Golf News Net: Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes the privacy practices of Ryan Ballengee (dba Golf News Net) including our affiliate companies (“Golf News Net”, “we”, “our” or “us”).

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and transfer the information you provide when you interact with us including (but not limited to) via our websites, downloadable applications, including Mobile Apps (as defined below) that link to this policy (“online services”). This policy only applies to those online services that link to this policy. This policy also tells you how we use tracking technologies, cookies and browsing data we collect from your use of the online services, the measures we take to protect the security of the information you provide to us through the online services, and how you can contact us if you have any questions regarding the online services (including if you want to unsubscribe from our services or update your contact details).

1. SCOPE AND CONSENT

When you use the online services, you are contracting with Golf News Net. If you reside outside of the United States, Golf News Net is your data controller. By using the online services, you expressly consent to our collection, use, disclosure, and retention of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

2. TYPES OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Our goal is to collect and use information to deliver effective and personalized services which take your interests and preferences into account, as well as for our legitimate business needs and interests.

There are two main types of information we collect about users of our online services that include (but are not limited to) the following:
Information that identifies you: This is commonly referred to as “personal information” and includes, for example, information that you provide to us such as your name, home address, age, gender, telephone number, e-mail address, payment information (including your credit card number), and/or photos or video footage of you; and
Information that relates to you, but on its own does not identify you: Such as information about your Internet connection, the equipment you use to access our online services and information relating to your usage of those services.

There are six main categories of information we collect about users of our online services users that include (but are not limited to) the following:

Contact/Registration information: for example, your telephone number or e-mail address, where you have subscribed to a service such as program updates; name, age, gender or interests when you register for an account on one of our online services; delivery address where you are buying a product or service through an online service; or your age, location or delivery address if you choose to enter a competition or sweepstakes offered through the online services.
Transaction information: when you order products or services through the online services, you may provide information such as your credit / debit card details and other personal information related to that transaction.
Information that you provide on message boards and other user forums: including your username, images or videos. Please use caution when posting to messages boards or other forums, as information posted to these portions of the online services is public information.
Information about your equipment: for example, the type and version of your device’s operating system or web browser, your device ID, and in some instances, your device’s location.
Information about your interactions with the online services: for example, your Internet protocol or (IP) address, pages that you visit within the online services, gameplay data or other information collected through Cookies and Tracking Technologies.
Information that is collected from social networks and publicly available data: if you visit our online services on a device through which you also interact with social networks or if you interact with us through a social media function such as a plug-in (for example, a Facebook “like” button) then you may be permitting us to have on-going access to some information from your social network profile (such as your name, email address, your friend list, photo, age, gender, location, birthday, social networking ID, current city, the people/sites you follow, and so forth). If you don’t want a social network to collect the information about you as described above, or you don’t want to a social network to share it with us and other third parties, please review the privacy settings and instructions of the applicable social network before you visit and use our online services.

When you use our website, we share information that we collect from you, such as your email (in hashed form), IP address or information about your browser or operating system, with our identity partners/service providers, including LiveRamp Inc. LiveRamp returns an online identification code that we may store in our first-party cookie for our use in online, in-app, and cross-channel advertising and it may be shared with advertising companies to enable interest-based and targeted advertising. To opt out of this use, please click here.

We may also receive other information (e.g., content viewed and information about the advertisements within the content you have been shown or may have clicked on, etc.) from your interaction with the online services. You agree that we may share your video viewing with, or obtain information about your video viewing from, analytics providers and advertising partners and third-party social media sites for two years or until you withdraw your consent. The information we have access to from the third-party services varies by service and is controlled by your privacy settings on that service and by your consent. Information that may be passed to analytics providers and advertising partners may be via cookies and tracking technologies. Please see our Cookies and Tracking Technologies page for information, including your choices in relation to these technologies. By associating an account managed by a third party with your Golf News Net account and authorizing us to have access to this information, you agree that we may collect, use, and store information from third-party services in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please see: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

3. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION
We collect your information when you use our online services in three main ways:
Directly from you, when you provide it to us: for example, when you request products or services from us, when you register with us, respond to surveys, contact us or otherwise interact with us. Please remember that if others use devices into which you remain logged in, they may share information with us as if they were you, and they may have access to information that you have previously provided us. To protect your privacy, please log out from the online services you use from shared devices.
Automatically, when you use our online services: we collect information through the use of Cookies and Other Technologies and when you download our Mobile Apps.
From third parties including social networks, other online services, from publicly available records, and from our trusted business partners.

4. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use information to:
provide the services you have requested, including sweepstakes, contests or promotions;
create an online services account if you have requested one;
personalize the services offered by us or our affiliates, including providing personalized advertising on some online services (see options for opting-out of personalized advertising here);
respond to your inquiries, requests, and comments;
allow you to participate in the interactive features of our online services, where you choose to do so;
provide technical support for the online services;
prevent fraud or potentially illegal activities (including copyright infringement) on the online services;
protect the safety of users and others on the online services;
enforce our online services’ terms of service;
understand how online services are used so that we can continuously improve them, and the services we provide to you;
send you service-related communications, including announcements and administrative messages;
send you newsletters and information about products, services and promotions relating to us and/or our business partners or other organizations that we work with, in accordance with your communication preferences. Subject to legal restrictions (including consent where necessary) we may also use technology (such as Facebook Custom Audiences) to deliver advertising to you on other sites based on the email address or other personal information you provided to us or through the use of information we received from third parties. Please see Your Rights and Choices for further information about how you can control these updates;
if you use an Golf News Net e-commerce website to send gifts, we may use the email addresses that you provide to send your gifts, provide other communications relating to such transaction, as well as any further communications as may be authorized by the recipients;
implement social networking features you have activated; and
we may combine all the information we collect or receive about you for any of the foregoing purposes.

5. HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION

Information shared among Golf News Net affiliates.
When you choose to register for an account on any Golf News Net online service: the information you provide will not be shared with Golf News Net affiliates.
Information collected automatically: this information collected from your interaction with the online services via Cookies and Tracking Technologies, which may or may not include personal information, may be shared with Golf News Net affiliates for the purposes of research, analysis, marketing and ad-serving. For information about this and your choices see Cookies and Tracking Technologies.

Information shared with trusted third parties:
Service providers or business partners that we have retained to perform certain business-related functions on our behalf: Such as for research and analytics, hosting websites, fulfilling transactions, maintaining databases, administering contests, providing technology services and platforms, and processing payments. These parties are provided only with the personal information or other information they need to perform their functions and can only use and disclose that information as is necessary to perform the services on our behalf, or to comply with legal requirements. We take steps to ensure that third-party service providers will take appropriate steps to protect your personal information.
Social Networks: You may interact with certain features of the online services that cause information to be published to your social networks. For example, you may click on a Facebook “like” button, which publishes to your Facebook account that you “like” one of our TV shows or movies. On pages of the online services that contain social network functionality, the social network providing the functionality may be able to collect information about you, even if you don’t use that functionality. For example, if a page within the online services contains a Facebook “like” button, Facebook may be able to collect data about your visit to that page, even if you don’t click on the “like” button. To control this sharing of information, please review the privacy policy of the relevant social network and/or log out of it before you use the online services.
For Mobile Apps: In addition, in relation to Mobile Apps we may share your usage and personal information with operating system, platforms providers, carriers and/or other mobile apps either operated by us or third parties. Please see our Mobile Apps section for additional detail.

Information we share with advertisers (including Targeted Advertising)

Some online services, including Mobile Apps, may be supported with advertising, and collect data to help the online services serve ads. This helps keep the cost of online services low or free.

