At Publishers Clearing House we take your privacy seriously, which is why we developed this privacy policy to explain our online information collection and use practices. Unless otherwise noted, the information and descriptions in this online Privacy Policy are limited strictly to online transactions and do not apply to the off line privacy, data collection and data transfer policies of Publishers Clearing House.

We may occasionally change the features and content found on this site. Consequently, our privacy policy may be modified to reflect any revisions to the site. We suggest you revisit our privacy policy from time to time to be sure that you are familiar with our practices.

ACCEPTANCE OF PRIVACY POLICY   By completing and submitting a registration and entry form at pch.com, you signify your agreement to the pch.com privacy policy. If you do not accept this privacy policy, please do not use the pch.com site. We reserve the right, at our discretion to change, modify, add or remove portions of this privacy policy. You should check this page periodically for any changes and to insure you are familiar with our practices. This policy and all of our legal obligations under this policy are subject to the laws of New York and the USA regardless of the location of the user. Policy last updated: January 2005.

1. Why does pch.com collect personal information? We need to collect certain personal information from our visitors primarily to process and fulfill online sweepstakes entries and online orders for the products and services we offer. For example, we need your full name and address to enter you in the sweepstakes, notify you if you've won a prize and to send you any magazine subscription or product you may purchase. We may also use the personal data we collect for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes, and to report aggregate information to our marketing partners and others.

To provide our users with a more personalized and relevant web service, we also collect and use personal data to identify users' specific interests and needs. If given permission, we may notify our users of offers and information we feel may be of interest to them available from pch.com and our marketing partners. If given permission, we may also share information with select marketing partners who may directly contact our users regarding their own offers of interest. If you do not want to receive such offers you may follow the simple unsubscribe procedure located at the permission notice box appearing on the pch.com registration and entry page. Our online registration and entry page contains a clearly identified checked box indicating that by submitting the form you wish to receive offers from pch.com and our marketing partners. Users may unsubscribe from such offers by clicking to remove the check in the permission notice box before submitting the registration and entry form. We may share our unsubscribe list with select marketing partners for the sole purpose of insuring that individuals on this list do not receive electronic commercial mail messages containing Publishers Clearing House advertisements that may be sent by such partners.

If you are currently receiving commercial e-mail messages from Publishers Clearing House messages after previously providing permission and no longer wish to receive such offers you may always follow the unsubscribe procedures which will be found within the commercial e-mails received from pch.com, our affiliates and marketing partners. You may also contact pch.com either through our "Ask Us" page in the Info Center section of pch.com or by writing directly to Christopher L. Irving, Senior Director of Consumer & Privacy Affairs, pch.com, 382 Channel Drive, Port Washington, New York, 11050.

2. How and what information does pch.com gather or track? We collect personal data from our users mainly during the initial registration process for sweepstakes entry, game play, or order processing. Although some of the personal identifying information is necessary to deliver these services (e.g., an address is required to buy goods and services from pch.com), in some cases some of the information is optional. Users can determine to some extent what information they wish to submit. In addition to the initial registration process, we may, from time to time, ask users to answer optional questions about products and services. We gather this data in order to better understand our users' interests and provide them with relevant offers and information.

Through the use of "cookies" and “pixel tags” (both described below) and online survey and registration forms, we may collect personal data on, among other things, the following information:

3. What are Cookies? "Cookies" are small pieces of information that are stored by your web browser software on your computer's hard drive or temporarily in your computer's memory. The use of cookies is now an industry standard, and users will find them on most major web sites. pch.com may place and store Internet cookies on a user's hard drive. Cookies can save any of the types of information noted above. Cookies enable us to recognize you and personalize your viewing experience on the pch.com site. For example, we use cookies to recognize user access privileges to pch.com, track site usage and traffic patterns, add advertisements for goods or services that we think may interest you, and estimate our audience size. We also use cookies to store user names and information that are supplied at registration. Although most web browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, if you prefer, you can decline the placement of a cookie on your hard drive by using the appropriate feature(s) of your web browser software (if available) to delete the cookie. Please note, however, that certain areas on the site will not function properly if your web browser does not accept cookies.

