Privacy Policy
PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC. ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY
This website ("Site") is
maintained by Penguin Group (USA) Inc. ("Penguin," "us," or
"we"), 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY, 10014. We can be reached by
e-mail at online@us.penguingroup.com. This Policy
applies only to information collected online by Penguin and does not cover any
such information collected by its corporate parent(s), affiliates, joint
ventures or co-promotions between Penguin and a third party, or any other
company or party, unless specifically stated. Your privacy is important to us.
The purpose of this policy is to inform you of how we collect, use, disclose,
manage, and store the personal information that you may provide to us online.
If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not participate in
Penguin's online activities and services that require you to provide personal
information. Your continued participation on this Site indicates your
acceptance of this Privacy Policy.
GOVERNED BY UNITED STATES AND NEW YORK
LAW; JURISDICTION
This Site is operated in the United States
and is designed for and targeted to U.S. audiences. It is governed by and
operated in accordance with the laws of the United States or the State of New
York as applicable, without giving effect to their principles of conflicts of
law. By using this Site and/or providing us with your personal information, you
waive any claims that may arise under the laws of other countries or
territories located outside of the United States or states other than New York,
and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the
State of New York and the federal courts of the Southern District, located in
New York City, NY.
WEBSITE COLLECTION, USE, AND DISCLOSURE
OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
As you interact with our Site, we and our
operational service providers may collect certain information from you,
including but not limited to name, postal address, email address, telephone
number, date of birth and credit card information ("Personal
Information"). Penguin uses Personal Information in various ways,
including but not limited to sending e-newsletters and e-mail alerts you
subscribed for (sometimes through designated third party operational service
providers on our behalf), processing your online purchases (applicable to sites
with e-commerce), informing you about and improving our products and services,
fulfilling contest, sweepstakes and other offers, and otherwise to better meet
the needs and preferences of Penguin customers. This Site may offer user
interactive activities such as bulletin boards, forums, blogs or other public
areas ("Public Areas"). We reserve the right, at our sole discretion,
to save and archive any content of any nature posted to the Public Areas and
share such information as described in this Policy. See our Terms of Use Agreement.
We may share your Personal Information as
follows:
1. To comply with
court orders or subpoenas and as necessary to satisfy any law or regulation;
2. 2. In cooperation
with a law enforcement or government requests or where we believe it is
necessary to investigate suspected illegal activities, fraud, or violations of
our Terms of Use Agreement;
3. With Penguin's
operational service providers;
4. With our corporate
parent(s)and other affiliated entities for business, operational and marketing
purposes;
5. To a third party in
the event of a corporate sale, merger or other restructuring; and
6. 6. With third
parties (for example, our authors or promotional partners) for their own direct
marketing purposes but only with notice and consent at time of collection.
OPT-IN/OPT-OUT OPTIONS
You can "opt in" or "opt
out" of receiving promotional e-mail from us by checking or unchecking the
appropriate box on the registration or submission area for the particular
offer, by updating your preferences here or by following the instructions
in our e-mail messages. Please note that even if you choose to opt out of
promotional e-mail, we will continue to send you important service-related
communications (e.g., order confirmations). You may also opt out of having your
information shared with third parties for direct marketing purposes under item
6 of Website Collection, Use, And Disclosure Of Personal Information by
following the instructions listed immediately above.
SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
Penguin understands the need to prevent
online fraud. To do so, we employ reasonable industry standard security
measures involving both hardware and software. For our e-commerce sites, we use
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to encrypt any Personal Information you send to us
during the check-out process. Only when your information has been passed to our
secure servers, housed in a physically secure location and protected by
firewall software, is your transaction processed. Penguin employs your credit
card information only for your purchase with us. Your information is vetted by
a merchant bank to ensure that all credit details are accurate and represent a
genuine purchase.
Please remember that no data transmission
over the Internet, or by other means, can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
Thus, while we strive to protect your personal data, Penguin cannot ensure or
warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. Therefore, you
understand, acknowledge, and agree that you transmit certain Personal
Information over this Site at your own risk.
COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING DEVICES
Penguin and our operational service
providers employ cookies and other tracking devices to recognize you and
improve your experience on the Site. Cookies are small pieces of information
stored on your computer for record-keeping purposes. We use cookies to remember
information customers give us so that they don't have to reenter it each time
they visit the Site. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser
permits. Even without a cookie, you will still be able to use most of the
features on our Site, including purchasing items.
MONITORING AND USE OF AGGREGATE
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Without disclosure of Personal Information
about individual users, we may provide aggregate statistics about our users,
traffic patterns and related Site information to third party vendors or
marketing companies.
SPECIAL POLICY WITH REGARD TO
INFORMATION FROM CHILDREN UNDER THIRTEEN
Penguin respects the privacy of children,
and we comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
("COPPA"). This Site does not knowingly collect, retain or disclose
Personal Information from children under the age of 13 without prior parental
consent, except as permitted by COPPA. If you have any questions concerning our
information practices with respect to children, you may email us at online@us.penguingroup.com.
For tips on protecting your child's privacy online, please see the U.S. Federal
Trade Commission's brochure on this topic: www.onguardonline.gov.
LINKS
We may provide links to third-party web
sites as a service to our users. Please be aware that we cannot control and are
not responsible for the information collection, use and disclosure practices of
such web sites. We encourage you to review and understand the privacy policies
on these web sites before providing any information to them.
CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS' PRIVACY RIGHTS
If you are a California resident and
request information about how to exercise your third-party disclosure choices,
you must send a request to the following address with a preference on how our
response to your request should be sent (e-mail or postal mail). You may
contact us in two ways. Send e-mail to online@us.penguingroup.com,
with the statement "California Residents' Privacy Rights" in the
subject field of your e-mail. Alternatively, you may contact Penguin at:
Penguin Group (USA)
375 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
Attn: California RESIDENTS' Privacy Rights c/o Legal Department
For offline requests, please include your
name, postal address, city, state, and zip code. We will not accept requests
via telephone or facsimile.
ENFORCEMENT
If any provision of this Privacy Policy
shall be adjudged unlawful or void or unenforceable in whole or in part, the
remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.
GENERAL REQUESTS ABOUT THIS POLICY
To all other users of this Site, if you
have other questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact our Site
Administrator at the following e-mail address: online@us.penguingroup.com.
CHANGES TO OUR ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY
We may revise this Policy at any time by
updating this posting without advance notice to you. Such revisions shall be
effective immediately upon posting. Therefore, we encourage you to visit our
website to review this Privacy Policy often.
LAST UPDATED: December 3, 2009