We may work with advertisers and third-party advertising networks, who may receive information about how you interact with advertising provided in the online service. We may also work with consumer data resellers that buy and/or sell information to other companies for multiple purposes including offering products and services that may interest you. These third parties may view, edit or set their own tracking technologies/cookies. The use of these technologies by these third parties is subject to their own privacy policies and is not covered by this Privacy Policy. They might also obtain information about other applications that you have downloaded to your mobile device, the mobile websites you visit and other information about you or your device in order to analyze and serve anonymous targeted advertising on the online services and elsewhere. For information about your choices relating to these activities, see Cookies and Tracking Technologies.

Information shared with other parties
In addition, we may disclose your personal information collected through the online services to law enforcement agencies, government/regulatory bodies, and content protection organizations to:
Protect our legal rights, privacy or safety, and those of our subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, agents and contractors or other individuals;
Protect the safety and security of visitors to our online services or other properties;
Protect against fraud or other illegal activity or for risk management purposes;
Respond to inquiries or requests from government, regulatory, law enforcement or public authorities;
Permit us to pursue available remedies, commence, participate in, or defend litigation, or limit the damages that we may sustain;
Comply with the law including with subpoenas, search warrants, court orders, and other legal process; or
Enforce applicable terms of service

Sale or transfer of all or part of our business or assets
We reserve the right to transfer your usage information and personal information in the event we sell or transfer all or a part of our business or assets so that the buyer can continue to offer you the online services. We will make commercially reasonable efforts to provide you with reasonable notice of such transfer, or as otherwise required by law. If you do not want your personal information to be processed following such a transfer, you should contact the subsequent owner of the business.

6. CHILDREN
Except where otherwise indicated we do not knowingly collect or store any personal information from children under the age of 13. We use an age-gate to make certain features unavailable for use by children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 in connection with those features. Where required, we will provide notice to and obtain verifiable consent from parents or guardians for the collection of personal information from children under 13, and provide parents or guardians the ability to request access to personal information we have collected from their children. We encourage parents and guardians to spend time with their children online and to be fully familiar with the online services used by their children. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child under 13 has provided us with information without his or her consent, he or she should contact us at ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com. As required by law, we will delete such information from our files within a reasonable time.
For certain websites covered by this Privacy Policy and involved in e-commerce, you may only be able to use that site and any related services if you are 18 years of age or older, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction of residence, whichever is older. If you are under the age of 18 or the age of majority in your jurisdiction of residence, you may only use that site and any related services with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian.
California minors under 18 years old may request the removal of any information that they posted to Golf News Net sites by contacting ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com. Upon such request, Golf News Net will anonymize or remove from public view any content posted by a minor to one of its websites, unless required by law to retain such content or information.

7. HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

We maintain procedural, technical and physical safeguards for our online services to help protect against loss, misuse or unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction of the personal information you provide via our online services. We also ask the service providers that help us deliver our online services to so the same. For example, we limit access to this information to authorized employees and contractors who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our online services. Unfortunately, no transmission of data is guaranteed to be completely secure. It may be possible for third parties not under our control to intercept or access transmissions or private communications unlawfully. Therefore, any transmission of personal information to us is made at your own risk. If you believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please notify us using the contact details below.

Usernames & Passwords

It is important that you protect and maintain the security of any account and that you notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of any Golf News Net account. Do not disclose your password to anyone else.

8. YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES

Communication Preferences and Opt-outs

If you have subscribed to one or more of our email newsletters or are receiving them from us and you don’t want them anymore, you can unsubscribe. Select the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any message, by other means provided to unsubscribe, or using the contact details below, to unsubscribe from marketing and promotional e-mails and associated marketing delivered to you on third party services based on your subscription data. However, you cannot unsubscribe from some service related messages.

Mobile Apps

For additional information about your choices in relation to Mobile Apps including information on how to opt out of targeted advertising see the Mobile Apps policy.

Access and Correction

In addition to the functionality provided to you via the online services (such as using “account settings” for registered users), where legally required we provide online visitors with access to their personal information and the ability to review, update and correct it.

