Your use of our Services is governed by our Terms of Use. OUR TERMS OF USE CONTAIN DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY, A BINDING ARBITRATION CLAUSE AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER. THESE PROVISIONS AFFECT YOUR RIGHTS ABOUT HOW TO RESOLVE ANY DISPUTE WITH ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, INCLUDING UNDER THIS PRIVACY POLICY. PLEASE REVIEW. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND OUR TERMS OF USE.
Privacy Policy
Updated Effective February 14, 2020
Your privacy is important to us. We understand that you are aware of and care about your own personal privacy interests, and we take that seriously. Encyclopaedia Britannica (Britannica) provides this Privacy Policy to describe ours and certain of our subsidiaries policies and practices regarding the collection and use of your personal data through our websites, mobile application services and any software provided on or in connection with these Britannica services (the Services), and sets forth your privacy rights.
For our EU users and visitors, we actively have been working towards compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and plan to further update our cookie notices and implement consent management tools for users located in the EU as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you have concerns, please contact our data protection officer at [email protected].
We recognize that information privacy is an ongoing responsibility, and so we will from time to time update this Privacy Policy as we undertake new personal data practices or adopt new privacy policies.
Encyclopaedia Britannica is headquartered in Illinois USA. Encyclopaedia Britannica has appointed an EU representative and data protection officer for you to contact if you have any questions or concerns about Encyclopaedia Britannica's personal data policies or practices.
Our EU representative's name and contact information are:
Our data protection officer's name and contact information are:
Encyclopaedia Britannica protects the identity of visitors to the Services by limiting the collection of personally identifiable information. Personal information provided by you to us will not be posted or published by us, and will be shared with third parties only as provided herein. You can enjoy many of our Services and their special features without giving us your personal information.
Please see Children's Privacy below for specific information about children's privacy and our Services.
When you or an institution on your behalf subscribes to one of our subscription-based, advertisement-free Services, such as Britannica School, Britannica ImageQuest or Britannica LaunchPacks, we collect information about you (in accordance with applicable child privacy laws), including those related to children's privacy) that may include (but not be limited to) your name, e-mail address, city, state and age. We may also collect a personal mailing address and a mobile phone number. Subscribers may edit their information at any time to change, add or remove certain personal information. We process your personal information to administer and manage your subscription, deliver subscriber benefits to you, inform you of prizes and other benefits or opportunities associated with your subscription and respond to your information requests. We may also use this information for legitimate business purposes that help us analyze the demographic of our subscribers and understand our users' needs and interests to better tailor our products and services to meet user needs and deliver additional services to our users.
For certain promotions and to access certain features available throughout our Services, including our free, ad-supported services, we collect information voluntarily submitted by you to us to deliver the requested feature that may include (but not be limited to) your name, e-mail address, city, state and age. You may edit this information at any time to change, add or remove it from our Services. We process your personal information to deliver the requested feature to you and to inform you of other benefits or opportunities associated with our Services. We may also use this information for legitimate business purposes that help us understand our users' needs and interests to better tailor our products and services to meet your needs.
You may wish to register for or subscribe to a Britannica e-newsletter without becoming a Britannica subscriber. To receive these newsletters by email, you must provide us with your email address. We use a third party provider, DRH Internet, Inc. (DRH), to deliver our e-newsletters. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletters. For more information, please see DRH's privacy notice. Except for DRH, we do not share your voluntarily provided email address with any third party.
You may manage your Britannica e-newsletter subscriptions by subscribing or unsubscribing at any time. Please note that if you have set your browser to block cookies, this may have an impact on your ability to unsubscribe. If you have any difficulties managing your email or other communication preferences with Britannica, please contact us at [email protected].
Whenever you play our Quizzes, we collect data about your interactions with each Quiz. This information may be associated with your user name, IP address or device ID for the purpose of providing our Services and improving them. In addition, when you play a Quiz, your user name, related photo and Quiz score may be displayed in our "Quiz Leaderboard" for other players to see. If you do not want your user name and related photo displayed in the Quiz Leaderboard, please refrain from playing our Quizzes.
If you log-in to our Services using a social media (such as Facebook or Twitter) log-in, you are granting permission to the social media service to share your user details with us. This may include your name, email address, date of birth and location, which will then be used to create a Britannica identity. These social media services may use information about your visit to our Services on their pages. If you browse these pages while still logged in to your account with us, information they collect may be connected to your account on their Web site. For more information on how these social media services use information, please review their privacy policies.
You should be aware that if you or your friends post the location of your home and that information is published on a Service it may be available to others and may be published by third parties without our control. To request removal of location data please email us at [email protected].
