Milestone Communications Inc.

As the parent corporation of Monterey County Weekly, www.montereycountynow.com, www.bestofmontereycounty.com and www.montereycountyweekly.com, Milestone Communications Inc. respects your privacy. Milestone Communications Inc. will gather personally identifiable information about you only when you provide it voluntarily for specific purposes such as posting an ad, posting a Reader Comment or signing up for an e-mail newsletter. We are strongly committed to protecting the privacy of our users and we comply with both the United States Federal Law S. 877 CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 as well as the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2004.

This Web site is wholly owned by Milestone Communications Inc.. All products and services that are made available to you the user are subject to this policy without qualification. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully so that you understand fully all of our online privacy policies and practices.

Privacy Policy  

By visiting this site you agree that your visit, and any dispute over our online privacy practices, is governed by this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use, Posted Rules governing contests and any and all applicable Copyright, Trademark and Intellectual Property Laws set forth by the United States Government and any and all Copyright Laws governing the usage and dissemination of copyrighted online materials. The materials contained within our Web site may not be reposted, used, disseminated, copied, reprinted or otherwise used in any way, shape, form or context, wholly or partially, without our expressed written consent and permission.

In addition, by using our products and services, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this Privacy Policy and any other privacy, data collection or user policy applicable on Milestone Communications Inc. platforms and Web site and to receive any required legal notices regarding our privacy practices through the continuous posting of a clear and conspicuous link (found at the bottom of our web pages or on the confirmation screen to receive our newsletters) to the current version of this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy governs the use and collection of information from you through our Web site, our products and services. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any other information you may provide us through other means; for example, via mail, via telephone or at a live event.

Our site occasionally has third party agents, subsidiaries, affiliates and joint ventures that perform certain functions on our behalf. They may have access to personal information needed to perform their designated function and are contractually obligated and bound to maintain the confidentiality and security of personal data. Third parties are restricted from using or in any way altering data other than their expressed contractual function to provide services to our site.

Cookies

"Cookies" are small text files that allow Web sites to store and retrieve information about you from your computer system. Milestone Communications Inc. does serve cookies to track individual site usage for later aggregation. But we do not use cookies in order to retrieve any information from your computer other than information originally sent in a Milestone Communications Inc. cookie, such as a user code. We have no control over whether and how our advertisers use cookies that originate from their Web site. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, but you may not be able to take full advantage of our site's features, and we recommend that you leave them turned on.  
 
IP address tracking: All computers and servers on the Internet use IP addresses to recognize and communicate with each other. We collect IP addresses to administer and analyze our site and report aggregate, non-personal information (such as how many visitors we have). When you call up our site on your computer, our servers enter the IP address of that computer into a log. To maintain our users' anonymity, we do not associate IP addresses with records containing personal information.

We do not and cannot use cookies or IP address tracking to retrieve personal information from your computer.

Registration

Our site may require registration for the use of certain features, products or services. Our site registrations are used solely for the user to gain access to certain products, services and features provided by us to our users. Our site registration forms require users to give us their email address and have the ability to store other information such as address, phone number and zip code, plus any other information you may voluntarily choose to enter including site and newsletter preferences. As always, you may opt out of receiving future mailings at any time by following the necessary links.

Email Newsletter and Services: We require your email address to sign up for our newsletter and to respond to any of our Forums and Reader Comment sections. Your email address is kept private and will not be given or sold to third parties. However, your email may be used by any of our divisions, subsidiaries or affiliates held under the regulations set forth in this Privacy Policy. You may opt out of any future mailings at any time. In addition, third parties may from time to time appear as sponsors or advertisers on our email newsletters, however, these are contractual agreements between us and the third party and therefore bound by this Privacy Policy while within the confines of our Web site. See below for information concerning this Privacy Policy and links to other Web site not owned or operated by us.

Your Letter to the Editor Contributions

As with our print edition, we insist that you supply your real name, daytime telephone number or e-mail address. That is because we may need to contact you, and because your identity may be important to understand your point of view. If you send us such commentary, we reserve the right to publish it in print or display it on this site in full or in edited form. To protect your privacy, however, we will withhold your name and address upon request, both in print and on-line.

