SAFE HARBOR PRIVACY STATEMENT

Summary

This policy covers customer information gathered by Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group and its divisions. We are committed to protecting the privacy of all those who provide us with personal information while using our products, websites, events, and services. In general, we only collect personal information about you when you provide it. We collect personal information to provide products and services that customers request, including fulfilling print and digital subscriptions, delivery of email newsletters, downloadable content, managing and hosting events, and related customer service.

We may use personal information to contact you ourselves, or on behalf of carefully chosen partners, to offer you additional products or services (including announcements about new products, subscription products, featured editorial content, co-sponsored products, events, special sales and promotions, and more) that we believe would interest you. We may also share your information with other business units within Penton Media, Inc. for these same purposes. We allow you to opt-out of communications from us and from sharing with third parties. If you opt-out, we will not contact you or share your information.

If we maintain information about you as a result of a subscription, registration, contest, survey, or other online or offline activity covered by this privacy policy, we will provide you with access to that information whenever feasible to do so. We will also correct, amend, or delete any information that we find to be inaccurate.

We anticipate that this policy will change from time to time, and we expressly reserve the right to change the policy when we find it to be appropriate.

This section is asummary of the main features of our privacy policy. The complete statement of our privacy policy is below and is longer and authoritative. We encourage interested users to read the complete policy statement available directly below.
 
Introduction

A. What this Privacy Policy Covers

This policy covers customer information gathered by Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group and its divisions. When we say “we”, we mean “Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group.” Businesses included in this group include Windows IT Pro, Windows IT Pro Community,SQL Server Pro, Power IT Pro, IProDeveloper, SharePoint Pro, Dev Pro, and other Penton Media businesses that link to this policy. Penton Media, Inc. businesses that do not link to this privacy policy are covered by a different privacy policy. Please see the privacy policy link on those sites for their privacy policy.

This policy describes our privacy practices for both online and offline activities including but not limited to our print and digital publications, websites, in-person and online events, email newsletters, and all other products and services of Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group. By using any of our websites, you consent to our use and disclosure of your personal information as described in our privacy policy.  By using any of our websites, you consent to our use and disclosure of your personal information as described in our privacy policy.

The websites covered by this policy, include but are not limited to:

  • Windows IT Pro (windowsitpro.com)
  • SQL Server Pro (sqlmag.com)
  • SharePoint Pro (sharepointpro.com)
  • Windows SuperSite (winsupersite.com)
  • Dev Pro (devpro.com)
  • IPro Developer (iprodeveloper.com)
  • Power IT Pro (poweritpro.com)
  • Any Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group website that links to this policy
B.   General Approach to Privacy

We are committed to protecting the privacy of all those who provide us with personal information while using our products, websites, events, and services.

At Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group, our privacy policy is based on Fair Information Practices (FIPs), a set of internationally recognized principles that address the privacy of information about individuals. The principles of FIPs are at the core of many laws and policies addressing privacy and data protection matters. This policy reflects our implementation of FIPs.

This policy is long because addressing privacy in an international business environment is complicated and because Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group and its divisions have relationships with different categories of individuals, including subscribers, customers, registrants, website visitors, and others. We offer many different products and services on the Internet and otherwise to meet the needs and interests of our customers. Explaining it all takes time and space.

C.  Safe Harbor Privacy Statement

For personal information about our customers subject to EU data protection laws that we receive from Member States of the European Union, we have committed to handling such personal information in accordance with the Safe Harbor Principles. Penton Media Inc.’s Technology Group’s Safe Harbor certification can be found at http://web.ita.doc.gov/safeharbor/shlist.nsf/webPages/safe harbor list. Additional information about the Safe Harbor program is available at the U.S. Department of Commerce's website at http://www.export.gov/safeharbor.   

We process customer information in our facilities in the United States. All customer information subject to this privacy policy is collected in the United States, obtained through websites in the United States, or obtained in other countries and transferred to the United States. Regardless where it originated, all customer data subject to this policy receives the same level of privacy protection as described in this policy statement.

D.  Children

Our websites are not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly solicit data online from, or market online to, children under the age of 13. If we learn that we have obtained personally identifiable information online in error about a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information as soon as we can. We encourage parents to supervise their children so that they do not disclose any personal information about themselves in any of our public discussion areas.

