Privacy Policy

Welcome to Boing Boing, a Website created by Happy Mutants, LLC, (“Happy Mutants,” “We,” “Us”) which lives at boingboing.net (“Boing Boing,” “Website,” “Site”). This Privacy Policy applies to any information that is collected while you are on the Site and our hosted discussion forum at bbs.boingboing.net. Our goal with this policy is to be transparent about the information we collect, how we use it, and how it is shared.

This Privacy Policy is part of our Terms of Service, and by using the Site you agree to both. Terms with initial capital letters used in this Privacy Policy shall have the respective meanings assigned to them in the Terms of Service.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

1. We collect limited information when you browse the site

When you visit the Site we collect log data, for example: the type of browser and operating system you are using, the address of the external or internal page that referred you, your IP address and pages on the site that you visit in association with your IP address. This information is recorded even if you do not have a Discussion Forum account, or even when you are logged out of your account. We mostly use this information to diagnose issues with the site. We only retain it for three days.

2. We Collect Information Using Cookies

Advertising pays our bills so we use a lot of cookies. You should know how cookies work. You should know what cookies we use. You should support cookie reform efforts if you choose.

3. We collect information when you use our Discussion Forum

We partner with Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc., (“CDCK”) to provide and host a Discourse.org Discussion Forum. They allow you to create an account that can be used on all their hosted forums. This policy controls how we use the data we are able to access about your account and your use of the Forum. However CDCK also has access to and is able to share all information associated with your Discussion Forum account and your posts on our Forum. Our agreement with them requires that they only use this data to run this forum and for no other purposes. However if you are going to create an account and use the forum, we strongly urge you to read the CDCK Privacy Policy here. You should also remember that anything you post on the forum is public and therefore is not covered by this privacy policy– it is viewable by everyone on the Internet.

4. We Collect Information When You Suggest A Link

When you use our form to suggest a link, we request (1) a title for the item you’re suggesting; (2) an URL of the suggested website; and (3) a description of the suggested site. We use this information to assess your suggestion. We also ask for your name, email and your URL. These fields are optional and we use them to give you appropriate credit. If you ask to remain anonymous, we will not publish your name in association with your suggestion, should we choose to use it. We will never spam your email. We maintain this information indefinitely and use it to evaluate submissions quickly. Suggesting a link does not mean we will publish it! We do appreciate the effort. Please don't email, once or repeatedly, to check and see if we've reviewed your submission.

5. We Collect Information When You Sign Up For The Boing Boing email 'Zine

When you subscribe to receive the Boing Boing email 'Zine, we require your email address so that we can send you the day’s headlines and excerpts. It is optional to provide your first and/or last name and we only use it to personalize the message. We do not use your email for any other purpose than to send the 'Zine. You will remain on this list until you unsubscribe, which you can do at any time. We partner with MailChimp to provide email list services. Their privacy policy can be found here.

6. We Collect Information When You Communicate With Us Directly

If you email us or send other communications to us directly, we will retain your email or address and correspondence so that we may respond to your request. We retain this information indefinitely so that we have a history of our past communications.

7. We DO NOT Collect Information when You Use the Boing Boing Store

StackCommerce is our partner for selling stuff via the Store (we know, we know, confusing vs the shop.) Here is StackCommerce's privacy policy, they do collect information when you buy from the store. We do not have access to user account information or any data provided during the checkout process. We also lament the frequently cheesy copy in the advertisements.

WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH?

It is generally our policy not to share or sell your personally identifiable information with any third party. We may, however, share information under the following circumstances:

1. If we receive your informed consent;

2. If it is necessary for a third party provider to perform tasks on our behalf (as described in this policy);

3. If we believe doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, or valid legal process. If we are going to release your information, we will do our best to provide you with notice in advance, if we have a means to contact you, unless we are prohibited by court order from doing so; or

4. If we are acquired by or merged with another company. This Privacy Policy would continue to apply to any data collected while it was in place.

LINKS TO OTHER SITES

It should go without saying, but we'll say it anyway: this website contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by us. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites, unless we have specified them in this document.

DATA SECURITY

We have adopted commercially reasonable technical, physical and administrative procedures to protect the confidentiality of the information that we collect on our site. However, the Internet is not a vault and data can be lost.

INTERNATIONAL VISITORS

Happy Mutants is a San Francisco, California-based company whose servers are housed in Canada. All personal information we collect from our international users is processed according to US law. We comply with the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework and the U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from European Union member countries and Switzerland. We have certified that we adhere to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement. To learn more about the Safe Harbor program, and to view our certification, please visit Export.gov.

