Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us. At Planetizen we have a few fundamental principles:

• We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it.
• We don’t share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our products, or protect our rights.
• We don’t store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of one of our services.

Below is our privacy policy which incorporates these goals.

If you have questions about our privacy policy, please send an email to [email protected].

Website Visitors
Like most website operators, Planetizen collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Planetizen’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how Planetizen’s visitors use its website. From time to time, Planetizen may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website. Planetizen also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for logged in users and for users leaving comments. Planetizen only discloses logged in user and commenter IP addresses under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information as described below.

Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information
Certain visitors to Planetizen’s websites choose to interact with Planetizen in ways that require Planetizen to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Planetizen gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who sign up for an account to provide a username and email address. Those who engage in transactions with Planetizen – by purchasing products, for example – are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, Planetizen collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with Planetizen. Planetizen does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.

Aggregated Statistics
Planetizen may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. Planetizen may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, Planetizen does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below.

Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
Planetizen discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on Planetizen’s behalf or to provide services available at Planetizen’s websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others.

Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using Planetizen’s websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. Planetizen will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations, as described above, Planetizen discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only in response to a subpoena, court order or other governmental request, or when Planetizen believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Planetizen, third parties or the public at large.

If you are a registered user of an Planetizen website and have supplied your email address, Planetizen may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with Planetizen and our products.

If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users. Planetizen takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.

Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Planetizen uses cookies to help Planetizen identify and track visitors, their usage of Planetizen website, and their website access preferences. Planetizen visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using Planetizen’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of Planetizen’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Business Transfers
If Planetizen, or substantially all of its assets were acquired, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of Planetizen may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this policy.

Ads
Ads appearing on any of our websites may be delivered to users by advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by Planetizen and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Comments and News Submissions
Comments, news submissions and other content submitted to us are saved on our servers. We use them to improve the services we provide. If you submit personal commentary in a news article you submit, we may, at our discretion, publish your comments alongside your username and the article you submitted. If you do not wish your username to be associated with content that you submit to use, please submit it anonymously.

Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, Planetizen may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in Planetizen’s sole discretion. Planetizen encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.

Change Log
March 15, 2012: Planetizen privacy policy substantially updated to recognize best practices in privacy policies.

We wish to thank Automattic for providing the foundation for this privacy policy under a creative commons license.