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AccuWeather.com Alert™ Privacy Statement

AccuWeather wants to assure that visitors and users of AccuWeather sites, including http://www.accuweather.com/, are provided with appropriate information and choice mechanisms to make and implement informed decisions on providing Personally Identifiable Information ("PII"). We want you to know that AccuWeather is committed to safeguarding your privacy online. As AccuWeather expands its offerings, we will update our privacy practices to address these. Please check this page on a regular basis for updates to this Privacy Statement. THIS SITE, AND THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH THIS SITE, ARE NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.

  1. What We Collect About You. AccuWeather collects information on this site during the registration process for business purposes that will allow us to better and more efficiently serve you. Our personalization, interactive communications, online commerce and other types of services, allow us to deliver better service and content that is relevant to our Subscriber base. Some uses AccuWeather makes of this information are processing and verifying subscriptions, billing, and providing you with up-to-date information on the newest AccuWeather Products.

    You may be asked to provide information that personally identifies you or allows AccuWeather or its Providers to contact you. Generally this information is requested when you are asked to register for fee-based services, although some free Products and services may also require registration. When required, you will be asked to provide your name, address, zip/postal code, email address, and country of origin (collectively "Personally Identifiable Information" or "PII"), as well as select a username and password (if one is not selected for you by AccuWeather). As a registered Subscriber, you will be able to download software, enter contests, order e-mail newsletters or participate in additional services. In addition to the PII obtained at registration, you may be asked for information at other times, such as when you make a purchase or register for a service on or through AccuWeather.com, when you submit a listing for a web site, or when you report a problem with one of our sites or services. However, whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online - for example on message boards, through email, or in chat areas - that information can be collected and used by others.

    If you contact AccuWeather we may keep a record of that correspondence, and may further prompt you for further information, depending on the nature of the contact. We may also occasionally ask that you voluntarily participate in certain promotions, surveys or contests ("Special Programs"), or enable automatic entry into such Special Programs via log-on entries. At such times, AccuWeather may disclose your PII to sponsors of the Special Program, but this will be specifically described to you prior to transferring the data. Special Programs may also be subject to additional or different terms, or may be shared or used in a slightly different way. If different terms do apply, details of the specific terms and conditions or rules for these Special Programs will be provided by posting to the AccuWeather site or upon registration for the Special Program, on a case-by-case basis, subject to AccuWeather's Terms For Sharing PII.

    To the extent unique information, which is not in itself PII, such as personal profile, anonymous identifier(s), demographic information, behavioral information, IP address and traffic data, is associated with PII, then such unique information shall also be considered PII. PII does NOT include information that is collected anonymously (i.e. without identification of the individual user) or demographic or behavioral information that is not connected to or correlated with an identified individual.


  2. Why We Want to Know. It's important for us to know our customers. We deliver valuable Products and services, and in the free areas of the Site, it's without asking for anything in return from our visitors. We are only able to accomplish this through the use of advertisers to produce the income we need to operate the free areas of the Site. Advertisers are like most businesses - they want something in return for the money they spend advertising on our Site. The want to know how many people will see their ad, and how often. The advertising companies may use information (not including PII) about your visits to this and other web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. These companies may also employ, among other things, Cookies and Web Beacons in furtherance of their services to AccuWeather.


  3. Vendors and Third Party Providers. To make our Site more valuable to our customers and our visitors, we may offer some Products, services or features in conjunction with Providers. AccuWeather.com Desktop, as well as many wireless Products, for example, may be made available through cooperative arrangements with Providers who offer specialized products, information or services that work well with AccuWeather Products. In some instances, our Providers will have the same access to your PII as we do. Their use of the information will be subject to the terms of their respective privacy policies or statements, which you can find on their websites.


  4. Links to Provider Sites. Occasionally, you may seek access to certain products and/or services on AccuWeather.com that is only available through third parties, either through their own web sites or on web sites hosted by or linked to AccuWeather. When ordering, registering for or purchasing products or services from these Providers, you may at times be entering into an agreement with that Provider, and not with AccuWeather, and supplemental Provider Terms may apply. You should read and understand the Providers' terms of use and policies before using their site or entering into agreements with them, since they may differ substantially from this Privacy Statement and other applicable AccuWeather Terms and Conditions. AccuWeather is not responsible for and does not endorse or accept any responsibility over the contents or use of the Provider sites, and is not responsible for webcasting or any other form of transmission received from any linked or hosted site. You should contact our Providers directly should you have any questions or concerns relating to the terms of use and privacy policies of our Providers' web sites.


  5. Cookies. AccuWeather.com was designed to utilize cookies for optimal Subscriber performance. Cookie preferences can be found under "Edit/Preferences/Advanced" (Netscape Communicator 7), "Tools/Internet options/Security/Custom Level" (Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 PC) or "Edit/Preferences/Receiving Files/Cookies" (Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 Mac). Generally speaking, you can modify browser preferences to accept all cookies, be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all cookies, you may be unable to use many of AccuWeather's Products and services. Some sections of the Site will require that you log on in order continue to use specific goods or services offered through our network, because we do not want cookies to replace security measures that you would otherwise take for yourself and your data. Some of these services include certain software applications and fee-based services, and some Internet activities that require more than an IP Address to continue.


