Privacy Policy (Privacy Policy)

Privacy Policy

This is our policy regarding the privacy of information we collect on our web sites. This Privacy Policy includes examples of the types of personal information we collect and the kinds of companies with whom we share such information. These examples are illustrative and should not be considered a complete inventory of our information collection, use and sharing practices. We will comply with applicable state laws that may restrict the types of information we may disclose about you or require us to provide you with additional notices.

Your Consent By using this site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the Trunity and Digital Universe Terms of Use. Whenever you submit information via this site, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

About Children This site is not intended for children under the age of 13. We will not knowingly collect personally identifiable information via this site from visitors in this age group. We do, however, collect information about children and babies from their parents. We ask that our users not provide information about a baby or child without first getting the parents' consent. We encourage parents to talk to their children about their use of the Internet and the information they disclose to Web sites.

Blogs Discussion Boards, Chat Rooms, and Public Forums

This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you use Trunity and Digital Universe public forums. As a service to our users, Trunity and the Digital Universe features Blogs Discussion Boards, Chat Rooms, and Public Forums where users with similar interests can share information and support one another or where users can post questions for experts to answer. In addition, we offer online discussions on a variety of topics moderated by experts. You should be aware that any information shared in Blogs Discussion Boards, Chat Rooms, and Public Forums or posted in an Ask the Expert posting or online discussion is public information and may be seen, disclosed to or collected by third parties that do not adhere to our Privacy Policy. You should think carefully before disclosing any personal information in any public forum.

Be aware that information voluntarily posted through Blogs, Discussion Boards, Chat Rooms and Public forums can be accessed by the general public and can be used by those people to send you unsolicited communications.

Email and Opt-out

Members may opt out of receiving updates and/or notifications by selecting 'I don’t want to receive email notification' in the user profile 'Account Settings'. Users who do not wish to receive Trunity and Digital Universe newsletters may choose not to by selecting 'Yes, send me notifications of messages to my email address' in the user profile 'Account Settings'. Trunity and Digital Universe newsletters and email notifications will include the above instructions for opting-out of those communications.

Information Gathered and Tracked by Trunity.

Trunity gathers two types of data about users: (a) personal information, which individual users provide (i) when registering as a member of Trunity, our free flagship site, (ii) when registering as a subscriber to one of our premium subscription services, and (iii) voluntarily at certain other points, such as contests or surveys; and (b) tracking information, which is automatically collected about all visitors to our sites.

Personal Information

Trunity collects personal information in several places on our web sites, which are set forth generally below. We will always provide a secure area of our sites for you to enter your information.

Membership

Currently, we do not require users to become members of Trunity in order to have access to the free editorial and reference articles available on the Trunity and Digital Universe Website Network (hereafter "the Website Network"). However, if you'd like to receive one or more of our free email newsletters, gain access to the community features on our site, or comment/rate editorial content on the Website Network, we require you to register here to become a member. In order to register, you'll have to supply us with your email and postal addresses, choose a unique User Name and password, and provide us with some additional information about you (the reason for your visit to the Website Network, what kind of materials you are interested in, etc.). Additionally, you will be required to verify your email address by clicking on the activation link in the Welcome Letter that will be sent to you upon your submission of a completed registration form.

Premium Services

If you'd like access to one or more of our premium subscription-based services, you first must register as a member of Trunity as described above, and then you'll have to pick a unique User Name and password. Then, on the subscription registration page for the premium service you are interested in, you'll need to supply us with the information specified to activate your free trial or paid subscription.

Blogs and Chats

We may provide blogs featuring commentary from Trunity's most popular contributors. This feature allows subscribers to respond to a blogger's commentary or to another subscriber's post. The blogs are provided subject to Trunity's Terms of Use, which can be found here. Only community members may use the blogs. We urge and encourage participants posting comments on the blogs to include their full name in any comment. We also host chat events for discussion of various topics. Please note that information you submit to the blogs or during a chat will be available for any user of that service to read, and is no longer private.

Surveys/Polls

At certain times, you may be asked to participate in surveys, which are generally aimed at obtaining general information, for example, your reactions to a particular article or feature set on the site. Because information obtained in these surveys is connected with individual subscribers and is used internally to better market our services, participation is voluntary. In addition, some columnists will on occasion take polls of their readers. Such polls are solely for the editorial use of the individual columnists, and participation is voluntary.

