Terms of Use for Times-Shamrock Communications Web sites

 

Privacy Policy  | Opinion Posting Policy | About our ads


Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. Because we gather certain types of information about the users of Times-Shamrock Web sites, we feel you should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement(the"Statement") discloses the privacy practices for Times-Shamrock Web sites (the "Website") - what information we gather, how we use it and how to correct or change it. This Statement only addresses our activities from our servers. Other sites (including those to which the Web site links and third party sites providing services to Times-Shamrock Web sites) may have their own privacy policies and practices, which we do not control. Questions regarding this Statement should be e-mailed to [email protected].

General Privacy Information

Times-Shamrock's network of sites contain links to partners, advertisers and third party Internet sites and services who may collect data in connection with sweepstakes, promotions, e-commerce, etc. They each have separate privacy and data collection practices, independent of Times-Shamrock Web sites and Times-Shamrock Web sites have no responsibility or liability for these independent policies or actions and is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites. Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily and publicly disclose personal information on any online service or Web site- for example on message boards, through e-mail, or in chat areas - that information can be collected and used by others. In short, if you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. Further, while we strive to protect your personal information, Times-Shamrock Web sites cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. You are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you are online.

Use of Information


All of the information Times-Shamrock Web sites collect, both what you tell us and what we collect through the use of cookies, is "aggregated" - meaning that the information from many users is grouped together in a way that does not disclose the personal information of any particular user. We may use this aggregated information to evaluate which products and services are successful and which are not, and in order to evaluate which new services we should make available on our Web site. We may use only the anonymous click stream data to help our advertisers deliver better-targeted advertisements. Times-Shamrock Web sites will not disclose any information about any individual without the individual's consent, except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process. There may be some cases in which some of your personal information may be used by Times-Shamrock Web sites to target e-commerce promotions and telemarketing activities. In addition, it may be shared with Third Parties who assist Times-Shamrock Web sites in producing its Web sites or provide a service to Times-Shamrock Web sites' users.

Contacting the Web Site

If you have any questions about this Statement, the practices of Times-Shamrock Web sites with respect to personal information or your dealings with this Web site, you can contact The Times-Shamrock Interactive Media Department, or write to:

Interactive Media
Times-Shamrock Web sites
Attn: Privacy Statement
149 Penn Avenue
Scranton, PA 18503
Fax: 570-504-8201

Third Parties

Associated Press Terms and Conditions

Legacy.com Terms of Use and Privacy Policy


Times-Shamrock websites use the services of third-party network advertisers on its site. Network advertisers are third parties that attempt to show customized advertisements based on visits to this Website and unrelated Web sites of others by your computer or web browser. Click on links below for information about these companies [including any choices on participation in their service].


Registration

Anyone who participates in interactive activities (chat, message boards or opinion posting, contests, store and product purchase, membership program, classifieds) on Times-Shamrock's network of Web sites may be asked to register for a free guest ID and password or to complete subscription registration for a member ID and password. We use customer contact information from this registration form to send the user information about our company and promotional material from some of our partners. Financial information that is collected is used to bill the user for products and services. The customer's contact information is also used to contact the visitor when necessary for customer service reasons. Users may opt out of receiving future mailings; please reference your Personal Options. Unique identifier such as ID and passwords, are collected to verify the user's identity and for use as account numbers in our record system.

Children Under the Age of 13

We do not currently collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen. Under certain circumstances, visitors may be asked to submit a screen name as a means of identifying communications to Times-Shamrock Web sites
Children of any age should always ask a parent for permission before sending personal information to anyone online.

If in the future, Times-Shamrock Web sites collect personally identifiable information from children, it will do so in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501 et seq.).

Cookies

A cookie is a small data file that certain Web sites write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you've visited. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. Generally, cookies work by assigning a unique number to the user that has no meaning outside the assigning site. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. This random number lets us keep track of "how many" times customers are doing specific things - like visiting our site each month - without really knowing who those customers are. We also use cookies to keep track of your shopping cart and to make sure you don't see the same ad repeatedly. We use cookies to deliver content specific to your interests and to save your member ID. Additionally, after you've entered your member ID and password during a session on our service, we save that information so you don't have to reenter it repeatedly during that session.

Users shouldbe aware that Times-Shamrock Web sites cannot control the use of cookies or the resulting information by advertisers or third parties hosting data for Times-Shamrock Web sites. If a user does not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows the user to deny or accept the cookie feature; however, users should note that cookies may be necessary to provide the user with certain features (e.g., customized delivery of information available on the Times-Shamrock network of Web sites).

