Newspapers.com Privacy Statement

Last updated on November 18, 2012

Our Privacy Commitment

Ancestry is committed to helping you protect your privacy by providing you with an environment in which you have trust and confidence when you disclose and share your personally identifiable information ("Personal Information"). As part of our commitment to you, we have developed this Privacy Statement to describe how we gather and use the information we receive. Please review the information below to familiarize yourself with our policies.

  1. BY USING THIS WEBSITE YOU AGREE TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION BEING USED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS STATEMENT

    By using this Website, you agree to the transfer, collection, processing, use, storage and disclosure of your Personal Information by Ancestry.com Operations Inc. (the corporation that owns and operates Newspapers.com (the "Website")), its group companies, contracted third parties and agents (collectively "Ancestry", "we", "us" or "our"), in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Statement.

    This Privacy Statement should be read in conjunction with the Newspapers.com Terms of Use. Capitalized terms in this Statement if not defined have the meaning given to them in the Terms of Use.

  2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

    We will only collect information that we believe is necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as improving the functionality of our Website, marketing our products, meeting the needs of our customers and ensuring that confidential information remains appropriately protected. Additionally, we will maintain reasonable procedures to ensure that we protect the Personal Information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Statement.

    Here is a list of the types of Personal Information that we may collect:

    • Name, Contact Information & Payment Details: Ancestry and its agents receive and store personally identifiable information you provide to us or that is provided to us on your behalf. You submit Personal Information when you register to become a Subscriber. Ancestry may acquire additional Personal Information and link it with your account when we process financial transactions on your behalf. Although Visitors are not required to submit any Personal Information in order to access the Website, Visitors who submit Personal Information are no longer anonymous. Personal Information collected by Ancestry may include any of the following: names, email addresses, home addresses, home phone numbers, credit card information, financial information, and other information that relates to an identified or identifiable natural person including age and gender. You may choose not to provide certain information, but such a choice may limit the features, products, and services available to you. Ancestry will treat all personally identifiable data as Personal Information and will not sell contact information or other data that can be traced back to specific users without their consent.
    • Email Addresses & Correspondence: We respect your privacy and your time, so we will send you emails that we believe will be pertinent and interesting to you. If you do not wish to receive emails or other mail from us, you may change your email preference by accessing your Account Details, unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of each email we send to you, or you may send us an email to that effect at support@newspapers.com. If you choose to correspond with us via email or other electronic means of communication, we may collect, store and process this information into a file specific to you.
    • Your Background and Interests: As a Subscriber of the Website, you can also choose to share further information about yourself, your background and interests with other Subscribers. The amount and type of profile information you share in this way is entirely your choice. Information about some of your activity on the Website, such as historical records you clip or save, may also be shared with other Subscribers in order to help you connect with others researching similar topics. Access your Account Details for more information on how you can edit or control what you allow other Users to see about you and your Website activity in Your Profile Page or other places on the Website.
    • Information about You and Others: You may also provide us with additional personal information about yourself and others in the course of doing your or others' research on our Website, e.g., sharing a record with someone through our Service.
    • Your Opinions and Comments: If you participate in discussions, or communications between us or between you and other Subscribers, we may collect, store and process this information into a file specific to you.

    • Your Use of the Website: While you use our Website, we may collect information based on your interaction with our Website or from the devices or computers you use to access the Websites, including web log information, page views, IP addresses, geographic location (if detectable from a mobile device) all on an anonymous basis.

  3. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

    Subject to the restrictions described in this Privacy Statement and applicable law, we may use Personal Information for any reasonable purpose related to the business, including to communicate with you, to provide you with products and services, to respond to your requests, to update our product offerings, to improve the content and User experience on the Website, and to prepare demographic, benchmarking, advertising, marketing, and promotional studies. In particular we may use your Personal Information as follows:

    • To provide the Service: Our goal is to provide you with the most personalised, relevant, user-friendly experience possible. We primarily use of all your personal information to provide you with relevant information such as appropriate search results, information about content releases or other user's activity. Ancestry will also use Visitor information to let you know about new features or other offers of interest from Ancestry, or to address customer service needs and requests. In order to fulfil the purposes for which you have provided the personal information, such as processing your subscription. So that you get the most out of the Service and great functionality we will also use your personal information to provide product and Website updates and newsletters, for your public profile etc. Access your 'Account Details' to learn how you can opt out or change your settings.
    • To verify your identity: To verify and carry out financial transactions relating to payments you make online.
    • For internal business purposes: For internal business purposes, such as data analysis, carrying out internal research on how our Website is used, audits, developing new products and services, improving our services, identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of promotional campaigns.
    • To send you emails: Ancestry may send electronic mail to you for the purpose of informing you of changes or additions to the Website or of any Website-related products and services. If you do not want to continue to receive such mailings, you may opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe link listed in the e-mail or by amending your 'Communication Settings' in the 'Account Details' section of our Website.
    • To distribute advertiser or sponsor messages: Ancestry does not sell, rent or otherwise distribute the Personal Information you provide us to advertisers unless you have given us your consent to do so. Advertisers may request that their advertising message be shown to select types of users by using aggregated demographic information. In this case, Ancestry then displays the ad to appropriate users based on the criteria specified in the order. In this context, we may work with third party service providers and advertisers who will arrange for targeted ad displays to you (which involves cookie placement — as discussed in more detail below).

    • To showcase your contributions: We often wish to highlight our Subscriber's contributions to the Website and may include your contribution in a highlighted section of the Website. When we do so, we will attribute your contribution and provide a link to Your Profile.

  4. WHEN WE DISCLOSE INFORMATION TO OTHERS

    We may disclose Personal Information in limited situations to our affiliated companies, agents and contracted parties such as service providers for the purpose of processing such information on behalf of Ancestry. Ancestry is responsible for the management of the jointly used Personal Information. In addition, as our business continues to evolve, in the event that Ancestry is acquired by or merged into a third-party entity, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer and assign the information we have collected from our Users, in whole or in part, as part of such merger, acquisition, sale or other change of control. In the event of bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization or receivership, assignment for the benefit of creditors or any other equitable or legal action involving creditor's rights, we may not be able to control how your personal information is treated, transferred or used, and you hereby consent to such transfers.

    We require where necessary that these parties process the information in compliance with our Privacy Statement. We use reasonable efforts to make sure such information is secure and to limit others' use of such information. See "Data Security" section below for more information. Despite the steps that we take, we cannot guarantee that in all instances Personal Information will not be disclosed. We reserve the right to disclose Personal Information under the following circumstances:

    • When required to do so by law or court order, or to comply with a discovery request, subpoena or search warrant. For example (and without limitation), we may disclose Personal Information in connection with investigations by law enforcement personnel or tax officials or in connection with inquiries by government administrative officials or regulators.
    • With your knowledge and/or any relevant consents.

    • When we conclude, in good faith, that disclosure is necessary to enforce our Terms of Use, to take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend ourselves against third-party claims or allegations, to protect the security or integrity of the Website, and to protect the rights, property or safety of Ancestry and its Users or any other person.

  5. NON PERSONAL INFORMATION, IP ADDRESSES AND COOKIES

    Aggregate Information: Through our contracts with third-party service providers, we use technology that lets us know what type of browser you are using, the website from which you enter the Website, and the pages you view as you visit the Website. This technology helps us compile aggregated statistics about our Users and their use of the Website. We use these statistics to improve the design and content of the Website and to prepare and deliver our marketing programs. We also aggregate Personal Information to provide non-personally identifiable information for sale to other businesses. This "Aggregate Information" does not contain any personally identifiable information and is used for demographic studies, benchmarking, and other advertising and marketing purposes. Aggregate Information cannot be traced back to specific users by third parties other than third parties who are acting as our agents, in which case those agents will have in place privacy policies that comply with the principles and objectives of this Privacy Statement.

    "Cookies": Through our contracts with third-party service providers, we use technology such as "cookies" and "web beacons" on the Website to help us analyze the use of our Website. "Cookies" are small files placed on your hard drive that allow us to monitor the web traffic patterns on our Website and to compile data for various reports. Cookies also allow your computer to remember certain information that you have already entered so that you do not have to reenter it. We use both "session" cookies and "persistent" cookies. Session cookies remain in the cookie file of your browser until you leave the Website. Persistent cookies remain in your cookie file for a much longer period of time, depending on the lifetime of the specific cookie. You may be able to configure your browser to accept or reject all or some cookies—you should check the "Help" menu on your browser to learn about setting your cookie preferences. However, some features on the Website are only available through the use of cookies. We use web beacons—a small image that accesses our cookies—to tell us, for example, whether a User opened an email from us or opened an advertisement placed on our site. Please note that Ancestry allows third-party advertisers that are presenting advertisements on our pages to set and access their cookies on your computer. These advertisers may also use their own web beacons. The advertisers' use of cookies and web beacons is subject to their own privacy policies, not this Privacy Statement.