"Pixel tracking", a common process which may be used in connection with advertisements on other sites, involves the use of pixel tags that are not visible to the user of the site and consist of a few lines of computer coding. Pixel tracking measures the effectiveness of these advertisements and compiles aggregate and specific usage statistics. A "pixel tag" is an invisible tag placed on certain pages of websites you may visit and is used to track an individual user's activity. We may access these pixel tags to identify activity and interests that may allow us to better match our offers with your interests. For example, if you visit our Web site from an advertisement on another site, the pixel tag will allow the advertiser to track that their advertisement brought you to the PCH site. If you visit our website and we link you to another site we may also be able to determine that you were sent to and/or transacted with a third party web site. This data is collected for use in our marketing and research. Personally identifiable information about you is not collected by the third party advertising company, nor is any tracking information generated from the pixel tag allowed to be used by them for any other purpose other than to report web site activity to us.

4. Does pch.com disclose user information to third parties? Except as otherwise noted in this policy, pch.com only discloses user information in aggregate form to marketing partners. For example, we might tell a marketing partner how many users visited pch.com over a period of time, but we will never tell them who it was that saw or clicked on their offer, unless that user has given us permission to do so.

PCH.com believes that consumers should be able to control the use of their data. We will not share personally identifiable information with marketing partners if you follow the simple unsubscribe procedure of removing the check mark located at the permission notice box appearing on the pch.com registration and entry page. If an opt out is not submitted, we will notify users of exciting offers of interest from pch.com and our marketing partners. We may also share your name, land address and e-mail address with marketing partners so that they can send you offers directly for products and services that may be of interest to you. The personal information our users provide to us may be combined with other personally identifiable information (such as demographic information and past purchase information) available from our records and other sources. This allows us and our marketing partners , with permission, to present our users with offers and information geared towards their interests. We require each permission based e-mail our partners send to include a description of a simple opt-out process that will enable you to stop receiving promotional e-mail from them in the future. We will only deal with marketing partners who offer products or services that we believe may be of interest to our users. Nevertheless, pch.com is not and cannot be responsible for the activities or privacy policies of these third parties. We may share our unsubscribe list with select marketing partners for the sole purpose of insuring that individuals on this list do not receive electronic commercial mail messages containing Publishers Clearing House advertisements that may be sent by such partners.

We do not rent, license, or sell personal data to third parties unless permission is granted through user submission of the checked permission notice box appearing at the registration and entry page of pch.com. In the event of a merger, acquisition, or change of control of pch.com, customer data would be considered a business asset and would be transferred. We will disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena. We may also disclose personal information as required by law or to protect the safety and security of our users.

You should also know that when you order a magazine subscription from pch.com, we need to provide your name and address to the magazine publisher so they can start your service. Publishers may exchange or rent their subscriber names, typically to third party companies that match reader interests. If you do not wish to receive such offers, we suggest that you notify the publisher directly (the contact information is usually found in each magazine issue).

5. Can I opt-out of pch.com's data collection and/or distribution?

Receiving email messages from pch.com, our affiliates and partners is optional. As noted earlier, the collection, use, and distribution of personal data helps us create a more personalized, relevant, and intelligent web service for our users. While some basic data is necessary to provide certain services, such as entry into the sweepstakes and fulfillment of products and services ordered through pch.com, there are some cases where the submission of information is optional.

We will not contact you with e-mail offers or share personally identifiable information with marketing partners if you follow the simple opt-out procedure of removing the check mark located at the permission notice box appearing on the pch.com registration and entry page. If you are already receiving pch.com emails and no longer wish to receive such communications, simply follow the "unsubscribe" instructions that appear in every pch.com e-mail, or contact us through our "Ask Us" page found in our Info Center section or by writing directly to Christopher L. Irving, Senior Director of Consumer & Privacy Affairs, pch.com, 382 Channel Drive, Port Washington, New York, 11050.

If you have provided personal information directly to our third party marketing partners and are receiving email communications directly from these third parties pch.com cannot, in most instances, unsubscribe users from these third parties. If you wish to unsubscribe from one of our marketing partner's e-mail programs, please follow their unsubscribe procedures which will be found within their e-mails or in their privacy policy.

