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Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

We may collect personal information about our users in various ways. For example, we may collect information that you provide to us, information that we collect through your use of the Services, and information that we collect from publicly available sources or third parties.

Information You Provide to Us. When you register or otherwise interact with the Services, you may be invited to provide personal information to enhance your experience on our site. For example, during account registration, we may ask for information such as your name, e-mail address, year of birth, gender, street address, job title and industry and related information. We may collect payment information, such as your credit card number and expiration date, where appropriate to process a financial transaction you have requested.

We also collect information that you provide us when you comment on articles, participate in message boards, and submit images, photos, videos, or other content to the Services. We may ask you for additional information at other times, such as when you enter a contest or participate in a promotion, when you post an online ad, or when you order products from us or otherwise engage with the Services. Please review our Discussion and Submission Guidelines for more information about our practices applicable to content that you submit to certain areas of our Services.

 

Information About Your Use of the Services. In addition to the information you provide to us directly, we may collect information about your use of the Services. For example, we may collect:

  • Device information— such as your hardware model, IP address, other unique device identifiers, operating system version, browser type and settings, such as language and available font settings, and settings of the device you use to access the Services.
  • Usage information— such as information about the Services you use, the time and duration of your use of the Services and other information about your interaction with content offered through a Service, and any information stored using cookies, mobile ad identifiers, and similar technologies that we have set on your device. For detailed information about our use of cookies, web beacons, and other technologies, see Online Tracking and Advertising.
  • Location information— such as your computer’s IP address, your mobile device’s GPS signal or information about nearby WiFi access points and cell towers that may be transmitted to us when you use certain Services.

Information From Third-Party Sources. We may receive information about you from publicly and commercially available sources, as permitted by law, which we may combine with other information we receive from or about you. For example, we may receive information about you from a social media site if you connect to the Services through that site.

Other Information We Collect. We also may collect other information about you, your device, or your use of the services in ways that we describe to you at the point of collection or otherwise with your consent. You may choose not to provide us with certain types of information, but doing so may affect your ability to use some of the Services.

How We Use Information

To Provide and Manage the Services You Request. This includes, for example, processing your subscription, sending you electronic newsletters, or enabling you to participate in the features provided by the Services. It also includes providing personalized content and recommendations to you, including through Personal Post. Through such features, we are able to bring you information and content tailored to your individual interests and needs.

To Contact You. We may periodically contact you with offers and information about the Services and our affiliates, including in connection with your accounts, online surveys, legal notices, news stories, and other important information. You may opt out of receiving commercial email messages from us by following the instructions contained in those email messages.

To Deliver Targeted Advertising. We may use your information to facilitate the delivery of targeted ads, promotions, and offers to you, on behalf of ourselves and advertisers, on and off the Services. Please see Online Tracking and Advertising for further information about our and third parties’ use of cookies, web beacons, mobile ad identifiers, and other tracking technologies to provide you relevant ads, as well as information about how to disable cookies and make other choices related to targeted advertising.

To Better Understand Our Readers and Users. The Services conduct research on our users’ demographics, interests and behavior based on the information we collect. We do this to better understand and serve our users, and to improve our products and services.

To Protect the Rights of the Services and others. We may use your personal information as we believe is necessary or appropriate to protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, or property of the Services, its employees or agents, or other users and to comply with applicable law.

Consent. We may otherwise use your information with your consent or at your direction.

Sharing of Information

The following provides information about entities with which we may share information. Our practices vary depending on the type of information.

Affiliates. We may share information within our family of affiliated companies.

Business Partners. We may also share your information with business partners to provide you with services that you request. For example, if you sign up for a promotion that runs on our Services but that is sponsored or co-sponsored by another company, your information may be shared with that sponsor. The Washington Post is not responsible for the privacy practices of these entities.

Service Providers. We may share information with vendors providing contractual services to us, such as hosting vendors, advertising service providers, and list managers. We also may share your information, including your payment information, as appropriate to process your payments for the Services or complete a transaction.

