”) that you choose to post to the Site (Content posted by any User is "User Content"). If you choose to make Your Profile or any information from Your Profile public or provide any User Content on other public forums provided on our Site, you do so at your sole discretion and risk.
Members can change their Registration Data (as defined below in Section A(1)a) and Your Profile information at any time and can control how Visitors, other Members and Beliefnet communicate with them by controlling their account settings, available within the “Edit Profile” portion of Your Profile.
Beliefnet collects information from you at several different points on the Site in the manner set forth below:
(a). Member Registration and Profile: In order to access certain information and services on the Site, you must first become a Member by completing our member registration form. During the registration process you will be required to provide registration data, which may include PII such as your name and e-mail address (such information is the “Registration Data”). The Registration Data will automatically become incorporated into “Your Profile; however, in the Your Profile section of the Site, you have the option to make such Registration Data (including, but not limited to, your PII) public or private. You also have the option of adding certain User Content to Your Profile.
Important Information about Changing and Updating Your Profile
If Your Profile information changes you may correct, update or remove it. You can edit Your Profile information by going to the Your Profile page and clicking on the “Edit Your Profile” button.
(b). Newsletters and Special Offers: Beliefnet delivers interesting, stimulating and uplifting newsletters to its Subscribers on a variety of topics. If you would like to subscribe to any of the newsletters Beliefnet offers, please visit http://www.beliefnet.com/Newsletter/Signup.aspx. In order to subscribe to our newsletters, you will be required to give your e-mail address and zip code. If you would like to change the e-mail address to which your Beliefnet newsletters are delivered, please visit http://www.beliefnet.com/user/nl_updemail.asp.
Unless a User has opted out of receiving such e-mails during the registration process, Beliefnet may occasionally send Users who provide us with their e-mail addresses information about special offers, Site updates, contests and other offerings via e-mail. We may also send information about products and offerings of our partners that we think may be of interest to our Members and Subscribers. To opt out of receiving these e-mails from us please visit http://www.beliefnet.com/Newsletter/Manage.aspx.
Important Information about Making Changes to or Unsubscribing to Our Newsletters
If you would like to change which Beliefnet newsletters you receive or modify the frequency of your Beliefnet newsletters please visit http://www.beliefnet.com/Newsletter/Manage.aspx. If you would like to unsubscribe from any of our newsletters, you may do so in any of the following ways:
(i) Managing Your Subscriptions: You may make changes to your Beliefnet newsletter subscriptions at any time by visiting http://www.beliefnet.com/Newsletter/Manage.aspx and following the instructions referenced at the top of the page.
(ii) E-mail: You may also unsubscribe to our newsletters by sending an e-mail with the word “Privacy” in the subject line to Community@beliefnetstaff.com.
(c). Surveys, Contests and Quizzes: You may have the opportunity to participate in a number of surveys on our Site. We will use survey responses to guide us as we make improvements and enhancements to our Site. We also offer Users the ability to take personal assessment and other types of quizzes. We encourage you to complete surveys, personal assessments and quizzes so that we can provide you with a more personalized experience on our Site, such as featuring content and advertising that we believe are consistent with your interests. We will not use your responses for any other purpose without your prior consent.
On our Site you may also have the opportunity to participate in contests and other promotions that may require you to provide information about yourself. We will not share your contest information with any third party, except in aggregate form. In addition, if and when we sponsor contests or other promotions, or third parties sponsor such promotions with us; either we or the third party will post relevant privacy information in the official rules and/or registration area for the sweepstakes or promotion. That privacy information, to the extent it conflicts with this Privacy Policy, will govern that particular contest—please remember to read it carefully.
(d). Message Board, Discussion Rooms and Social Networking: Beliefnet provides message boards, discussion rooms and other public forums on the Site for exchanging information related to spirituality and social networking. Please note that information, User Content or any other materials that you post on our Site, including any information from Your Profile that you choose to make public, will be available for any User of that service to read, and is therefore no longer private and may be disclosed without limitations as to its use by a third party. If you post information, materials or User Content on our Site or other public forum you provide information that can be collected and used by others that you do not know for their own purposes, including the distribution of unsolicited communications. Beliefnet reserves the right to reproduce or publish any materials posted on our Site in any other formats.
(e). Beliefnet Greetings: If you choose to send a friend or loved one an e-card or other message through Beliefnet Greetings, you will be required to provide us with your e-mail address. Unless you opted out during the registration process, we may use this e-mail address to send you information about updates to our Site, available Beliefnet newsletters and other developments at Beliefnet. If you do not wish to receive such e-mails from us, please refer to Section F (Access: How To Access, Correct or Delete Your PII) below.