If a User visits a Service and submits an e-mail address to Britannica but fails to complete the registration or purchase process, we may use such "prospect" information to contact the prospective User from time to time with Britannica offers and information about new features, new services, and special discounts we think the User may see as valuable. Similarly, if a User forwards a Britannica e-mail to a friend, we may use the "referral" information provided to contact the friend from time to time with Britannica offers and information about new features, new services, and special discounts we think the friend may see as valuable. We do not sell or rent any contact information for such "prospects" or "referrals."
You may choose to purchase goods or services from Britannica using a payment card. Typically, payment card information is provided directly by a User, via the Services, into the PCI/DSS-compliant payment processing service to which the Britannica subscribes, and Britannica does not, itself, process or store your card information.
When you provide us with your personal information, you can let us know that you do not wish to receive special offers from Britannica or its third-party partners. Also, each special offer will have information available to allow you to "opt out" if you no longer wish to receive special offers.
As explained above, Britannica processes your data to provide you with the products and services you have requested or purchased from us, including subscriptions, special features, e-newsletters and other content. Sometimes we use third-party providers to facilitate the delivery of the services described above, and these third-party providers may be supplied with or have access to your personal information for the sole purpose of providing services to you on our behalf, such as our e-newsletters.
We also use your data for legitimate business purposes that enable us to refine our products and services to better tailor them to your needs and communicate with you about other products and services offered by Britannica. In addition, we may disclose your personal information in special legal circumstances. For instance, such information may be used where it is necessary to protect our copyright or intellectual property rights, or if the law requires us to do so.
You can update your personal information and change your marketing preferences at any time by sending an email to [email protected].
This Privacy Policy only governs information collected on the Britannica Services by Britannica. Our Services contain links to websites or content (including advertisements on our free, ad-supported Services) operated and maintained by third parties, over which we have no control. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of a third-party website before disclosing any personal information to the website. Do not supply Personal Information to these sites unless you have verified their security and privacy policies.
Like other commercial websites, Britannica and our authorized partners use cookies (small files transferred from a website to its visitors' hard drives or browsers for record-keeping purposes), including essential, functional and analytical cookies, and other similar information gathering technologies throughout our Services to collect certain information automatically and store it in log files for a variety of legitimate business interests and purposes. This information may include (but is not limited to) internet protocol (IP) addresses, mobile device identifiers, the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system and other usage information about your use of our Services, including a history of the pages you view.
Web beacons, tags and scripts may be used on our Services or in email or other electronic communications we send to you. These assist us in delivering cookies, counting visits to our Websites, understanding usage and campaign effectiveness and determining whether an email has been opened and acted upon. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by our third-party service providers on an individual and aggregated basis.
Britannica and its authorized partners use cookies, beacons and other similar technologies on our Services for legitimate business interests that enable us to allow you to navigate our websites, use our Services and access secure areas of our Services. We also use these technologies for statistical purposes and to analyze and improve the use of our Services and prepare aggregated usage reports.
As described below, on our free, ad-supported Services, we use these technologies for legitimate business purposes to provide standard advertising controls, determine user response to advertisements and promotions, and deliver targeted advertisements that we or our partners believe will be of most interest to you.
We may also use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website, analyze trends, track visitor movements, and gather broad demographic information that assists us in identifying visitor preferences.
You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Services. For more information about cookies, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
For our legitimate business interests, we may process your personal information for analytic purposes on all of our Services as described in this section.
Together with Google Analytics, we use cookies and software logs to monitor the use of the Services and to gather non-personal informational about visitors to the site. These monitoring systems allow us to track general information about our visitors, such as the type of browsers (for example, Firefox or Internet Explorer), the operating systems (for instance, Windows or Macintosh), or the Internet providers (for instance, Comcast) they use. This information is used for statistical and market research purposes to tailor content to usage patterns and to provide services requested by our customers.
We also have implemented Google Analytics Demographics and Interest reporting, which is a Google Analytics Advertiser feature. This tool uses cookies to collect and store standard Internet log and visitor information on our behalf, including information about what pages you visit, how long you are on our sites, how you got here, and what you click on during your visit. This Google Analytics data is not tied to personal information, so this information cannot be used to identify who you are. We use the data provided by Google Analytics Demographics and Interest reports to develop our services and content around our User demographics, interests, and behavior on our Services. You can opt out of this Google Analytics Advertiser feature using the Ads Settings located at https://www.google.com/settings/ads. In addition, you can use the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on to disable tracking by Google Analytics. To delete these cookies, please see your browser's privacy settings or follow the above instructions.