Tracking Information

Tracking data consists of both individual and aggregated tracking information and is automatically gathered using "cookies." A cookie is a small data file containing information, such as a user's login name, that is written to the user's hard drive by a web server and used to track the pages visited.

Tracking by Trunity

We use cookies in several ways to track user behavior. First, the information we gather on an individual basis is used for internal purposes only, such as accessing a member's member profile. We also use tracking information on an aggregate basis, to track the readership of stories and usage of our products, to analyze traffic patterns on our sites, and to provide anonymous reporting of usage for internal and external clients. In all cases, cookies used by Trunity are encoded and contain a unique digital signature to prevent tampering. They do not contain user passwords. We also employ technology that is commonly referred to as "action tags" (also known as "web beacons" or "one pixel .gif files") to measure the effectiveness of our advertisements.

You can control your browser's settings regarding cookies by selecting "Internet Options" or "Preferences" in the menu bar of your browser. This will allow you to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, have your browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or disable cookies altogether. However, because cookies allow you to easily navigate our web sites without having to constantly log in using your User Name and password, we recommend that you leave them turned on.

Tracking by our Advertisers

Trunity's advertisers include a wide variety of companies, such as financial services companies (e.g., brokerage firms, banks, and mortgage companies), computer manufacturers, software companies, automobile makers, toy manufacturers, and retail stores. Trunity's advertisers and advertising vendors display targeted advertisements. Although Trunity does not provide any personal information to the advertiser or advertising vendor, by interacting with or clicking on an ad you consent to the possibility that the advertiser will assume you meet the targeting criteria used.

In addition to cookies placed by Trunity or its agents, as described above, advertisers and advertising vendors that serve ads onto our web sites may use their own cookies or other tracking technologies. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies or practices of any such advertisers and vendors.

Use of the Information

Trunity uses personal information obtained from its users as stated in this Privacy Policy, and to enhance users' experiences on our sites.

Disclosures Permitted by Law

Trunity does not sell or disclose personal information about you described above to with other people or nonaffiliated companies, except to provide you with products or services, when we have your permission, or under the following circumstances:

• We provide the information on a confidential basis to nonaffiliated companies we engage as contractors or agents to perform services for us, such as maintaining software, sending direct mail or administering a sweepstakes or contest. Information will be shared with such contractors only to the extent reasonably necessary for them to perform services on our behalf, and pursuant to confidentiality obligations;
• In response to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, from law enforcement agencies or state and federal regulators;
• If we sell or otherwise transfer substantially all of our assets related to any web site that we own or operate and any product or service that we offer. In that event, we will require such third party to honor our current Privacy Policy, until the third party provides you with notice of changes to our Privacy Policy and permits you to exercise any rights you may have under applicable law to limit disclosures of information about you.

Disclosures for Joint Marketing and Servicing

Trunity may disclose all the information we collect as described above to other companies such as direct marketers to perform marketing services on our behalf, or other institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements.

Other Uses

• =====Free Newsletters=====If you're a registered member of Trunity, we use your email address to send you free email newsletters containing selected editorial, content, advertisements and links to our sites. You can select which free newsletters you would like to receive or remove yourself from our free newsletter delivery list at any time by visiting your Member Profile page.
• =====Premium Services=====If you're a subscriber, we use your email address, postal address or fax number, as applicable, to deliver our premium products and services. You can view your account information at any time by visiting your Member Profile page.
• =====Special Offers and Advertisements=====We may from time to time send you special offers and advertisements for products or services offered by third parties. We will not disclose any of your personal information to such third parties when we do this. If you do not wish to receive third party offers and advertisements, please change your settings on your Member Profile page.

Correcting and Updating the Information

Trunity offers to its members the ability to correct or update online the information we collected during registration by visiting your Member Profile page.

Security

Trunity limits access to personal information about you to those employees whom we determine need access to that information to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your personal information. However, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our servers, nor can we guarantee that information that users supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.

Former Customers

Trunity discloses personal information about former customers only in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Your Independent Relationships with Other Companies

Please note that this Privacy Policy will not apply to your independent relationships with other companies that from time to time may offer you products and services on Trunity's sites. Those companies' privacy policies will govern how they collect, use and disclose personal information that you provide to them.

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Questions or comments regarding this policy should be directed to privacy@trunity.net privacy@trunity.net. Trunity reserves the right to modify this policy.

This Privacy Policy was last update on August 13, 2009.

NCSE

Boston University

Unless otherwise noted, all text is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.
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Supported by the Environmental Information Coalition and the National Council for Science and the Environment.

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