(f). Send-To-A-Friend: If you elect to use the “Send-to-a-Friend” referral service, we will ask for your friend’s name(s) and e-mail address(es). Beliefnet will automatically send a one-time e-mail inviting your friend(s) to visit our Site. We will use this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time e-mail.
2. Cookies. Cookies are small bits of information that the Site place on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies remember information about your activities on our Site and enable Beliefnet to make your visits to our Site more enjoyable. For example, cookies can store your password for easy logon to a Site you have previously visited, can save your preferences for a personalized home page. Information about your activities on our Site and other non-PII about you may also be used to limit the online ads you encounter to those we believe are consistent with your interests.
Third party advertisements displayed on our Site may also contain cookies set by Internet advertising companies or advertisers. Beliefnet does not control these cookies and visitors to our Site should check the privacy policy of the Internet advertising company or advertiser to see whether and how it uses cookies. Please refer to Section B (Notice) below for more information on third party advertisements.
Beliefnet may use cookies and similar tools to relate your use of our Site to PII obtained from you or a reputable third party. For example, if you have asked us to provide you information about our upcoming products or promotions, cookie and/or click stream data about your activities on our Site may allow us to limit the materials we provide you to items we think you will find interesting, based on your prior online activities and preferences. However, if Beliefnet wishes to combine your personal and cookie or click stream information in this manner, we will obtain your express affirmative consent.
You can program your computer to warn you each time a cookie is being sent or to refuse cookies completely. However, without cookies you may not have access to certain features on our Site, or contests.
Beliefnet also uses web beacons (also known as action tags or single pixel gifs) to access Beliefnet cookies and in connection with the services we offer through our Site. A web beacon is a transparent image placed on a web page that sends a signal when a person visits that page. This enables us to assess the popularity and effectiveness of the materials on our Site. We may also use web beacons in connection with newsletter and other e-mails we send to our Users, to let us know whether and when the e-mail was opened. No PII is transmitted through web beacons. We also collect IP (Internet Protocol) addresses to analyze trends, administer our Site, track a user's movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
B. NOTICE: BELIEFNET WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH NOTICE ABOUT ITS PII COLLECTION PRACTICES
When you voluntarily provide PII to Beliefnet, we will make sure you are informed about who is collecting the information, how and why the information is being collected and the types of uses Beliefnet will make of the information.
At the time you provide your PII, Beliefnet will notify you of your options regarding our use of your PII, including whether we will share it with outside companies (See Section C (Choice) below). This Privacy Policy describes the types of other companies that may want to send you information about their products and services and therefore may want to share your PII, provided you have given Beliefnet permission to do so (See Section D (Use: Beliefnet’s Use of PII) below).
Beliefnet’s Site may be linked to Internet web sites operated by other companies. Some of these third party web sites may be co-branded with a Beliefnet logo, even though they are not operated or maintained by Beliefnet (for example, the co-sponsored chat pages, or advertising sponsor pages). Beliefnet’s Site also carries advertisements from other companies. Beliefnet is not responsible for the privacy practices of web sites operated by third parties that are linked to our Site or for the privacy practices of third party or national Internet advertising companies. Once you leave a Beliefnet Site via such a link or by clicking on an advertisement, Beliefnet’s Privacy Policy no longer applies and you should check the applicable privacy policy of the third party or advertiser web site to determine how they will handle any PII they collect from you.
Beliefnet’s Site may also be linked to web sites operated by companies affiliated with Beliefnet (i.e., that are part of the News America Group). Although all News America Group entities adhere to the group’s Privacy Principles (http://www.newscorp.com/privacy.html), visitors to those affiliated web sites should still refer to their separate privacy policies and practices, which may differ in some respects from this Privacy Policy.
Some of the advertisements that appear on Beliefnet’s Site are delivered to you by national Internet advertising companies such as Doubleclick and 24/7Real Media. These companies utilize certain technologies to deliver advertisements and marketing messages and to collect anonymous information about your visit to our Site, including information about the banner ads they display, any cookie they place on your computer and your IP address. To opt out of information collection by these companies, or to obtain information about the technologies they use or their own privacy policies, please visit:
http://www.247realmedia.com/privacy.html
http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/index.aspx
http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp
C. CHOICE: BELIEFNET WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH CHOICES ABOUT THE USE OF YOUR PII
Beliefnet will not use the PII you provide to us for purposes different from the purpose for which it was submitted, or share your PII with third parties that are not affiliated with Beliefnet (i.e., not part of the News America Group), unless we obtain your permission.
