Privacy Policy
This policy was last updated on November 4, 2010.
The New England Media Group is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build user’s trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the sites: www.boston.com and http://bostonglobe.com/subscribers/. Because these Web sites want to demonstrate their commitment to your privacy, they have agreed to disclose their information practices and have their privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact Customer Support by e-mailing feedback@boston.com. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with the New England Media Group to resolve your concerns.
The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through the aforementioned websites, and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from this site. For example, TRUSTe has not certified the disclosures in this Privacy Policy that relate to the Globe Reader software.
We have adopted a set of information management guidelines that serve as the basis for our customer and advertiser relationships. These guidelines have been developed with the recognition that Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, and that underlying business models are still not established. Accordingly, guidelines are subject to change. Any such changes will be posted on this page. If the changes represent a material departure from our current practices with respect to the use of personal information, the changes will be posted on this page thirty (30) days prior to taking effect and registered users will be notified via e-mail.
In this Privacy Policy, you will find the answers to the following questions:
- What information do we gather/track about you?
- What do we do with the information we gather/track?
- With whom do we share the information that we gather/track?
- How do I change or update my personal information?
- Other information: Compliance with Legal Process
For further information, you can view our Member Agreement and read our Frequently Asked Questions about Cookies.
Third party sites that offer services on Boston.com are governed by their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of websites to which Boston.com or Boston Globe Services may link.
These sites include:
Boston.com/Monster: http://hiring.boston.monster.com/privacy/privacy.aspx
Cars.com: http://www.cars.com/go/about/privacy.jsp?aff=boston
ProQuest Archiver: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/about.html
Zvents: http://calendar.boston.com/support/privacy
What information do we gather/track about you?
Registration for our websites: There is a free registration process required to access the full range of information and services offered across our different websites (Boston.com and Boston Globe Services).
Boston.com requires that you supply a unique e-mail address, your first and last name, and basic demographic information (zip code, birth year, and gender) in order to register. In addition, we may ask you to supply optional information on household income, job industry, and job title. You must also agree to the terms of our Member Agreement as part of the registration process..
Registration for our Web sites via Third-Party Tools:
To help facilitate Boston.com registration, we offer a single sign-on
service that allows you to sign into Boston.com by using third party login
credentials from your Facebook account. This allows you to associate your
existing Facebook profile with a Boston.com registration account.
Boston.com may also access certain profile information contained within
your Facebook profile such as your full name, e-mail address, year of birth, and
profile picture. In order to complete your Boston.com registration in this
manner, you may be required to temporarily leave Boston.com.
To disassociate your Facebook account from your Boston.com registration account, click the "Remove connection" link in our Member Center here: http://members.boston.com/reg/login.do?dispatch=editpage. You must be logged into your Boston.com registration account and your Facebook account to make this change.
Boston Globe Services requires that you supply your first and last name, e-mail address, subscriber account number and/or a credit card number, and your phone number in order to transact with The Boston Globe (examples include managing your newspaper subscription or placing an ad).
Boston Globe newspaper subscriber information: We generally obtain your name, address, telephone number, credit card number or other billing information in order to process your newspaper subscription request. As a subscriber, we request that you also provide us with your e-mail address.
Premium Products and Services: We charge fees for select premium products and services on our sites; the primary example is access to The Boston Globe archives on Boston.com. We have contracted with ProQuest, an outside vendor, to enable the purchase of articles from The Boston Globe archives. ProQuest collects and stores billing and credit card information on behalf of the New England Media Group. ProQuest uses this information to perform tasks required to complete the purchase transaction (such as fulfilling orders and processing credit card payments) and has agreed to keep this information confidential and to use industry best practices for data security. If you have questions about ProQuest's practices, you may contact them directly at http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/customer_service.html.
We also collect and store billing and credit card information where required for certain purchase transactions (such as paying for a newspaper subscription or classified advertisement). This information will only be shared with third parties who perform tasks required to complete the purchase transaction and agree to otherwise keep the information confidential. Examples of this include fulfilling orders and processing credit card payments.
