Last Updated on October 18, 2007
This Privacy Policy discloses the privacy practices for The New York Times newspaper and NYTimes.com. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, unless otherwise noted, all references to “The New York Times” include NYTimes.com and The New York Times newspaper.
In this Privacy Policy, you will find answers to the following questions:
Which sites are covered by this policy?
What information do we gather about you?
What do we do with the information we gather about you?
What is our e-mail policy?
With whom do we share the information that we gather?
How do I change or update my personal information?
How do I opt-out from receiving promotional offers?
Is my information protected?
Other information: Compliance with legal process
Other information: Children's Guidelines
Other information: Changes to this Privacy Policy
TRUSTe:
The New York Times is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build user trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact Customer Service by sending an e-mail to feedback@nytimes.com. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at www.truste.org/users/watchdog.html. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with The New York Times to resolve your concerns.
The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through this Web site, and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from this site. TRUSTe has not certified the disclosures in this Privacy Policy that relate to the Times Reader software.
BBBOnLine:
The New York Times is a licensee of BBBOnLine. A wholly owned subsidiary of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, BBBOnLine's mission is to promote trust and confidence on the Internet through the BBBOnLine Reliability and the BBBOnLine Privacy programs. Launched in March 1999, BBBOnLine Privacy awards seals to online businesses that have been verified to be following good information practices. Further information about this program is available at www.bbbonline.org.
This Privacy Policy applies to the following New York Times Web sites:
The New York Times Electronic Edition, which is maintained by NewsStand, maintains its own Privacy Statement.
The New York Times advertising portal, for advertisers of The Times, also maintains a separate Privacy Policy.
Please note, our Web sites may contain links to other Web sites for your convenience and information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any company before submitting your personal information.
The information we gather falls into two categories: 1) personal information you voluntarily supply when you subscribe, order, complete a survey, register for an online discussion, enter a contest or provide your e-mail address and 2) tracking information collected as you navigate through our sites.
Personally Identifiable Information
Registration for our Web sites
Anyone can view our sites, but a free registration process is required to access the full range of information and services offered across our different sites.
NYTimes.com requires that you supply a unique e-mail address and demographic information (zip code, age, sex, household income (optional), job industry and job title) to register. By using NYTimes.com, you are agreeing to the terms of our Member Agreement.
The New York Times Home Delivery Web site requires that you supply your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, credit card number or other billing information to process your print subscription request as well as to transact with The Times and manage your account on the Web.
The TimesPoints Rewards Program on the Web requires that, in addition to information collected during registration for the Home Delivery Web site, you enroll up to three credit or debit cards to start accumulating points for this program.
The New York Times Store requires you to register only if you purchase an item. Registration requires that you supply your mailing address, e-mail address and a password.
Paid Products and Services
While the majority of our Web sites are free, we do charge fees for select premium content, products and services, such as TimesSelect, the Archive: 1851-Present, purchases at The New York Times Store, print subscriptions to The New York Times newspaper, among others. To enable the purchase of these and other products, we collect and store billing and credit card information. This information will only be shared with third parties who perform tasks required to complete the purchase transaction. Examples of this include fulfilling orders and processing credit card payments.
Contests, Sweepstakes and Special Offers
On occasion, The New York Times collects personal information from readers in connection with optional sweepstakes, contests or special offers. If this information is to be shared with a third party other than The New York Times, we will notify you at the time of collection. If you do not want any personal information shared, you may always decline to participate in the sweepstakes, contest or special offer.
Reader Surveys, Reader Panels and Market Research
The New York Times may collect personal information from readers in connection with voluntary surveys. Data may be collected on our Web sites, on the phone or through the mail. The information you provide in answer to optional survey questions may be shared, but only in the aggregate, with advertisers and partners unless we notify you otherwise at the time of collection.
Some of our readers are invited to be members of an optional Reader Panel. Panel members agree to participate in surveys about their readership of The New York Times, their household/personal characteristics and their purchase behavior. Readers are primarily contacted via e-mail, which link to online surveys, but may occasionally be contacted by telephone or mail. All survey data is reported and/or used in aggregate form only, and no personally identifiable information is released. As a panel member, we require that you supply us with your e-mail address only. Name, home address and telephone number are optional.