    You can erase or block cookies from your computer if you want to (your help screen or manual should tell you how to do this), but certain or our services may not work correctly or at all if you set your browser not to accept cookies. To learn more about cookies, please click www.allaboutcookies.org.

    Because non-personal information does not personally identify you, we may use such non-personal information for any purpose. In addition, we reserve the right to share such non-personal information, with other third parties, for any purpose. In some instances, we may combine non-personal information with personal information (such as combining your name with your geographical location). If we do combine any non-personal information with personal information, the combined information will be treated by us as personal information, as long as it is combined, and its use by us will be subject to this Privacy Statement.

    "IP Addresses" We have to use your IP address to deliver the Website and our service to you and to help diagnose problems with our server. Your IP address is also used to gather broad demographic information such as geographic distribution of our Users.

  6. A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

    Ancestry obtains large collections of historical documents from various sources and converts the documents into a digital format so that Users may see an image of the original. Ancestry and its affiliates and agents take reasonable steps to assure that the documents do not include sensitive, Personal Information about living individuals. If you believe that a document published by Ancestry violates your privacy rights, please contact us here and we will attempt to resolve the matter quickly.

    Ancestry also permits its Subscribers to post documents, to annotate historical documents and to post commentary related to historical documents. Although in our Terms of Use we prohibit Users from posting content that violates the privacy rights of others (see our Terms of Use) for more information), we do not edit or approve User Provided Content. It is possible that a Subscriber will post your private information. If you believe that a User has posted Personal Information about you that violates your rights please contact us here and we will attempt to resolve the matter quickly.

  7. THIRD PARTY LINKS

    The Website may contain links to other sites. When you click on one of those links, you are accessing a website that is not owned, operated, or controlled by Ancestry or any of its affiliates. The operator of such site may have its own privacy statement (which we encourage you to read carefully), and that statement will govern the collection and use of your data on that site. Ancestry does not share your Personal Information with these parties and is not responsible for their privacy practices.

  8. ONGOING TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

    The Personal Information that you provide to us may be transferred across state or national borders for the purposes of data storage, consolidation, retrieval, analysis or the effective management of customer information. Before Ancestry begins to transfer Personal Information to any third party acting as our agent, we will confirm that they have adopted, are subject to, or are contractually obligated to comply with the principles and objectives of this Privacy Statement.

  9. REPORTING, CHANGING OR DELETING INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF

    Ancestry will maintain procedures consistent with applicable law for individuals to gain access to their collected Personal Information and, when appropriate, correct or delete their Personal Information. Subscribers may update, correct or delete their profiles online. If you have other concerns about your Personal Information, you may email us at support@newspapers.com.

  10. DATA SECURITY

    We will take reasonable precautions in line with industry practice to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. We use secure server software, which encrypts information you submit so that it cannot be read during transmission. However, these measures, standing alone, are not sufficient to ensure the security of your Personal Information. It is also important for you to guard against unauthorized access to your passwords and the unauthorized use of your computer.

  11. CONTESTS AND PROMOTIONS

    We may occasionally run contests or other special promotions on our Website in which we ask Subscribers or visitors for contact information (like an e-mail address) or demographic information (like a zip code, age, or income level). We use this data to send users promotional material about our company or our partners. The participant's contact information is also used to contact him or her when necessary and may be shared with other companies for promotional purposes, but only with your prior permission and under the terms and conditions specified when you take part in the promotion. At any time, you may opt-out of receiving future mailings of this kind, or simply decline to take part in the promotions.

  12. PRIVACY STATEMENT COMPLIANCE

    We are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations governing the collection and use of Personal Information. From time to time, Ancestry will review its Personal Information collection, use, and disclosure practices in order to assure that we are complying with our Privacy Statement and all applicable laws and regulations.

    Your use of the Website and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Statement and our Terms of Use. If you have any concerns about the privacy or security of your Personal Information, please contact us at support@newspapers.com. We will attempt to resolve your inquiry in a timely manner.

  13. WE RETAIN THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THIS STATEMENT

    From time to time, we may make changes to this Statement. If we make changes, we will post the new Privacy Statement on this page and indicate clearly the effective date of this Privacy Statement and the date on which this Privacy Statement was last updated.

  14. EFFECTIVE DATES

    This Privacy Statement is effective as of November 18, 2012 for all Users.

  15. CONTACTING US

    If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, please contact us at support@newspapers.com.