Cookies: Our websites employ cookies to recognize you and your access privileges on Boston.com and Boston Globe Services, as well as to track site usage. For detailed information about our use of cookies see our Frequently Asked Questions about Cookies.
Boston.com uses a commercial advertising server to display ads on our site. In addition, advertisers may elect to use third-party advertising companies to serve ads onto our websites. 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.
Google is one of the companies that serves ads onto Boston.com. It uses the DART cookie to serve ads based on your visit to Boston.com and other sites on the Internet. You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
We also 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.
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs): Third party advertisers may also use a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs/action tags) to help 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 that we do not have access to any information collected by these clear gifs.
For a list of these commercial and advertising agencies and their privacy policies, as well as more information about your option not to accept cookies or clear gifs placed by these companies, please click here.
Usage Data: Boston.com and Boston Globe Services are currently contracted with Omniture, a third party, to track and analyze non-personally identifiable usage and volume statistical information from our visitors. We use this information to track the site's traffic, usability, performance, and effectiveness. All data collected by Omniture on behalf of our websites is owned and used by the New England Media Group. We reserve the right to publish non-personally identifiable, summary information regarding our online 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 in aggregate. Omniture uses cookies to help track visitor behavior and sets cookies on behalf of our websites, which will be listed under the domain 2O7. For more information about Omniture's privacy policy, including how to opt out, go to www.omniture.com/en/privacy/2o7.
Our websites are currently contracted with Tacoda Systems, a third party, to track and analyze anonymous usage and browsing patterns from our visitors and customers. All data collected by Tacoda on behalf of our websites is owned and used by the New England Media Group 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 http://www.tacoda.com/notice/privacy_policy.html.
We reserve the right to change the vendors who provide us with usage data. If such a change takes place, updated information will be posted here in this Privacy Policy.
iPhone Applications: Boston.com offers a small number of mobile applications for download via the Apple iTunes Store. Consumers use login, password and/or credit card information that is managed by Apple as part of the iTunes Store. Boston.com uses third-party analytics software from Flurry to capture and analyze anonymous usage data from the applications. Examples of the type of data collected include browser and device type, total active users in a month and total number of pages viewed.
Contests, Sweepstakes, and Special Offers: On occasion, the New England Media Group also collects personal information from registered members or subscribers in connection with optional sweepstakes, contests, or special offers. If this information is to be shared with a third party other than the New England Media Group 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.
Occasionally, the New England Media Group will run contests that registered members can enter by posting on the forums. Winners of some of these contests may be contacted for prize fulfillment purposes at the e-mail addresses provided while registering for the site. If winners are to be contacted in this manner, it will be stated in the contest rules. If you do not want to be contacted, you may always decline to participate in the contest.
Special Events and Promotions: We often receive contact information regarding customers who may also attend Special Events and Promotions. Such information will be used as indicated at the time of collection.
Online Customer Panels: We offer readers and customers the opportunity to participate in online research panels. These customers agree to participate in periodic surveys about their usage of products produced by The New England Media Group, their household/personal characteristics and their purchase behavior. Panel members are primarily contacted via e-mail, but may occasionally be contacted by telephone or postal mail. All survey data is reported/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.
Market Research and User Surveys: Reader surveys and market research are valuable tools that help us better respond to consumer needs and opinions and help shape our product offerings. Our websites may collect additional personal information from members in connection with optional reader surveys and market research activities. Information that you provide to answer optional survey or market research questions may be shared, in aggregate, with advertisers and partners unless we notify you otherwise at the time of collection.
Globe Reader: The Boston Globe currently uses Google Analytics, a third party, to track and analyze non-personally identifiable usage and volume statistical information from our GlobeReader users. We use this information to track the application's traffic, usability, performance, and effectiveness. We reserve the right to publish non-personally identifiable, summary information regarding our online 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 in aggregate.