Special Events and Promotions
We often receive information regarding readers who may attend Times Talks, Arts & Leisure Weekend and other New York Times Special Events and Promotions. Such information will be used as indicated at the time of collection.
Mobile Messaging Service
The New York Times uses the information collected from your interaction with The New York Times by Text Messaging Service (SMS) (“SMS Service”) solely for the purposes of improving the SMS Service. The information will not be provided, sold, licensed, rented, assigned or disclosed to Third Parties, except as required by law, nor will we use your phone number to initiate a call or SMS text message to you without your express prior consent. Your wireless carrier and other service providers also collect data about your SMS Service usage, and their practices are governed by their own privacy policies.
The New York Times collects the mobile phone number you use to send us a text message and the content of the messages sent between you and The New York Times. When you send a text message to The New York Times or via The New York Times, we log the incoming phone number, the wireless provider associated with the number, and the date and time of the transaction. The only information we automatically collect is that related to the use of our Mobile Services. The New York Times uses this data to analyze the message traffic in order to operate, develop and improve our SMS Service.
Aggregate Information Collected Through Technology
Cookies and Other Technologies
As is standard practice on many Web sites, The New York Times uses “cookies” and other technologies to recognize you and provide personalization, as well as to help us understand which parts of our Web sites are the most popular, where our visitors are going and how much time they spend there. Users who do not accept cookies from the domain "NYTimes.com" cannot access most areas of our sites.
We reserve the right to place a New York Times Company cookie on your computer with a unique anonymous number to ensure that your browser does not see the same ad over and over again, to sequence ads in a series and to measure the number of unique visitors that have viewed a particular ad or visited a particular Web page.
For detailed information about our use of cookies, see
Frequently Asked Questions About Cookies in the Site Help area of our Member Center.
We use a proprietary advertising server to display ads on NYTimes.com. In addition, advertisers may elect to use third-party advertising companies to serve ads onto our Web site. Please click here to see a list of these advertising agencies and their privacy policies. In the course of serving these advertisements, the third-party advertisers may place or recognize a unique "cookie" on your browser. We do not have access to these cookies or any information that they may contain. If you would like more information about this practice and about your option not to accept cookies placed by these companies, please
click here. Acceptance of cookies from domains other than NYTimes.com is optional.
The New York Times Home Delivery Web site also transmits Web site usage information about visitors to the servers of a reputable third party for the purpose of targeting our Internet banner advertisements on other sites. To do this, we use Web Beacons and cookies provided by our third-party ad server on this site. The information collected and logged on our behalf through this technology is not personally identifiable. For more information about our third-party ad server, or to learn your choices about not having this non-personal information used to target ads to you, please click here.
NYTimes.com is currently using and has contracted with Omniture, a third party, to track and analyze non-personally identifiable usage and volume statistical information from our visitors and customers to administer our Web site and constantly improve its quality. All data collected by Omniture on behalf of NYTimes.com is owned and used by The New York Times. The New York Times reserves the right to publish non-personally identifiable, summary information regarding its Web site visitors for promotional purposes and as a representative audience for advertisers. Please note that this is not personal information, only general summaries of the activities of our visitors and customers. For more information about Omniture's privacy policy, including how to opt out, go to www.omniture.com/policy.html
NYTimes.com is currently using and has contracted with WebTrends, a third
party, to track and analyze non-personally identifiable usage and volume
statistical information from our visitors and customers to administer our
Web site and constantly improve its quality. All data collected by
WebTrends on behalf of NYTimes.com is owned and used by The New York Times.
The New York Times reserves the right to publish non-personally
identifiable, summary information regarding its Web site visitors for
promotional purposes and as a representative audience for advertisers.
