Privacy Policy
A privacy policy should answer six questions: what data is involved, why it is needed, who sees it, where it goes, how long it lasts, and what say you have in the matter. This Privacy Policy for the platform is organized around those six questions.
Two general points apply throughout. First, the platform may lack some of the features mentioned. A reference to accounts, public postings, analytics, or advertising is relevant only if the platform has that feature. Second, the legal references are conditional. This Privacy Policy is intended to address applicable privacy and data-protection requirements, among them the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK GDPR and applicable UK data-protection legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA), other U.S. state privacy laws, cookie and electronic communications rules, and other national, state, or regional privacy regulations, where those laws apply. Their application depends on your location, the platform's activities, the type of information, and the technologies in use.
What: The Data Involved
Data generated by your visit
Your device and browser disclose certain facts when they connect to the platform, and we may log them. These are your IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, the referring URL, the pages you visit, and the date and time of your visits. General geographic information can be derived from the IP address. Where cookies and similar technologies or analytics tools are active, they may produce cookie data and analytics information.
Data you hand over
We collect contact form information when you write to us. We collect registration or account information if registration is available and you sign up. We collect the content you submit for publication, listings, bookmarks, press releases, directories, comments, profiles, or similar functionality, if the platform provides it.
Kinds of content users may submit
Where the feature is provided, submissions may include:
- Articles and press releases
- Business listings and directory listings
- URLs, website submissions, and bookmarks
- Comments and profiles
- Business information and contact information
- Images, documents, and other content
Data we would rather not receive
Please do not send sensitive information through public submission forms. This covers government identification numbers, financial account credentials, medical information, and other highly sensitive personal details. The exception is information that is specifically requested and necessary.
Why: The Purposes
We may use data for the purposes below, where applicable to the platform:
- Running the platform: operating and maintaining it and providing its functionality
- Handling contributions: processing submissions, reviewing content, publishing approved content, and managing listings
- Communicating: responding to inquiries
- Protecting: preventing spam, fraud, and abuse, and maintaining security
- Learning: analytics, performance measurement, understanding usage, and improving functionality
- Complying: meeting legal and regulatory requirements and enforcing platform policies
- Advertising, where applicable
Legal bases
Some jurisdictions, including those under the GDPR and UK GDPR, require a legal basis for each use of personal information. The bases we may rely on are consent, performance of a contract, legitimate interests, and compliance with legal obligations. The one that applies depends on the specific processing activity.
Cookies and what they are for
The platform may use essential cookies, functional cookies, analytics cookies, advertising cookies, and third-party cookies, along with pixels, tags, and similar tracking technologies. The set actually in use varies from one website to another. You can manage cookies in your browser settings, with cookie controls on the platform where available, and through consent management mechanisms where applicable.
Analytics
We may use third-party analytics services to understand how visitors interact with the platform and to improve its performance.
Advertising
The platform may carry third-party advertising, though many websites do not. Where it does, advertising partners and advertising networks may use advertising cookies, device identifiers, and other advertising technologies. Advertising can be contextual or personalized, and personalized advertising includes interest-based advertising. You may have advertising choices, including opt-out mechanisms required by applicable law.
Who: The People and Organizations That May See Data
The public
If you submit content for public display, the audience is potentially everyone. Published content may be accessible to all visitors of the platform, indexed and cached by search engines, viewed by third parties, shared through external websites, and copied or redistributed beyond our control. For this reason you should not submit confidential, private, or sensitive personal information in content intended for publication.
Service providers
The platform may use hosting providers, analytics providers, advertising providers, security services, spam-prevention tools, content delivery networks, embedded media providers, social media services, technical service providers, and other vendors. These third parties may process information in accordance with their own privacy policies and legal obligations.
Advisers and authorities
Where applicable and legally permitted, we may disclose information to professional advisers and to legal authorities, courts, regulators, and law enforcement.
Successors
Information may be disclosed to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, restructuring, sale, or transfer of assets, where legally permitted.
Sale or sharing
Certain laws classify some disclosures as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information, even when no money changes hands. If activities conducted through the platform fall into either class under applicable law, eligible users may have the right to opt out.
Operators of linked websites
The platform may contain links to external websites, including in articles, press releases, directory entries, bookmarks, and listings. If you follow a link and provide information there, the operator of that website receives it. We do not control the privacy practices of external websites. They have their own privacy policies, and you should review them first.
Where: Location of Processing
The platform and its service providers may operate in more than one country. Your information may therefore be processed, stored, or transferred in a country other than the one you live in, where data-protection rules may differ. Where applicable, legally required safeguards may be used for international transfers.
How Long: Retention
We may retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary. What is necessary depends on the purpose, which may be providing functionality, processing submissions, maintaining published content, administration, security, fraud prevention, recordkeeping, legal obligations, resolving disputes, or enforcing agreements.
Security during retention
While information is held, reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards may be used to protect it. We cannot guarantee security. No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
Your Say: Rights and Choices
Your rights depend on applicable law. They may be subject to exceptions and may require us to verify your identity.
European rights under the GDPR
- Access to your personal information
- Correction or rectification
- Deletion or erasure
- Restriction of processing
- Objection to processing
- Data portability
- Withdrawal of consent
- A complaint to an appropriate supervisory authority
UK rights
The UK GDPR and applicable UK data-protection legislation may give you matching rights, as well as the right to complain to the UK supervisory authority.
California rights
Where the CCPA and CPRA apply, you may have the right to know, the right to access, the right to correct, the right to delete, the right to opt out of the sale of personal information where applicable, the right to opt out of sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising where applicable, the right to limit certain uses or disclosures of sensitive personal information where applicable, and the right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights.
Rights in other U.S. states
Residents of certain U.S. states may have privacy rights under their state laws, depending on place of residence, applicability thresholds, the platform's activities, and applicable law.
Browser signals
Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals may be recognized where required by applicable law. Do Not Track signals have no agreed standard, and the platform may not respond to them unless the law requires.
How to make a request
Requests about access, correction, deletion, data portability, restriction, objection, consent withdrawal, advertising opt-outs, sale or sharing opt-outs, and other legally available privacy rights should be submitted through the Contact Us page on the platform. We may need to verify your identity and may ask for additional information. Some requests may be subject to legal exceptions. Authorized agents may be accommodated where required by applicable law.
Children
The platform is not intended to knowingly collect personal information from children below the age required by applicable law. A parent or guardian who believes a child has submitted personal information may contact us through the Contact Us page.
Updates
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically because of changes in functionality, data-processing practices, technologies, cookies, third-party services, business practices, applicable laws, or regulatory requirements. The revised Privacy Policy will be posted on the platform. It becomes effective when published on the platform and remains in effect until replaced.
Contact
For any matter concerning privacy, personal information, your rights, a privacy request, or this Privacy Policy, please write to us using the Contact Us page on the platform.