Mobile Messaging Service: Boston.com uses the information collected from your interaction with Boston.com by Real Estate and Search 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. Boston.com collects the mobile phone number you use to send us a text message and the content of the messages sent between you and Boston.com. When you send a text message to Boston.com or via Boston.com, 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. Boston.com uses this data to analyze the message traffic in order to operate, develop and improve our SMS Service.
IP Addresses: Our websites log IP addresses, or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We use IP address logs in an aggregate fashion to track access to our site (by domain type, for example), but we do not use IP address logs to track your session or your behavior on our site.
Log Files: Log data is only used in aggregate to analyze usage of our websites. If you download and install the Globe Reader software application, the log files will be collected by the application and sent to our servers when your computer syncs up for the latest news.
What do we do with the information we track?
Site Login: Your e-mail address acts as your member login, and together with the password that you create during the registration process your e-mail address allows you to access many of the features and services available on our websites.
Boston.com and the Boston Globe Services website will share your e-mail address and password with each other in order to allow you to use the same login and password on each of the these sites. This means that you will be able to move back and forth on our websites without having to create a new membership account or remember a separate password for each site.
Statistical Analysis and Banner Advertising: Our websites may perform statistical analyses of user behavior in order to measure interest in the various areas of our site and to provide advertisers with information on how many consumers have seen or clicked their advertising banners. We also use demographic information to target advertising, in aggregate, to the users who will most likely be interested. This means that users see advertising that is likely to be relevant, and advertisers send their messages to people who are likely to be receptive, improving both the viewer's experience and the effectiveness of the ads. In both statistical analyses and banner advertisement targeting, we will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form.
Boston.com E-Mail Newsletters: During the Boston.com registration process, you will have the opportunity to subscribe to periodic e-mail newsletters. You may also sign up to receive e-mails at any time by accessing your profile in the Member Center section. We send both editorial e-mail newsletters and messages about services offered by The New England Media Group and its partners and advertisers.
If you would like to opt-out of these emails, you may manage your subscriptions and preferences in the Boston.com Member Center. If you experience difficulty with the unsubscribe process, feel free to contact us at feedback@boston.com and provide all possible e-mail addresses along with the name of the newsletter from which you would like to unsubscribe. You may also send a blank message to the @unsub.boston.com e-mail address towards the bottom of the newsletter you would like to opt out from, and you will automatically be removed. Both the subject line and the body of the e-mail may be left blank.
If your personally identifiable information or email address changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may update it at the Boston.com Member Center.
We use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.
If we decide to make changes in our email practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
Other Communications from The New England Media Group: The New England Media Group may use the e-mail address provided by you at registration to contact you regarding (1) account status (including confirmation of registration or newspaper subscription), (2) major changes to the websites and or to the Member Agreement and Privacy Policy, and (3) participation in user surveys, asking for feedback about the websites and existing or prospective products and services, as well as information to better understand our users and (4) information regarding New England Media Group products and services that may be of interest (including subscriptions, online archives, newsletters and other premium products). You may opt-out at any time from any primarily commercial messages and user surveys by following the opt-out instructions in the e-mail.
E-mail to a friend: The “e-mail to a friend” feature is an easy way for users of our websites to send links to articles, photos, or other content through e-mail. The e-mail address(es) that you supply to use this service will only be used to send the requested content or feature.
User Generated Content (Including comments, profiles, and photo uploads): We offer opportunities for you to engage in public activities on Boston.com, including submitting comments and photos in a number of areas throughout Boston.com. Forums, article comments, and profiles are currently hosted by Pluck, a third party vendor. Any information you disclose in your submissions, along with your screen name or ID, or any image or photo, becomes public and may be used by New England Media Group for online and offline promotional or commercial uses in any and all media.
If you chose to engage in public activities on the site, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these areas, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums. For more information about message boards and chats, see the Posting Policy and read the message boards and chats section of the Member Agreement.