Openness and Changes to this Policy

A. General 

This privacy policy describes the processing of most personal information by Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group and its divisions.   This policy covers personal information about subscribers, customers, registrants, website visitors, and others.

Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group and its divisions revised its privacy policy in 2007 as part of its certification for the Safe Harbor program. This policy supersedes other privacy policies used by Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group. While this policy is considerably longer than the policies that it replaces, we did not make any major changes in the way that we process personal information. We still respect the privacy of those whose personal information we process. We still offer opt-outs to our customers and other data subjects, and we still honor requests by those who do not want to hear from us. The new policy includes considerably more detail about how we use and disclose personal information, about the purposes of processing, and about our relationships with other companies we partner with or use to help us carry out our personal information processing.

B.  Privacy Policy Changes and Updates

Privacy policies are not static because our activities, products, and use of the Internet are not static. We anticipate that this policy will change from time to time, and we expressly reserve the right to change the policy when we find it to be appropriate. Your continued use of any of our websites constitutes your acceptance of our privacy policy, including any changes.  We do not expect to change our respect for the wishes and the privacy of our customers. However, new laws, other events, new products and services, and changes to our business structure could require change in our policy. We expect that any policy changes will be consistent with Safe Harbor standards and other legal requirements.

When we make changes, we will post them promptly on this website. If possible, we will provide advance notice through the website of the changes, but we do not guarantee that we will always be able to do so. We expect that any changes we make will apply retroactively to personal data collected and maintained prior to the effective date of the change. When we make a change, we will update the date and version number of the privacy policy. We will summarize changes in the Policy History section at the end of the policy. We maintain an archive of superseded policies that we will make available upon request.

IV.   Information Collection

A. How we collect data  

We collect personal information about customers by lawful and fair means, and in most cases, directly from customers themselves. In general, that means that we only collect personal information about you when you provide it. This list illustrates activities that result in information collection. The details will change and evolve over time. We may collect personal information about you if you:  

Subscribe to or receive items including, but not limited to the following:

  • a publication (whether paid or free) either directly through us or through another company, such as a subscription agency
  • an email newsletter (whether paid or free)
  • a digital magazine “(whether paid or free)”

Register for:

  • a website, webcast, trade show, roadshow, program, or other event that we produce or sponsor (with or without partners)
  • memberships or online products (such as eBook, whitepaper, etc.)  
  • a contest
  • your member profile, which you create

Use our websites or other means to purchase or place an order for (paid or otherwise) a product or service, such as:

  • A book, CD, DVD, calendar, etc.
  • A magazine subscription
  • A podcast or similar digital content
  • Elearning classes and materials

Visit or participate in:

  • open forums or other public discussions that we host or sponsor
  • our websites
  • surveys, user panels, focus groups
  • any of our site services, including but not limited to services like our Resource Directory, “Email a Friend”, “Post a Comment”, “Site Feedback”, “Comments and Suggestions”, “Report Bugs” and any others

Receive ads from our Ad-Serving Systems (e.g., Open AdStream)

Contact us by email, fax, phone, or snail mail (or if you provide personal information in response to an email, fax, phone, snail mail, or other communications from us).

We also obtain some information about customers from third parties. We use the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address service to keep mailing addresses current. We also sometimes rent or otherwise acquire lists of prospective customers or information about our existing customers.

B.  Personally Identifiable Information

 We collect: 

  • Your contact information including your name, physical address, mailing address, email address, and phone and fax numbers.
  • Your demographic and survey information: Job function, title, topics of interest, purchasing plans, responses to surveys solicited online and offline, and information solicited through online registration forms.
  • Your history as our customer, including your order and payment history, email and websites usage, promotional history and response.
  • All content posted in public areas (including but not limited to online forums, comments on blog posts or articles, and other community areas) is publicly available and viewable. In order to maintain standards for online conduct in public areas we sponsor, we will remove an inappropriate posting when we find it.
C.  Anonymous Information We Collect

 We use cookies and other Internet technologies to enrich your online experience by managing our websites and email programs.

Cookies

If your browser is set to allow cookies, we may store small amounts of information on your computer about what parts of our websites you have visited and what features you like best. We may then tailor the content you see to match your interests. We also may use cookies to identify members so that they don't have to re-enter their usernames and passwords. Cookies may also be used to limit the number of advertisements you see while on our site. By allowing us to understand how you use our site over time, cookies can help us provide you with a better, more relevant online experience.