Please note that this is not personal information, only general summaries
of the activities of our visitors and customers. For more information about
how WebTrends collects data, please read their privacy policy at
https://ondemand.webtrends.com/privacypolicy.asp#PSFV
NYTimes.com is currently contracted with Tacoda Systems, a third party, to track and analyze anonymous usage and browsing patterns of our visitors and customers. All data collected by Tacoda on behalf of our Web sites is owned and used by The New York Times alone. We use this information to help provide our advertisers with more targeted advertising opportunities, which means that users see advertising that is most likely to interest them, and advertisers send their messages to people who are most likely to be receptive, improving both the viewer's experience and the effectiveness of the ads. For more information about Tacoda’s privacy policy, including how to opt out, go to www.tacoda.com/privacy_policy.html
We reserve the right to change the vendors who provide us with usage data.
Times Reader
If you download and install the PC-based Times Reader software application, NYTimes.com will track non-personally identifiable usage and volume statistical information through log files. The log files will be collected by the application and sent to NYTimes.com servers when the user synch's for the latest news. Log data is only used in aggregate to analyze usage of Times Reader. We may share this information for purposes of internal analysis with The New York Times Company, but will not disclose any personally identifiable information to any third party. NYTimes.com reserves the right to publish non-personally identifiable summary information regarding its Times Reader visitors, for promotional purposes and as a representative audience for advertisers. Please note that this is not personal information, only general summaries of the activities of our visitors.
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
Advertisers on NYTimes.com may elect to use third party advertising companies to serve ads on our Web site, and in these instances may use a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs/action tags/pixel tags) to better manage advertising on our site. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. Clear gifs may ping or alert the advertiser's server about the online movements of Web users. For instance, advertisers may place a clear gif allowing them to recognize an existing cookie on your browser if from the same service. The main difference between cookies and clear gifs is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Please keep in mind, we do not have access to any information collected by these clear gifs nor additional information they may be tied to by the advertiser. Please click here to see a list of these advertising agencies and their privacy policies.
IP Addresses
The New York Times logs IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We use the IP address log in an aggregate fashion to track access to our site.
Log Files
Log data is only used in aggregate to analyze usage of our Web.
Statistical Analysis
The New York Times may perform statistical, demographic and marketing analyses of subscribers, and their subscribing and purchasing patterns, for product development purposes and to generally inform advertisers about the nature of our subscriber base. We also use such information to allow advertising to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom such advertising is most pertinent. NYTimes.com may share personal information with The New York Times Company for analysis purposes, including analysis to improve customer relationships.
Products and Services from The New York Times
From time to time, we may provide subscribers with information and offers about other products and services offered by The New York Times, including subscriptions, TimesSelect, TimesPoints, and other premium products and services. This information will only be shared internally. If you do not wish to receive such information and offers, you may opt-out.
Banner Advertising
We may use demographic and preference information to allow advertising on our Web sites to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom they are most pertinent. This means users see advertising that is most likely to interest them, and advertisers send their messages to people who are most likely to be receptive, improving both the viewer's experience and the effectiveness of the ads. We will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form.
User Generated Content (Message Boards, Forums, Reader Reviews and Chats)
We offer message boards for readers in a number of areas throughout our Web sites. The message boards are currently hosted and managed by Prospero, a third party vendor. Any information you disclose when posting to a message board, along with your message board screen name or ID, becomes public and may be used by the New York Times for online and offline promotional or commercial uses in any and all media. Chats are also currently hosted by Prospero, and any posting to a chat becomes public as soon as they are published online. For more information, see the Posting Policy and read the user generated content sections of the Member Agreement.
E-Mail Newsletters
If you choose to receive them, The New York Times will periodically send you e-mail newsletters or promotional e-mail about services offered by The New York Times and its advertisers. For details about New York Times e-mail, please see the next section, “What Is Our E-mail Policy?”.
The New York Times complies fully with the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. We will not share, sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address without your permission. If you feel you have received an e-mail from us in error, please contact feedback@nytimes.com.
Account and Service-Related E-mail: The New York Times reserves the right to send you e-mail relating to your account status. This includes order confirmations, renewal/expiration notices, notices of credit-card problems, other transactional e-mails and notifications about major changes to our Web sites and/or to our Privacy Policy. If you have registered for online discussions or other services, you may receive e-mail specific to your participation in those activities.