  6. Web Beacons. Web beacons may also be found on the AccuWeather.com website. Web beacons are used to monitor user navigation to tailor the Site to our Subscribers' preferences and enhance the site's offerings. For a thorough description of web beacons and their uses, please click here.


  7. Security. Anytime a credit card is requested for processing orders through the Site, the user transaction containing the credit card information is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. SSL provides strong encryption to all digital information as it crosses the Internet. While on a secure page, such as on order forms, the lock button on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to unlocked or open when you are just surfing or in other areas of the Site. To learn more about SSL, click here.


  8. Age / Use by Minor. AccuWeather does not intend to collect any personally identifiable information from children through our websites. Please do not allow children under the age of 18 to provide any personally identifiable information, ask questions or participate in chat rooms related to our websites. If we are notified that a child under 18 has provided personal information, we will delete that information as soon as reasonably possible. If you become aware that a child under 18 has provided such information, please send us a detailed email at cac@accuweather.com so we can delete this information.


  9. Password Security Access to certain portions of the Site located on AccuWeather.com is password-protected so that you and only you will have access to the Site as a Subscriber. It may be necessary for AccuWeather, its employees, contractors or Providers working on behalf of AccuWeather to access the Site using your Subscriber information to provide you with support or to perform certain maintenance tasks. This access happens on an as-needed basis only.


  10. Electronic Product Registration. When you access or install a new product, you may be asked to register electronically. Your registration information will be merged with any information you've already provided ("Profile"). If you haven't previously registered within the AccuWeather.com site, a Profile may be created for you from your product registration information. If you haven't already registered by giving us your PII, you will be asked to do so to ensure that only you can access the product or services. Upon satisfactory completion of your registration information, AccuWeather authorizes Subscriber to access and use AccuWeather.com and its Products and services subject to the Terms and Conditions and this Privacy Statement. Subscriber shall maintain the confidentiality of any user name and password. If there is a breach of the confidentiality of a password or user name assigned to Subscriber, or any breach of security through Subscriber's account, then Subscriber shall so notify AccuWeather's customer assistance center immediately by contacting AccuWeather at cac@accuweather.com.


  11. TERMS FOR SHARING PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION
    In special circumstances, AccuWeather may opt to access or disclose PII when there is reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating AccuWeather's Terms and Conditions, this Privacy Statement, any applicable.asp"> End User License Agreement, Provider or Subscription Terms, or when there is reason to believe an individual may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) AccuWeather's rights or property, other AccuWeather.com users, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. AccuWeather may then opt to disclose or access PII in good faith in circumstances where the law requires it, and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our Products and services. AccuWeather may also be requested to disclose PII to law enforcement authorities or as may be required by court-ordered subpoena.

    From time to time, we may share data regarding the Subscribers and use of our services (for example, 10% of our users are within a certain specialty industry, or Subscribers who choose one type of service request a related or similar service 38% of the time, etc.), and we may also combine a Subscriber's use and purchasing habits through AccuWeather.com and our Providers' sites to create a personalized user profile so we can tailor the site to our Subscribers' preferences and enhance the site's offerings (hereinafter "User Data"). There may also be other instances where AccuWeather has determined sharing User Data with third parties would maximize AccuWeather's ability to better serve Subscribers. Should this occur, no PII will be included in these types of statistics.

    Since we use outside vendors to ship Products or perform customized products and/or services offered or accessed through AccuWeather.com or our Providers' sites, and a credit card processing company to bill some Subscribers for goods and services, we may need to disclose PII to complete certain business transactions. Subscribers may also require that we bill for services via invoicing, purchase order, or through Providers, such as mobile/wireless carriers or internet storefronts. Under these circumstances, we may be required to share the Subscriber's PII to obtain a credit report with a reporting agency or to complete the order processing to serve the Subscriber. We have asked that these companies do not retain, share, store or use PII for any secondary purposes.

    AccuWeather is in the business of providing and hosting weather information products, services, and other related products and services as a service to our Subscribers, customers and clients. As such, Subscriber information is also considered, in laymen's terms, a "customer list", and as such, is a valuable asset to any company subject to legal protection and regulation under federal and state laws as a property interest. Accordingly, Subscriber information will be subject to all customary rights and protections afforded to property owners under these laws. Such rights customarily include the right to transfer the information during the sale of assets to or merger with third parties, and to routinely share such information with affiliates of AccuWeather.

    Excepting PII collected during the purchasing or registration process, information and data you provide may be used by AccuWeather or Providers to, among other things, retrieve or create the product or service that you have requested. Please be advised that this information may be stored by AccuWeather or its Providers as "preferences" or otherwise and used without restriction. Further, all information submitted is and becomes the exclusive property of AccuWeather and by submitting material to AccuWeather, you accept responsibility for its accuracy, appropriateness and legality. Other than as set out above you will receive notice when information about you might go to third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.

If for some reason you believe that AccuWeather has not adhered to these stated principles, please notify us at terms@accuweather.com, and we will do our best to determine and correct the problem promptly. Your concerns should be detailed in a communication including enough identifying information to permit someone to contact you, in case further information is required to troubleshoot your concerns. Be certain the words "AccuWeather Privacy Statement" are included in the Subject line. Further resolution of your concerns will be governed by the Terms and Conditions applicable to this site.

Version date: August 1, 2005
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Read our Privacy Statement and Terms & Conditions.