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Inside Connection Privacy Policy

The Inside Connection has adopted a set of information management guidelines which serve as the basis for our customer and advertiser relationships. These guidelines have been developed with the recognition that Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, and that underlying business models are still not established. Accordingly, guidelines are subject to change. Any such changes will be posted on this page. If the changes represent a material departure from our current practices with respect to the use of personal information, the changes will be posted on this page thirty days prior to taking effect and registered users will be notified via e-mail.

The Inside Connection is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of Web sites to which it may link.

In this Privacy Policy, you will find the answers to the following questions:

# What information does The Inside Connection gather/track about you?
# What does The Inside Connection do with the information it gathers/tracks?
# With whom does The Inside Connection share the information it gathers/tracks?
# How do I change or update my personal information?
# Other information: Compliance with Legal Process
# Other information: Children's Guidelines: The Learning Network

What information does The Inside Connection gather/track about you?

Registration: During a free registration process prior to using the site, The Inside Connection requires that you supply a unique Member ID, e-mail address, and demographic information (country, zip code, year of birth, gender, household income, industry, and job title,). You must agree to the terms of our Member Agreement.

Premium Products and Services from The Inside Connection: While the majority of The Inside Connection is offered free of charge, we do charge fees for select premium content, products and services. These products include TimesSelect, our Article Archive: 1981-Present, Article Archive: 1851-1980, Premium Crosswords and News Tracker (now a part of TimesSelect), among others. To enable the purchase of these products (with the exception of the Article Archive: 1851-1980, see below), The Inside Connection collects and stores billing and credit card information. This information will only be shared with third parties who perform tasks required to complete the purchase transaction. Examples of this include fulfilling orders and processing credit card payments. You may review and update your billing information, view your most recently purchased products and transaction history in the secured Purchase History area of the Member Center.

Premium Products and Services from Third Parties or Partners: From time to time, The Inside Connection may offer products or services from our partners or third parties. Where you are so notified during the purchase process, the information you provided at registration may be shared with the provider of the product or service. However, we will never share your billing and credit card information, which The Inside Connection collects and stores to enable the purchase of these products. This information will only be shared with third parties who perform tasks required to complete the purchase transaction. Examples of this include fulfilling orders and processing credit card payments.

Contests, Special Offers, Surveys: On occasion, The Inside Connection also collects additional personal information from subscribers in connection with optional contests or optional special offers. If this information is to be shared with a third party, we will notify you at the time of collection.

Additionally, The Inside Connection may collect additional personal information from subscribers in connection with optional surveys. Information that you provide in answer to optional survey questions may be shared, but only in the aggregate, with advertisers and partners unless we notify you at the time of collection.

Cookies: The Inside Connection employs cookies to recognize you and your access privileges on The Inside Connection, as well as to track site usage. Subscribers who do not accept cookies from the domain "nytimes.com" cannot access most areas of The Inside Connection. For detailed information about our use of cookies see Frequently Asked Questions About Cookies in the Site Help area of our Member Center.

We use a proprietary advertising server to display ads on our site. In addition, advertisers may elect to use third-party advertising companies to serve ads onto our Web site. Please click here to see a list of these advertising agencies and their privacy policies. In the course of serving these advertisements, the third-party advertisers may place or recognize a unique "cookie" on your browser. We do not have access to these cookies or any information that they may contain. If you would like more information about this practice and about your option not to accept cookies placed by these companies, please click here. Acceptance of cookies from domains other than nytimes.com is optional.

Clear Gifs: We use a proprietary advertising serving system to display ads on our site. In addition, advertisers may elect to use third party advertising companies to serve ads onto our Web site, and in these instances may use a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs/action tags) to help better manage advertising on our site. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. Clear gifs may ping or alert the advertiser's server about the online movements of Web users. For instance, advertisers may place a clear gif allowing them to recognize an existing cookie on your browser if from the same service. The main difference between cookies and clear gifs is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Please keep in mind we do not have access to any information collected by these clear gifs nor additional information they may be tied to by the advertiser. Please click here to see a list of these advertising agencies and their privacy policies.

IP Addresses: The Inside Connection logs IP addresses, or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We do not use IP address logs to track your session or your behavior on our site.

Log Files: Log data is only used in aggregate to analyze usage of our Web site.