RATED PG-13

We have kids. We love kids. Really we do. But the United States government has put limits on our ability to accept users under a certain age through the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. So to be clear, Boing Boing is not intended for users under the age of 13. Nobody under 13 may create an account or use any part of the Site that requires the submission of personally identifiable information, like email or name. Any account that is created by a person under 13 will be terminated and any content created will be removed from the Site.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

This Privacy Policy may be revised. If we make material changes to this policy, we will make them available, in advance, on the Boingboing.net home page.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our Privacy Policy or your information, please contact us at happymutants@boingboing.net

COOKIE POLICY

We use a lot of cookies on this site. Online publishing is primarily supported by advertising and so is Boing Boing. Until there’s a better way, we’re stuck with cookies, all of us. What we can do, however, is inform you about the cookies that we use and how you can opt-out from using them, if you choose. Just remember, cookies power the advertising and the advertising pays for the Site.

What is a cookie?

Cookies are small data files that websites store in your hard drive. They create a unique id that is associated with your browser. We use first-party cookies for analytics, which tell us about user activity on our site. We use third-party cookies to collect information about your habits across multiple sites and to provide advertising that is targeted to your interests. Our third-party advertising partners also use third-party cookies. More information about each is provided below.

Analytics

1. Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to help us understand how you engage with our site so that we can improve it. Google Analytics reports website trends without identifying individual visitors. You may install a Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Button here. The Google Analytics Privacy Policy can be read here.

2. Social Media Widgets

We display sharing buttons so you can use social networking to share items from our site.

It also includes the Facebook recommend button and other interactive mini-programs that run on our site that collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and sets a cookie to enable the widget to function properly. Your interactions with these Widgets are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing them, not by this Privacy Policy.

3. Google FeedBurner for RSS

Our content is syndicated and distributed through Feedburner, owned by Google. When you subscribe to the RSS feed, your account is controlled by Google Accounts, and we have no access to the personal information you share with them. Read the Google Privacy Policy.

4. Affiliate Programs

Not technically an analytics cookie,
but you should know that we present links in a format that
enables us to track when links are followed. Specifically,
when you make a purchase on Amazon.com, Etsy.com (privacy policy) (Etsy uses Tiddly, a URL shortener) or Thinkgeek.com (privacy policy) after clicking one of their links on our site, we collect a small portion of the sale from them as part of their affiliate programs. You are not identifiable to us personally and we only see aggregated, anonymized statistics on what was purchased. Boing Boing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Advertising

1. Freestar

We partner with Freestar to provide third-party advertising. Freestar, and the companies that it contracts with to serve ads may place or recognize unique cookies on your browser and use information about your visits to this and other sites to provide advertisements on this and other sites. We do not share any personal information with Freestar (like your email address). Freestar's platform privacy policy and website privacy policy are available to review.

2. “Other”

We have vendors who we partner with directly to provide advertisements on our Site. You can opt out of many third-party vendor's use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page and/or http://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

More Advertising Disclosures

Just so we are clear about how we use advertising on the site, below are some of the most common kinds of sponsorships on Boing Boing:

1. Sponsored posts, sections, themes, or categories: A marketer sometimes sponsors a category, section, post, or series of posts within a particular theme. At the top of those posts, the sponsor of that section is identified.

2. Widgets: A marketer sponsors a technology, widget or interface feature on the site that we think enhances the BB experience for you.

3. Advertisers' Web sites: As part of a campaign, one or more of us might do some writing on a marketer's Web site. Banner ads or posts may promote our contributions and link to the advertiser's site. If a sponsorship is involved in such a post, we'll say so.

4. Sponsor “shout-outs”: These are posts that thank our sponsors and may include a message from the advertiser.

5. Sponsored videos: A marketer sponsors a series of videos on a particular theme or over a given time period. That sponsorship may include interstitial or embedded ads within the video and/or branding of the video player.

6. Contests: A marketer may sponsor a contest on the site. We hope you win!

7. Advertorial: Any advertisements that are presented in an editorial format will be prominently marked as sponsored.

8. Sometimes, when videos match up via a script we swap out YouTube for a player who shares revenue with us.

9. Traditional banner ads: We have strict guidelines on the banner advertisements that we accept. Expanding banners are only delivered to each browser once daily. Animated ads can't be longer than 30 seconds. Audio must be user-initiated. And of course, no pop-ups or pop-unders. Unfortunately, ads that break those rules sometimes do slip through our automated system. So if you see a banner ad that violates this policy, please let us know by emailing ads@boingboing.net and we'll investigate.