The cookies we store on your computer are not accessible on any other companies' websites.

Some ads on our site are provided by outside companies. If these ads set cookies, these cookies can be accessed only by the advertisers who set them; we do not have access to cookies that we did not set.

Most browsers allow you to modify your security to accept or reject cookies. You need not accept cookies to visit our site, but without them, your access to some areas may be limited and custom navigation may not be available to you.

Pixel Tags

Like many websites, we may use pixel tags, also known as web beacons, clear gifs, or web bugs. Pixel tags help us improve our understanding of our web traffic and visitor behavior, as well as gauge the response to our promotional efforts. This information is non-personally identifiable and is used for an aggregate picture of how visitors use our site.

If you wish, you may disable pixel tags by setting your browser to omit images and disable Javascript.

Online Ad Serving

We use industry-standard, third party advertising service companies to serve advertisements when you visit our sites or open our emails. These companies may use cookies, pixel tags, and other methods to collect information (typically not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to our and other web sites to provide you with relevant advertisements about products, services, and events during your visit to our website. They can also provide us with aggregate pictures of traffic patterns, help us improve site experience, help advertisers better understand our services, and monitor advertising efforts.  You can learn how to opt out of third-party advertisers' tracking methods in conjunction with links, online ads, etc. by visiting the advertisers' sites.

V. Uses, Disclosures, Purposes, and Choices

 A.   Our Uses of Customer and Prospective Customer Information

 We collect personal information to provide products and services that customers request, including fulfilling print and digital subscriptions, delivery of email newsletters, downloadable content, managing and hosting events, and related customer service.

We may use personal information to contact customers or prospective customers ourselves, or on behalf of carefully chosen partners, to offer additional products or services (including announcements about new products, subscription products, featured editorial content, co-sponsored products, events, special sales and promotions, and more) that we believe would be of interest. We may also share the information with other business units within Penton Media, Inc. for these same purposes.  You may opt out of being contacted here. If you opt-out, we will not contact you for any of these activities.

We also use personal information to manage our businesses, websites, mailing lists, events, discussion forums, surveys, and other operations; to conduct financial or circulation audits of our activities; to process payments; and for other purposes appropriate for the conduct of our business.

We use aggregate data for research and research products (e.g. reports and whitepapers).

B.     Third Party Disclosure of Customer Information

 i) Agents and Contractors

 We share personal information about customers with other companies we hire to provide us with specialized services including customer service, subscription fulfillment, credit card processing, banking services, email delivery, research, statistical analysis, list cleansing, postal mailings, email and fax deployment, telemarketing, consulting and other information services. We may also hire outside auditors, lawyers, consultants, subscription circulation auditors, and others to assist us. These companies can only use and disclose personal information we disclose to them in accordance with our instructions and consistently with this privacy policy. 

ii) Partners, Sponsors, and Others

 We sometimes share personal information with other companies, partners, sponsors, and other third parties. We only deal with third party companies whom we believe share our commitment to privacy and who will keep your information secure. You can opt-out of these disclosures.

We share aggregated information about our products, websites, and email newsletters with sponsors to help them manage their business with us.

Many of our products and offerings, including events, are with other companies who are partners or sponsors. When you register for these activities, the names of any partners and sponsors will be clearly visible. We will maintain the personal information you provide when you register for these sponsored programs and we will share it with our partners and sponsors. They may use the information in accordance with their own privacy policies. If you have concerns about how they may use the information you provide, please refer to each partner or sponsor's privacy policy. Unlike other disclosures of information, you cannot opt-out of contacts from partners and sponsors through us. You must contact the partners or sponsors directly.

iii) Other Uses and Disclosures

In addition, we reserve the right to use or disclose personal information to protect the security or integrity of our website or online service; to take precautions against liability; to respond to judicial process; and to the extent permitted by law, to provide information to law enforcement agencies or for an investigation on a matter related to public safety; and to comply with applicable laws, government requests and court orders.

In the event of corporate business activities such as mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, or bankruptcy, personal information may be used or disclosed in connection with those activities. We will also make any disclosures required by law. If we discover a security breach, we may disclose personal information about customers to those companies (such as credit card companies or credit bureaus) or government agencies who we believe can take action to prevent, minimize, or remedy any harm from the breach. 