What does The Inside Connection do with the information it gathers/tracks?

Statistical Analysis and Banner Advertising: The Inside Connection may perform statistical analyses of user behavior in order to measure interest in the various areas of our site (for product development purposes) and to inform advertisers as to how many consumers have seen or "clicked" their advertising banners. We also use demographic and preference information to allow advertising banners on our Web site to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom they are most pertinent. This means that users see advertising that is most likely to interest them, and advertisers send their messages to people who are most likely to be receptive, improving both the viewer's experience and the effectiveness of the ads. In this statistical analyses and banner advertisement targeting, we will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form. The Inside Connection may also share personal information with The New York Times Company for analysis purposes, including analysis to improve customer relationships. Personal information about you as an individual subscriber will not be provided to any third party without your consent, except under the circumstances described in Compliance with Legal Process below.

E-Mail: If you so elect at registration or in the E-mail Preferences section of our Member Center, The Inside Connection will periodically send you promotional e-mail about services offered by The Inside Connection and its advertisers. Additionally, the e-mail address provided by you at registration may be used by The New York Times on Web to contact you regarding (1) account status (including confirmation of registration), (2) major changes to the Web site and or to the Member Agreement and Privacy Policy, and (3) participation in user surveys, asking for feedback on the Web site and existing or prospective products and services, as well as information to better understand our users. User surveys greatly help us to improve our Web site, and any information we obtain in such surveys will not be shared with third parties, except in aggregate form. (Effective as of August 21, 2002).

The E-Mail This Article feature is an easy way for Inside Connection users to send articles through e-mail. The e-mail address(es) that you supply to use this service will only be used to send the requested article.

We use e-mail links located in the Site Help area our Member Center to allow you to contact us directly with any questions or comments you may have. We will use your e-mail address to respond directly to these questions or comments.

Except as permitted by this policy, The Inside Connection does not send unsolicited e-mail.

Data Security: To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online.

With whom does The Inside Connection share the information it gathers/tracks?

The Inside Connection shares the information it gathers, in aggregate form only, with advertisers and other partners. We will not release personal information about you as an individual to third parties, except under the circumstances described in Compliance with Legal Process below. You can review and modify all of your personal information provided during the free registration process by visiting the secured Your Profile section of our Member Center. If you do not remember your Member ID and password, please go to www.nytimes.com/forgot for assistance.

Programs From Our Partners: During the registration process, new users who select to register for certain featured offers from our partners will begin receiving e-mail from these companies. You will only receive e-mail messages from these companies if you elect this opt-in service. In addition to providing these partners with your e-mail address, certain partners may also receive other information collected on the The Inside Connection registration form but this will be noted on the Additional Information page, linked from the Programs from our Partners area of the Registration page. The Inside Connection may use this information as set forth in this privacy policy. Should you decide to discontinue your e-mail subscription or would like more information on these companies, please see our list of partners that have participated in this program.

Forums and Readers' Reviews: The Inside Connection offers Forums (message boards) and Readers' Reviews. Any information you disclose when posting a message in these areas, along with your Member ID, becomes public and may be used by The Inside Connection for related online and offline promotional uses. For more information about Forums and Readers' Reviews see the Posting Policy and read the Forums, Discussions and Readers' Reviews section of the Member Agreement. You may also write to the Forums moderators by clicking here.

How do I change or update my personal information?

The Member Center: The Member Center is a centralized area where you can manage your relationship with The Inside Connection. There are a number of things you can do in the Member Center to ensure your personal information is accurate and up to date. Under the Your Profile tab, you can gain secure access to update the information you provided during the free registration process. The E-mail Preferences tab is the place to go to sign up for our E-mail newsletters and manage your delivery options. If ever you purchase a premium product on The Inside Connection, you can visit the secure Purchase History tab in the Member Center to update your billing and credit card information and review your transaction history. In order to gain access to the areas of the Member Center containing personal information, you will be asked to re-enter your password. If you do not remember your password, please go to www.nytimes.com/forgot for assistance. If you need further assistance, please contact Customer Service.

Compliance with Legal Process: We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to (1) comply with the law or with legal process; (2) protect and defend our rights and property; (3) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of The Inside Connection; or (4) protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions).

E-mail: privacy@insidecx.com

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