We may also receive other data about your use of our Services from other sources. This information may include (but is not limited to) information about your activities across unrelated websites and mobile applications, information about the possible relationships between different browsers and devices and information that we receive from our third party service providers. We may add this information to the information to the information we have already collect through our Services.
For our legitimate business interests we process and disclose your personal information collected automatically through our free, ad-supported Services for advertising, including interest-based advertising, as described in this section. Our free Services are supported by advertising. Our subscription websites are paid for by subscription fees, and are ad-free, as are our paid-for mobile applications. As more fully described below, in order to monetize our free, ad-supported Services, we work with third parties to display advertising on the Services. If you would like to avoid all advertisements, sign up for a subscription or upgrade your mobile application.
We work with DigiTrust to set a cookie in your browser to enable us and DigiTrust Partners to collect web viewing data that includes visits to a Britannica Service and other non-affiliated websites over time. This data may be used to infer whether you share interests with other Users, and deliver advertising relevant to those inferences. This type of advertising is called interest-based or behavioral advertising. You can exercise choice about the collection of data in this way for interest-based, behavioral advertising by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance's choice page and opting out from DigiTrust or use one of the links provided below. Opting out from DigiTrust will stop DigiTrust Partners from using the DigiTrust identifier. Through the DAA choice page, you may make other choices for companies that participate in the DAA, some of which are DigiTrust Partners.
Please note that limiting third-party cookies via your browser controls does not prevent our first-party cookie from being set in this way. Also, please know, if you opt out of interest-based advertising you will continue to receive ads on our free, ad-supported Services, but not behaviorally targeted ads. Also, if you opt out of Britannica's practices, you may continue to receive interest-based advertising through other companies. If you erase your browser's cookies, you may need to perform this process again.
Anonymous aggregated data may be provided to other companies we do business with for statistical purposes. For example, we may report to advertisers that a certain percentage of our site's visitors are adults between the ages of 25 and 35.
For our legitimate business interests, we process your device identifiers as described in this section.
When you use a mobile device like a tablet or cell phone to access our Services, we may access and monitor one or more "device identifiers." Device identifiers are small data files associated with your mobile device that uniquely identify your mobile device. A device identifier may deliver information to us or a third party partner about how you browse and use the services and may help us or others provide reports or personalized ads. Some features of the services may not function properly if use or availability of device identifiers is impaired or disabled.
For our legitimate business interests, and with your consent where this is required, we may process for advertising, including interest-based advertising, as described in this section.
As described above, in order to monetize our free, ad-supported Services, we work with third-party advertisers and advertising networks that use cookies and other similar technologies to target ads served to our free, ad-supported Services. Our Privacy Policy does not cover the use of data that you provide directly to advertisers or third party partners; that usage is governed by the advertiser's or third party partner's privacy policy.
What does it mean to "serve ads"? When you visit a website, your Internet browser transmits a "request" to the computer that hosts the website (the "host server") requesting that server to send you (or "serve") the Web page that you are seeking. Most Web pages contain components that are pulled from different sources, for example, a Web page at a news site may get its weather section from one provider, its sports results from a different source, and advertisements from other servers. Our Web pages contain coding that directs your browser to fill the ad spaces on the Web pages with content served by advertisers and networks of advertisers to whom we have sold the ad spaces. The advertisers and networks use cookies and beacons to help manage ad delivery and frequency, and to identify audience segment(s) for customized advertising ("targeting"). These cookies are used to identify your IP address, so that when you visit another website using the same advertising network, the network will recognize the cookie as one of its own, read the information on the cookie (the record of which sites in the network you have visited) and serve you an ad that you might be interested in, based on your past visits to other sites in the network. Advertising targeted based on past Web surfing is known as "behavioral advertising."
Britannica does not provide any personal information to third-party advertisers about visitors to the Services. Our Privacy Policy does not cover the use of information that they may have collected from you by third parties on other sites. If you would like to learn more about behavioral advertising or to opt out of having this information used by companies that are part of the Network Advertising Initiative to deliver targeted ads, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org. Many of the same companies are members of the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. You can learn more and opt out of receiving targeted ads from them at http://www.aboutads.info/choices.
Some advertising networks require that we specifically list their opt-out links below. When you opt-out of a network, you may receive a "opt-out" cookie so that the network will know not to assign you new cookies in the future. You will continue to receive ads from that network, but not behaviorally targeted ads. If you erase your browser's cookies, you may need to perform this process again.
To manage or delete browser cookies, please see your browser's privacy settings.