Other Parties When Required by Law or As Necessary to Protect Our Users and Services. We may share your personal information as we believe is necessary or appropriate to protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, or property of the Services, our employees or agents or users or to comply with applicable law or legal process, including responding to requests from public and government authorities.

Logging In Through Social Media Services. If you log into the Services with a social media service or if you connect a social media account with the Services, we may share your information with that social media service. The social media services’ use of the shared information will be governed by the social media services’ privacy policy and your social media account settings. If you do not want your information shared in this way, do not connect your social media service account with your Services.

Third Parties that Provide Content, Advertising, or Functionality. When you use our Services, third parties may collect or receive certain information about you and/or your use of the Services (e.g., hashed data, click stream information, browser type, time and date, information about your interactions with advertisements and other content), including through the use of cookies, beacons, mobile ad identifiers, and similar technologies, in order to provide content, advertising, or functionality or to measure and analyze ad performance, on our Services or other websites or platforms. This information may be combined with information collected across different websites, online services, and other linked or associated devices. These third parties may use your information to improve their own services and consistent with their own privacy policies.

Other Parties in Connection With a Corporate Transaction. We reserve the right to transfer any information we have about you in the event that we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets to a third party, such as in the event of a merger, acquisition, or in connection with a bankruptcy reorganization.

Otherwise With Your Consent or At Your Direction. In addition to the sharing described in this Privacy Policy, we may share information about you with third parties whenever you consent to or direct such sharing.

We also may share other information with third parties in a manner that does not identify particular users, including, for example, aggregated data about how users are using our Services.

Links to Third-Party Sites

Our Services may link to third-party websites and services that are outside our control. We are not responsible for the security or privacy of any information collected by other websites or other services. You should exercise caution, and review the privacy statements applicable to the third-party websites and services you use.

How to Access or Update Your Information & Other Privacy Choices Available To You

Manage Your washingtonpost.com Account. You may access or modify your washingtonpost.com account on the User Profile page. This link will also allow you to update your subscriptions to electronic newsletters provided by the Services and to view your comment history.

Email Promotions. You may opt out of receiving commercial email messages from us by following the instructions contained in those email messages.

Targeted Advertising. You may choose whether to receive some forms of targeted advertising from many ad networks, audience segment providers, ad serving vendors, and other service providers by visiting websites operated by the Network Advertising Initiative and Digital Advertising Alliance . Please see Online Tracking and Advertising and visit our Ad Choices pages for further information about how to disable cookies and other choices that may be available to you with respect to certain types of targeted advertising.

Data Security

We have in place physical, electronic and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online. However, as effective as these measures are, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.

Other Important Information

Children’s Privacy. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 13 without parental consent, unless permitted by law. If we learn that a child under the age of 13 has provided us with personal information, we will delete it in accordance with applicable law.

Your California Privacy Rights. (a) California residents are entitled once a year, free of charge, to request and obtain certain information regarding our disclosure, if any, of certain categories of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. We do not share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. (b) California residents who are registered users of the Services and are under the age of 18 are entitled, in accordance with California law, to request and obtain removal of content and information that they themselves post on the Services. You may request such removal by emailing us at comments@washpost.com. In your request, please provide a description of the material that you want removed and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material, and include your name, email address and/or Washington Post website user name, year of birth, mailing address (including city, state, and zip code), and the subject line “California Removal Request” so that we can process your request. Please note that your request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the material. For example, materials that you have posted may be republished or reposted by another user or third party.

Do-Not-Track Signals and Similar Mechanisms. Some web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” signals to the websites with which the user communicates. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. Because there currently is no industry standard concerning what, if anything, websites should do when they receive such signals, the Services currently do not take action in response to these signals. If and when a final standard is established and accepted, we will reassess how to respond to these signals. In the meantime, please see Online Tracking & Advertising for additional information about privacy choices that may be available to you with respect to targeted advertising.