If you choose to engage in public activities on Boston.com, we will track and aggregate these public activities on your profile page. "Public activities" are actions you take on Boston.com that are designed to be visible to other users, including but not limited to comments on articles or blogs, discussion groups, personal blogs and photo uploads. This feature may be disabled on the “edit profile” page. We may also feature, either through automation or by editor selection, specific user profiles or public activities to be promoted anywhere on the Boston.com website or other New England Media Group sites.
Chats are currently hosted by CoveritLive and any postings to a chat also become public as soon as they are published online.
Please be advised that members who violate the Posting Policy or Member Agreement might receive notification e-mails concerning their account status.
With whom do we share the information we gather/track?
If you have registered to one of our sites, The New England Media Group 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.
The New England Media Group may perform statistical, demographic and marketing analyses of customers and their buying and purchasing patterns for product development purposes and to generally inform advertisers about the nature of our customer base. We also use such information to allow advertising to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom such advertising is the most pertinent. Personal information about you as an individual will not be disclosed without your consent.
From time to time, we may offer you the opportunity to receive information and offers about products or services from our advertisers, partners or other third parties. You will have the opportunity to opt-out of each primarily commercial e-mail that is sent by the New England Media Group. If you sign up to receive information directly from an advertiser, partner or third party you may contact that advertiser, partner or third party directly in order to opt-out out of future messages from them.
If you are a print subscriber to The Boston Globe, or have registered at The Boston Globe Services website, then The Boston Globe may opt to share your e-mail address and other personally identifiable information with a third party service provider that sends e-mail on behalf of the newspaper. Any third party service provider will not share your e-mail address or personally identifiable information with other companies and will only send you e-mail on behalf of the newspaper. Promotional e-mails sent by an e-mail service provider will contain instructions on how to unsubscribe from future promotional e-mails sent on behalf of The Boston Globe.
The Boston Globe also reserves the right to contact you to discuss your account or to renew your subscription, in accordance with applicable laws.
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 England Media Group, 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.)
How do I change or update my personal information?
Member Center: You may review and update your membership or account information and access your transactions history in the Member Center area for each of our websites.
The Member Center is a centralized area where you can manage your relationship with The New England Media Group. 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 gain secure access to update the information you provided during the free registration process. The E-mail Preferences tab is the place to go to sign up for Boston.com e-mail newsletters and manage your delivery options. In order 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.
Go to the Boston.com Member Center
Go to the Boston Globe Services Member Center
How do I opt out from receiving promotional offers? If, at any time you wish to discontinue receiving any specific e-mail sent by our marketing partners or us, simply follow the unsubscribe options at the bottom of the e-mail.
If, at any time, you wish to opt-out of receiving any direct mail and/or telephone solicitations from the New England Media Group, you may notify us by calling 1-888-MY-GLOBE or e-mailing circulationservices@globe.com.
Previously created membership accounts: It is possible that you previously created an account with one of our websites using your current e-mail address. If this is the case, you may be able to login using your e-mail address and password on other New England Media Group sites. For example, if you have created an account on Boston Globe Services, you can use the same email address and password to start your registration profile on Boston.com. Only e-mail address and username may be shared across the network of New England Media Group sites. No other registration information is shared. If you don’t remember your password, you can reset your password here.
Other information; Compliance with Legal Process
COPPA Compliance: In accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), The New England Media Group does not knowingly collect or store any personal information, even in aggregate, about children under the age of 13.
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. When you enter sensitive information (such as a credit card number) on our order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).
We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information and email addresses submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Compliance with Legal Process: 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 websites; 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).
How To Contact Us:
For any questions or comments regarding our information or security practices, you may contact us:
By E-mail: feedback@boston.com
By Phone: 617-929-7900 (between 9:00am and 5:30pm EST.)
By Fax: 617-929-7975, Attention Privacy Manager
By Mail: Boston.com, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125, Attention Privacy Manager