Message Boards, Reader Comments and Blogs

Please remember that any information you share or post in an internet or otherwise public area, such as a message board or blog, becomes public and therefore is not governed by this Privacy Policy any longer. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any information, postings, message or comments that you choose to make public and therefore we will not be responsible for any misuse of that information. Please do not post personal information on any message boards, blogs or comment space, including letters to us, that you intend to keep private.

Giveaways, Contests and Surveys

If you sign up to become eligible for a giveaway, contest or take part in an online survey on any of our site we will ask for some personal information as it pertains to said feature or service. Your contact information is used solely for the expressed purpose of that giveaway, contest or survey, for example the notification of contest winners, and is bound by this Privacy Policy. Keep in mind that we do share data between our divisions. In addition, this information may be shared with, and only with, the sponsor of said giveaway, contest or survey. To the extent that the giveaway, contest or survey has its own terms that may conflict with the terms of this Privacy Policy, the terms of the giveaway, contest or survey shall govern.

Contact Forms

Some of our site feature contact forms to assist users in directing their feedback to the correct party. If a user sends feedback to any of our site and includes a valid email address, we may reply to the user. The reply will be used to provide the user with additional information, answer a user question or direct the user to another source for information. Information sent to any of our divisions will be kept confidential in accordance with this Privacy Policy and may be used in aggregate to help guide policy decisions at any or all of our divisions. However, we cannot guarantee the confidentiality of feedback sent to outside sources.

Advertisers

From time to time advertisers on our site may post their own giveaways, contest and surveys or requests for registration. If you respond, in any way, to an advertiser tile, banner, contest, giveaway, survey or link on any of our Web site, this Privacy Policy will cease to apply and you will then be subject to the privacy policy, terms, conditions and copyright policies of the advertiser's Web site and governing policies, divisions or bodies.

Links to Other Sites

Our site sometimes provides links and pointers to various Web sites maintained by other organizations. Our site provide these links as a convenience to our users, but does not operate, control or endorse these outside linked site unless otherwiclaim

Commerce

Any and all commerce transactions conducted through our site are made with a secured server. Our commerce partner ensures the security of any personal information given therein. Those security measures, policies and practices are in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our commerce partners control provided through certain features, products and services on our Web site. Any financial information provided by users is sent via a secure server and encrypted for user protection.

Children

Our site is not oriented towards children and do not target them as an audience, nor do we utilize age requirements, screen for age or otherwise impede any legal access to any of our site. However, some or all of our Web site may contain mature content and are intended for an adult or mature audience. Children under the age of thirteen (13) should be closely monitored when using our site or should be restricted from using our site altogether. It is our belief tguardian's pe

Legal Disclaimer

Milestone Communications Inc. may be asked to disclose personal information by law enforcement officials or judicial authorities or to provide personal and identifiable information to the appropriate governmental authorities when required to do so or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary. We may disclose personal and identifiable information upon receipt of a court order, subpoena or at our discretion in order to cooperate with a law enforcement investigation without prior notice to you. In addition, we will do what is legally necessary to defend and protect our rights and property. We, our partnerships and affiliates reserve the right to share personal identifiable information to cooperate with law enforcement agencies where applicable in identifying those who use our services for illegal activities. We reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we believe to be unlawful and to prosecute, to the fullest extent of the law, any and all activities that infringe on our legal rights and properties.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is effective as of January 1, 2007. We may need to change and or update this policy from time to time as technology, the internet and the nature of our Web site evolve. We will endeavor to post any changes or revisions to this policy as soon as they go into effect. By visiting our site, you are accepting the practices set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms set forth in this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Web site and exit immediately. We reserve the right to modify or amend the terms of this policy as needed at any time without due notice to our users beforehand. Your continued use of our site following the posting of changes, amendments or revisions to these terms means you implicitly accept those changes and agree that your use be governed by them.

Governing Law

The laws of the United States of America govern our site. Your personal identifiable information will be governed by this policy and any amended or revised provisions contained therein.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of our Web site or your dealings with our site, you may contact us at publisher@montereycountyweekly.com.