E-mail Newsletters: The New York Times offers several e-mail newsletters. If you no longer wish to receive a specific newsletter, follow the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each newsletter. To manage your NYTimes.com e-mail preferences, please click here.
Promotional E-mail: If you choose to receive them, The New York Times may periodically e-mail you messages about products and services that we think may be of interest to you. You can choose not to receive messages in the future by either (1) following the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each e-mail, or (2) you can opt-out.
From time to time, The New York Times may obtain e-mail addresses from third party sources to be used for promotional e-mails. You can choose not to receive messages in the future by either (1) following the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each e-mail, or (2) you can opt-out.
Survey E-mail: We may send you an e-mail inviting you to participate in user surveys, asking for feedback on NYTimes.com and existing or prospective products and services, as well as information to better understand our users. User surveys greatly help us to
improve our Web site, and any information we obtain in such surveys will
not be shared with third parties, except in aggregate form. (Effective as
of August 21, 2002.)
HTML E-mail: When you sign up to receive e-mail from us,
you can select either plain text or HTML (with images) format. If you
select the HTML format, we may place a one-pixel gif to determine whether or not readers viewed the e-mail. This process does not leave any information on your computer, nor does it collect information from your computer. The New York Times may share this data with others in aggregate only.
E-mails From You: If you send us e-mails, you should be aware that information disclosed in e-mails may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personal or confidential information in e-mails. We will use your e-mail address to respond directly to your questions or comments.
E-mail This Article Feature: NYTimes.com readers may use this feature to send links to articles to others through
e-mail. The e-mail address(es) that you supply to this service will only be used to send the requested article.
The New York Times
If you have registered to one of our sites, The New York Times will not sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address or any information that personally identifies you without your permission. We do, however, share information about our audience in aggregate form.
If you are a print subscriber to The New York Times newspaper and subscribed either by mail, phone or online, we may exchange or rent your name and mailing address (but not your e-mail address) with other reputable companies that offer marketing information or products through direct mail. If you prefer that we do not share this information, you may opt-out.
If you are enrolled in the TimesPoints Rewards Program, we share your log-in and password data with our program partners, Advantex and Rewards Network. We also share the credit card data you registered on the TimesPoints site with Rewards Network, which holds it in strict confidence. All information is protected in strict accordance with the Advantex Privacy Statement and the Rewards Network Privacy Statement. If you have enrolled in the TimesPoints program, but do not wish to receive TimesPoints marketing messages, you may opt-out.
Service Providers
We contract with other companies to provide services on our behalf, including credit-card and billing processing, shipping, e-mail distribution, list processing and analytics or promotions management. We provide these companies only with the information they need to perform their services. These service providers are restricted from using this data in any way other than to provide services for The New York Times, and they may not share or resell this data.
We reserve the right to disclose your opt-out information to third parties so they can suppress your name from future solicitations, in accordance with applicable laws.
We may occasionally release personal information as required by law, for example, to comply with a court order or subpoena. (For more information, see the “Compliance with legal process” section of this policy.)
The New York Times Home Delivery Web account: You may update and/or edit your Home Delivery account information online at the Home Delivery Web site by clicking on the link for Update Account. Should you require assistance, please call our toll free number, 1-800-NYTIMES.
Manage your NYTimes.com account at Member Center: You may review and update your NYTimes.com membership or account information and access your transaction history in the Member Center.
There are a number of things you can do in the Member Center to ensure your personal information is accurate and up to date. For one, you can update the information you provided during the free registration process. The E-mail Preferences tab is the place to go to sign up for our e-mail newsletters and manage your delivery options. To gain access to the areas of the Member Center containing personal information, you will be asked to re-enter your password. If you do not remember your password, you can reset your password here. If you need further assistance, please contact Customer Service.
Manage your TimesPoints account: You may update and/or edit your TimesPoints account information online by logging in at www.timespoints.com. You may update your registered credit card information, address, communication preferences and the e-mail address and password registered to the account. Should you require assistance, please call our toll free number, 1-866-NYT-POIN(TS) or e-mail us at timespointscare@nytimes.com.