Surveys

Our online surveys ask visitors for their e-mail address and demographic information. Demographic and profile data is also collected at our site. We use this data to tailor our visitors experience at our site, showing them content and promotional offers that we think they might be interested in, and displaying the content according to their preferences. This information is shared with advertisers only on an aggregate basis. We may use contact data from our surveys to send the user information about our company and promotional material from Times-Shamrock websites or some of our partners. Users may opt out of receiving future mailings in Personal Options.

Contests

We run contests on our sites in which we ask visitors for Times-Shamrock Web sites ID and password. We use contact data from our contests to send users information about upcoming contests and promotional offers. On occasion we will e-mail customers promotional material from some of our partners. The customer's contact information is also used to contact the visitor when necessary for winner notification and prize delivery confirmation. The majority of the contests that we offer are hosted on Times-Shamrock sites; however, there may be cases in which a third party sponsor will host the contest and collect user information. In those cases, we urge users to review the privacy statement of the third party site. Users may opt out of receiving future mailings in Personal Options.

Changes

Times-Shamrock Web sites reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy without notice. In the event of a change of this policy, procedures will be developed for users to opt-out or otherwise prohibit any future use of their individually identifiable information that is not currently covered under this policy.

ABOUT OUR ADS

Times-Shamrock Communications participates in the APT from Yahoo! platform and Yahoo! is an ad network partner to display ads on our sites. To improve your ad experience on Times-Shamrock Communication sites and elsewhere on the Internet, we may send non-personal information to Yahoo! based on your browser�s activities, such as type of pages viewed and categories of interests, so that the advertising you see is relevant to you. Yahoo! also may use information regarding its own users to select which ads to display. Learn more about Yahoo!�s ad practices, including how to opt out of using anonymous information to select which ads to show you. Yahoo! is a member of the Network Advertising Initiative.

OPINION POSTING POLICY
Updated: 4-22-09

Times Shamrock Communications Posting & Opinions policy

By entering any opinion, posting or other user generated content you are agreeing to be bound by these conditions and terms. Please read carefully!

Any individual posting a message, music file, recording of any kind, photo, video or opinion in a public guest book, forum, opinion posting area or any other area is the sole author of and is exclusively and entirely responsible for the opinions and statements in the posted message. Times Shamrock and its affiliates disclaim all responsibility for the content of such messages, postings, community generated content and are acting merely as an impartial conduit for constitutionally protected free speech and as a provider of an interactive computer service.

While the administrators and moderators of this user generated content or postings will attempt to remove any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums, opinions posted and user generated content express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators, Scranton Times LLP or its affiliates and parent company or companies or webmaster and hence will not be held liable.

You agree not to post, email, or otherwise make available Content:

that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, pornographic, libelous, or invasive of another's privacy, or harms minors in any way; 
that harasses, degrades, intimidates or is hateful toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability; 
that purports to be from any person or entity, including but not limited to a Provider employee, or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with a person or entity; 
that includes personal or identifying information about another person without that person's explicit consent. 
that is false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, mis-informative, or constitutes "bait and switch"; 
that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party, or Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships. 
that advertises any illegal services or the sale of any items the sale of which is prohibited or restricted by applicable law, including without limitation items the sale of which is prohibited or regulated by law 
that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment; 
that disrupts the normal flow of dialogue with an excessive number of messages (flooding attack) to the Service, or that otherwise negatively affects other users' ability to use the Service; or 
that employs misleading email addresses, or forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of Content transmitted through the Service. 
Additionally, you agree not to: 
contact anyone who has asked not to be contacted; 
"stalk" or otherwise harass anyone; 
collect personal data about other users for commercial or unlawful purposes; use automated means, including scripts, spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from or upload data to the Service; 
post irrelevant Content, repeatedly post the same or similar Content or otherwise impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure; 
attempt to gain unauthorized access to Provider�s computer systems or any other user's computer systems, or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of, the Service

Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

This system may uses cookies to store information on your local computer. These cookies do not contain any of the information you have entered above; they serve only to improve your viewing pleasure. If an e-mail address collected it is used only for confirming your registration details and password.

Under no circumstances will Scranton Times LLP or its affiliates and parent company, Times-Shamrock Communications, be liable in any way for any content or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any content posted in any forum or opinion posting area, or otherwise made available on the site. You acknowledge that Provider shall have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to refuse, delete or move any Content that is available via the Site, for violating the letter or spirit of the Terms or for any other reason. Scranton Times LLP or its affiliates and parent company, Times-Shamrock Communications reserves the right to delete any posting, message or photograph at any time, for any reason or no reason.

By entering any opinion, posting or other user generated content you are agreeing to be bound by these conditions and terms.

 

Times-Shamrock Communications Web Sites:

Times-Tribune Citizens' Voice  The Pottsville Republican