Privacy Policy
Last Updated On: March 28, 2011
Thank you for visiting us at WORLDfreeNEWS.com (hereunder referred to as the “Site”), a site presented to you by Blarney Stone LLC. (hereunder referred to as the “Company”).
Your privacy is very important to us. As such, we provide this Privacy Policy explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used at this Site.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By visiting and using the Site, you agree that your use of our Site, and any dispute over our online privacy practices, is governed by this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service. Because the Web is an evolving medium, we may need to change our Privacy Policy at some point in the future, in which case we’ll post the revised Privacy Policy on this website and update the “Last Updated” date to reflect the date of the changes. By continuing to use the Site after we post any such changes, you accept the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service as modified.
COLLECTION OF INFORMATION
We may collect, through a variety of technologies and practices, and store information, including personally-identifiable information such as your name, e-mail address, or any other information that you voluntarily supply to us either while on the Site or, in responding via e-mail in connection with a feature provided on the Site. Some examples of this type of information includes information that you electronically submit when you contact us with questions, information that you post in replies, submit for publication, information that you electronically submit when you complete an online registration form to access and use certain features of our Site, and information contained in search requests or questions that you submit, or any other means available on our Site.
We may also collect various types of non-personally identifiable information when you visit our Site such as current Internet protocol address and type of browser you are using, the type of operating system you are using, the domain name of your Internet service provider the type of handheld or mobile device used to view the Site, location information, the content you have accessed and the advertisements you have been shown and/or clicked on.
SOCIAL MEDIA
You also can engage with our content on or through third-party social networking sites, plug-ins and applications. By doing so, you may allow us to have access to certain information from your social media profile (e.g., name, e-mail address, photo, gender, birthday, location, your list of friends, people you follow and/or who follow you, the posts or the ‘likes’ you make) to deliver the content or as part of the operation of the application.
When you provide information from your social media account, it can help enable us to do things like (1) give you exclusive content, (2) personalize your online experience with us within and outside our applications or websites, and (3) contact you through the social networking sites or directly by sending you the latest news, special offerings, and rewards. By doing so, you consent to the use of this information in accordance with our privacy policy. When you provide personal information to us through an application, on our Site, or on social networking sites, it may be publicly viewed by other members of these sites and we cannot prevent further use of the information by third parties.
Through some social networking sites’ privacy settings, you can control what data you share. For more information about how social networking sites handle your personal information, please refer to their privacy policies and terms of use.
GENERAL USE
We may use the information you provide about yourself to fulfill your requests for our products, programs, and services, to respond to your inquiries about our offerings, to offer you other products, programs or services that we believe may be of interest to you, to enforce the legal terms that govern your use of our sites, and/or for the purposes for which you provided the information.
We may use the non-personally identifiable information that we collect to improve the design and content of our Site, to deliver more relevant marketing messages and advertisements and to enable us to personalize your Internet experience. We also may use this information to analyze usage of our sites, as well as to offer you products, programs, or services.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
We ask senders of letters to the editor to include a phone number so we can make an effort to verify their identity should we need to in connection with publication of a letter. We do not retain this information for any other purpose, nor do we sell, trade or otherwise disclose it to third parties.
E-MAIL FEATURE
The Site offers an e-mail feature, allowing site visitors to send e-mail to friends to inform them about an article they might be interested in reading. This feature is provided by a third party. In order for this feature to function, the third party will ask for addresses for the recipient (so they know who to mail the message to) and from the sender (so they can tell the recipient who sent the e-mail). We do not store or save these addresses and you will not receive e-mail or other communications from this Site as a result of having used this feature. While this tool cannot be used to send mass “spam” mailings, this Site has no control over how our visitors use it, and any e-mail sent through it originates with, and is the responsibility of, the sender, not this site.