Manage your New York Times Online Store account: Manage and update your account by logging in at www.nytstore.com. Simply click on the “My Account” section at the top of the navigational bar and proceed to “Edit Profile”. You may securely update your shipping information, e-mail address and password registered to the account. Should you require assistance, please call us at 800-671-4332.
Manage your New York Times Events account: Events include TimesTalks, Great Read in the Park, Arts and Leisure Weekend, Sunday with The Magazine, The New York Times Travel Show. To subscribe or unsubscribe from The New York Times Events e-mail newsletter, please visit www.nytimes.com/events. Enter your e-mail address in the field provided, select "unsubscribe" and click "submit."
E-mail Promotions
If, at any time, you prefer not to receive e-mail marketing information from us, simply follow the unsubscribe options at the bottom of each e-mail. Or,
1. Click here to remove your e-mail address from any future promotional e-mail campaigns originated by The New York Times Home Delivery Department and its third party affiliates.
2. Click here to manage your e-mail subscriptions from NYTimes.com. These include Today’s Headlines, Ticketwatch, DealBook, Sophisticated Shopper, Movies Update, etc.
3. Click here to e-mail The New York Times Online Store Tech Support. Please write the word "opt-out" in the message field to no longer receive e-mail communications from The Store.
4. Click here to manage your subscription to The New York Times Events Newsletter (TimesTalks, Great Read in the Park, Arts and Leisure Weekend, Sunday with The Magazine, The New York Times Travel Show).
If you experience difficulty with the unsubscribe process, feel free to contact us at feedback@nytimes.com and provide your e-mail address along with the name of the newsletter from which you would like to unsubscribe.
Offline Promotions
If, at any time, you prefer not to receive traditional mail or telephone solicitations originated by The New York Times Home Delivery Department and its third party affiliates, please e-mail us at opt-out@nytimes.com or write to us at Customer Care, P.O. Box 217, Northvale, NJ 07647-0217. If you are a current newspaper subscriber, please remember to include your account number and phone number in the body of your e-mail or letter, and if you choose to opt-out via e-mail, please put "Opt-out" in the subject line.
Data Security: To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place physical, electronic and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online.
We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to (1) comply with the law or with legal process; (2) protect and defend our rights and property; (3) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Web sites; or (4) protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions).
COPPA Compliance: Except for The Learning Network (see below), The New York Times does not knowingly collect or store any personal information, even in aggregate, about children under the age of 13.
The Learning Network: The Learning Network is a free service for parents, teachers and students, and does not require registration. The Student Connections section is specifically directed at students, grades 6 to 12. Within this section, the Ask a Reporter page and the Student Letters page allow students to either send a question to a Times reporter or submit a letter to the editor, providing their first name, grade, state/country and, optionally, their e-mail address. The information requested on these pages is used solely for participation in these activities, and is not shared or sold to third parties. If an e-mail address is provided, it will only be used for a one-time response back to the child. After responding to the child, the e-mail address is deleted. Access to the above services is not conditioned on more information than is reasonably necessary to provide the services. Because we’re concerned about a parent’s right to consent to the collection and use of their child’s personal information, when a question or letter is published, only the student's first name, grade and state/country appear on the site. To request removal of this information (non-personally identifiable) or to review or remove the optional e-mail address (personal information collected), please use this form to contact the Learning Network.
These children's guidelines have been developed with the recognition that Internet technology evolves rapidly and that underlying business models are still not established. Accordingly, guidelines are subject to change. In the unlikely event of such changes they will be posted on this page. If the changes represent a material departure from our current practice with respect to the use of children’s personal information, the changes will be posted on this page thirty days prior to taking effect and will not affect children’s personal information previously collected.
For any questions concerning The Learning Network, please contact Katherine Schulten, NYTimes.com, 500 7th Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Telephone: (646) 698-8000.
This Privacy Policy may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page. If we make a significant or material change in the way we use your personal information, the change will be posted on this page thirty (30) days prior to taking effect and registered users will be notified via e-mail.
Go to The New York Times Privacy Policy Highlights page.
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