^

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy discloses the privacy practices for philstar.com. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, unless otherwise noted, all references to "philstar.com" include The Philippine Star, Pilipino Star Ngayon, The Freeman and Banat newspapers as well as the People Asia lifestyle magazine.

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

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?

WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE INFORMATION WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?

WHAT IS OUR E-MAIL POLICY?

WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE THE INFORMATION THAT WE GATHER?

HOW DO I CHANGE OR UPDATE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

HOW DO I OPT-OUT FROM RECEIVING PROMOTIONAL OFFERS?

OTHER INFORMATION: Compliance with Legal Process

OTHER INFORMATION: Children's Guidelines

OTHER INFORMATION: Changes to This Policy

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?

The information we gather falls into two categories: 1) personal information you voluntarily supply when you subscribe, order, complete a survey, register to participate in our feedback section or to access our archive, enter a contest or provide your e-mail address and 2) tracking information collected as you navigate through our sites.

Personally Identifiable Information

Registration for our Web sites

Anyone can view our sites, but a free registration process is required to access the full range of information and services offered across our different sites.

philstar.com requires that you supply a unique e-mail address and demographic information (sex, age, household income (optional), job industry and job title, nationality, country of residence) to register. By using philstar.com, you are agreeing to the terms of our Member Agreement

Paid Products and Services

While the majority of our content is available for free, we do charge fees for print subscriptions to The Philippine Star newspaper and People Asia lifestyle magazine, among others. To enable the purchase of these and other products, we collect and store 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.

Contests, Sweepstakes and Special Offers

On occasion, philstar.com collects personal information from readers in connection with optional sweepstakes, contests or special offers. If this information is to be shared with a third party other than philstar.com, we will notify you at the time of collection. If you do not want any personal information shared, you may always decline to participate in the sweepstakes, contest or special offer.

Reader Surveys, Reader Panels and Market Research

philstar.com may collect personal information from readers in connection with voluntary surveys. Data may be collected on our Website or through the phone or email. The information you provide in answer to optional survey questions may be shared, but only in the aggregate, with advertisers and partners unless we notify you otherwise at the time of collection.

Some of our readers are invited to be members of an optional survey. Panel members agree to participate in surveys about their readership of philstar.com, their household/personal characteristics and their purchase behavior. Readers are contacted via e-mail, which link to online surveys. All survey data is reported and/or used in aggregate form only, and no personally identifiable information is released. As a panel member, we require that you supply us with your e-mail address only. Name, home address and telephone number are optional.

Mobile Messaging Service

philstar.com uses the information collected from your interaction with philstar.com by Text Messaging Service (SMS) ("SMS Service") solely for the purposes of our SMS News Service. The information will not be provided, sold, licensed, rented, assigned or disclosed to Third Parties, except as required by law, nor will we use your phone number to initiate a call or SMS text message to you without your express prior consent. Your wireless carrier and other service providers also collect data about your SMS Service usage, and their practices are governed by their own privacy policies.

philstar.com collects the mobile phone number you use to send us a text message and the content of the messages sent between you and philstar.com. When you send a text message to philstar.com or via philstar.com, we log the incoming phone number, the wireless provider associated with the number, and the date and time of the transaction. The only information we automatically collect is that related to the use of our Mobile Services. philstar.com uses this data to analyze the message traffic in order to operate, develop and improve our SMS News Service.

Aggregate Information Collected Through Technology

Cookies and Other Technologies

As is standard practice on many Websites, philstar.com uses "cookies" and other technologies to recognize you and provide personalization, as well as to help us understand which parts of our Web sites are the most popular, where our visitors are going and how much time they spend there. Users who do not accept cookies from the domain "philstar.com" cannot access most areas of our sites.

We reserve the right to place a philstar.com cookie on your computer with a unique anonymous number to ensure that your browser does not see the same ad over and over again, to sequence ads in a series and to measure the number of unique visitors that have viewed a particular ad or visited a particular Web page.

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 philstar.com. In addition, advertisers may elect to use third-party advertising companies to serve ads onto our Web site. 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 philstar.com is optional.

philstar.com is currently using and has contracted with Google Analytics and DeepMetrix Corp., third party web trackers, to track and analyze non-personally identifiable usage and volume statistical information from our visitors and customers to administer our Website and constantly improve its quality. All data collected by both companies on behalf of philstar.com is owned and used by philstar.com. philstar.com reserves the right to publish non-personally identifiable, summary information regarding its Web site visitors for promotional purposes and as a representative audience for advertisers. Please note that this is not personal information, only general summaries of the activities of our visitors and customers. For more information about how Google Analytics and DeepMetrix Corp. collect data, please read their privacy policies at http://www.google.com/privacy.html and at http://advertising.microsoft.com/advertising/deepmetrix

We reserve the right to change the vendors who provide us with usage data.

IP Addresses

Philstar.com logs IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We use the IP address log in an aggregate fashion to track access to our site.

Log Files

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

WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE INFORMATION WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?

Statistical Analysis

philstar.com may perform statistical, demographic and marketing analyses of users, subscribers, and their subscribing and purchasing patterns, for product development purposes and to generally inform advertisers about the nature of our user/subscriber base. We also use such information to allow advertising to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom such advertising is most pertinent. philstar.com may share personal information with The Philippine Star Group of Publications for analysis purposes, including analysis to improve customer relationships.

Products and Services from philstar.com

From time to time, we may provide subscribers with information and offers about other products and services offered by philstar.com, including events, updates, subscriptions and other premium products and services. This information will only be shared internally. If you do not wish to receive such information and offers, you may opt-out.