Data Retention and Deletion

We will retain your data for as long as you use the online services and for a reasonable time thereafter. If you’d like to delete, modify or update the data that you provided via the online services please use the settings on the online services or contact us at privacy@nbcuni.com and we will respond in a reasonable time. Please note that some or all of this data may be required in order for the online services to function properly, and we may be required to retain certain information by law.

9. WHERE YOUR INFORMATION WILL BE USED

Golf News Net is based in the United States and may from time to time transfer your personal information to other countries and make it accessible to any of our affiliates and third-party service providers internationally. Where the transfer of information is to a country which does not provide an adequate level of information protection, Golf News Net has taken steps to ensure that your personal information receives an appropriate level of protection.

If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that information we collect, including personal information, may be transferred to, and processed, stored and used in the United States. Under United States law, your personal information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in the United States.

By using our online services and providing your personal information to us you understand and agree that your personal information may be sent to other countries including those which do not provide an equivalent level of information protection as the European Economic Area (EEA).

10. COOKIES AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES

For more information about the use of Cookies and Other Technology on our online services (including your opt-out choices) please see the Cookies and Tracking Technologies policy. Through our Cookies and Tracking Technologies policy, we provide opt-out choices. The effect of an opt-out will be to stop targeted advertising, but it will still allow the collection of usage data for certain purposes (e.g., research, analytics and internal online services operation purposes).

11. MOBILE APPS

For more information about our information collection and use practices with respect to online services that are mobile applications (“Mobile Apps”) see the Mobile Apps policy.

12. IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Notice to California Residents:

Residents of the State of California may request a list of all third parties to which our online service has disclosed certain personal information (as defined by California law) during the preceding year for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and want such a list, please contact us at Chief Privacy Officer, 100 Universal City Plaza, 1280, Universal City, California, 91608-1002, US. For all requests, you must put the statement “Your California Privacy Rights” in the body of your request, as well as your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. In the body of your request, please provide enough information for us to determine if this applies to you. You need to attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for our response. Please note that we will not accept requests via the telephone, email, or by facsimile, and we are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information.

California Business & Professions Code Section 22575(b) (as amended effective January 1, 2014) provides that California residents are entitled to know how Golf News Net responds to “Do Not Track” browser settings. Golf News Net does not currently take actions to respond to Do Not Track signals because a uniform technological standard has not yet been developed. We continue to review new technologies and may adopt a standard once one is created.

Links to Other Websites:

The online services may contain links to third-party websites for your convenience and / or information (for example, to sites which are provided by our third-party vendors). If you access other websites using the links provided, you may leave Golf News Net’s online services. When you access these other sites, even ones that may contain the Golf News Net logo, please understand that the operators of these websites may collect information from you which will be used by them in accordance with their Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, which may differ from ours and we do not endorse or control the policies or practices of that website.
You should always read the Privacy Policy of any website you access carefully in order to understand their specific privacy and information usage practices.

13. UPDATES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

From time to time, we may revise this Privacy Policy to reflect industry initiatives, changes in the law or technology, or changes in our practices regarding information collection and use. If we make material revisions to the way we collect or use your personal information so that we are using it for purposes or sharing data with third parties that you have not consented to, we will provide you with notice of those changes and may do so by either: (1) announcing the change on the home page of our website or (2) taking other actions as we deem appropriate under the circumstances, including without limitation, posting the revised version of this Privacy Policy online. You agree that we may notify you about material changes in the way we treat personal information by placing a notice on our online services. You should check our online services frequently for updates.

You can determine when this Privacy Policy was last revised by referring to the “Last Updated” or similar legend at the top of this page. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective upon posting of the revised Privacy Policy on the Internet, accessible through this site. By continuing to use this online service following such changes, you will be deemed to have agreed to such changes. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time, in whole or in part, please do not continue using our online services.