If we receive a subpoena or other legal demand for your personal information, we may endeavor to notify you of the subpoena or demand by contacting you at the current email address that we have for you. However, we cannot promise that we will always be able to send you a notice, that we will attempt to contact you if the email we send fails to get to you, that we will be able to send you the notice before we turn over your information, or that we will resist the request.

In general, we process personal information so that it is not used or disclosed in ways that are incompatible with these purposes. We take reasonable steps to ensure that all personal data we process is reliable for its intended use and is accurate, complete, and current for that purpose.

C. Choices

We offer users the opportunity to opt-out of

  • being contacted by us. You can choose not to be contacted by telephone, fax, or email.
  • disclosures that we might make to third parties, such as through the rental of customer lists.

All promotional and research email messages you receive from us will include an option to opt out of future email communications from the particular business that contacted you. We may also to send you e-newsletters with targeted, relevant content. Each e-newsletter will provide you with an opportunity to opt out of that particular e-newsletter. In some cases, we may send you relevant, carefully screened offers from reputable third party businesses or organizations. Many of our customers appreciate receiving these offers because they relate to their business or occupation. However, you will always be able to opt out receiving future third party offers.

Users cannot opt-out of some uses and disclosures. Opt-outs do not affect our use of personal information in internal management or the disclosure of personal information to third parties who are our agents. These third parties include companies that provide management or operational assistance, lawyers and auditors, and some others. When we disclose information to third parties who act as our agents, we require them to use and disclose information in accordance with our instructions and consistently with this privacy policy

VI.   Access and Correction

We encourage users to update their contact information for print or email publications or subscriptions. Please go to the publication's home page. 

If we maintain information about you as a result of a subscription, registration, contest, survey, or other online or offline activity covered by this privacy policy, we will provide you with access to that information whenever feasible to do so. We will also correct, amend, or delete any information that we find to be inaccurate.

Anyone seeking to know if we have information about himself or herself or who want access to (or a copy of) his or her personal information can make a request in writing to:

                        Privacy Officer
                        Penton Media, Inc.,
                        1300 E. 9thSt.
                        Cleveland, OH44114   USA
                        sfprivacy@penton.com
                       

A request should include sufficient identifying information, such as name, address telephone number, fax number, and email address. In some cases, we may ask for a copy of identification (such as a driver’s license or other government-issued identification).

We will not normally charge customers who want to inspect or have a copy of the information that we maintain about them. We reserve the right to impose charges for repeated requests and to deny or ignore requests that we deem to be harassing. 

A request for correction should identify the contested information; should state whether the information is incorrect, inaccurate, or incomplete; and should state what information should appear in place of the contested information. 

VII.    Security

We use reasonable, industry-standard precautions, including appropriate technical, administrative, and physical procedures, to protect personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Due to the design of the Internet and other factors outside our control, we cannot guarantee that communications between you and our servers will be free from unauthorized access by third parties.

When we share personal information with third parties we hire to help us with our activities, we require that they provide reasonable security for the information. However, we are not responsible for any breach of security by third parties.

VIII.  Accountability

Penton Media, Inc.’s Technology Group is responsible for writing this policy and for compliance with it. The person in the company who is primarily responsible for oversight and compliance is the Privacy Officer. Anyone who has a question, comment, or complaint about this privacy policy should contact the Privacy Officer:

                        Privacy Officer
                        Penton Media, Inc.,
                        1300 E. 9thSt.
                        Cleveland, OH44114   USA
                        sfprivacy@penton.com
                       

A request should include sufficient contact information, such as name, address, telephone number, fax number, and email address.

We promise to make a good faith attempt to resolve any complaint or problem that you bring to our attention.

If you are not satisfied with the response of the Privacy Officer, you can appeal to our General Counsel by sending a written letter to:

        General Counsel
                        Penton Media, Inc.,
                        249 West 17thSt.
                        Fourth Floor
                        New York, NY 10011   USA
                        
                      

IX.  How to contact us

Address any questions about our privacy policy to:           

                        Privacy Officer
                        Penton Media, Inc.,
                        1300 E. 9thSt.
                        Cleveland, OH44114   USA
                        sfprivacy@penton.com
                       

We self-certify with