Privacy Policy
- Overall privacy statement
- What information does Putman Media collect?
- How does Putman Media use cookies?
- How does Putman Media use the information?
- How does Putman Media share the information?
- What are my options?
- How can I update my personally identifiable information?
- What if this Privacy Policy changes?
- Questions, comments?
Overall privacy statement
We take your privacy very seriously. Because we gather certain types of information about our users we want to help you understand the terms and conditions surrounding the collection and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses the types of information we gather, how we use it, and how you can correct or change it.
What information does Putman Media collect?
Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with the best and most useful content and services. Because we derive revenue mainly from advertising, collecting information is essential to keeping our services affordable to users.
We collect personally identifiable information (which includes name, title, address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address) when you provide it to us, such as when you register on one of our sites, when you subscribe for a print magazine or an e-mail newsletter, register for one of our conferences or when you register to use certain services like whitepapers. Several of the services that we offer on our sites, such as Ask the Expert, may require registration as a condition of use. Once you register with one of the Putman Media network of sites you are no longer anonymous to us. We may also receive information about you from other sources and add it to the information you provided to us.
How does Putman Media use cookies?
Putman Media web sites or its advertisers may send a "cookie" to your computer. A cookie is a small piece of data that is sent to your Internet browser from a Web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. A cookie can't read data off of your computer hard disk or read cookie files created by other Web sites. Cookies do not damage your system. We use cookies to identify which areas of the Ask the Expert you have visited, so the next time you visit, those pages may be readily accessible.
Our advertisers may also use cookies to ascertain how many times you've seen an advertisement. Our advertisers and Putman Media may use this information to better personalize the content, banners, and promotions that you see on our site. You can choose whether to accept cookies by changing the settings of your Internet browser. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies, or allow your browser to show you when a cookie is being sent.
How does Putman Media use the information?
We use the information we gather for these purposes:
- To customize the advertising and content you see.
- To enhance the user experience in our network of sites. We use tracking information to determine how well each page performs overall based on aggregate user demographics and traffic patterns to those pages. In doing so, we continue to build a better service for you.
- To fulfill your requests for certain products and services, such as sending out electronic newsletters and enabling users to participate in paid services, polls, contests, message boards, and auctions.
- To send you information you agreed to receive about topics we think will be of interest to you.
How does Putman Media share the information?
Personally identifiable information:
We will make your personally identifiable information available to other companies or people when:
- We have your consent to share the information.
- We have engaged companies to work with us or on our behalf to provide a product or service that you have requested, such as opt-in e-mail announcements.
- You use co-branded services. When you use a co-branded service within our network of sites you grant us permission to pass your registration information back to that service partner. Their use of your information is subject to their applicable privacy policies.
Aggregate information:
We aggregate personally identifiable information and disclose such information in a non-personally identifiable manner to advertisers and other third parties for marketing, promotional, and other purposes. We do not disclose to these entities any information that could be used to identify you personally.
What are my options?
Users who would rather not provide any of the user data requested by our registration process do not need to register with us. You can still view much of the content and use many of the services offered by our sites without registering.
We also give users the following options:
- Opting not to receive our electronic newsletters or those of third parties when registering. Users who opt-in may remove themselves from mailing lists at any time through the edit profile pages or by following the instructions at the end of the e-mail they received from us.
- Opting not to provide certain personal information when registering for a site, provided, that you may not be able to utilize certain of our products or services without providing us with certain information.
How can I update my personally identifiable information?
You can correct or change the information collected during registration for any of our sites. The instructions for doing this can be found in the edit profile area on any of our site. Users may change information at any time and as often as necessary. Users who are experiencing problems with our services or who have questions about how our services work can contact us using e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.
What if this Privacy Policy changes?
Any modifications to our privacy policy will be reflected within this area. If there is a material change in our privacy policy, we will indicate on our site(s) that our privacy policy has changed and provide a link to the new privacy statement.
Questions, comments?
Questions regarding this privacy statement, or regarding any other aspects of our network of Web sites, should be sent via e-mail below or to our corporate offices at:
Putman Media
Attn: Webmaster
555 W Pierce Rd, Suite 301
Itasca, IL 60143
E-mail: webmaster@putman.net