Privacy Policy

Your access to, and use of, www.post-gazette.com ("Site") is subject to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Terms of Use (www.post-gazette.com/termsofuse.asp). The Post-Gazette has created this Privacy Policy to explain what information we gather from you when you visit our Site, how we may use this information, and the security approaches we use to protect your information. This Privacy Policy is incorporated and made part of the Post-Gazette's Terms of Use.

By using this Site, you consent to the collection and use of your information by the Post-Gazette in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page. Policy changes will apply to information collected after the date of the change.

1. What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you register on the Site, submit comments, photographs or other materials on the Site, place an order, or participate in another Site feature.

When signing up for, or registering to make submissions or otherwise use specific services, we may ask you for your name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, credit card information or other information. You may, however, view our Site without providing such information.
When participating in certain activities, such as commenting on a particular article, participating in an online chat, or otherwise sending messages through our web site, the comments, information, thoughts or ideas you provide may be published on the Site at the sole discretion of the Post-Gazette.
We use IP addresses and session identifiers to analyze trends, to administer the Site, to track user activities, to infer user interests, and to otherwise induce, deduce, and gather information about individual users and market segments.
Like many web sites, we use "cookies" to enhance your experience and gather information about visitors and visits to our Site. Please refer to the "Do we use 'cookies'?" section below for information about cookies and how we use them.

2. How do we use your information?

We may use the information we collect from you when you register, submit comments, photographs or other materials, purchase products, surf the Site, or use other Site features in the following ways:

To recognize you, personalize your Site experience and allow us to deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you are most interested.
To allow us to better service you in responding to your submissions and requests.
To quickly process your submissions and transactions.
To administer blogs, chats, or other Site features.

3. Do we disclose the information we collect to outside parties?

Comments, email and chat session participation. If you respond with information including feedback and data, such as questions, comments, suggestions, names, town of residence, or the like, such information is deemed to be non-confidential and we have no obligation of any kind with respect to such information and we are free to reproduce, use, disclose and distribute the information to any third party without limitation. We are free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques contained in such information for any purpose whatsoever including but not limited to writing and publishing articles and other materials incorporating such information.
Non-personal information. We may use third- party advertising companies to serve ads. Such companies may also gather non-personally identifiable information about Site visitation patterns so that we can continue to improve our web site and use such information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visit to this web site in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to you.
Order information. Information provided to the Post-Gazette as part of the ordering process is not generally provided to outside parties provided that for credit card transactions, a third-party financial institution may receive the credit card number and other personal identifying information, like billing address, to verify the credit card numbers and process transactions and web site hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our Site, conducting our business, or servicing you, may have access to such information and agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our Site policies, or protect ours or others' rights, property, or safety.

4. Correction/Updating Personal Information

You can correct or update your personally identifiable information by re-registering or by contacting us by electronic-mail webmaster@post-gazette.com or by telephone 412 263 1100.

5. Cookies

This Site uses cookies. "Cookies" are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. For instance, we use cookies to help us confirm your registration and process the items in your shopping cart. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

In the course of serving advertisements to this Site, our third-party advertiser may place or recognize a unique “cookie” on your browser. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by this company, please click here.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser (e.g. Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer) settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies. If you turn cookies off, you won't have access to many features that make your Site experience more efficient and some of our services will not function properly.

6. Safeguarding Information

The Post-Gazette follows generally accepted industry security standards to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security and correctly use personal information. However, no commercial method of information transfer over the Internet or electronic data storage is known to be 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of that information during its transmission or its storage in our systems.

7. Privacy and Third-Party Links

This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by our Site. In an attempt to provide you with increased value, we may include third-party links on our Site. These linked sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our Site and welcome any feedback about these linked sites (including if a specific link does not work).

8. Online Policy Only

This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected through our Site and not to information collected by us offline.

9. Questions and feedback

We welcome your questions, comments, and concerns about this Site. Please send any and all feedback pertaining to this Site to webmaster@post-gazette.com.

10. Your California Privacy Rights

Under California’s "Shine the Light" law, California residents who provide personal information in obtaining products or services for personal, family or household use are entitled to request and obtain from us, once per calendar year, information about the customer information we shared, if any, with other businesses for their own direct marketing uses. If applicable, this information would include the categories of customer information and the names and addresses of those businesses with which we shared customer information for the immediately prior calendar year (e.g. requests made in 2009 will receive information regarding 2008 sharing activities).

To obtain this information from the Post-Gazette, please send an email message to webmaster@post-gazette.com with "Request for California Privacy Information" on the subject line and in the body of your message. We will provide the requested information to you at your e-mail address in response. Not all information sharing is covered by the "Shine the Light" requirements and only information on covered sharing will be included in our response.