International Transfers. The Services are headquartered in the United States. Please be aware that if information you provide to us or that we obtain as a result of your use of the Services may be collected in your country and subsequently transferred to the United States or to another country in accordance with applicable law. By using the Services, you consent to the collection, international transfer, storage, and processing of your information

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of changes by posting changes here, or by other appropriate means. Any changes to the Privacy Policy will become effective when the updated policy is posted on the Services. Your use of the Services or your provision of personal information to use the Services following such changes indicates your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

Online Tracking & Advertising

How We Use Cookies, Web Beacons, and Similar Technologies and How To Disable These Technologies

We and third parties that provide content, advertising, or functionality or measure and analyze ad performance on our Services, may use cookies, web beacons, mobile ad identifiers, and similar technologies to facilitate administration and navigation on the Site, to better understand and improve our Services, to determine and/or improve the advertising shown to you here or elsewhere, and to provide you with a customized online experience.

Cookies. Cookies are small files that are placed on your computer when you visit a website. Cookies may be used to store a unique identification number tied to your computer or device so that you can be recognized as the same user across one or more browsing sessions, and across one or more sites. Cookies serve many useful purposes. For example:

  • Cookies can remember your sign-in credentials so you do not have to enter those credentials each time you visit a Service
  • Cookies can help us and third parties understand which parts of our Services are the most popular because they help us see which pages and features visitors access and how much time they spend on the pages. By studying this kind of information, we are better able to adapt our Services and provide you with a better experience.
  • Cookies help us and third parties understand which ads you have seen so that you don’t receive the same ad each time you access a Service.

Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but can be configured not to do so or to notify the user when a cookie is being sent. If you wish to disable cookies, refer to your browser help menu to learn how to disable cookies. If you disable browser cookies or flash cookies, it may interfere with the proper functioning of the Services.

Beacons. We, along with third parties, also may use technologies called beacons (or “pixels”) that communicate information from your device to a server. Beacons can be embedded in online content, videos, and emails, and can allow a server to read certain types of information from your device, know when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message, determine the time and date on which you viewed the beacon, and the IP address of your device. We and third parties use beacons for a variety of purposes, including to analyze the use of our Services and (in conjunction with cookies) to provide content and ads that are more relevant to you.

Local Storage & Other Tracking Technologies. We, along with third parties, may use other kinds of technologies, such as Local Shared Objects (also referred to as “Flash cookies”) and HTML5 local storage, in connection with our Services. We also may use unique identifiers associated with your device, such as mobile ad identifiers. These technologies are similar to the cookies discussed above in that they are stored on your device and can be used to store certain information about your activities and preferences. However, these technologies may make use of different parts of your device from standard cookies, and so you might not be able to control them using standard browser tools and settings. For HTML5 local storage, the method for disabling HTML5 will vary depending on your browser. For Flash cookies, information about disabling or deleting information contained in Flash cookies can be found here.

Additional Choices With Respect To Targeted Advertising

As described above, we and third parties may use cookies and other tracking technologies to facilitate serving relevant ads to you. For example, these technologies help us determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement before, tailor ads to you if you have visited our site before, and avoid sending you duplicate advertisements. You can learn more about certain types of targeted advertising by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance website or our Ad Choices page.

In addition to disabling cookies and other tracking technologies as described above, you may opt-out of receiving targeted advertising from participating ad networks, audience segment providers, ad serving vendors, and other service providers by visiting websites operated by the Network Advertising Initiative and Digital Advertising Alliance .

Due to differences between using apps and websites on mobile devices, you may need to take additional steps to disable tracking technologies in mobile apps. Many mobile devices allow you to opt-out of targeted advertising for mobile apps using the settings within the mobile app or your mobile device. For more information, please check your mobile settings. You also may uninstall our apps using the standard uninstall process available on your mobile device or app marketplace.