D. USE: BELIEFNET’S USE OF PII
Beliefnet will use your PII provided under this Privacy Policy in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. If Beliefnet obtains PII from a third party, such as a business partner, our use of that information is governed by this Privacy Policy.
Beliefnet may share your PII with companies that are affiliated with us, that is, are part of the News America Group of companies. Provided you have given us permission, Beliefnet may also share your PII with advertisers and business partners that are not affiliated with Beliefnet, but would like to send you information about their products and services. For example, Beliefnet may share your PII with the companies who supply prizes for Beliefnet’s contests and may have special offers or promotions that might be of interest to Beliefnet users. However, you will always have the opportunity to instruct us not to share your information with third parties when PII is collected. Moreover, we will never share your credit card information with third parties except those Beliefnet uses to perform tasks (such as order fulfillment and payment processing) required to complete purchases you make through Beliefnet Sites.
Beliefnet employees, agents and contractors must have a legitimate business reason to obtain access to your PII. Beliefnet may share your PII with outside contractors or agents who help us manage our information activities (i.e., sweepstakes administration, order fulfillment, statistical analyses) but they may only use your PII to provide Beliefnet with a specific service and not for any other purpose.
Beliefnet may also enter into agreements with outside companies that possess the technology that allows Beliefnet to customize the advertising and marketing messages you receive on our Site. Your non-PII and click stream data about your activities on our Site may be shared with these companies so this customization may be accomplished. These companies will not share your information with any third party or use it for any other purpose. Anonymous click stream and demographic information may also be shared with Beliefnet’s advertisers and business partners.
There may be instances when Beliefnet may disclose PII without providing you with a choice in order to protect the legal rights of Beliefnet, other companies within the News America Group or their employees, agents and contractors; to protect the safety and security of visitors to our Site; to protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; or to comply with the law or legal process. In addition, if Beliefnet sells all or part of its business or makes a sale or transfer of assets or is otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, Beliefnet may transfer your PII to a third party as part of that transaction.
E. SECURITY: BELIEFNET PROTECTS THE SECURITY OF PII
Beliefnet uses reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical measures to safeguard PII in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification. In addition, Beliefnet uses reasonable methods to make sure that PII is accurate, up-to-date and appropriately complete. However, no security system is impenetrable. Beliefnet cannot warrant or guarantee the security of its servers, nor can it guarantee that information that you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to Beliefnet over the Internet.
F. ACCESS: HOW TO ACCESS, CORRECT OR DELETE YOUR PII
Whenever possible, Members and Subscribers may review the PII we maintain about them in our records. We will take reasonable steps to correct any PII a Member or Subscriber informs us of in writing is incorrect. If you are a Member, you can view, change and remove your PII, Member preferences and Your Profile information by logging into your account and accessing “Edit Profile.” Section A(1)(b) above describes how to change your subscriptions preferences.
If for any reason you want Beliefnet to stop using your PII, Beliefnet will honor that request; however, Beliefnet will retain any record of your PII that is necessary to comply with applicable federal, state or local law. Keep in mind, moreover, that there will be residual information that will remain within Beliefnet's databases, access logs, and other records, which may or may not contain such PII. Even after removal of PII and User Content by you or Beliefnet, PII and User Content may still be viewable in cached and archived pages or if another User has stored your User Content.
If you would like to communicate with us about this Privacy Policy or Beliefnet’s collection or use of your PII, or request Beliefnet delete your PII, please contact Beliefnet at:
Via E-mail:
community@beliefnetstaff.com
Via Mail:
Beliefnet Internet Privacy Officer
Fox Cable Network Services, LLC
Business & Legal Affairs
P.O. Box 900
Beverly Hills, California 90213-0900
G. REMEDIES AND COMPLIANCE: HOW TO CONTACT BELIEFNET ABOUT PRIVACY CONCERNS
If you have concerns regarding privacy, your use of the Beliefnet Site, or the collection and use of PII, you may contact the following Beliefnet representative:
Beliefnet Internet Privacy Officer
Business & Legal Affairs
Fox Cable Network Services, LLC
P.O. Box 900
Beverly Hills, California 90213-0900
Telephone: (310) 369-1350
e-mail: Beliefnet.Privacy@fox.com
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