PROMOTION
From time to time, the Site may sponsor sweepstakes, contests or other events which require the collection, processing and storage of individual contact and demographic information to be used for the event. We may also co-sponsor these events along with other companies, in which case the user’s individual contact and demographic information is likely to be shared with other participating sponsors, who may use this information as they wish. A registrant’s personal contact and demographic information will not be released to any third-party organization other than named sponsors and we will request that such named sponsors uphold the privacy of the registrants’ information by not distributing or sharing such information with any other businesses or organizations however, we cannot guarantee their actions.
SURVEYS
We will from time to time conduct voluntary surveys of visitors to the site to obtain aggregate demographic information about them. Such information may be compiled and shared in the aggregate with advertisers and other third parties, but no personal details will be traceable or associated with specific individuals.
DISCLOSURE
We may disclose personally identifiable information in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also may disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency’s request, or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use, to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing our Site and applicable laws or as otherwise required or permitted by law or consistent with legal requirements.
In addition, we may transfer personally identifiable information about you if we are acquired by, sold to, or merged with another entity.
Our agents and contractors who have access to personally identifiable information are required to protect this information in a manner that is consistent with this privacy statement and are not authorized to use the information for any purpose other than to carry out the services they are performing for us.
Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personally identifiable information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this privacy statement.
REGARDING COOKIES
To enhance your online experience, we use “cookies” or similar technologies. Cookies are text files placed in your computer’s browser to store your preferences. Cookies do not contain personally identifiable information; however, once you choose to furnish a site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.
We use cookies to understand Site and Internet usage and to improve or customize the content, offerings or advertisements on our sites. For example, we may use cookies to personalize your experience at our sites, save your password in password-protected areas, and enable you to use shopping carts on our sites.
We also may use cookies to help us offer you products, programs, or services that may be of interest to you and to deliver relevant advertising.
We may use cookies to manage and measure the performance of advertisements displayed on or delivered by or through this Site. This also helps us to provide more relevant advertising.
We may also use “web beacons” or similar technologies, which are small pieces of code placed on a web page, to monitor the behavior and collect data about the visitors viewing a web page. For example, web beacons may be used to count the users who visit a web page or to deliver a cookie to the browser of a visitor viewing that page.
You can change your privacy preferences regarding the use of cookies and similar technologies through your browser. You may set your browser to accept all cookies, block certain cookies, require your consent before a cookie is placed in your browser, or block all cookies. Blocking all cookies will affect your online experience and may prevent you from enjoying the full features offered at this Site.
SOCIAL MEDIA PRACTICES
Some of our Site contains links to or integrations with other sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., whose information practices may be different than ours. Visitors should consult the other sites’ privacy notices as we have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third parties.
LINKS TO OTHER SITES
The site contains many links to other sites on the Web. We cannot control and are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other Web sites.
SECURITY
We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, to maintain data security, and to use correctly the information we collect online.
All information we gather on our Site is stored within a database to which only we and our hosting services provider are provided access. However, as effective as the reasonable security measures implemented by us may be, no physical or electronic security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our Site’s servers or databases, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.
Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily make your personal information or other private information available for viewing by third parties online – for example by commenting on stories, articles or other community posting or social networking areas of our Site – that information can be seen, collected and used by others besides us. We cannot be responsible for any unauthorized third-party use of such information.
SELLING INFORMATION
We will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone.
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY STATEMENT
This children’s privacy statement explains our practices with respect to the online collection and use of personal information from children under the age of 13, and provides important information regarding their rights under federal law with respect to such information.
This Site is not directed to children under the age of thirteen and we do NOT knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 as part of the Site. We screen users who wish to provide personal information in order to prevent users under the age of 13 from providing such information. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personally identifiable information from a user under the age of 13 as part of the Site, we will delete such information from our records.
Because we do not collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 via the Site, we also do NOT knowingly distribute such information to third parties.
We do NOT knowingly allow children under the age of 13 to publicly post or otherwise distribute personally identifiable contact information through the Site.
Because we do not collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 via the Site, we do NOT condition the participation of a child under 13 in the Site’s online activities on providing personally identifiable information.