Banner Advertising

We may use demographic and preference information to allow advertising on our Web sites to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom they are most pertinent. This means 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. We will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form.

User Generated Content (Comments, Forums and Reader Reviews)

We offer Forums (message boards, feedback sections) as well as the option to provide comments (on blogs & articles) and post reader reviews in a number of areas throughout philstar.com. Any information you disclose when posting a message in these areas, along with your screen name or ID, becomes public and may be used by philstar.com for online and offline promotional or commercial uses in any and all media. If you chose to post comments on this Web site, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these areas, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums. For more information, see the Comments FAQ and read the Forums, Discussions and User Generated Content section of the Member Agreement.

E-Mail Newsletters

If you choose to receive them, philstar.com will periodically send you e-mail newsletters or promotional e-mail about services offered by philstar.com and partners and advertisers. For details about philstar.com e-mail, please see the next section, "What Is Our E-mail Policy?".

WHAT IS OUR E-MAIL POLICY?

philstar.com complies fully with the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. We will not share, sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address without your permission. If you feel you have received an e-mail from us in error, please contact [email protected].

Account and Service-Related E-mail: philstar.com reserves the right to send you e-mail relating to your account status. This includes order confirmations, renewal/expiration notices, notices of credit-card problems, other transactional e-mails and notifications about major changes to our Web sites and/or to our Privacy Policy. If you have registered for online discussions or other services, you may receive e-mail specific to your participation in those activities.

E-mail Newsletters: philstar.com offers several e-mail newsletters. If you no longer wish to receive a specific newsletter, follow the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each newsletter. To manage your philstar.com e-mail preferences, please click here.

Promotional E-mail: If you choose to receive them, philstar.com may periodically e-mail you messages about products and services that we think may be of interest to you. You can choose not to receive messages in the future by either (1) following the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each e-mail, or (2) you can opt-out.

From time to time, philstar.com may obtain e-mail addresses from third party sources to be used for promotional e-mails. You can choose not to receive messages in the future by either (1) following the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each e-mail, or (2) you can opt-out.

Survey E-mail: We may send you an e-mail inviting you to participate in user surveys, asking for feedback on philstar.com and existing or prospective products and services, as well as information to better understand our users. User surveys greatly help us to improve our Website, and any information we obtain in such surveys will not be shared with third parties, except in aggregate form.

HTML E-mail: When you sign up to receive e-mail from us, you can select either plain text or HTML (with images) format. If you select the HTML format, we may place a one-pixel gif to determine whether or not readers viewed the e-mail. This process does not leave any information on your computer, nor does it collect information from your computer. philstar.com may share this data with others in aggregate only.

E-mails From You: If you send us e-mails, you should be aware that information disclosed in e-mails may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personal or confidential information in e-mails. We will use your e-mail address to respond directly to your questions or comments.

E-mail This Article Feature: philstar.com readers may use this feature to e-mail links to articles (or other content such as slideshows). The e-mail addresses that you supply to this service are saved for your convenience for future articles you may wish to e-mail; these addresses are not used for any other purpose, and will not be shared with any third parties.

WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE THE INFORMATION THAT WE GATHER?

philstar.com

If you have registered to one of our sites, philstar.com will not sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address or any information that personally identifies you without your permission. We do, however, share information about our audience in aggregate form.

Service Providers

We contract with other companies to provide services on our behalf, including credit-card and billing processing, shipping, e-mail distribution, list processing and analytics or promotions management. We provide these companies only with the information they need to perform their services. These service providers are restricted from using this data in any way other than to provide services for philstar.com, and they may not share or resell this data.

We reserve the right to disclose your opt-out information to third parties so they can suppress your name from future solicitations, in accordance with applicable laws.

HOW DO I CHANGE OR UPDATE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Manage your philstar.com account at Member Center: You may review and update your philstar.com membership or account information and access your transaction history in the Member Center.

There are a number of things you can do in the Member Center to ensure your personal information is accurate and up to date. For one, you can 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. 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, you can reset your password here. If you need further assistance, please contact Customer Service.

HOW DO I OPT-OUT FROM RECEIVING PROMOTIONAL OFFERS?

E-mail Promotions

If, at any time, you prefer not to receive e-mail marketing information from us, simply follow the unsubscribe options at the bottom of each e-mail. Or,

1. Click here to remove your e-mail address from any future promotional e-mail campaigns originated by philstar.com

2. Click here to manage your e-mail subscriptions from philstar.com. These include Today's Headlines, Business News, Sports News, Entertainment News and other News Features.

If you experience difficulty with the unsubscribe process, feel free to contact us at [email protected] and provide your e-mail address along with the name of the newsletter from which you would like to unsubscribe.

OTHER INFORMATION: 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 our Website; 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).

OTHER INFORMATION: Children's Guidelines

philstar.com does not knowingly collect or store any personal information, even in aggregate, about children under the age of 13.

OTHER INFORMATION: Changes to This Policy

This Privacy Policy may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page. If we make a significant or material change in the way we use your personal information, the change will be posted on this page thirty (30) days prior to taking effect and registered users will be notified via e-mail.

This Private Policy was last updated on September 10, 2008

Are you sure you want to log out?
X
Login

Philstar.com is one of the most vibrant, opinionated, discerning communities of readers on cyberspace. With your meaningful insights, help shape the stories that can shape the country. Sign up now!

Get Updated:

Signup for the News Round now

FORGOT PASSWORD?
SIGN IN
or sign in with