To manage or delete Flash cookies, please use the Adobe Flash Player Settings Manager here:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html
Please remember, if you opt out of interest-based advertising you will continue to receive ads on our free, ad-supported Services, but not behaviorally targeted ads. Also, if you opt out of Britannica's practices, you may continue to receive interest-based advertising through other companies.
Children should always ask parents for permission before providing any personal information to Britannica or purchasing any products or services from Britannica. Except as permitted by law and described in the following paragraphs, Britannica does not knowingly collect or solicit Personal Information from or about children under 16. If we discover we have received any personal information from a child under 16 in violation of this policy, we will delete that information immediately. If you believe Britannica has any Personal Information from or about anyone under 16, please contact us at [email protected].
Our kid-directed, subscription-based Services, including Britannica Kids, Britannica School and Britannica Launch Packs, are ad-free services, operated in compliance with applicable children's privacy laws in U.S., EU and elsewhere.
With a parent or school official's express consent and to fulfill a contractual obligation, the personal information we may collect through our kid-directed Services includes (but is not limited to) a visitor's email address, parent email address, school name and teacher email address. When accessed using a Google Classroom account created and managed by a school for use by its students and educators, we also may collect certain roster data that includes (but is not limited to) a student's or educator's first and last name and password.
When using one of our kid-directed Services, our systems also automatically collect certain analytic and usage information for our legitimate business interests described above.
In no event do we require children to disclose more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in an activity or perform a requested service, and, as a parent, you can review your child's personal information, direct us to delete it and refuse to allow any further collection or use of your child's personal information. If you have any questions or concerns, or to exercise your parental rights, please email us at [email protected] or [email protected].
All other Services offered by us are general audience services, intended for Users (visitors and subscribers) of all ages and Britannica does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information on these Services from or about children under 16.
Any personally identifiable information collected through this site is stored on limited-access servers. We will maintain safeguards to protect these servers and the information they store. In addition, to help protect the privacy of data and personally identifiable information you transmit through use of our Services, we maintain physical, technical and administrative safeguards. We update and test our security technology on an ongoing basis. We strive to restrict access to your personal data to those employees who need to know that information to provide benefits or services to you. In addition, we strive to all our employees about the importance of confidentiality and maintaining the privacy and security of your information.
Your personal data is stored by us on our servers located in the United States, Australia and India. We retain your information for the duration of your business relationship with us and as long as necessary to permit us to use it for the legitimate business purposes that we have communicated to you and comply with applicable law or regulations. For more information on where and how long your personal data is stored, and for more information on your rights of erasure and portability, please contact the Encyclopaedia Britannica's data protection officer at [email protected].
Encyclopaedia Britannica's headquarters are in the United States. Information we collect from you will be processed in the United States and may be stored, transferred to, and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers. These countries may be outside your country of residence, including the United States, and may have different data protection laws than your country.
If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), Encyclopaedia Britannica collects and transfers personal data out of the EEA only: with your consent; to perform a contract with you; or to fulfill a compelling legitimate interest of Encyclopaedia Britannica in a manner that does not outweigh your rights and freedoms. Encyclopaedia Britannica endeavors to apply suitable safeguards to protect the privacy and security of your personal data and to use it only consistent with your relationship with us and the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
Users may opt out of certain Services or correct, update, or remove certain personal information that Britannica has collected about them through any of the means listed below. Please be sure to include the following information in your correspondence:
If you no longer wish to have a registered account, you may terminate your account by sending an email to [email protected]. Because of the way we maintain the Britannica Services, such deletion may not be immediate, and residual copies of your profile information or posts may remain on backup media for up to ninety (90) days.
If you are a California resident, you are entitled to prevent sharing of your personal information with third parties for their own marketing purposes through a cost-free means. If you send a request to the address above, Encyclopaedia Britannica will provide you with a California Customer Choice Notice that you may use to opt-out of such information sharing. To receive this notice, submit a written request to [email protected], specifying that you seek your "California Customer Choice Notice." Please allow at least thirty (30) days for a response.
The EU GDPR and other countries' privacy laws provide certain rights for data subjects. A good explanation of them (in English) is available on the website of the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office.
If you wish to confirm that Encyclopaedia Britannica is processing your personal data, or to have access to the personal data Encyclopaedia Britannica may have about you, please contact us at [email protected].
All of the content on the Services is copyrighted by Encyclopaedia Britannica, Incorporated, 354 N. LaSalle St., Suite 200, Chicago, Illinois 60654, or its licensors, and it cannot be redistributed or used for commercial purposes. More detailed information about Encyclopaedia Britannica's copyrights and trademarks is available on our Copyright Notice page.