6. What about external web sites? To the extent hyperlinks or banner advertisements incorporating hyperlinks are utilized on this Site to access third party sites, users should be aware that these third party web sites are not controlled by pch.com and, therefore, are not subject to this privacy policy. We recommend that users check the privacy policies of these individual sites to see how their personal information will be utilized.

7. Does pch.com allow users access to their information for review and updating? Users can access the personal information they have provided to pch.com for the purposes of reviewing and updating such information by following instructions in the "Your Account" section of the Site.

8. What does pch.com do to keep their site secure? We have implemented a number of security features throughout the pch.com site that are intended to prevent the unauthorized release of or access to the user information we collect online. For example, database information is firewall protected. Also, only authorized pch.com personnel have access to any stored personal information we collect from our users. Moreover, password and credit card information you submit to pch.com is always encrypted during transmission. Users should be aware that e-mail is not encrypted and is not considered a secure means of transmitting credit card numbers.

While we strive to create a secure and reliable site for our users, the confidentiality of any communication or material transmitted over the Internet cannot be 100% guaranteed. Users should keep in mind that any information submitted through an Internet transaction is potentially accessible to the public, and consequently, can be collected and used by others without their consent. pch.com is not responsible or liable for illegal interception of personal data via any Internet transaction.

9. Does pch.com collect information from users outside of the United States? The pch.com site is not directed to visitors residing outside of the United States and such users are not eligible to submit online sweepstakes entries. However, as indicated in the Official Rules on the site, some sweepstakes promoted on the pch.com Site are open to residents of the U.K. and Canada. Residents from these countries can participate in these sweepstakes by sending a write-in entry to the address provided in the Official Rules. We regret that as a result of system limitations at this time non-U.S. residents may not order products through pch.com. If pch.com becomes aware that a user who does not reside in the United States has registered with the pch.com site, pch.com will use reasonable efforts to remove such information from its files.

10. Does pch.com collect personal information from children? The pch.com site is not targeted nor directed to children under the age of thirteen. Pch.com does not intend to collect personally identifiable information from individuals in this age group. If pch.com receives actual notice that a child under the age of thirteen has provided personal information to pch.com, pch.com will use reasonable efforts to remove such information from its files.

11. Your California Privacy Rights: The following information for California residents covers on-line (internet) and off-line (direct mail) information sharing activities. Please review the complete Publishers Clearing House Privacy Policy for full details on our information sharing and privacy practices. As detailed in our policy, from time to time we may share or exchange marketing information about the consumers who respond to our offers with other companies so they may contact you about products and services that may interest you. If you do not want your name passed on to other companies for the purpose of receiving marketing offers, just tell us by contacting us at privacychoices@pchmail.com or by writing to Christopher L. Irving, Sr. Director, Consumer & Privacy Affairs, Publishers Clearing House, 382 Channel Drive, Port Washington, New York 11050 and we will be pleased to respect your wishes. Please make sure to provide both your email address and full name, mailing address, city, state and zip code information if you wish your request to apply to both on-line and off-line marketing information sharing.

12. What about Publishers Clearing House's off-line information and privacy practices? Publishers Clearing House collects certain personal information from our direct mail customers and entrants primarily to process sweepstakes entries and fulfill orders for the products and services we offer. For example, we need your full name and address to enter you in the sweepstakes, notify you if you've won a prize or to send you any magazine subscription or product you may purchase. We may also use the personal data we collect for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes, and to report aggregate information to our marketing partners and other third parties. From time to time we may share or exchange marketing information about the consumers who respond to our offers with other companies so they may contact you about products and services that may interest you.

If you do not want your name passed on to other companies for the purpose of receiving marketing offers, just tell us by contacting us at privacychoices@pchmail.com or by writing to Christopher L. Irving, Sr. Director, Consumer & Privacy Affairs, Publishers Clearing House, 382 Channel Drive and we will be pleased to respect your wishes. Please make sure to provide your full name, address, city, state and zip code information if you wish your request to apply to both on-line and off-line marketing information sharing.

13. Further Questions? We welcome any questions or comments you may have regarding this privacy policy or the use of personal data. To contact us, please visit the Info Center of the site or write directly to Christopher L. Irving, Senior Director of Consumer & Privacy Affairs, pch.com, 382 Channel Drive, Port Washington, New York, 11050.